Ashley uses Hypnobabies and has a great birth!

I’d like to share the hypnobirth of my second daughter (and first hypnobirth), Sadie. She was born Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 9:29pm at a nearby hospital.

I woke up Saturday at 6am feeling light pressure waves. However, I didn’t think much of them because I was 10 days “overdue” at that point and had been in pre-labor for a couple weeks. I had learned not to get too excited. I got up and went about my everyday routine and noticed, about four hours later, that they were not letting up. They weren’t getting closer together however so I continued to ignore them. About 2 in the afternoon after putting my 3 year old down for a nap, I decided to time them. They were about 5-8 mins. apart and they were getting slightly more intense. I was beginning to get excited and listened to Easy First Stage. I became really relaxed and was fully rested. I then soaked in the tub for a while and thats when I told my husband that I thought I was in labor. I don’t think he really believed me because I looked so calm! I really enjoyed the first stage of labor. I focused on the positive affirmations and scripture that reaffirmed my faith and strength in God.

I am not sure when I entered active labor. All I recall is that about 5pm, I was getting more and more uncomfortable and by six pm I was starting to think, “I think I should go to the hospital soon.” I timed the pressure waves again and was dissapointed when they were still 5-6 mins. apart. (My goal was to leave at 4 min. apart so as not to get to the hospital too early). However, at about 7pm my husband got back from the store and was about to fix supper when I told him, “We need to go to the hospital now!” I felt a lot of pressure in my bottom and new something was going on. The waves were still 5-6 min. apart but I didn’t care. Something inside me said, “GO NOW!” Once we were well on our way to the hospital (20 min. commute). We noticed that the waves were now 2-3 mins. apart and I really had to concentrate through each wave. I almost felt like I was sitting on the baby’s head! But, I breathed through them and visualized all the positive scripture and affirmations that I practiced with Hypnobabies.

Once at the hosptial, the ob checked me and said I was at 7cm! I was so happy because it was what I had visualized. He asked me what I wanted to do for pain and the nurse chimmed in, “Oh, but you are so close!” That gave me the confidence to say no to the epidural. An hour and a half later I felt the urge to push and everyone gathered around and just stood around me. It was totally mother directed pushing and I was not hooked up to the monitors. I pushed for about 20 min and pulled my baby out myself!  I held her close as they cleaned her up and breastfed her right away. She was perfectly healthy and content. I felt so alert and great afterwards and was very happy that I didn’t tear. The doctor and nurses were all very impressed and supportive of my birth. One nurse said, “If everyone labored like this, we would be out of business!” And the doctor kept commenting on how in control and calm I remained through each pressure wave.  We left the hospital under 24 hours. It was an amazing and thrilling experience.

Thanks to all the wonderful support and emails- they were so imformative. I am so glad I used Hypnobabies!

-Ashley

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Navy Seals Watch Out, Hypnobabies Moms on a Rampage!

I was watching a program about how the brain works the other day on Discovery Health and a segment explored how the brain reacts to fear and pain.

They talked about how Navy Seals train their brains to deal with the extremely physically and emotionally stressful situations in which they will have to overcome their fear and pain.

Sound familiar?

Their training is based on basic 4 rules that I think will interest you:

1. Positive Self Talk
Navy Seal: I can do this.  I have trained for this. etc.
HypnoMom:  Pregnancy is natural, normal, healthy and safe.  My body knows exactly how to best have my baby.  etc.

2. Goal Setting
Navy Seal: I will make it to lunch.  I will make it through this mile.
HypnoMom:  I will make it through this wave.  Each wave brings me closer to holding my baby.

3. Mental Rehearsal
Navy Seal: Practices over and over in his mind how it should go.
HypnoMom:  Practices over and over in her mind how it should go.

4. Controlled Breathing
Navy Seal: Controlled inhale with a long, slow exhale to mimic how the body breathes while in sleep or times of deep relaxation.
HypnoMom:  I think you get the point.

