Rachael’s Successful Version

I posted a couple of days ago about scheduling the an external version after all sorts of crazy attempts to get my baby girl to turn on her own.  Short version is successful hypnosis and successful external version.  The long story is below:

We were scheduled for the procedure at 12:30 pm, but had to be there at 11.  Before I realized which day I would be heading in, I had scheduled an appointment with the chiropractor.  She was still hopeful for having success through her methods, but the doctor was going on vacation and then it would be too late.  I followed the doctor’s advice to go ahead with the procedure because he really thought it would be successful.  The chiropractor stretched out the ligaments in the front of my uterus and worked more on my sacral joint.

We arrived to the hospital and did all the paperwork.  My doctor was of course late.  He always is, but we love him anyway.  My husband and I were starving by 11:30 am and he showed up after 1:00 pm.  At noon, I did the deepening track and then talked with my husband until the nurses wheeled in the ultrasound machine and told me the doctor was on his way.  I then listened to turn baby turn.  My husband was great at talking to them all and describing what I was doing.  The doctor was excellent at waiting until I was ready and then introduced me to a student midwife and student nurse that he asked to come along.  (It is part of my birth plan to allow student nurses… I aim to impress everyone with the success of hypnosis).

I think that actual procedure took about 20 minutes, but it was hard to tell.  I was able to stay under hypnosis the whole time, but would have to constantly tell myself “peace.”  The experience was very intense.  There were only a couple of situations were there was pain, but again when I remembered to say “peace” to myself or “relax” it moved from painful to merely intense and uncomfortable quickly.  At one point, my husband could tell that I was having difficulty returning to a relaxed state so he supplied the external cue which was very successful.

I’m glad that we decided to try it this week because she has moved from tushie on my left side to tushie in the center.  I think she was close to being wedged.  The doctor had to push her tushy out, though she fought him the whole time.  After the successful turning, the doctor and nurses praised me quite a lot.  My husband told me that they were seriously impressed with my relaxation throughout the procedure.  I didn’t even hear them.

We were able to go home a couple of hours after the procedure.  We would have been able to leave sooner, but my uterus did a little bit of practicing for my birthing time.  Bonus: we already took care of most of registration for when the baby comes!

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Successful Version at 39 Weeks

I am very happy to report that after our baby being breech since they’d started checking at about 33 weeks, that we finally decided to try for the version at 39 weeks and it worked! We have ourselves a head down baby and are ready to await her arrival! So it CAN be done even this late in the game. Yesterday’s ultrasound showed nothing was blocking her way, butt was not wedged in the pelvis, etc. She was really sort of transverse but because her butt was down on my left side they called her a true breech.

Normally they don’t wait this long to try it (about 36 or 37 weeks is optimal), but we just kept thinking she’d turn on her own and so we didn’t push the issue.

My OB was willing to try it even though different midwives had already mentioned a couple of times scheduling me for a c-section at 39 weeks, but we just politely held our ground and let anyone who mentioned this know that we were not interested. Our doctor was thankfully never pushy in the least! I have really gained a respect for her, especially after today.

She was extremely gentle and here comes the good part with Hypnobabies! The whole process from check-in, to celebrate baby head-down, took under two hours. They put me in a gown and put the hep lock in and chastised me gently for having eaten and drank that morning. I knew I was not supposed to but also knew it would be harder to relax if I was hungry and thirsty! They asked me 20 (more like 50) questions while I had my Deepening track on and husband tried to answer some but I ended up just using my Center switch so I could answer. It was easier. They took heart rate and blood pressure and hooked up the fetal monitor. My blood pressure was a little high and my heart rate was elevated although I assured them my heart rate is always fast. That’s normal for me. But I was in fact having trouble relaxing to Deepening, which is weird because it always puts me out like a light when I’m at home. (This experience turned out to be excellent practice for my birthing time!)

