Two-time Hypnobabies mom relates both her babies’ birth stories!

First Hypno-Baby’s Birthing:

I have used Hypnobabies with both of my sons and I have LOVED the program. I did the Home study course for both births.

My first son was a successful [vaginal] Breech birth. I had a horrible experience during my pregnancy with a Doctor who was not supportive of my choice for a natural birth and who never volunteered information. He didn’t tell me my baby was breech until I asked what position he was in (at about 30 weeks) and when I asked him what I could do to get the baby turned, his response was “We’ll just wait and see what happens. If he doesn’t turn, we’ll do a C-Section”.

It was then that I realized I needed to take control of my pregnancy and, in my search to learn what I could do to get my baby to turn, I found the Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis program (at 32 weeks). I tried EVERYTHING in the book to get him to turn! I would feel him rotate a little and then go right back. On my due date I went in for an appointment and my Doctor made me schedule a C-Section around his vacation. That was the last straw. I fired him and found a new provider that would be supportive of the birth I wanted. It was then that I learned that my baby couldn’t turn because I had extremely low amniotic fluid. I also learned that my hematocrit was so low that if I had undergone surgery, I potentially would have died from blood loss.

My sweet little one made his appearance at 40 weeks 5 days. My “water broke” at hour 4 and he was born at hour 23 – both of us healthy and happy. My providers did not have much experience with the Hypnobabies program and they were all amazed at how relaxed and peaceful I was due to my childbirth hypnosis practice during the entire process. Because I wasn’t making a bunch of noise, they were worried I wasn’t progressing at all. But everytime they checked, I had progressed. It was 23 hours of hard work – mentally and physically – but it was completely worth it!

Second Hypno-Baby’s birth:

My second son was born 7 weeks ago in the comfort of our home. I began having mild pressure waves at 11pm. I would have been able to sleep through them for the most part, except that my 2 year old was sick so I was up with him a lot of the night. For the next 20 hours, I consistently had a pressure wave that would last for only 20 to 30 seconds and came every 15 to 30 minutes. By that standard, it was not considered “active labor.”

I had called my mom and midwife in the morning to let them know that I thought the baby would be coming that day, but I told them to hold off on coming until my pressure waves progressed. My husband and I went about our usual daily activities. At about 3pm, the timing of my waves had still not changed – although the pressure seamed to be greater – so we decided to go for a walk to try to get things moving along. I would just stop to relax and enter eyes-open childbirth hypnosis (while standing) every time a pressure wave would come.

When we got back I was extremely frustrated that nothing had changed, so I called my midwife and asked her what to do. I had a pressure wave while on the phone with her and it was so short that she said my waves sounded more like a Charlie Horse than pressure waves. She volunteered to come to my house and help me either get things progressing, or stop them. And she was really thinking that they would stop altogether when I got in the pool. However, when she got to my house – around 7pm – she checked me and I was 8 cm dilated, and 90% effaced!

So she got me in the pool and then things picked up right away. I spent the rest of the time in the pool – choosing for myself when and how to change positions. I did a lot of kneeling and squatting to utilize gravity. At 11:30pm my midwife asked if the pressure waves were intense (she couldn’t tell because I was so relaxed and deeply in hypnosis) and I said yes – that they were almost constant and I believed I was in transformation.

She asked if I wanted her to break my water. I felt like I could get him here fast if my waters would just break so I said yes. She did and I immediately had the urge to push. He was in my arms a short 14 minutes later – again, both of us perfectly healthy and happy. He was born in the pool, with my husband in the pool to catch him. It was wonderful.

So, my total birthing time was 25 hours, but only 4 hours of it felt like “active labor”. I am positive that I was able to progress so much throughout the day, despite the pressure waves being short and spread out, because of my hypnosis, relaxation and visualization. I tried to stay upright as much as possible, to let gravity to do the work, and with each wave a visualized my cervix opening and my baby moving down. That, and “mooing” were the things that were most helpful for me with this birth.

With my first baby, my most utilized Hypnobabies tool was creating anesthesia. So my focus for each birth changed based on what I felt I needed.

My midwives said that this second birth is one of the smoothest births they have ever seen.  They were both extremely excited about how great it went and have both blogged about it. If you could describe a birthing time as easy, I believe this would be it. It was perfect!  I recommend the Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis program to every expectant mother I know!

Hypnobabies thanks Laurie Brown for sharing her stories with us!

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Sophie’s Beautiful Birth

I loved reading this birth story about Sophie’s birth.

Our class was very positive, informative, and especially empowering.  Hypnobabies equips mom and dad withtonnes of knowledge about pregnancy and birth so they can make good decisions and the cd’s and hypnosis toolshelped to calm me both leading up to and during the birth.

The amazing part of all this is that when I first met Jenn my fear was taking over.  As I look back on our birth experience I now realize that not once did I feel a single moment of fear.  It was intense and challenging, but never fear inducing.  And I can say that our experience was very positive despite a few changes in our plan.

Click here to read the whole story.

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Some of the materials were new to me, even though I am a nurse and this is my second pregnancy!”

I loved reading this nurse share her experience with Hypnobabies.

My journey to a calm and comfortable childbirth was not an easy one. I was the girl who said she would never try a natural childbirth. Why, you may ask? Let me start by saying that I am a Registered Nurse. I remember back to my nursing school days very vividly. I remember watching and assisting women with the birth of their babies, watching them scream and writhe in pain. To me, that was no way to welcome the birth of your baby. I knew from that point on that I would be getting an epidural when the time came for me to have babies. I wanted to enjoy the birth of my baby and that did not appear to be possible without an epidural.