All those tough guys out there had better hope that HypnoMoms never band together and go on a rampage!  😉

Gina a mom from the Hypnobabies Yahoo Group sent this in and said I could share it!   I loved it!

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Another celeb planning a birth with Hypnosis!

http://celebritybabies.people.com/2010/03/31/tiffani-thiessen-celebrates-her-baby-shower/#more-91870

“I’m going to give a Girl Scout effort to hypnobirthing,” the actress, 36, tells Pregnancy magazine about the method that uses hypnosis to promote natural childbirth.

“I’m really excited about it. That’s my plan, but my husband and I are both very, very open to however the child is supposed to come out. Knock on wood it all goes well. I’m not one to judge any woman on how they choose to give birth. It’s individual and I think everyone’s different.”

I hope she does have a wonderful birth!

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Kaylee’s Birth

Kaylee decided to take her time to come into this world. The order of events and days are fuzzy in my head, it was a long week, but this is close enough 😛  To get to the “real” birthing, skip to the ***.

On Sunday, August 10th, pressure waves came, slightly stronger than BHs and about 8 min apart.

I baked some cookies.

By Monday, there was no change in time or intensity, so I tried to go about my day, but didn’t get much done. I had an upset stomach and loose bowels, so I spent the whole day wondering, is this it?

I ate some cookies…

Tuesday was the same. My doula, Amy came over to do some massage and I
had my last day of work.

I baked some more cookies…

Wednesday morning, bloody show. Alright, things were moving! I let Amy
know and she came over in the afternoon. She left about 5pm (pressure
waves still 7 min apart).  At nine, things started to get more
intense. Pressure waves were stronger, so I listened to deepening to
get myself into a deep hypnotic state. They were very manageable, but
I couldn’t talk through them. Called Amy around 12, when pressure
waves were about 3 minutes apart.  She arrived around 1 and we did
massage and hypnosis. A migraine then came on and we switched to
focusing on that — pressure waves slowed down to 5 min apart and we
decided to get some rest.

I woke up Thursday morning, pressure waves still 5 min apart, no
change in intensity. Amy went home and I went back to sleep. When I
woke up, they were practically gone, so the hubby and I tried to go
about our day — went to home depot and food store.

I ate more cookies…

Thursday evening we went out for dinner, but the pressure waves came
on strong and close together, so we had to leave the restaurant.  We
promised ourselves we would sleep and knew if it was going to be
birthing time it would intensify.

I didn’t get much sleep, but alas Friday morning came and the
intensity was down again.

Who knew in a few hours, things would actually pick up!

**************************************************

Friday night, pressure waves returned, but started getting more
intense and closer together. We called Amy, and she came over around
9. At this point, she was the only one of the group to think the baby
was on her way. We listened to easy first stage in the background.

We called Matt’s sister, Vanessa (who is also a massage therapist), to
let her know tonight was the night around 9.

By midnight I decided I was ready to go to the hospital — pressure
waves were quite intense and I was getting shaky. I took a shower,
which felt incredible and slowed the pressure waves down — had I know
that, I would have gone in sooner!

After the shower I was feeling a lot better, but still wanted to go to
the hospital. The five minute drive was easier than I was expecting —
heated seats are awesome during birthing time 🙂

Once we got to the hospital, we went to the L&D floor where we were
told we needed to wait for a triage room. This is where 2 MTs at
birthing is great. Vanessa did my feet while Amy massaged my neck as
we waited in the hallway. I was able to really deepen and stayed off
the entire time.

We finally were brought into a room, about an hour later, and I was
greeted by a man telling me to undress and get on a table. I told him
no, I want to go over my birthplan with the midwife on call. He seemed
completely confused by my refusal (thank you Hypnobabies for the
encouragement to say no) and put me in the room with Matt.  I had a
bit of an emotional breakdown at this point — I had spent too much
time in the hospital with my father (who is no longer with us) and
hadn’t been back since. My bubble of peace couldn’t keep it in… so I
cried a bit and my husband was great at comforting me and giving me
the peace cue.

