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That's a really good point Lunamie because ultimately nobody can 'fail' at birth.
In the class that I teach I put a lot of emphasis on understanding what your options are. When you make informed decisions you and your partner are the ones in the drivers seat when it comes to your choices so there's no regret and absolutely no guilt.
What's important ISN'T that you had/didn't have an epidural/breastfeed or don't/recycle your plastic bags etc..... but that you made choices that you felt good about. I've worked with couples who did end up having an epidural because they'd had long difficult labours and they still say hypnobirthing helped them stay calm and in control even when things weren't going to plan.
A successful hypnobirth isn't a drug free birth but a fear free one.
Although I can't guarantee a pain free birth (if anyone says they can run a mile !) if you follow the program instructions, do the daily practice and most importantly APPLY IT ON THE DAY, you WILL have a fear free birth.
12:30am on 3/12/07, I was in the bath when I felt a pop and got my first contraction. When I stood up to get out of the bath a few minutes later I had a show and my waters went. At this stage the contractions were 15 minutes apart, and we decided to make sure everything was ready in the hospital bag, and then go to bed and see if we could get a bit of sleep before things really got going. I started using the tens machine and rang the hospital to see which midwife was on duty. The contractions got closer together very quickly and we hadn't even got as far as bed yet, and they were 5 mins apart. I decided instead of going to bed, that I would have a shower and then we would head to the hospital. By the time I was getting out of the shower they were 4 mins apart so we left.
2:30am Arrived at hospital, was put on the monitor and then examined. Midwife advised I was 1/2cm to 1cm dilated. The options were to get into a bed in the hospital and send Tom home, or for us both to go home
3:30am Left hospital and went back home. Once I got home I got back into the shower as it was really helping with the lower back ache. After that I ran a bath and stayed in there for a while. I had tea and toast in the bath! I was still determined to get some sleep, so I got out of the bath, connected the tens machine again and tried to get into bed. At this point I didn't feel the tens was doing anything, and I was feeling the urge to push with the contractions.
6:15am We arrived at the hospital for the 2nd time. I was examined again and I was fully dilated.
6:30am We were taken into a room in the labour ward. We put the mattress from the bed on the floor under my knees and I leaned in over a birthing ball, rotating my hips. At this stage I used Gas and air for a little while. I'm not sure exactly what time I started to push.
7:25am I moved from the floor to the birthing stool
7:43am Baby Eliza was born at 9lb 2oz. No stitches needed. I didn't have the injection to bring on the placenta delivery, I just waited for it to happen naturally.
Overall I was extremely happy with everything and believe that the main reason it went so well was down to the fact that I was completely relaxed for the majority of my labour.
Hypnobirthing helped me to focus on what I was doing and reinforced my belief that I could manage birthing without an epidural or any other kind of intervention. I found it extremely empowering to have a completely natural labour. The only stage where I had any doubts was when I arrived at the hospital feeling very tired and wondering if I had the energy to deal with giving birth. Once the midwife told me I was fully dilated this raised my spirits and I believe that it was just the fear that the contractions were going to get worse that was scaring me.
For anyone who wants to have a natural birth, I believe the secret to this is believing in yourself and that this is what your body is designed to do. Research how your body works in labour and as hard as it sounds given most of the stuff you have probably heard or seen about giving birth, relax. Its not like it is on tv shows!
Cork Movement Centre
32/33 South Main St.
Cork City
The studio is in the City Centre, opposite the old Beamish Brewery, above ther hair dresser �Step aside�. Entrance on South Main Street. Parking possibility during the day is the Euro Carpark next door, not even 2 minutes away or the Parkhouse on Grand Parade around the corner ( 5 mins)
This is a great blog of a mum (and Dad's) experience....mum only took hypnobirthing to get her over her fear of the epidural needle and ended up not having an epidural at all.
Tuesday, January 01, 2022
Noah's Birth Story
Well, I have finally gotten around to writing this. I hope to begin blogging more frequently soon, now that I am almost recovered from his birth... ENJOY!