Fast forward to June of 2010, we were expecting our first baby, a little girl. We were so excited about adding to our family and could not wait to meet our daughter. I ended up going into labor on my own at 41 weeks. I received my epidural when I was dilated to an 8. I thought that epidural was the best invention in the world. Well, once my water broke, we found meconium present in the amniotic fluid. The NICU team had to be present at the birth. My epidural had me so numb that I pushed for three and a half hours. My fabulous midwife was saying that we might need a vacuum extraction to get my daughter out. Luckily, we did not need that and she was born after a lot of effort on my part. She wasn’t breathing adequately so she had to go to the NICU. I had to stay in my hospital bed because I was too numb to go anywhere. Once my epidural finally wore off, I got to see my daughter…four hours after she was born. I didn’t get the bonding experience I so desperately craved.

When I got pregnant with our second child, I knew that I wanted a better experience. I knew there had to be something more fulfilling available to mothers. I knew that getting an epidural was not an option for me this time around so I started looking into natural childbirths. I researched birth doulas and while doing that, came across the Hypnobabies program. I was skeptical, to say the least, but thought that it would be worth a try. I figured that using my wonderful Hypno-doula, Anne, and using Hypnobabies was my best chance at having a natural childbirth.

Click here to read the rest of her story!

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It was amazing how powerful it felt to take my healthcare into my hands.

Thanks to Monica for sharing her story!
Okay, so I know that Juneau is now three months old, and who writes a birth story when three months have already passed?  The problem is that I have been trying to figure out how to put into words what an amazing experience Juneau’s birth was, and I feel like no matter what words I choose, I won’t be able to do it justice.  But I figure, if I don’t write it down now, it may never get written.  So, here I go….

Where do I begin? We found out we were expecting in late August 2011. Juneau is our second child. We had our son, Phoenix, in May 2010. In preparing for Phoenix’s arrival, I studied the hypnobabies program.  It was great in helping me to relax and enjoy the pregnancy.  I think that with the aspects of being a first time mom and not being sure of what it would be like to actually give birth, I wasn’t 100% confident in what I was doing and was very willing to defer to the medical professionals in terms of what needed to be done.  This led to a cascade of interventions that led to me giving birth to Phoenix in the operating room, completely numb from the neck down, unable to feel or see anything.  After he was born, I was so shaky from the medication that I couldn’t hold him and then he was taken for his newborn cares to the nursery and away from us for a few hours.  All of these things really traumatized me and I knew that I did not want a repeat of that experience.

With this pregnancy, I was determined to have a natural birth. I studied the hypnobabies program again and armed myself with as much knowledge and support as I could.  We decided to hire a doula to help us achieve our desired birth experience and I am so glad I did.  Mandy was our doula and she was phenomenal.  We met with her several times before Juneau’s birth and she helped me to work through the issues that I had after Phoenix’s birth and let those go and realize that this was a new birth and a new baby.  She helped me to gain confidence in myself and the fact that I could have a natural birth.  The hypnobabies program again helped me to focus myself and relax during the later stages of pregnancy.  I read up on different natural birth books and websites.  I read as many natural birth stories as I could gaining inspiration and motivation from the fact that all of these women had been able to do it.  I knew that I could do it too.

On one of Mandy’s visits, we practiced different positions to help ease the discomfort of pressure waves.  This made me excited to be able to put into practice all of the different tools and in a way I couldn’t wait to use them.  Little did I know that practicing them would be about all I would get to do.   My due date was May 2nd and I knew from the start that I would most likely go past that.  Everyone around me was saying they were sure I would have an April baby, but I remained calm in the fact that my baby would come when she was ready (and it would most likely be after May 2nd).  This helped me not to feel pressured or anxious when May 2nd came and went.  We went for our weekly doctor’s appointment that day just to be sure that baby was doing okay.  On the ultrasound we confirmed she was a girl (thank goodness otherwise her pink room would’ve needed a quick paint job) and they guesstimated she was 6lbs 13oz.  Fluid levels looked okay and I was contracting when they hooked me up to the monitory.  The doctor never pressured me for induction but said that if she didn’t arrive on her own, he didn’t feel comfortable with me going more than two weeks over.  Even though he talked about it, I was never phased because I knew that she would come when the time was right.

I was hoping for a Cinco de Mayo (May 5th) baby and the fact that there was a supermoon that night was inspiration.  May 5th came and went and still no baby.  Early the morning of May 6th, things started happening…I felt more intense pressure waves that were gaining strength and not going away with a drink of water or resting.  I felt so excited and sure that today was the day.  I kept in touch with Mandy through the early morning hours (sorry for the 3AM texts, Mandy!) and waited to see what happened.  It was cute, because I woke Nevada up and he wanted to know right away if we had to go to the hospital.  It wasn’t anywhere near that point yet, but it was nice he was so concerned.

By mid-morning the pressure waves were continuing and some were coming as close as every 6 minutes.  I didn’t know how things were going to progress so I asked Mandy to come over, just in case.  Grandma had come to pick up Phoenix earlier in the day.  Once Mandy got here, things started to slow down and they weren’t as regular.  I would still have to concentrate on them, but it wasn’t anything that was unbearable.  Mandy was calm and supportive, never second guessing what I was feeling.  By about 5:30, things had pretty much fizzled out and I was disappointed.  Having never experienced my body begin the birthing time on its own, I felt kind of defeated.  Again, Mandy was reassuring saying that my body was definitely working and just preparing for baby.