A few minutes later the midwife, Susan, came in and she reviewed my
birthplan while the guy from the hall hooked me up to monitors and
asked me a lot of questions.

I agreed to an internal to check progress and then Susan went outside
with Matt to go over our options. Matt returned to the room and said
we can be admitted or go home. I was at 5 and happy to know this was
the real deal, but decided I’d rather go home until I started to feel
pushy, since the hospital was so close by.

At home, I went directly to the shower, where I stayed until it no
longer kept pressure wave frequency down. They were about 2 min apart
and over a minute long and I tried to go back into deep hypnosis
downstairs. The pressure was too intense to stay in off, so I would be
off in between waves and then work through the waves on all fours,
while Vanessa massaged my sacrum. This worked for a bit, but soon, I
was shaking so hard and the pressure was so intense, I had to really
vocalize to get through each wave.  Amy and Matt had been getting some
sleep during this time and we woke them up and I said we need to go now!

It was about 2 hours since we left the hospital and this time the car
ride was a lot less fun — I vocalized through the waves and everyone
in the car would give me relax cues. This time when we arrived, they
sent us directly to a delivery room. I went right from the wheelchair
onto the bed on all fours. I told Susan I felt pushy and she said,
push — I’ll watch and let you know if you need to stop.

I was so relieved that she was following my birthplan closely — the
lights were out, there were only whispers and no coaching. Anyone who
entered the room was given my birthplan to review.

Pushing was by far my favorite part. It was quite a long time though
— I was so tired I could not get the strength to change positions and
all fours was not working well. For two hours I stayed there, baby’s
head would crown and then go right back in. My pressure waves were
pretty far apart in this position, and I welcomed the break.

Susan’s shift was over and a new midwife came in, Marie, who
recommended squatting, which I had been thinking I wanted to do the
whole time, I just couldn’t imaging holding myself up. But they moved
the bed around, put on a birthing bar and had Matt sit behind me and
support my weight. This was awesome — I felt so much love and support
from my husband — it was like we were birthing together.

On my next wave, I could feel a big difference, and she really started
crowning. I did “ah” pushes during and between pressure waves and if I
felt too much stretching I would hold back. Marie wasn’t doing
perineum massage, but some kind of general stimulation of the entire
area and it was bringing on pressure waves back to back. Once I heard,
we see a nose, I gave it one grunting push and she popped right out.

It was about 20 min from changing positions to her being born. It was
absolutely incredible — she was born in the caul (my water never
broke), but had meconium in the waters (made for interesting green
head crowning pictures), so they needed to call the NICU. They still
put her directly on my chest, where she immediately breastfed and the
NICU team checked her while she was on me. She was a healthy, 7lb 5oz,
20 inch girl and her apgar was 9 and 9.

I birthed the placenta a few minutes later and had a small tear (2
stiches). I was happy about the tear because I was quite sore and the
idea of some numbing sounded nice 🙂

Everyone in the room said that was the most amazing birth and they couldn’t believe that I smiled the entire 2.5 hours of pushing. They asked if they could use my birthplan as an example to show mom-to-bes and staff because they were trying to add more focus on natural births and options at the hospital.

Thanks Hypnobabies and all the hypnomoms out there! Reading people’s stories and being so prepared helped me achieve the beautiful birthing of my daughter.

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Gisele Bundchen uses hypnosis for birth?!!

In the article,  Gisele, her baby and a bathtub you read about her wonderful birth and she mentions using hypnosis!  Which of course, I think is wonderful!

Who would complain because someone has a wonderful, comfortable birth?  Well apparantly it is so hard for some people to wrap their heads around the fact that

Birth CAN be Comfortable!

On the people article Gisele Says Giving Birth Wasn’t Painful and the Celebrity Baby Blog the comments range from total disbelief to congratulations!