So I listened to Deepening again while we waited for the doctor. In between the beeping and people coming in and out, it was still hard to relax. My wonderful Hypnobabies-doula arrived and it was so comforting to have her there with my husband as he held my hand, and they chatted and laughed quietly and that was really comforting. She is a licensed massage therapist! Boy that was a God-send. I decided to lie on my side and was instantly able to become more relaxed, and she worked wonders on my back and shoulders. Then my heart rate and blood pressure were back down for sure! I was definitely much deeper then, and went in Center as they had me flip back on my back to do the ultrasound.

When she was performing the version, I put on the Turn Your Breech Baby track and it was perfect, helping me remember to relax all the muscles around the baby. And I just kept talking to baby and telling her that she was a good girl and we could do this together! And my doula was encouraging me and telling me how great I was doing, and my husband was holding my hand, and it was all so comforting. And 2 minutes later they confirmed with ultrasound that she was head down! What an amazing feeling of relief! My doula had not yet seen a successful version before, but also said that she had not seen a mom this relaxed! I am so proud of us and Hypnobabies.

Just goes to show that it CAN work, even at 39 weeks! Here are some things about the situation that would make many people doubtful, and that Hypnobabies helped me overcome:

-I am a first-time mom (45% success rate when tried at 36-37 weeks for first-time moms. Not sure how far this drops when tried later. 65% for subsequent pregnancies)
-Told by negative midwife that “we don’t recommend them for first-time moms because they don’t work”
-Told by another negative midwife, just before the procedure this morning, that she’s thought all along that the baby was “stuck” and she didn’t think this would work, and told my husband later that she’d probably flip right back! Gee, thanks!

I hope this story encourages other moms who may be going through something similar. Mamas with breech babies do not have to rush to schedule a c-section!

Jenny

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Using Hypnobabies with External Version Attempt

The whole time I was pregnant with Carter he was either breech or transverse.  By the time we got to 34 weeks, the midwives started to get concerned.  We tried everything to get him to turn.  I mean everything!  Chiropractic care, moxibustion, spinning babies techniques, Turn Your Breech Baby CD, acupuncture and acupressure.  My midwife even tried a gentle version of an external cephalic version two or three times.  Nothing worked.  So we scheduled an external cephalic version for 37 weeks.
       I was nervous about it since I had heard from many people that it was so painful.  But I’d read a story from one woman who was studying hypnobabies who didn’t have such a hard time with it.  So I decided to go into it with the expectation that it would be all right.  The morning of the version I did a Fear Release session and I listened to the Turn Your Breech Baby CD.
       We got to the hospital and checked into a room on the labor and delivery ward.  The nurses were super nice.  They hooked me up to monitor the baby.  They use elastic straps that stretch across your belly and one measures contractions, the other measures the baby’s heart rate.  I was having contractions that lasted 1 minute every 3 minutes!  But I didn’t even feel most of them.
       They took an ultrasound to confirm the position of Carter.  They said he was transverse, which was better than the frank breech he had been lately.  I was so hopeful!
       They took my blood pressure and it was quite high.  I asked them if I could do some relaxation and have them take it again.  They just left the cuff on anyway and said it would automatically take it periodically.  I laid back and listened to a Deepening track.  The next time the cuff took my blood pressure it was down to a normal range.  (I don’t recall the numbers now.)
       Nurses kept coming in while I was doing Deepening to check the baby’s heart rate.  I just used center switch if they had questions.  I felt nice and relaxed and confident.  After about an hour of monitoring, then started an IV.  Now, that was a touch painful, but not too bad.  I just stayed relaxed and focused on the Deepening track that I was listening to again.  They gave me terbutaline to prevent contractions.  I had been told that this drug made you feel really jittery.  That worried me since even one cup of coffee leaves me feeling terrible.  But again, I just concentrated on the feeling of confidence that I entered with.  And I ended up not feeling all that bad after all.  It wasn’t as bad as a big cup of coffee, though the jitteryness lasted for a couple of hours, until I got something to eat.
       So then the doc came in.  He didn’t get started until about a half hour or so later than scheduled since he had to attend a birth just down the hall.  By the time he got there, Carter had flipped back around and was a complete breech.  The doc wasted no time and got going.  He tried to push him in one direction and it didn’t work, so he tried the other.  The whole time he was doing it I was concentrating on relaxing all my abdominal muscles, like the Breech Baby CD directs you to do.  The sensation was not painful at all.  It wasn’t comfortable – I wouldn’t have wanted this done for half an hour – but it really didn’t hurt at all.  After trying in the second direction, the doc said it wasn’t happening.  I think he had tried about 3 or 4 minutes, tops, but time is funny in theses situations, so I’m not sure.  I asked him if he would try one more time.  This was my last hope to avoid a c-section!  He was surprised I asked, but did try again.  No luck.  Carter wouldn’t budge from my pelvis.
       As he was washing up, he told me that he was impressed with how well I’d handled it, he said most people don’t do so well.  I told him that I thought perhaps he was just being gentle and he said he wasn’t.  I think, from his tone of voice that he was implying that he was anything but gentle.  After that they monitored me for about another hour, longer than usual because of the contractions I’d been having.  I just lay there and talked to my husband planning what we were going to eat (I was starving!).  They finally let us go and we went for some Asian food.  For about three days afterwards I was a bit bruised where he’d been pushing.  I guess he wasn’t gentle after all!
       I chalk up my ability to be relaxed and confident going into the version to Hypnobabies and credit it with my ability to stay relaxed through the procedure.  It gave me confidence that it would work for during my birthing time.  Unfortunately, we ended up with a c-section, but it wasn’t all bad.  The results – a happy, healthy, beautiful baby boy – were what mattered.  I was happy to be able to say that I tried everything to get him to turn but that he just wasn’t supposed to.