The next few days passed without incident.  There were pressure waves here and there, but nothing too serious and while I was anxious for her arrival, and for people to stop checking into see how I was doing and if the baby was here yet, I was still at peace with knowing she would come when she was ready.  I had been sleeping on the couch for the last few weeks of pregnancy because it was where I could get the most comfortable and most nights I stayed up watching tv because sleep wasn’t easy to come by.  On May 9th, Nevada sat up watching tv with me for a little bit and headed up to bed around 10:30.  I was still awake watching American Pickers when I felt a strong pressure wave.  Hmmm…that felt a little bit different than before.  I figured I would just lay there and see what happened and if any more pressure waves wanted to make their appearance.  That was around 10:45 or 11. Sure enough, another one came along not too long after.  I had to close my eyes and focus on my hypnosis to feel comfortable during it.  I didn’t want to jump the gun, so I continued to lay there and see what would happen.  Around 11:30, I thought this is the real deal and I started timing the pressure waves.  They were between 6-8 minutes apart and definitely intense.  Around midnight, I headed upstairs to get Nevada up.  This time he could tell things were more serious and he asked if he should call his mom to come and watch Phoenix.  I told him to do that and call Mandy.  I tried to talk to Mandy but the pressure waves were intense enough that I didn’t want to do that, so Nevada talked to her instead.  She suggested I get into the shower to see if the waves would continue or if they would fizzle out.  So around 12:20 I got into the shower.  The pressure waves continued and seemed like they were coming faster.  The warm water felt good on my stomach, but it was hard to stand in the shower without holding on to something.  After I got out of the shower, it was difficult to get dressed, but with Nevada’s help I managed, having to stop every few minutes to work through the pressure waves.

By the time I got downstairs, Nevada’s mom was there.  Mandy was on her way, but figured it would take her about an hour from the time we first called her at 12:15ish.  Nevada’s stomach was upset so he was looking for some Pepto and talking to his mom about where it could be.  At this point pressure waves were coming every 2-4 minutes and were super intense.  I told him to forget about the Pepto and that we needed to get going to the hospital.  I made it into the minivan and put my ipod in with hypnobabies playing.  Nevada called Mandy and told her there was a change of plans and we were headed to the hospital.  She would head there too.  We also called the hospital to let them know we were on the way and found out that the one doctor from the practice that I didn’t care for was going to be delivering babies that night.  I took in the information and then let my concerns about it go.  She was going to be there to catch my baby and that was it, the rest of it I was going to be in charge of.

I listened to hypnobabies the entire car ride and did a lot of deep breathing and was starting to make some low noises to help get through the pressure waves.  What seemed like the longest 15 minutes passed before we made it to the hospital.  Nevada dropped me off at the entrance and I stood holding onto one of the posts for support.  He zipped in the parking garage to park the car and didn’t even have time to grab the bags.  We figured if we needed something, he would have time to run back out.  It was then that I saw Mandy running across the parking lot too.  My entire team was in place…it was time to have a baby!

I tried walking to the entrance, but that wasn’t going to happen so Nevada ran and got a wheelchair for me.  I was still doing lots of breathing and low moaning and working through the pressure waves which felt like they were right on top of each other.  Nevada started to wheel me through the lobby and took me to the green elevators.  At this point I was with it enough to tell him he was at the wrong ones and had to go to the blue elevators.  I remembered from our tour 2 Blue.  We zipped around and got to the right elevators and headed up.

Arriving at L&D makes me laugh when I think about it.  We pulled up and of course they started asking me questions.  I was able to answer some between pressure waves.  “What are you here for?”  Umm…I was thinking I really wanted to eat some good hospital food…I’m having a BABY!!!  Mandy crouched next to me and kept reminding me to breathe and to lower the sounds I was making to help keep in control.  Nevada helped by answering some of the questions and they took me to a triage room.  Things were super intense at that point and I just kept on focusing to get from one pressure wave to the next.  They told me to get undressed and I’m still not sure how I managed to get my clothes off and get up on the bed, but I did.  They checked me and said I was 8 cm.  Thank God!  Things were so intense that had I been at a 4, it would’ve been hard.  While there, the nurses were asking if I wanted an epidural and I was confident in my decision to tell them no.  After I was checked, they took me over to the L&D side of the wing (I guess now they believed me that I was having a baby?).

Once in the L&D room, I was checked again and found to be 10cm and complete. Mandy and Nevada were by my side with water and helping me with peace cues and touching my shoulder which I later found out really helped me relax.  In the moment, I wasn’t realizing it but Mandy said when she would do that, she could visibly see me relax into the pressure waves.  Once the doctor came into the room, she was getting ready to break my water.  Mandy noticed what was happening and asked me if I consented to it.  I said no, and the doctor stopped.  I think it made her a little bit mad because it was 2 something in the morning and she probably wanted to get this show over, but it was my baby and we were going to have it my way.  As I worked through the pressure waves, I had my eyes closed most of the time to help me keep my focus, but I did open them at one point and saw the doctor kind of statnding at the end of the bed with her arms crossed looking at me frustrated.  Too bad, this was my birthing experience.

After just a few minutes, I started to feel like I wanted to push.  This was intense pressure.  Not pain, but pressure.  According to Mandy’s notes it was around 2:25 that I told them I wanted to push.  The pushing phase is kind of a blur.  I know that was pushing for a few minutes when my water broke.  While pushing, I still had my eyes closed and I know there was a time or two when I didn’t think I was going to be able to do it.  The nurses and Mandy and Nevada all cheered me on.  Then all of sudden the pressure changed and I could feel Juneau moving down and out.  I never experienced a ring of fire as they call it but just a lot of pressure.  Finally I heard someone say the head was out, and I gave another push to get the rest of her out.  They had to remind me to open my eyes so I could see my baby girl.  She was immediately put on my chest and I looked down in wonder at the little miracle that had just been inside of me.  Juneau was born at 2:50AM, approximately 1 hour after arriving at the hospital.  She weighed 6lbs 3oz and was 20 inches long.  She had a full head of hair and the most perfectly shaped head.  (At the pediatrician’s office they asked if she was a c-section baby because her head was so round).  It was love at first sight.

When the doctor was stitching things up, she was going to give me a shot of Pitocin.  Mandy again asked me if I consented to it and I asked the doctor if I needed it.  Her response was well, we routinely give Pitocin after birth.  I again asked her if I needed it and if I didn’t, I wasn’t going to consent to it.  So, guess what, no Pitocin!  It was amazing how powerful it felt to take my healthcare into my hands.