I loved that a lot of Hypnobabies Moms chimed in.  Here were some of their comments.

55.      Stella Bella Says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Sounds like she did Hypnobabies. I did that and it was the best $150 I ever spent IN MY LIFE. It really changed how I approach life in the best way and I’m pretty sure it saved me from having to have a c-section (not the worst fate on earth, but something that I wanted to avoid for my first delivery).
I wish celebrities would explain HOW they had such a marvelous birth experience instead of just acting like they are Mother Earth naturally…

62.  enjoybirth Says:
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:58 pm

I used Hypnobabies with my last birth and it was comfortable.

Some dentists use hypnosis so people getting dental surgery done don’t need anesthesia, so of course it would work for birth!

The mind is a powerful thing.

126.     Bronwyn Says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:05 pm

I am so happy to hear Gisele is sharing the secret of waterbirth and hypnosis for childbirth. My experiece with waterbirth was very similar. The combination of waterbirth and hypnosis gave our family an amazing painfree experience as well. Thanks for sharing the truth about what birth can be with the right tools and skills.

132.     Sarah Says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 3:09 pm

Whether I like Gisele or not doesn’t matter….
With my first, I had Pitocin, and at 4cm, I thought I was dying and got an epidural.
With my second, I did Hynobabies, had my baby at home in a birth tub, with NO PAIN whatsoever. Yes, childbirth CAN be painful, but it doesn’t HAVE to be painful.

Deal with it!

155.     Sarah Says:
February 3rd, 2010 at 9:37 pm

Birth really wasn’t “painful” for me. There was a lot of pressure, but no pushing at all. After 1.5 of labor helped by Hypnobabies, my little one arrived. I did my research and knew how to handle all that labor was about.

I’m so thankful that Gisele had a water birth at home and is now sharing her story. Perhaps others will do their research and learn how wonderful and pleasant birth can be!

156.     Tamara Says:
February 4th, 2010 at 1:40 am

Bravo for Gisele and such a beautiful birth of her baby boy – what a precious gift!

I had homebirth/waterbirth with the help of Hypnobabies and it was amazing!

Before the actual birth day, I really tried to imagine my perfect birth to the smallest detail.
Also, I did a lot of research about hypnosis for surgeries and dental procedures (for people who are allergic to anesthesia) and I remember reading about Queen Fabiola (of Sweden) and surgery of thyriod gland that she had under hypnosis only!!! I was amazed, read a lot more and finally found Hypnobabies – I practiced daily and I can honestly say that my birth was pain-free! My midwife was amazed, she did not believe I was giving birth that night (and I was already 6 centimeteres open), since I was so calm and “in the zone”.

I am not trying to persuade anyone (and I would not gain anything from making up stories) but my experience might be valuable to a woman out there, trying to have her perfect birth.

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Mina’s Cesarean Birth due to being a surprise breech!

Our Beautiful Birth Story

The arrival of our precious little girl finally came about!  Mina was born on Wednesday evening, June 25th at 9:23 at Bethesda North Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio. “Mina” is pronounced [Mee-nah).  Mina weighed 8 pounds and 10 ounces.  She came in at 22 inches long!  She came straight out with an impressive big cry out to the universe and to her very happy and relieved parents.  “I’m here!”  We were so happy to see her little toes and her little fingers and her impressive head of hair, beautiful little face.  It was the most precious moment of our entire lives.

Mina went all the way up to being two weeks past her estimated due date. I spent the final two weeks getting acupuncture, massage, private hypnosis, reiki and chiropractic care to get the labor started.  I bought a Baby Come Out CD from Hypnbabies and started listening to it.  I played my Hypnobabies tracks all night long on my i-pod. I was very dedicated to waiting for spontaneous labor.  At our 42 week appointment we had an ultrasound to confirm that we were ok to continue to wait for spontaneous labor.  The ultrasound indicated that our baby was still healthy and doing well but that she was in breech position.  We were very shocked as it had seemed Mina was in an ideal position for birth  up to this point.  After we found out that Mina was breech and that my water had already broken with the days of mild labor, we left the doctor’s office and went straight to the hospital where our wonderful doctor performed our medical miracle c-section.