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ECV (External Cephalic Version) with Hypnobabies

Here is one of the Hypnobabies Home Study Mom’s experience with ECV and Hypnobabies.

At 34 weeks, I found out Baby M was breech, and to say I was stressed
is an understatement.  So I did some research, and tried to find all
of my options.  I tried elevating my hips (broke my ironing board!),
played music in my lower belly, and ordered the Turn You Breech Baby
CD.  Then I called my acupuncturist.  Went to see her 3 times, and
while she got the baby to be very active, she never turned.  So then I
called the chiro and had him try the Webster technique last week, and
I was scheduled for another visit with him this past Monday.

I also had my 36 week OB appt that day, so when I went in, my OB said,
“She’s still breech, and if we’re going to turn her, we need to do it
today.”  I knew I was willing to try to ECV, but I was like, TODAY?
Um, OKAY?

So my husband and I had all day to weigh the options, and in the end,
we said, “Let’s do it.”  I did NOT want a C Section, and the ECV
seemed to be the best way to get me a natural birth.

Before the hospital, I listened to Fear Release and the Turn Your
Breech Baby CDs.  We went to the hospital around 3:30, and they
monitored me and the baby for 30 minutes. I put on my Deepening CD,
and the nurse came in a bit later and said I was registering as
“asleep” at the nurses station (great confidence booster, yay, it
works!).  Around 4, they wheeled me down to the Ultrasound, and it was
time for the version.  I kept myself in Center Switch, and my husband
said later that it looked like I was high/out of it.

The ECV took only about 3 minutes.  My OB tipped the table so my head
was lower than my feet, and he gave me a shot to relax my uterus.
Then he used his fingers to lift the baby out of my pelvis and then
turned her a bit.  After every turn, he watched her heartbeat (the US
tech held the US to me belly the whole time), until she was head
first.  The actual turning of the baby was no big deal.  The only pain
was with his nails digging into my skin, pplus the shot and lying at
that angle made me light headed and wanting to barf.  I also yawned
like crazy.  I got really sweaty, so the doctor had to use the balnket
to give her the final turn, which was sweet relief b/c no more
fingernails!

After I was done, they monitored us both for an hour, and they said
her heartbeat was strong, no problems.  I had a few contractions, but
they went away before bedtime.

I’m so glad we did it, because I can finally relax and get back to
concentrating on my HypnoBabies.  For those two weeks of wondering, I
would do the CDs and practice my finger drop, thinking it might all be
for naught.  Now I’m excited and really starting to visualize this birth!

So far, she’s stayed head down.  Please stay that way, Baby Girl!

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