After Juneau’s birth, we told the nursing staff that we wanted all of her newborn cares to take place in the room.  So she was bathed, monitored and taken care of where we could see what was going on and only after we had been able to cuddle for a significant amount of time.  It was fantastic never having her leave our side.  Such a different experience than the first time around.

After I was stitched up, I was up and walking around within about 20-30 minutes and surprisingly felt great.  We transferred to our postpartum room and as opposed to the first time around, I could walk and move and had no issues.  When the nurses came in and asked what I wanted for pain management, I told them that I felt okay and I would let them know if that changed.  So after Juneau’s arrival I didn’t have ANY pain medication-not even tylenol or advil.  I just felt like I didn’t need it.  Things were a little bit sore, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle.  I felt like SuperWoman!  I think the nurses thought I was crazy because they never had moms who didn’t need pain meds.

The adrenaline from the experience still gets me today when I think about it.  When discussing with my doctor my desire to have a natural birth, his advice had been to stay at home as long as possible and come to the hospital when you are ready to push.  I didn’t think that I would actually do that, but sure enough, I came in at an 8, progressed to a 10 within about 10 minutes and was ready to push baby out within about an hour of arriving at the hospital.  I couldn’t have imagined a better scenario.

I credit the awesome experience to my Hypnobabies hypnosis studies, my awesome doula, and my ever supportive and loving hubby.

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Hypnobabies Mom uses hypnosis to lower her heart rate, during a stressful ‘change of birth plans’.

This mom had a great beginning of her birth.

We went up to the room and they hooked me up to the machines to monitor the contractions and the baby’s heart rate. I continued to relax through what were apparently pretty intense contractions. Evan said the nurse kept looking at me in amazement as the contractions spiked and I just sat there quietly, breathing. The doctor came in at 8:15 to check me and see if the contractions were productive. He popped his head up and said to me “Are you ready to have a baby today?? You’re 8 centimeters dilated!” and I think I seriously got the chills I was so surprised. IT WAS HAPPENING. I had heard and read so many stories of women going through this hardest part of labor, as you get closer to 10cm. Somehow I was there and was doing just fine. At this point I thought “Wow, I’m seriously going to do this!!!” and was so excited that Hypnobabies actually was working for me. Even without any sleep the night before, I felt full of energy and also really relaxed. The doctor said he would come back in an hour and check again.

Then a surprise breech baby at 10cm created a scenario where she had to have a cesarean.  It was a shock, but she was able to use her Hypnobabies to help stay calm.

Read her story and see her beautiful pictures here.

Congratulations on your sweet baby girl!

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Hypnobabies mom says, “It really was that simple!”

I just wanted to quickly add my testimony of the effectiveness
of Hyponobabies to the thousands that have already been shared.

All day on Thrusday I’d been having ‘soft’ birthing waves. We went to
bed that night and about 12:30am I woke up in pain. I decided to sleep
through what I could because I was comfortable and warm. I woke up at
5:30am exhausted and jumped in the shower. After I got out my husband
went to get my Cds. I put in the Easy First Stage and I relaxed.

I remember really having to concentrate on relaxing through 4 waves. When
the CD ended 2 hours later (I think it played through more than once??)
I woke up and thought when am I suppose to go the hospital? I feel
great!

Then it hit me…HARD…I needed to go NOW!

We called the sitter and took one kid to school on the way. I showed up
to the hospital complete and delivered 15 minutes later.

I couldn’t believe it! I have to admit I was a little skeptical of the
whole process. I’m a believer now!! I plan on using Hypnobabies with all my
births from now on. I just wish I discovered this 7 years ago!!

I sound like an infomercial, Haha!! But it really was that simple 🙂

~Denay

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Maizy’s Beautiful Hypnobabies Birth…”It was amazing to me!”

Maizy’s Beautiful Hypnobabies Birth with great pictures.

We were talking and joking and enjoying our selves the whole time.  When a pressure wave would come, I’d just turn off my light switch, focus and then go back to the conversation.  There were a couple times when someone was talking to me when a pressure wave would come and I tried to talk to them rather then turning off my light switch.  Those couple times I felt my body start to tense up and as soon as I turned my light switch off, I’d relax and be much more comfortable.  It was amazing to me!  I also used my peace cue and that was very  effective and helpful in staying calm and relaxed.

Click over to her blog to read the rest of the story and see the pictures!

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Arya’s Birth: A Different Kind of Success Story

My birthing story is a bit different from most Hypnobabies success stories, but it is wonderful nonetheless. It starts on Monday afternoon, when I was 40-1/2 weeks pregnant. I had a gush of fluid escape during a meeting (of course it happened on a cloth chair at the office of the person I was meeting with – fortunately he was very understanding!). I finished the meeting, stopped at home, and went to the birthing center to be checked. I was put on the monitor and although I was feeling no pressure waves, it showed that they were happening every 6-8 minutes. The doctor and nurse were both very confident that I would be admitted, but wanted to do an exam to be sure my bag of waters had broken. Upon completing the exam, the doctor was very surprised to find that it was intact! So after four hours in the hospital, since I was feeling no pressure waves, I was sent home. The rest of Monday and all of Tuesday passed uneventfully, with no signs of my birthing time beginning.

At 3:30 am on Wednesday, I had an enormous gush of fluid in bed and was excited that my birthing time was finally here! I called my doula and she advised me to go back to sleep so I could rest until morning. Despite my excitement, I agreed that this was the best idea. However, the practicality of this turned out to be limited. As I found out later, my bag of waters did not break at the bottom but tore partway up, causing additional large gushes of fluid every few minutes. I had already soaked my bed and carpet, and was now limited to sitting on the hard floor of the hallway so I didn’t drench anything else. I decided that rest at home was not likely, and went to the birthing center at 4:30 am. They confirmed that my bag of waters had broken and admitted me. However, like my first trip to the hospital, I was still having no pressure waves that I could feel. Once I was given a room, I rested a bit and then on Wednesday morning, my doula helped me begin natural induction techniques and exercises.