Our birth story is still a beautiful one.  It is a different story than we had imagined it would be but it turned out just the way it was supposed to.  My husband and I had taken Sharon’s Hypnobirthing classes, Bradley Method Classes and the homestudy Hypno-Birthing course.  We were planning a beautiful unmedicated birth with self hypnosis.  What we got was a medical miracle in the form of a c-section.  We still had our self hypnosis techniques in place and we still had our Doula and our wonderful doctor we had chosen because he is the best doc around for natural birth in this area. These were all things we STILL had even though there was a major change in the way things played out.

While we were disappointed that we didn’t get to have the natural birth story we had so desired we were very excited to see our little girl.  We are now just so happy that Mina is safe and sound and that she is in our arms and we used self hypnosis to help with the c-section process. It was very helpful throughout the pregnancy, in the fearful hours before the c-section, during and after the c-section. It really helped with the spinal and with the anxiety before and during the procedure.  Having a c-section was actually one of my worst fears and I had worked in the private hypnosis session to help deal with this fear.  This was very helpful.  It is also helping me cope with my recovery now and with breast feeding which was a bit of a struggle after the c-section but which is going really well now!

We are so happy that we had the knowledge and skills from our birth education experience. We are planning a future vbac.  Our C-section was done in such a way by our request to make this possible.  I will use self hypnosis and all that I learned in my wonderful classes for our next birth.  I feel like I grew as a person and that this experience was made more beautiful by the fact that I had more knowledge and tools to use for an event that came up that I had never expected.

We are so very blessed and happy and in love with our little girl and happy to share with you her beautiful birth story because it was so beautiful and such a blessed event that has changed our lives forever.

Blessings and Best Wishes to all you Hypno-Moms and Dads and to your Hypno-Babies and remember the hypnosis is not to be used JUST for the ideal birth scenario.  When a change of plans comes it is just as important to use your skills and to remain positive.  All beautiful birth stories are not the same.  That’s why we love to read them! They are all different and all beautiful just like our little babies!

Bridget, Eric and Mina Shen

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Irene’s FAST arrival

My first birth was a typical, textbook perfect epidural delivery. Labor was 9.5 hours, pushing phase was 1.5 hours.  I decided for baby #2 I wanted to have a natural birth.  DH wasn’t real convinced that it was feasible but he went along with me.

By Sunday October 12 I was 41 weeks and starting to get anxious about having the baby before my doctor wanted to schedule an induction.  But there were no signs of labor starting and everyone at church was surprised to see me.  The pastor included us in the prayer requests at each service, which made me feel great.

I spent the afternoon as usual, but was ravenous.  I must have eaten my way halfway through the kitchen.  I guess my body knew something was up.  :heehee:

At 9:30 pm I noticed that my back was aching but I couldn’t tell if it was normal end of pregnancy aches or something more.  I heated up one of my rice heating pads and decided to finish the book I was reading (The Sonnet Lover — a good story tied to Shakespeare’s sonnets) and then do my Hypnobabies practice.  At around 11:15 pm, I felt a pressure wave  in my lower belly.  I told DH that I was going to take a shower to see if they waves would go away.  It didn’t go away so I got out of the shower and told DH this was it.  He started getting all of his last minute things together and I tried to concentrate on timing the waves.

My waves never settled into a pattern.  Some were 1 minute apart and some were 5 minutes apart.  Some lasted 21 seconds and some lasted 1 minute.  At about midnight I told DH that we should call my mom to come be with Tom (our almost 3 yr old).  He asked me if I was at the point in labor when we should go to the hospital.  I said no, but we should still call.  He wanted to wait and I said OK.