Noah�s birth story really begins with the birth of his sister, Samantha Jo. If you haven�t read her birth story, you can find it here. She was taken by c-section. After her birth, and being told that I would have to have all subsequent babies by c-section, I was devastated. When only 7 months later we found out we were expecting our 5th baby, I began to research the possibilities of having a v-bac (vaginal birth after cesarean). The more I researched, the more I realized this was a very real possibility for me. Finding a doctor to agree and take me on as a patient, however, was a different story. After much prayer and research, we decided that going with a midwife would yield the best possible situation for us to have a successful V-bac and natural birth.
Since Dan was not quite comfortable with a home birth, we decided we would go with a midwife at a free standing birthing center. This proved to be a challenge, however, as most of the midwives at the birthing centers would not take on a primary (first-time) v-bac. In fact, in all of Dallas we found only one � Dinah Waranch at Lovers Lane Birthing Center. We went in to interview with her and right away we were impressed. Dinah agreed to take me as a patient and all was set.
My pregnancy with Noah was a relatively easy one. I attribute much of this to a good diet and chiropractic visits. The only issue I dealt with was towards the end of my pregnancy. I had what is called Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction, which is basically a severe pelvic joint pain caused by too much separation of the pubic bone prior to delivery. This caused terrible pain when walking, lifting my legs or turning in bed. Thankfully my chiropractic visits did make it bearable on most days.
Another thing I incorporated with this pregnancy was hypnobirthing. It is a wonderful program that teaches you how to relax through meditation and deep relaxation.
I began having Braxton Hicks very early on in my pregnancy, which is very common given this was my 5th pregnancy. About a week before the birth, I began having �real� contractions. Nothing painful and not very consistent but contractions, nonetheless. On Thursday, December 6th, I woke up feeling a lot of pressure and feeling and looking as though I had dropped. I went to my regular chiro visit and during the visit began having some contractions. That evening they became consistent at about 10 minutes apart. However, at about 10pm that evening, they petered out and stopped. Friday I went through the day with no contractions, just a ton of pressure. Saturday morning yielded the same results. At this point I began to think that my original due date of December 10th would probably come and go and it would be at least another week before the baby would come.
About 2 weeks prior to all of this, I was watching Good Morning America, and they had did a story about an Italian Restaurant in Georgia that has a wall of baby pictures who were born after their mommies ate the restaurants eggplant parmesan. To date, more than 300 of the pregnant women customers who ordered the eggplant have given birth within 48 hours. After sharing this story with my husband, he decided we would give it a go.
Well, I won�t say whether that did it or not, but I can say within 30 minutes of finishing my dinner, I started having contractions again, consistently about 7 minutes apart. Again, they were not painful at all, but I was feeling these in my back this time. They lasted until about 11pm that night and then pretty much stopped. However, I was up every hour with back pain and having to go to the bathroom. Finally at about 5:30 I was able to get some good hard sleep until about 8:30 Sunday morning.
At about 9am I started having contractions consistently 5 minutes apart. They were good contractions and I started to feel them pretty good, though they were not uncomfortable and I used my hypnobirthing techniques to relax through them. We called my doula and let her know what was going on. Within about 30 minutes or so the contractions were at about 3 minutes apart. We called my midwife to see if we could go ahead and come in to the birthing center, and couldn�t get a hold of her (later we found out she was on the phone with her mother in England). At 10am or so, my water broke and the contractions started coming on hard and fast. They were starting to get slightly uncomfortable at this point, but still manageable and I still felt under control. They were down to about 2 minutes apart by this time.
A friend of mine was headed over to the house to watch the children for us and my doula was on her way over. Just when we thought we were going to have this baby at home, my midwife called and said to head on over to the birthing center. We called my doula and had her reroute to meet us over there.
When my friend arrived to take care of the children, we headed out to the birthing center. On the way over there, I closed my eyes and went into deep meditation and relaxation. I don�t even remember the trip over there. I was able to get through the contractions, but by the time we got to the birthing center (which normally takes about 30 minutes and Dan said we made it there in a little over 20 minutes) I was starting to hear myself make some strange sounds (later I would find out these are the sounds you make when you are getting ready to push).