I was a bit dismayed that the on call doctor was not one of my favorites, and although she was a bit skeptical about my decision not to induce with Pitocin, she was respectful of my decision. I found out she was on call until 7 pm, and thought, “Oh well, my birthing time will be over by the time the next doctor is on!” My doula and I worked through the day to get pressure waves to start, using every natural induction technique, exercise, and position that she, I, or the Hypnobabies book suggested. We walked, used the abdominal lift, listened to every Hypnobabies track we thought would be helpful, tried nipple stimulation, and many, many more! I was extremely relaxed and we did get pressure waves to come on, but they were irregular and short. It was a pleasant time, with the Hypnobabies tracks playing in the background, and I felt no pain through the waves, only pressure.

At 7 pm, the doctor I liked best started her shift and I was happy that I would have all the natural birth support I was hoping for! My doula and I continued to alternate resting with different labor induction techniques through the night. At 7 am, this doctor finished her shift and no progress had been made. I was still having irregular pressure waves, but not enough to be significant. At 9 am, the next doctor visited and told me that I had reached the point where an intervention was necessary, since my membranes had been ruptured for 30 hours. At 11 am, I began Pitocin, hoping that this was the last little boost my body would need to begin my birthing time.

The pressure waves did become more frequent and intense but for most of the time I was receiving Pitocin I was still able to ride through them easily using my Hypnobabies techniques. I was on Pitocin for 8 hours, and at 7 pm I had my last exam: I was only dilated 1 cm. I knew that I had tried everything available: I couldn’t wait any longer and risk infection. At 7:35, my beautiful girl was born via c-section. She was healthy, alert and happy!

Even though Arya’s birth didn’t go the way I had planned, I can’t think of it as anything but a success. From the minute she was born, she was calm and alert: she just looked around the operating room, taking in all the new sights and sounds. When she was placed on my shoulder (I was sobbing with happiness at this point), she was smacking her lips, ready to eat. The pediatrician who attended the birth was nervous because she wouldn’t cry! Several nurses kept telling her, “There’s nothing to worry about! Look at that baby: she couldn’t be more healthy, calm, and happy!”

There is no doubt that my Hypnobabies tools were essential throughout the process. The Hypnobabies tracks and relaxation techniques kept me calm and happy through the 40 hours I was in the hospital. Nurse after nurse commented on how relaxed I was, and I was comfortable and nearly without pain through the vast majority of my pressure waves. During what would have otherwise been an extremely anxious and frustrating 40 hours of no progress, using Hypnobabies made it a wonderful experience. And Arya was such a calm and happy baby that all the doctors and nurses kept joking that I had hypnotized her! There is no doubt in my mind that using Hypnobabies contributed enormously to this: because I had an easy and stress-free birthing time, this is the environment she was born into. In fact, my birthing experience was so wonderful that three days later when it was time to leave the hospital, I found myself sad that it was over. I felt like it was the last day of a perfect vacation and I now had to say goodbye and return to normal life. But in this case I got to take the best part of my vacation home with me and start a wonderful new life!

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Birth of Grant Part 3 – The Grand Finale

Thanks to Leigh Anne from Confessions of a Misplaced Alaskan for allowing us to share her birth story from her blog onto the Hypnobabies Blog. 

So here is the part of the birth that I know you’ve all been anxiously awaiting. My previous births have been pretty quick, especially Nick’s. I teach Hypnobabies, so I always enjoy telling the parents the different things they can do during their birthing time, walking, sitting on the birth ball, resting, etc. However, I have not really gotten to experience those intimate moments in birth because once things got going, it seemed like the birth was all out and fast. This time I got to enjoy a few of the things, I felt I’ve missed out on in previous births.

My husband was great, he asked what i wanted for breakfast. At this point, I was hungry, but not sure what I really wanted to eat. I think I told him to make me some eggs. I laid down in the bedroom and played around on my iPad in between waves. I sent a message to my friends on thebabywearer.com website that I had just two words….prodromal and posterior. I figured that I may be in my birthing time for a while. I knew the baby was posterior because I could still feel hands moving in the front part of my lower belly, over my pubic bone. Like I had said before, I didn’t do much during the night to try to rotate the baby because I knew I needed to rest. So, my plan for the morning was to get on all fours as much as possible and try to get the baby to turn around.

I sat on the birth ball in the kitchen while my husband cooked and my mom sat at the kitchen table. Whenever I had a pressure wave, Damon would come over and do a hip squeeze. I had to remind him how to do his hands. My mom even came over and did a hip squeeze, learning how I wanted her to put her hands. I had some pretty good pressure waves during this time. I resent my text to my boss from the day before while sitting on the ball, saying that I would not be in the office today.

After eating some eggs with salsa, I asked my husband to go for a walk with me. I took a photo of my mom with the boys right before I went for a walk. I sent a text message to Debi, to let her know how the evening had went and that I was still having pressure waves and had more show. She said she was nearby if I needed her.

We didn’t walk far in the neighborhood. It was before nine o’clock so it wasn’t miserably hot yet. We walked down a hill and then back up. I figure in our twenty-minute walk, back and forth in front of our house I had at least seven pressure waves. The part that was so cool about this was, I had always wanted to do the clutch and sway hold with my husband during a pressure wave. Since we are the same height, it was kind of funny to figure out how I could comfortably be supported by him. It was great to snuggle my face into his neck on this beautiful morning. We chatted about my mom’s dream she had in the night. She told me upon waking up that she dreamt we had went into her room and told her that Grant had been born. We did not have a name for the baby yet if it was a boy. Damon told me he had actually thought about that name last week. I said that he had vetoed that name with me in the past. I wasn’t ready to commit to any name at this point, especially because we still didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl. I loved our walk and found it was most comfortable to hold his waist during a wave. We even tried one abdominal lift while on the walk. I had not gotten to do that during birth before either.