During the next half hour, my pressure waves moved into my back and stayed there.  I knew this meant that the baby was probably posterior and I started trying things to turn the baby.  The discomfort did not change.  I told DH that he should call my mom now since it takes 1/2 and hour for her to get to our house.  He listened to me that time and called.  We also called the doctor and told them what was going on.

Mom got to our house at about 1:25 am.  By that time, I was sweating, the pain was in my back and not relenting, and I felt a little sick to my stomach.  We got in the car and DH could tell that he needed to go fast.  My water broke about 5 minutes into the drive (of course, I forgot to bring a towel to sit on  :rolleye:  ) and I told him that the pressure got more intense.  I told DH that if it stayed in my back like this I would have to get an epidural because I could not handle more of this type of feeling.  DH was going about 70 mph on a straight road and even ran a red light (after looking both ways).

When we got to the road the hospital is on I felt the urge to push.  Uh oh.  I didn’t tell DH.  We drove up to the ER entrance and DH ran in to tell them what was going on.  Someone wheeled me up to L&D and DH parked the car.

At L&D the nurse (who helped at Tom’s delivery — she changed hospitals within the last year) took me triage and wanted me to put on a gown.  I told her my water broke and she asked if I was sure.  I told her that I was and she wanted to see the pad/liner I had on.  I then told her that I felt “pushy” and she said well lets get you to a room.

We got to the room, DH arrived from the parking lot, I got partially in a gown and the nurse did a vaginal exam.  She told me to lie down on the bed — she did not want me standing up again.  The room was very busy because there were about 5 people pulling stuff out of cabinets, calling the doctor, etc.  DH asked what was going on and they told him that I was complete and the baby was coming.

I pushed once and felt the baby move down.  I told them that I need to push again and the baby flew out!  There was no crowning, no real stretching of my perinium, nothing.  I just felt this pressure and then a release.  She was sunny side up and DH got to announce that it was a girl.  Her head has almost no molding because she spent almost no time in the birth canal.

The doctor walked in 5 minutes later.  :heehee:   I arrived at the hospital at 1:42 and Irene arrived at 1:58 — all 8 lbs 15 oz, and 20 inches of her.

I do have a 3rd degree tear but hopefully that will heal all right.  My tear from Tom tore again, basically.  But since she came so fast I’m not really surprised.  She did inhale a bit of merconium but that was suctioned out easily.  Because of her size they wanted to monitor her blood sugar so she did get heel pricks a couple of times, but those numbers are good.

So, I didn’t get to use my birth ball, use my playlist on the ipod, work on any knitting, DH did not get to read or do any crosswords.  😆   I barely was able to use my Hypnobabies techniques because it happened so fast.  After she was born, I realized that I was in transition at home and just didn’t recognize the signs.  Now I know what to look for and next time will be better prepared.

Hypnobabies really helped me get focused when I thought things were only beginning.  I was looking forward to breathing the baby down and at first was disappointed that I didn’t get the chance. Then I realized that I did it without thinking while in the car.  And I had no p*** during the one push that got her out.  I just felt the pressure of her head and then a big release.  Hypnobabies rocks!

Diana

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Induction and Cesarean – but happy mom

Great story of how Hypnobabies can help and work great in all different type of birth situations.

I am writing the story of Jonathan’s birth to help anyone who may be having anxiety over induction, c-section or unforseen birth plan changes.

****As a quick disclaimer, I chose to be induced.  So don’t read if induction/c-section is something you want to keep out of your consciousness.  This is a happy story though! : )***

So….

I was very faithful in my Hypnobabies practice.  I came in like many of you, a bit worried that I wasn’t doing hypnosis correctly, and then asking myself, would it really work?  But I decided to just trust in the practice even though I sometimes felt like I wasn’t “going under”.