When we got to the birthing center around 11:30 or so, my midwife had me hop on the bed in whatever position was comfortable � I opted for my hands and knees. She checked me and I was already dilated to a nine and fast going for a ten. I could not believe I was already at a nine and still had a handle on my contractions! I very much attribute this to the techniques that I learned in my hypnobirthing. My midwife already had the water drawn in the tub for me and I decided to go ahead and get in to the tub to help ease the contractions, thinking I would just get in for a little bit and then get out when it came time to actually push. I did some hard labor in the tub for about 10 minutes or so and just when I thought about getting out of the tub, I heard myself say �this baby is coming, I�m pushin� him out NOW!� I heard my doula start praying out loud for the baby and me and immediately felt so much peace.
Now, I had heard tell about the �ring of fire� right before the baby comes out, and now I completely understand why they call it that! That is indeed exactly how I would describe it! I pushed a few times and his head started to come out, but it took a few pushes and my midwife pulling a bit to get his shoulders out as they decided to both come out at the same time rather than one at a time which is typically. But, out he finally did come and at 12:28pm, Noah Dennis Hall blessed us with his presence. I have to say, through this entire experience, Dan was my rock. I truly could not have made it through this without him. He was there guiding and directing me the whole time.
I could not have asked for a more perfect birth experience. It was exactly what I hoped for and more. God. I am still amazed at how fast it all went. I was in hard labor for no more than an hour. It was just incredible. I am so excited that I was able to go completely natural. And, the experience of birthing at a birthing center vs. a hospital was like no other. I was able to come home later that evening and recover in my own bed.
For me, this birth experience with Noah was almost a healing of sorts from my experience with Samantha�s birth. The medical community told me that my body could no longer birth a baby naturally and certainly not a big baby. Well, by the mighty grace of God, Noah and I proved them wrong!
Joined: 11 Jun 2022 Posts: 3095 Location: Formerly Delta Nu
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2022 9:57 am Post subject:
I have signed up for the class in Cork but my main fear isn't one of pain it is that something will go wrong and endanger baby. that is my biggest worry. Will it help me with that? I know it can't gaurantee that the baby will be fine but will it calm my fears? also is it 375 euro per couple?
Fear is the one thing that can definitely be reduced with hypnobirthing....what we're aiming for is that you feel so calm and confident that in the unlikely event that something didn't go to plan that you and your partner would be able to handle whatever happens - without any panic. One of the key affirmations that you'll use is 'I accept whatever turn my birthing takes' so the focus isn't that you don't have an epidural, intervention etc etc...but that you have the most positive experience possible no matter what happens and you accept whatever the outcome may be (after all nobody except God/Nature...the Universe.... has the final say in that) :-)
A few good affirmations (positive statements) that you can start using right now to help you when you find yourself worrying about your baby's health are....
My baby is strong and healthy
My body and baby work perfectly together
It might feel a bit corny to be walking around the house saying things like this to yourself but the more often you stop those other thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts you'll start to feel a difference.... Even better still is to write your own affirmations - that way they're more personal to you and even more effective. Write them out and put your affirmations in places where you'll see them 10 times a day....the bathroom.....by the fridge etc.
The weekend is 375 per couple. That covers about 12 hours of preparation, class materials, practice CDs and support throughout your pregnancy (help with birth plans etc)
I had my son on the 30th of December at 40 weeks 3 days gestation. He was born at home, in the water and weighed 3.670 kg (8 pounds 1 ounce) . I had a mostly chilled out 16 hour labour assisted by my husband and an Independent Midwife.
A note about Independent Midwives for ladies who live in the UK and may not know that they are out there:
Having grown increasingly frightened by the fact that my GP was crap, and the hospital kept losing my referrals and I was due between Christmas and New Year I decided to look into alternatives to NHS midwives and I came across Independent Midwives. Hiring one has been one of the best decisions I made.
Basically the service Independent Midwives offer is to look after all your antenatal care, all your labour and then do postnatal care as well (my midwife visits everyday for the first week after the baby's birth to check on our progress and answer any questions or concerns). This has been absolutely brilliant since this is my first baby and both my husband and I have been completely clueless.
I loved having my antenatal care done by one person (who was also going to be the person who looked after me in labour) to have an opportunity to really develop a relationship with her and discuss any fears/concerns. It wasn't cheap (�3, 800 for the whole package) especially during an incredibly financially stressful year but we could pay in installments and even though it's meant going without on some other fronts it's been totally worth it.
THere are loads of independent midwives, the one who looked after me was Nyree Wright from Sage Femme and I cannot reccomend her highly enough.