I’m sure we were a sight to see, we even had one of our not so nice neighbors stop and check on us to see if they could do anything for us. It was during one of the waves where I was holding on to Damon’s waist. I started laughing during the wave because of how funny I know we looked. Another neighbor saw us and you could see the big smiles on their faces. I thought we might be having a baby soon but Damon told them that we would probably have a baby within the week. I loved that he was trying to protect my space for me.

We went back inside and I wanted to try doing some rebozo sifting. I had Damon pull up the Spinning Babies website so that I could show him what I wanted him to do with the wrap. I then got down on all fours in the living room and had him do some gentle sifting. It felt really good.

I then decided that I was tired and wanted to lay down again. I spread out a towel on our bed and laid down on my side. Damon came back there with me and would put counter pressure on my hips when he heard me start to moan or take a deep breath. I know I fell asleep between some of these waves because I would be feel a wave coming on, look around for Damon thinking that he was probably far away and I would need to yell for him and he was always right behind me, ready to support me and do whatever he needed. I laid there until about 9:30-9:45 am. At this point, I decided to get up and use the restroom again.

I believe around this point, Damon called Debi to let her know that things were picking up. She said that she would be here soon. I went downstairs and started to get the last-minute things I wanted ready in the birth room. I made sure that the video camera was set up properly, making sure that it would record. I asked Damon to call Amy around this time too, but he thought I had meant to just call Debi. I reminded him to call Amy and he did. Around 10 am, Debi and her daughter Rachel (her assistant) arrived. They were really great when they got there.

They brought in their supplies as we began filling up the birth pool. While I had laid down, Damon had somehow managed to get water boiling on the stove to provide extra heat if we needed it in the birth tub and had also duct taped a white sheet to the inside of the watering trough/birth pool. I was sitting on the birth ball next to the pool, waiting for the water to get higher and the right temp. I used the restroom a handful more times. Whenever I sat on it, I thought of it like a birth stool. I would almost always have a pressure wave while sitting on it.

Debi then asked to do some monitoring on the baby. I reminded her that I did not want any vaginal exams and she had no issues with that. She set up her external fetal monitor and I stood next to the birth tub while she held the monitor to my belly. She said she would monitor for six minutes and then would do so again in an hour for her intermittent monitoring. I was able to move as I needed to while she held the doppler. Once she was done monitoring, I got into the tub. The water felt wonderful.

I laughed as I saw water bubbles underneath the white sheet. I played with the water bubbles in between waves. My husband was cracking up at my simple entertainment. He took a couple of photos of me during this time.

Amy arrived shortly after I got into the pool and she took a few photos of me. Amy knew I really wanted photos during this birth since I had not gotten the opportunity with Nick’s birth and I had said no during Liam’s. The midwives and Amy were all fantastic about massaging my lower back/sacrum area during a pressure wave. Women that have had babies know exactly where to put their hands during a birth. Amy was fantastic at putting her hand on my shoulder and saying the release cue right when I needed it. I remember at one point she was sitting to my left and I was saying the words, “open, open, open” out loud during a wave. Afterward she asked me, “do you really believe those words when you say them?” I replied, “most definitely. I said those very words in that room right there,” gesturing towards the boys bedroom that I could see close by. ”I said those words when Nick was coming out of me in that room, I know they work.” She smiled.

I was joking and laughing between waves, telling the midwives stories about my recent hemorrhoids. I even was midway through a story, a wave came on, I groaned through the wave, saying “opening up, come on baby,” then as soon as the wave was over, I continued on with my story. Later on, I told Amy that we were going to be life long friends because she had rubbed my butt and I had it on video for proof. I was cracking up at myself.

I remember looking up at this board…

I had written the words, Relax, Release and Peace on it, just about thirty minutes before. I hoped that it would remind everyone in the room the cue words that I would need. Liam also had a picture that he had drawn specifically for when I had the baby put up on the board. I remember looking at the magnet board and I really thought it was about to fall. I asked someone to go catch it. My husband went over to it and asked what was behind the board. My response, which wasn’t so nice, but I started really cracking up, “Ohh, it’s just your stupid golf balls! Bwhahahahahahaha.” I have no idea why I thought that was so funny but in the moment when I was nearing transition, I thought I was hilarious.

I think around this time, I asked for some crackers and I drank some water between almost every wave. After a wave, I made sure to smile because I remember in the hypnosis scripts, it says to smile after a wave. It made me feel better to do so.

The waves were coming quicker and quicker. Debi went to monitor the baby while I was in the water. As her hand held the doppler to my belly, I said, “Wow, did you just feel the baby rotate?” She did. I have never actually felt my babies movements during birth. Another very special thing about this particular birth.

Once the baby rotated, I started to feel like I could push. Remember, I had no vaginal exams. I loved that no one said, let me check you. They could hear the sounds changing from loud moans, to lion sounds. I asked for Liam to come downstairs. I wanted to see him. He came and looked in the tub asking if the baby was coming soon. I kissed him and then he left the room as another wave sent a roar through me, roaring the words “Open.” I laughed as the wave ended because I could hear him say, “It sounds like a lion!”

A few waves later, I asked Nick to come downstairs. I kissed him and was so happy he was there too. Then he too went back upstairs.

I was getting louder and louder, the grunting roars where coming closer together. I would put my head into the towel on the edge of the tub, thinking to myself that it was the perfect replacement for a hand on the forehead (just like one of Hypnobabies physical cues for relaxation). Someone had their hand on my shoulder and during a wave someone would put their hand on my sacrum. It was starting to get uncomfortable with a hand on my lower back. I remember Rachel, the assistant midwife asking where I felt the most pressure. I took both hands and placed them into the sides of my glutes, right where the IT Band connects. I still had my head on the side of the tub. I felt like I was pointing at a big sign when I did that.

