4 Children…Adoption, Cesarean, Hypnobabies Hospital VBAC, and a Hypnobabies Home Waterbirth!

My name is Veronica. I have 4 children. Each have come to me in a different way. We are blessed to have experienced adoption, a birth center water birth turned c-section, a hospital VBAC, and a beautiful home water birth VBAC. My youngest daughter was born at home in what I have said is our perfect birth. ThiS is our story. 

 

My EDD was 5/11/12. It came, and it went. On 5/13/12, Mother’s Day, I thought I had a small high leak of my amniotic fluid. Since I was not in my active birthing time at all and the trickle came and went infrequently, we decided to enjoy the day and rest. My 3 children were sent to enjoy some quality time with their Noni for her Mother’s Day evening and my husband and I decided to get some sleep. The next day, 5/14/12, was our wedding anniversary. We decided that since my pressure waves were still seemingly practice waves, we would enjoy the day by eating at one of our favorite breakfast spots and then walking a gorgeous trail at Peter’s Canyon. Since I still felt leaking we contacted my midwife and agreed to have her check me to see if the leaking was in fact amniotic fluid. As it turns out, it was not. She believed, and we would later agree, that it was cervical fluid. At this point I was at 1cm and the baby was still high. We decided to grab some lunch after my midwife left. I was still having strong practice waves intermittently. We decided that today was the day to try a few natural induction techniques knowing that they would not take if my baby/body/mind were not ready to embark on this journey. After a stop at Target to pick up some castor oil, root beer and vanilla ice cream, we headed home. I drank one root beer float with castor oil. Nothing significant happened. A few hours later I drank a fruit smoothie with castor oil. Nothing happened. And finally, we agreed to try nipple stimulation. If that didn’t work then we were comfortable with waiting it out as long as we needed to. Well, to my surprise, after nipple stimulation by pump for 30 minutes, nothing happened. At 8:00pm I had my hubby turn on a movie so we could enjoy some time together without any focus at all on our baby coming. WHAM. At 8:30 I began having strong and effective pressure waves. I was sure that this was still practice until I, timing them myself, realized that I was having a new pressure wave every 5 minutes. At 9:00pm I had my DH shut off the movie, and begin to run scripts with me. He was amazing. It was the most intimate experience being able to completely turn off my switch and knowing without doubt or reservation that he would catch me and give me my cues as needed. By 10:15 I knew this was not going to slow down. My pressure waves began getting longer, stronger and only 90 seconds apart the beginning of one wave to the next. We called my best friend/doula/ two time Hypnobabies mama herself. She arrived at 10:50pm. By 11:30 she sat with me rubbing anesthesia all over me and chanting “peace” and “release” as I needed it. This was so immensely helpful as my husband was unable to be by my side while he set up the birthing tub.

By 11:15 I am in the water and so thankful for my support team and hot water. 🙂 they literally held me afloat while I turned off my switch and breathed through my pressure waves. It is now 5/15/12 and my pressure waves are one minute long each. My midwife asks to be notified when my pressure waves have continued like this for one hour. 45 minutes after that first minute long pressure wave hits I know my body is pushing my baby down. I know I have passed transition. My doula knows I have passed transition.

My midwife arrives promptly at 1:50am and soon after arrival she checks me and declares that I am a very elastic 8cm. She also tells me that if I feel led to push then to work with my body and do so. Yes. It felt so good to work with my body. At 2:30 I begin mother directed pushing and by 3:00am my beautiful perfect baby girl was born into her father’s arms. After my midwife guided my husband’s hands through her birth, he gently but enthusiastically places her on my chest. We did it. 

 

An hour later we were in comfy pajamas, eating snacks, marveling at our perfect baby girl and our amazing birthing. There is no doubt in my mind that we could have achieved the birth of our dreams without our Hypnobabies techniques, fully supportive birthing team members, and lots and lots of practice. I also believe that my birth was so efficient due to the regiment of Red Raspberry Tea and Evening Primrose Oil. I had no tearing or swelling at all anywhere. My daughter was 8 lbs 2 oz and 21in long. She scored a 9 & 10 on her Apgar tests and was so alert from the get go. This peaceful, respectful, intimate birthing was what I had been dreaming of and working so hard to achieve.

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A Hypnobabies Skeptics Review

There is nothing better than finding a wonderful review about Hypnobabies on a Mom’s Blog!

So, my review is 5 stars!!! Seriously, Hypnobabies is wonderful and made my pregnancy so much more enjoyable. I was able to take some time every single day to relax and I felt so much more prepared for this birth. During labor Hypnobabies helped me remain calm and focused. I had a very speedy, relatively easy birth that was almost exactly how I had envisioned it.

Go over to Aubrey’s Blog to read the whole review!

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Rights of a Pregnant Woman and Her Baby

We loved this blog post about newborn procedures.

One of the more infuriating aspects of Woman as Patient are the events that tend to unfold  during and immediately following the birth.  Just as during labor, the power dynamic is established early on, so too, is the establishment of “possession” of and entitlement to the newborn immediately following the birth.