If anyone wants more detailed information about Independent Midwives please feel free to email me at [email protected] and I'll reply at some point when my baby sleeps. ;)
The other thing I invested in was going on a hypnobirthing course. I am so glad I did this as well because the techniques and tips we learned there helped make my labour a chilled out and manageable one.
Now,
Although the baby's head had been about 2/5 down in the pelvis since week 37 I had absolutely no other signs of imminent labour right up until I woke up at 1am on Sunday the 30th (having slept for only two hours, doh!) with strong, regular contractions 4 minutes apart. To be honest I had been expecting labour to start itself off more slowly and that I'd be able to drift off between contractions in the latent phase but no, it was all systems go from the beginning.
Going to the loo I saw the mucous plug and then commenced the next two hours of abdominal one-upmanship in cramps between my uterus and my intestines necessitating about 20 trips to the loo. On the upside this completely emptied my system out so no poop during labour!
I phoned the midwife and she said she would be around in a few hours.
I spent the hours between 2am and 7am (when the midwife came) continuing to have contractions 3 or 4 minutes apart. Sleep was completely out of the question. So was lying down. The most comfortable position was kneeling and rocking. I told my husband to sleep and get all the rest he could and I passed the time watching some films and relaxing and breathing through the contractions. By 4am they had amped up a notch and I started to feel like I needed some help. The TENS machine came out (and it felt SOOOO GOOOOOD) so I amped it up and danced with my husband. We rocked together and I leaned into him when a contraction hit. Even though I was aware of it as being physically intense I was also quite detached from the pain (thanks to Hypnobirthing I think!) just focusing on breathing and relaxing, dancing and singing through the surges.
By 6am I could feel things intensifying once again so my husband set up the birth pool. I amped up the TENS and kept on with the rocking/singing thing.
At 7am Nyree came. Everyone's heart beats and my pulse and blood pressure were fine and when she checked me I was 5cm dilated so we started the process of filling up the birth pool (which took a while and involved boiling some pans of water on the stove to top it up). THe most intense part of my labour sensations was becoming a persistent ache in my hips but as long as I kept moving around and breathing the contractions were still perfectly OK.
I had suffered from bad pelvic pain due to Symphisis Pubis Dysfunction from about the 25th week of pregnancy, and I think the hip issues were a part of that so I was especially keen to deliver in water and getting into that birth pool was HEAVEN. The pain was immediately reduced by 40 percent. I just chilled out in the water drinking water and sweet juice (I could not handle any food AT ALL) just breathing and relaxing and singing along to the playlist I had made on my computer. The contractions kept on being intense and manageable (about 3 minutes apart). When the midwife checked me next at noon I was 7cm dilated (respectable, but not as fast as I liked) and the ache in my hips had kicked up a notch as well.
I spent the next hour labouring in water surfing through more and more intense waves of contractions but trying to rest in between them (sleep was out of the question, but because I was quite deeply relaxed I was managing to get rested in the few minutes between the uterine surges). The pool was great because I had so much mobility and as soon as a contraction hit I could hang on to its sides and rock and move around.
I could feel things getting more and more intense however and I was starting to tire and get the shakes and the first feelings of doubt about the process. I asked Nyree to check me at 1pm and when I found out I was still at 7 cm I suffered something of a psychological crash. She offered to rupture the watersac and although this immediately caused my cervix to open up to 8cm I had completely lost my groove because of the hip pain that was at this point KILLING ME. It felt like someone was alternatively driving a drill into my joints and pouring acid into them.
I got back into the pool but I was losing it, shaking and crying and really not coping. I asked for gas and air, and even though it helped to relax me a bit I was still not denting the hip pain at all and I just couldn't take it. I got out of the pool and walked around howling and casting myself on pieces of furniture but the hip pain had kind of filled up my world and I just couldn't take it. I had serious doubts about my ability to have this baby because progress felt so slow and the pain so intense so I wanted to transfer into hospital for proper pain relief.
Even though I was at 9cm, I felt like I couldn't take much more. Hot compresses didn't really help, entonox had no effect although a painkiller pill that takes about 20 mins to work did finally kick in and make a dent. I was still kind of waily and insane at that point but as soon as the hip pain became more manageable I started to feel an intense need to push. Nyree asked me to hang off because I still wasn't fully dilated but when I couldn't then to just go with the body anyway. I got back into the birth pool and began breathing my baby down (a gentle HypnoBirthing version of pushing).