I started to push during the waves. The Hypnobabies Easy First Stage track ended and Amy asked if I wanted the pushing track on. I said I wasn’t sure, but yeah, go ahead. I had told Damon to turn off the Pushing baby out track off during Nick’s birth and then I felt pushy. Amy knew I would like to listen to it during this birth.

I remember repeating after the hypnosis track really loudly the words, “Yes, just pressure,” and kind of laughing after it. I started to push in earnest. I put my hand down on my perineum to see if the baby’s head was there yet. It wasn’t. A few more pressure waves and I put my hand down there again. I felt the sac for an instant. I said, “I feel the head.”

I was still having space between the waves, where I would just lean my head into the edge of the tub. Then during the next wave, I placed my hands in a circle around my perineum as the pushing urge became so strong. I was going to do my own perineum support.

During the waves, I really wasn’t sure if I could stand to have anyone’s hands on my back and said so. I was so confused on what I needed, the sensations were overwhelming my body. My hands were firmly placed against my perineum. Some people wonder how it is possible to support your own perineum around a belly, but I had my legs far, far apart at this point, with my legs starting to go numb in the water. The water was supporting my weight, with my head on the side. I could feel the baby moving down. The sac was right there during the next wave, I pushed back on my perineum while I pushed with all my might, the sounds in my voice being the loudest roar. I felt some of the sac bubble out in front of the babies head, like a small water bubble getting pinched, the sensations were overwhelmingly strong, I tried to stand up to get away from them. In that moment a piercing scream came from my mouth as I was so confused on how to get the head out….and then, the head slipped out.

I paused for a moment, taking a second to breathe to try to ease the baby out and then the whole body slipped into the water, the babies back to me covered in vernix. I lifted him up and saw his wonderful little testicles and shouted, “It’s a boy!” I had my baby boy. I had done it with people cheering me on around me the entire time telling me what a great job I was doing.

Liam and Nick were born with almost no vernix, but this baby was so sticky with it. He was wonderful, perfect and held to my chest.

Chunks of vernix floated in the water. Debi came over and rubbed him with a towel. Liam and Nick came down with my Mom to meet their little brother. I stayed in the tub for a little while and then noticed a lot of blood in the water. I asked Debi if it was a normal amount and it was. It was just the placenta separating from the uterus. The assistant felt the cord and said it had stopped pulsing. I was surprised at that, as it had only been about a minute. We realized later, that the cord was actually still pulsing. It was cool, even after it came out, it continued to pulse and didn’t stop for a while.The cord stayed in tact though. I soon got out of the tub after a handful of photos.

They asked if I felt the urge to push the placenta out. I tried a little push but it did not come. So I stood up with the baby in my arms. I think the midwives were surprised that I was able to stand so easily and heft my leg over the edge of the large watering trough. Just as I brought my left leg over, the placenta fell out and I grabbed the cord and lifted the placenta up to Debi. I hobbled to the nearby bedroom to lay down with my baby boy.

I couldn’t be happier with the way this birth turned out. All my wishes were respected. Not knowing Debi, I wasn’t sure if she would follow my wishes, try to do a bunch of vaginal exams, or even try to get me out of the water. All she did was monitor me as she needed to and keep the tub water warm enough. My doula, Amy was amazing in remembering to take the photos that I wanted and to use her hypno-doula tools perfectly. Rachel the assistant had great touch on my lower back and all of them said encouraging words during the birth. My husband was always where he needed to be. Keeping the water boiling to keep the tub the right temperature; being next to me as I needed him and just being all around wonderful. I was so thankful that my Mom was finally there for one of my children’s births. It wasn’t her fault that she wasn’t there for the others, but this time she along with my doula’s daughter Miriam kept my children entertained as necessary.

I got to catch my own baby again and I was so excited when Debi said that my tear was minimal and I would not need stitches. I’ve had second degree tearing with the previous two births and I was proud of myself for supporting my own perineum to get the baby out. The baby was born at 12:14 pm on Friday, June 29th, 2012. The cool thing about the number 29, is I’m born on October 29th, Liam was born on October 29th as well, my wedding anniversary is May 29th and Nick’s birthday is on April 19th. I think I like the number nine.

Grant was named after the midwives had left and we had done our herb bath and newborn checkup.

Debi asked right before he was weighed how much I thought he weighed. I said, he looks similar to my other two when they were born, probably 8 lbs at least. I was surprised with him being born at 37 weeks. Sure enough, I was close. He was 8 lbs 5 oz, 21 inches long with a head circumference of 14 inches. He did show signs of being early. His muscle tone is a little low, the cartilage on his ears is very soft and he was covered in the most vernix I’ve ever seen on a baby. He is perfect though and nursing wonderfully now.

Thanks for taking the time to read this very long birth story, but I want to keep all of these things in my memory forever. I haven’t watched the birth footage yet, but I’m so excited to have it. I know it will be interesting to hear the sounds that came out of my mouth there at the end. Afterwards, I found out my husband knows those sounds well enough that he told both my mom and that assistant that when he heard a certain sound, the baby would be out in thirty minutes. He was right.

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The Birth of Grant – Part 2 – Is today the day?

Thanks to Leigh Anne from Confessions of a Misplaced Alaskan for allowing us to share her birth story from her blog onto the Hypnobabies Blog. 

When I woke up from my nap, I felt very rested, like I had actually slept all night. I don’t remember if I had any pressure waves during this time. I went to the restroom and heard our garage door opening. My husband was returning home with the boys from a grocery shopping trip. He left the boys in the car and I helped put the groceries away. He surprised me with some very yummy treats, like summer sausage, cheese and crackers. After giving me a hug, he left again with the boys, leaving me time to just chill on my own. I really love that man.