I’ve explored in some detail in a prior post the power struggle that takes place during the birth.  Here, I’ll focus on the events immediately following the birth, and how they serve to maintain woman as patient, thereby diminishing her confidence in her own intuition as a mother.

http://www.spiritofilithyia.com/blog/woman-patient-birth-newborn-care/

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Hypnobabies in the News – Awesome Hypnobabies Birth Video

Watch this amazing video of sweet baby June’s Hypnobabies birth.  It was reported on the News!  🙂

It has a great explanation of how Hypnobabies works and shows a wonderful birth!

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Happy Mother’s Day!

We love all our Hypnobabies Moms!

Have a wonderful Mother’s Day.

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Funny Video about Crunchy Moms

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Hypnobabies Mom – 5ft 2in Bridget has 11 lb Baby! Part 1 Video

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Hypnobabies Mom says, “I yelled back at them that I couldn’t NOT push!”, and Minutes Later – BABY!

I had an OB appointment the day before my due date at 10am.  I was 3 cm and 70% effaced.  After, I had some spotting that never went away.

Around 4pm, I began having some pressure waves.  They weren’t that uncomfortable, like mild menstrual cramps.  But they were different than the Braxton Hicks I had been having non-stop.  They were every 5-10 minutes.  I was able to go about my daily business (pick up DD from daycare, make dinner, play with DD, etc.)

I put DD down for bed around 9:30PM.  The pressure waves were beginning to get a bit stronger by 10PM.  However, I didn’t have to concentrate through them.  I thought my birthing time was near, but I wasn’t sure since I had prodromal labor several nights the past week.

Around 10:30PM, I told DH I was going to try to get some sleep.  I put on my Early First Stage track and tried to sleep.  I got through the whole track and then did Fear Release.  By then it was almost midnight and I could tell it was definitely my birthing time.  I told DH I was going to the living room (where we have a computer) to time the pressure waves.  I continued to listen to more tracks, although I can’t remember which ones.

At first the waves were 6-7 min apart, and by 12:45, they were 5 min apart.  We decided we should head to the hospital soon.  I was feeling pretty good because the pressure waves were completely manageable.  We did some last minute packing and woke up MIL to come upstairs to be close to DD.  In the car, I listened to Birthing Day Affirmations, but I chatted with DH between pressure waves.

We got to the hospital around 1:45.  They couldn’t find my paperwork, so we had to give them all of our information, which was kind of annoying to do between pressure waves.  The pressure waves were more intense, but completely manageable.  I requested to use the Jacuzzi, but I had to be hooked up to a monitor for 15-20 minutes first (then she said I could get in.)

She checked me a little after 2 am and said I was 7-8 cm!  I was shocked I was so far along considering how “easy” things were.  I put on Easy First Stage and zoned out.  I ended up on my hands and knees on the bed with a birth ball (while they monitored me.)  After a bit, I felt like I had to pee, so she unhooked me and I went to the bathroom.  I wasn’t able to pee but I felt like I had to poop.

Suddenly the pressure waves got really intense, and nothing seemed to help me get through them.  The nurse checked me and I was a 9+.  My OB still wasn’t there.  Each pressure wave was really intense, and soon I felt the desire to push.  I was still on my hands and knees.

I began pushing, and the nurses were yelling at me not to push (since my OB wasn’t there.)  I yelled back at them that I couldn’t not push.  On one of the pushes, my water broke.  I kept pushing with each pressure wave and DH said he could see hair.  Eventually my OB arrived, and I pushed the head out maybe 2 or 3 pressure waves later.

On the next pressure wave, I pushed the rest of the body out.  My OB instructed DH to catch the baby and put him on my tummy.  Baby Clive was born at 2:51am…about an hour after we got to the hospital and about 10 minutes after my OB arrived.  (I never even got around to listening to the Pushing Baby Out track…since I was still listening to Easy First Stage when he was born.)

Clive was 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 20” long.  I was shocked his birth was so quick and easy.  (DD’s birth was really long and difficult.)  Although his birth was not pain-free, I would say only 30 minutes was really intense, and the rest was completely manageable thanks to Hypnobabies.

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Power of Nurses Words!

Hi everyone,

This was posted to the International Hypnosis Research Institute’s email newsletter. I thought it was helful information for our student’s care-givers as well! If only they would consider the POWER of their WORDS!  : )

Author, Ron Eslinger, the author is a nurse-anesthetist, and hypnotherapist who uses hypnosis for anesthesia and teaches others how to do it also. The link below is to the story that I also cut and pasted in case the link doesn’t work for some of you.

Carole

http://www.hypnosisresearchinstitute.org/index.cfm/2010/3/1/Holistic-Language-for-Nurses-The-Power-of-Suggestion#more

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Great Video about Hypnosis

Here is a short interview explaining about hypnosis.

I am going to post a new video of a mom using Hypnobabies during her birth tomorrow!

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