Pushing was actually the easiest part of my labour. Pushing was fun! Pushing was finally when my hip pain receded and I could focus on being an active participant instead of simply breathing and trying to relax. The birth pool was amazing because I could push from so many different positions (including squat) that would have been impossible for me on dry land thanks to my tiredness and pelvic pain.
Pushing was intense but completely manageable. I hung onto my husband and just breathed down with each contraction. I have never in my life been so intense and focused and it helped that I could feel the progress of my baby's head and feel it at the bottom of the birth canal very near to crowning. The pushing was slow and very gentle although at the end of two hours I decided to amp it up a gear a bit and do a more forceful version.
The baby's head started to crown and it buuuurrrnnnneeeed. I could feel my body stretching around the baby's head and two more pushes delivered it. After that the body slid out in one smooth go on the next contraction. My son slipped from me into the water smoothly as a fish. I lifted him out and held him to my skin. He was crying. My husband was crying. I was just shaking with adrenaline and elation and aside from the stinging of my lady parts I felt great. I couldn't believe how beautiful my baby was or how much I loved him.
Reaching down I could feel the tear in my vagina but at that point I was really beyond caring. The midwives cut the cord when it stopped pulsing and a few minutes later I started to feel the next round of contractions and delivered the placenta.
The midwives gave the baby to my husband and fished me out of the pool to try and assess the damage. I had two tears and I kept bleeding so an ambulance transfer to hospital was the way it swung. The ambulance crew were brilliant and so were the people in the hospital who patched me up. Within half an hour I had been sewn up and hooked up to a bag of fluids.
My husband arrived and stayed with the baby and me until we were transferred onto the postnatal ward. I was still bleeding quite heavily (queue dramatic fainting while on the way to the loo!) but both the baby and me were fairly chilled out and doing well. I could not believe I had a son. We spent his first night on earth learning our way with each other and being surreal. I also spent it wishing I had underpants (in the whole big drama of the ambulance coming my husband had been rifling to find something I'd needed from the brith bag and had take it apart and forgotten to put some components -like underpants- back into it).
We came home from the hospital the next day - I was weak and shellshocked and quite anemic, but I'm getting stronger every day. Thankfully my husband has two weeks paternity leave so he could take care of us while I looked after the baby and recovered.
I look forward to the time when I can pee without it stinging but other than that we are doing great, finding our parenting groove (after a couple of awful, completely sleepless nights) and we're more and more in love with our son every day. It's the best, happiest time of my life.
On Wednesday two days before Delano�s birth we visited our home birth midwife, Bernice. Baby Del was over a week past the estimated due date, and Bernice asked us how we felt about natural induction. Wow, I thought to myself. Was it time to consider this already? I had always felt very strongly that the baby comes when the baby is ready, not when we think it�s time. But we expected Del to come early; Stae had been two weeks early, so this time I had made a point of being prepared in advance. It had been weeks now, day after day of hoping this would be the day. I had formed a habit of responding to every query of �How are you?� to �I want my baby!� As we sat at the table with Bernice all I could come up with was �We�ll think about it.� So we left our appointment with the promise that we�d call her in the next couple of days if we decided to go forward with a membrane sweep to help baby along.
How did baby know it was time to help us out with our decision? The next morning I began to feel cramping. One week earlier I had also begun to have stirrings; these turned out to be practice labor. So this time I didn�t want to get my hopes up too soon. Ben was working an a.m. shift, so I let him know that I would call him if things sped up or looked decisive. He returned home at noon, and after lunch I decided that it might be time to try to start timing the surges. Lo and behold it seemed there was a pattern! Although they were very short, only 30 seconds, they did seem to be 10 minutes apart. Still too soon to be decisive, I felt. So we took a much needed trip to the grocery store, and I simply called out every time I felt something and Ben ticked off the timer on his phone. It felt almost as if the activity of timing was what we needed to hold on to � it was something we could physically do during this time of uncertainty and excitement. We held onto that, and every time I felt a tightening I stopped the cart, held on to the handles, and breathed. The sensations were something to focus on, something that required concentration, something to relax and ride through, and then they would pass. It was almost as if their passing was there to remind me that this was easy, that this was do-able.