I took some photos of all of the baby goodies I had made or received…you may have seen that blog post. I lanolized my wool items and laid them outside. Then made myself a snack of cheese, sausage and crackers. It was delicious. I spoke on the phone with my midwife Carolyn and her apprentice. I could hear that they were both disappointed that things were happening so early and that they may miss the birth. Carolyn and I spoke a few times, during the afternoon. At one point, she called me to tell me that Debi Church was across town and would be on her way over to check me. I quickly informed my midwife that I did not want any vaginal checks. She told me that she would call Debi back and let her know. I didn’t want a vaginal check because a number of centimeters mean nothing to me. I don’t like vaginal checks and only have had them during Liam’s birth. They give no indication when a baby might be here…in my opinion, and figured that someone having a number would just be random information.

I called my mom to let her know that I thought I might be in labor. She told me that she was free if I needed her to come. I called her back around 5 pm to ask her to travel down after she got off work. She has missed Liam and Nick’s birth. I wasn’t sure if things were going to kick into gear, but I knew we could use her help in the night if the boys woke up and I was having more pressure waves.
I decided to curl my hair because I figured I would not be pregnant on July 8th, when my maternity photos were scheduled. I had fun pampering myself, getting my hair looking nice, putting some makeup on and had fun taking some head shot photos. I knew I would have Damon take some photos of me that night, Thursday. I wasn’t sure if I would go to the river gorge where I originally wanted or if we would drive to the end of our neighborhood, to the river. It was extremely hot outside. We are having a having temps around 107 degrees fahrenheit. I posted a blog post of me having fun with my glamorous hair and was pleased to see how kind everyone was about the photos. I then sewed the binding on the babies mustache quilt, hoping that if I had the desire later, I could do the remaining hand sewing on the binding.

I was having pressure waves throughout this time, but nothing my Hypnobabies mental light switch couldn’t handle. When the boys got home, I got to hear about their enjoyable afternoon going to the mall playground. I told Damon that I wanted to take maternity photos that night, but we to get dinner ready first. I started to brown the ground beef for burritos, but the waves were picking up and I was getting nervous that I wouldn’t get to take my maternity photos. Damon finished cooking dinner while I dressed for the photos. It was around six pm at this time. I decided I did not want to go to the gorge, we would have to hike a bit for the photos and I figured being near the river was close to what I wanted.

We piled into the car and drove the short distance. Damon had asked if I wanted to walk, but the heat was too much. We took some fun photos by the river, even capturing the very close nuclear plant in the background. I bet most of you don’t have maternity photos with cooling towers in the background!

We ate dinner and then I told Damon that I thought I should go lay down for awhile. Around 9 pm, I asked him to get the boys dressed for bed. Nick wanted to nurse to sleep but I didn’t want the nipple stimulation. He was adorable and I was able to rub his back to sleep. My boys were all asleep and snoring within thirty minutes. I was needing to get up, not wanting to labor in the bedroom with all of them, possibly disturbing them. I figured at this point that the waves were coming every 5-6 minutes sometimes, then spacing out. I didn’t officially time them, it was just my guess. I decided to call my friend Amy while sitting on the couch. I told her my update and let her decide if she wanted to come over or not. I tried to call Debi Church with the phone number that Michelle had given me earlier in the day….of course, there was no answer. I sent a message via Facebook to Michelle, saying I couldn’t get in contact with Debi. She gave me her cell number and that it would be okay to call, she would be expecting my call. I did get to speak to her for the first time that evening. We had a nice long talk, me telling her how I was feeling, how close the waves were, how my previous births had went, and how I was worried about how far away she lived, if things picked up quickly. She reassured me by telling me that she would come stay in a nearby town that night. I was able to discuss my wishes for no vaginal checks, that I was wanting a water birth, that I understood she would need to monitor the babies heartbeat and that I wanted to support my own perineum when birthing and catch my own baby. Not knowing her, I wasn’t sure if I would get these things, but it made feel more comfortable letting her know what was in my birth plan.

My mom arrived around eleven pm and Amy arrived shortly thereafter with her ten year old daughter, Miriam. I had previously told Amy that I would be okay with Miriam being there, possibly helping with Liam and Nick. I told everyone that they could go to bed, I was just going to be on the couch. So my doula and her daughter went downstairs and my mom followed after we chatted for a bit. I believe I put on another Hypnobabies track when she decided to go downstairs. I had all the lights off in the living room. I knew I needed to sleep if I was to have energy to birth a baby. The night involved me alternating from left side to right side throughout the night. Having pressure waves that ranged from five minutes apart to about ten minutes a part. The only thing that would have been nice during the night would have been a pair of hands on my back, but laying on the couch, it would have been hard to get hands in the right spot. I also didn’t want my doula friend to be exhausted and I was able to handle most of it with my light switch and the peace cue. I was up every hour to pee or poop, drinking water frequently and at one point having a granola bar snack. I was starving. How anyone does a longer birth with not eating is amazing! Food is awesome during birth. I was able to get some sleep and was surprised at one point in the night to be sweating a ton and having been sure that I was talking in my sleep during waves.

Around 5:30am I decided to turn Netflix back on and watch a mindless sitcom. I felt like I had gotten enough sleep and I was tired of focusing on getting through the waves. My mom joined me in the living room around 6 am. Amy came upstairs around 6:30 am to check on me. I found out then that she had come up during the night to check on me, but I was in the dark and I guess I was asleep. I don’t remember her being there. She told me that she was going to go home and take her other daughter to a camp. I told her that was fine. I wasn’t sure if this was prodromal labor or not. I knew this could go on for days like this. She told me to call her whenever I needed her back.

To be continued…again. I know, the suspense. No worries. I’ll type up the actual birth tomorrow

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