Jonathan was 12 days overdue with no signs of coming out.  I know, I know, I could have let him come out when he was ready, but the fact is that I was waking at night and couldn’t catch my breath.  It was very difficult to find positions that kept weight off the vena cava.  In my heart, I felt I was causeing him undue distress.  So we made the decision to induce.  I knew all the what ifs, but because I felt prepared and had listened to “Affirmations” a million times, I was comfortable with whatever was to come.

My hypnosis worked exactly as I needed it to on the inducement/birthing day.  I chose only to listen to the track for going to hospital, as well as “Deepening.”    I had a plan to listen to loads of tracks in a specific order, but when I was actually living my birth experience, I found that letting go of what I “had to” do made things easier. The confidence to let go was a direct result of doing Hypnobabies for months prior to the birth. So I just listened to these 2 tracks because that is what felt comfortable.

I don’t feel that I actually went into deep hypnosis, but I think it’s because I chose to listen to Hypnobabies here and there, rather than really putting the effort into going into a deep hypnosis.   I was just so excited and having such a great time laughing and talking with my family, that I didn’t want to stop to listen to my iPod.  So perhaps I actually was under hypnosis…I’ll never know!

I labored for about 8 hours.  It was not pain free, but the pain was certainly manageable when I used my breathing and finger drop.  When I learned that Jonathan was indeed having difficulty in the womb (meconium present, difficulty breathing) my doctors were  supportive of whatever decision I wanted. He could have been born vaginally, but he would have had to go through a lot to do so.   In the end it was me who decided to receive a c-section.

I immediately put on “Change of Plans.”    I did feel a bit panicked at first I admit, because I never visualized a c-section, but that track was really comforting.

When Jonathan was born, both eyes were full of blood, he had meconium that was a few days old on his little body, and a large hematoma on his head from straining to come out.  Again, I know many will say that this could have been avoided, and is just a natural part of the process and I truly respect that.  But I have to say that my reasons for a c-section were that I just wanted my little baby to have as few hurdles as possible in coming out.

After the birth, all the nurses marveled that I refused pain killers and left the hospital a day early.  I was not trying to be a hero, I truly felt well.  And baby Jonathan was/is just a perfect little miracle.

I just want to present this different perspective on birth because while I did not forsee an inducement or c-section, my experience was joyful, beautiful and full of love all around.   We all tend to focus on worrying what will happen during the birthing waves and transformation; “Will Hypnobabies work?  What if there’s pain?!  How do I know the finger drop is working?”  And of course, these are extremely valid worries!

But, in my humble opinion, it’s important to remember that Hypnobabies works in so many other ways during the entire birth experience.  Talking confidently to doctors, taking control of yourself and baby, and actually enjoying the birthing process are all part of the birth experience.   Additionally, all the physical benefits of meditation/hypnosis have been well documented.

So to anyone who is worried about inducement, just remember that Hypnobabies doesn’t necessarily have to be an “either/or” choice.  It works very well with whatever type of birth experience you have.  The preparation helped me to be confident, joyful, positive and healthy.

All the best to everyone.

Denise

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Lauren’s Birth Story – VBAC

You can visit Lexi’s blog and read about her daughter Lauren’s Birth.

An inspirational VBAC story!

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Zoe’s Hypnobabies Hospital Birth

Zoe’s EDD was September 19th, but her older siblings were both “early.”  I just KNEW she’d be born around 37-38 weeks and had already been off work for 2 weeks.  I was growing more frustrated by the day since I set my expectations so early and OB was pressuring an induction.  But the baby knew EXACTLY what to do!

On Saturday, September 20th, I started having the first pressure waves about 1:00 pm after thinking all morning, “She’s never coming out!” (talk about impatient!)  The waves were not steady, and I had negative thoughts about this not being the birthing time because I’d had pressure waves off and on for the past 2 weeks that never created a pattern and then fizzled out.  My parents had taken our other kids out of town that morning to let me “have some rest,” so this allowed me to relax and clean the house.  I kept moving in hopes the PWs would pick up in intensity and frequency.

