On wed night, nov. 17th I went to bed close to midnight. I was feeling some practice waves( I thought) which wasn’t alarming because I had been having them for 6 weeks or more.
A little before 2:00 am I woke up feeling stronger waves. They were so strong and close that I couldn’t go back to sleep. I downloaded a contraction timer on my phone and started timing.
At 2:00, I went upstairs and woke my husband, Tony, up to have him fill up the bathtub. I got in the tub and started listening to my birth guide CD while timing my waves. They were close but irregular- 4min. apart, then 2, then 6….no consistency, but I knew that these waves were definitely different than the practice waves I had been having before.
At some point, Tony called the midwife, and she wanted to speak to me. He gave her the heads up on my hypnosis so she would know how to speak to me ( never say pain!). She asked about the irregularity of my waves and if I was ready to come to the birthing Inn. I remember telling her that we were an hour and twenty min drive away and that I didn’t want to make the trip just to be sent home! She assured me that there were hotels close by if needed.
I got out of the tub about 4:30am. Even though I was timing my waves ( most of the time), time really seemed to fly by. Every 20 min truly seemed like 5. It was incredible! Something else that really amazed me was how much Tony helped relieve the intensity of my waves. When I would hang on him through a wave, it was really less intense!!
By 5:00am we were pulling out of the driveway. I was listening to my deepening CD ( I listened to this the most through my birthing time). I had been worried about losing my focus during the drive to the birthing inn, so I told myself that the car was acting like a cradle, rocking me peacefully. This really worked because the last part of the drive I was sleeping between my waves!
I would wake up during the wave and then fall right back to sleep! When we arrived at the hospital, at 6:30am, my doula was wonderful to tell everyone in our path that I was using hypnosis. All of the staff was extremely respectful and supportive! The only mental pressure I felt at this point was that they wouldn’t keep me. I remember talking to the baby and encouraging another wave so the staff would see that I really was in labor ( I am sure I didn’t appear to be).
My midwife checked me and I was 8 cm and 100% effaced! At 8:30 the shift changed so the new midwife on call wanted to check me. Tony explained to her that I didn’t want to know of my progress. Tony explained why she wanted to check and asked if it was ok. She proceeded and what a good thing that Tony told her not to tell me because I was still at 8 cm. Had I known this I am sure I would have been disappointed.
While she was examining me, my water broke. I had rocked on my birthing ball some and after a trip to the bathroom I wanted to go back to this position. When I sat down I felt a lot of pressure and exclaimed that I needed to push! This was at about 10:00 am.
I leaned over the bed for a while then I sat on the bed. I was pushing but not too hard. I felt like I was doing what my body was telling me to do. After some time I went back to leaning over the bed. The nurse whispered in my ear that she knew it was important to me that Tony help deliver the baby and that in the position I was in, there was only room for the midwife. She told me crawl up onto the bed. They raised the back of the bed perpendicular to the floor and I held onto that while on my knees. At this point I really started pushing. I was ready to get my baby out.
Five pushes for the head and one for each shoulder and baby corinne slid out onto the bed. She was born at 11:09am. About 5 min after she was born she latched right on and nursed for over an hour!
My Hypnobabies birth was an incredible experience. My cue words and especially Tony placing his hand on my forehead during a wave really helped! I was actually shocked at what a difference it made.
The only thing I would have done differently was instead of listening to “pushing baby out” out loud in the room, I would have listened to it on my ipod with my earbuds. I think having Kari’s voice in my head for hours and then switching to the cd player, it caused me to feel a little disconnected from the script. Other than that I can say that I had a perfect birth experience.
