My baby was due March 8, I started listening to “Baby Come Out” 4 days before. I had visualized having a good night rest, enjoying a nice breakfast and having my baby mid-day. And true enough it happened that way. I wrapped up at work on Friday evening to start my Maternity leave and she arrived the next day :) My labor started early Sat (3/6) morning though I didn’t realize it was so close at the time. I made breakfast with my husband and Mom but didn’t have a full appetite. Realizing I was having somewhat regular waves I asked husband to time starting mid-morning them. Much to our surprise they were coming about every 6 min by then. I wouldn’t say I followed the lightswitch technique as much as I had planned – but thanks to the practice sessions during my homestudy, I think it worked subconsciously. I had also visualized a farm near where I grew up as my special place but soon realized as the day progressed that my real special place was pressed up into my husband’s neck as the waves intensified. I began to realize that hugging him during each wave all the way to the end was the most comfortable way to ride them out. My Dr had instructed us to come into the hospital when I could no longer speak during a wave. I never got to that point.
Eventually we decided to head in more out of curiosity on the progress. To our great surprise I was already at 5 cm (mind you I was still just 1 cm and only 20% effaced just a couple days earlier at my checkup). During the triage when we arrived I was disappointed because I thought my waves had stopped or slowed down. But when they hooked me up to the monitors, they said I was having strong waves all along – but I didn’t feel them again until we got settled into the delivery room. We were admitted and the nurses told me they’d come check on my ever couple of hours on the progress. We didn’t give them the time though. It felt like every 15-30 min we were calling the nurses station as things happened. And when they realized just how fast I was progressing, they finally called my Dr to inform her I was quickly reaching the point of pushing the baby out. Indeed within 3 hours of arriving at the hospital, she was born. The nurses were shocked how fast things happened and that I was smiling and laughing with my husband between waves with no medications of any type.
The only part I did not visualize during my home study was the pushing phase and I should have because that was the most difficult for me. Coupled with the fact that the nurse by my side was working against everything I had learned in Hypnobabies and commanding me to push on her queues – it made for a more disruptive and challenging final stage. Unfortunately the hospital did not have any natural birthing nurses available and they had never encountered anyone using the Hypno method before. But despite that we were able to make it through thanks to the practice at home and tremendous support from my husband and Mom (even though he only read the birth partner guide as a crash course that same morning before we drove into the hospital :))
Because it was such a quick, natural and “easy” birth we were released to come home within 24 hours. My sister is expecting now and she is planning to follow Hypnobabies too after this great experience I had. I thought I might struggle more because like so many others here, I did tend to fall asleep frequently during the tracks. But just as promised, you do still develop the right hypno-anesthesia skills despite thinking you slept through the instructions :)
Thanks again for all of the great guidance and support here! I couldn’t be happier with the results and have a beautiful and happy baby girl from the moment she arrived as a result!
Cheers,
Stephanie
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