At about 2:30p.m., I called my close friends and mom and told them I was having PWs, but they weren’t intense and were about 5 minutes apart.  I told myself that if they picked up, I’d bake brownies for the nurses at 4:00, and we’d go to the hospital at 7:00.  I called Andi, our hypno-doula to give her a heads-up but still didn’t think this was “it.”

They continued to progress, but I was not uncomfortable at all.  I didn’t even use the finger-drop technique until around 4:45 when some PWs were still 4 minutes apart, but a couple were only 1 minute apart.  I welcomed each wave and still wanted them to come on stronger to convince myself I might see our baby soon. I made the brownies, and by the time they were finished, I decided I wanted to go ahead and go to the hospital so I could listen to my CDs and chill out without having to drive in the middle of trying to listen to my scripts.  Our doula met us at the hospital because I told her I felt like I just needed to get there and get settled in.  I was still somewhat nervous that the hospital would send me back home, but our doula assured me that if they did, that would be the best thing for me.  We got to the hospital at 6:00 pm.

I changed into a gown and turned in our pre-registration.  The nurses were very nice and allowed me to stop talking when necessary; I used the finger-drop technique several times during the check-in; DH and Andi were able to answer some questions.  Our doula was awesome!  She reminded me to “breathe in peace; breathe out tension” which helped immensely (I dealt with a lot of fear from my 1st birth throughout this pregnancy).  Still thinking I would be sent back home, the nurse checked me and reported I was at a 6 with a bulging bag of waters! I was so happy I got emotional and realized I knew I could do this naturally!  The nurse also asked me to rate my p**n level on a scale of 1-10.  Between PWs, it was a “1” and during, I rated it a “6,”–totally bearable.

DH went out to the car to bring in our things.  While he was gone, I had about 3 very intense PWs and couldn’t get comfortable.  I made a quiet vocalization through two of those and worried he would get scared if he heard me vocalizing.  I told Andi I felt nauseated, and she got me a trash can.  DH walked back in the room, and I told him, “Don’t be scared, but I’m about to make some noise now.  I’m okay though.”  At that point, a leaned off the side of the bed, felt a huge pressure, and moaned loudly while holding the side-rail of the bed.  The bag of waters busted (it sounded like a water balloon!).  Andi said, “That was a push!”  She tried to find the call button, and DH just ran into the hall to get a nurse.  I immediately had another strong urge to push; I did, and her head was out!  Andi, the nurse, and DH asked if I could get back on the bed (I was still hanging over the trashcan–it was all so fast!) and asked if I could push again–oh yeah–pushing felt great!  Her body came out on that push, and she immediately started crying.  I was in shock that she was already out and that the “labor” was over!  We were all laughing and in complete amazement (especially DH and myself; our other daughter’s birth took 50 hours!).

I did have some tearing along my previous scar from my two former medicated births (I didn’t even feel this as it happened).  The doctor arrived about 20 minutes later to do the stitches (and I did get Lidocaine local anesthesia for this).  The baby had already been nursing that 20 minutes, and she continued nursing for almost 2 hours!  No one took her from me to weigh her or anything until about 9:00 p.m.

She weighs 7 pounds, 14 ounces
20.75 inches long

We were allowed to leave the hospital the next evening and are enjoying our Babymoon now.

I have to reiterate how awesome the Hypnobabies program is.  There were times I doubted it would work for me during the birthing time, but I recognized how well I had been sleeping during this pregnancy and how well it helped me with generalized anxiety and other fears about life in general.  I thought it was worth it if those were the only things I got out of it.

We took a live course with our hypno-doula, but I didn’t do the practices perfectly, and I fell asleep EVERY time I listened to a CD.  I really doubted I could have a p**n-free delivery, but it actually was (I did feel pressure, but it actually felt somewhat good to push through it)!  This birth was very healing for me and DH, and I feel so extra blessed not only with our healthy baby but with the privilege of getting to bring her into this world in a natural, peaceful, empowered way.

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