Hypnobirthing and Ina May�s Guide to Childbirth had both said that humor was helpful through labor; Ina May had specifically recommended �potty humor.� I decided to go with it. We swung by Family Video and picked up a copy of Blades of Glory and a Kathy Griffin stand up. I was pretty sure I was having contractions at this point but still didn�t want to call it and end up with another false alarm. So when we got home we popped in Blades of Glory and just chilled out a bit. We let Bernice know that something might be happening, but that I was still pretty laid back so no need to come just yet. We got halfway through Blades of Glory and decided to switch tapes. That was when Ben began to show signs of the �first time Dad� jitters. As we laughed through Kathy Griffin, me closing my eyes periodically and coaching myself through the slow breathing I learned in class, Ben began to get a bit frantic about the timing. We both realized that it was going to be our call whether or not Bernice should begin the hour-and-a-half drive to our place. Ben reminded me several times earlier that the �sign� would be when I got �serious�. Well, as I cackled over Kathy Griffin�s foul play treatment of poor Gwyneth Paltrow I didn�t seem all that serious! So Ben just kept timing and watching, timing and watching! When I took a break to walk to the kitchen he found the moment he was hoping for: I paused and grabbed the wall, closed my eyes, told my Dad, �Wait a sec,� and breathed in deep. That�s serious, Ben decided, and made the call.
I�m grateful to Ben for making that decision, because I think I was already in the zone by then. My Mom got out the stethoscope to listen for baby�s heartbeat and I donned a Santa�s cap that had unearthed itself from the Christmas decorations box a week earlier. It looked like baby would be born before Christmas after all! As we sat in the kitchen, I continued breathing calmly through my surges. Since I let Ben know that we could take a break from timing I was no longer calling them out.
My mother asked, �Are you having contractions now?�
�Yes,� I replied.
�Really? I can�t even tell.� It seemed that the Hypnobirthing predictions were coming true. Others couldn�t really tell how far along I was getting.
By the time Bernice arrived it was 1 a.m.. I had taken a shower to help calm me, and my parents had successfully cleaned the entire house in a frantic flurry. I guess it helps people to have something to do! Ben remained staunchly by my side, but we were only now beginning to find the time for him to do relaxation coaching. Bernice began taking notes and checking my vitals. When she realized that I was having contractions during this she became concerned that perhaps she had come too soon. How could I have contractions without her realizing it? Perhaps things weren�t really that serious yet, she reasoned, and I wasn�t yet in active labor. It was past my bedtime by two hours and I let out a yawn.
�Do you think you could sleep?� she asked. �It would be good to get some sleep if you can, for strength.�
I replied with a �Maybe� but it was probably more to please than a realistic assessment. But that was all she and the gang needed at that point. Bleary-eyed, my birth team hit the sack, hoping to store up some energy for the real thing. Bernice assured that if I wasn�t in labor after all, she could always catch some appointments in town in the morning, and then come back.
I nodded in agreement, all the while thinking, �Um, I think I am in labor.� But I did want everyone to be able to be strong and alert through the birth, so we popped in our Hypnobirthing CD and I worked through the exercises solo while Ben got some much needed rest. As we lay there in the dark, I drifted into sleep once or twice while struggling through the longer and longer surges. �How in the hell am I supposed to hold one inhalation and exhalation through this entire contraction?� I thought. Hypnobirthing may have taken me well through this point, but I was beginning to feel like I was doing it wrong. What I didn�t realize at the time was that I was getting further and further into labor and was only two hours away from transition, the most intense part of labor. Normally in the Hypnobirthing routine, Ben and I would have been doing concentrated exercises and visualizations through this tough part. Lying there in the dark, I realized that I definitely needed some help, and decided perhaps I should re-read the part of the book that explained slow breathing. Not wanting to wake Ben, I got up and took the book with me to the bathroom. As I sat there thinking that perhaps I should set up the birth pool it finally hit me how crazy I was being! I was in active labor by myself and worrying about not waking people up!
Finally come to my senses, I woke up Ben and let him know I needed help. I asked him to set up the pool, call Dione, my doula labor assistant, and wake up Bernice. At first he was hesitant, still convinced by my Hypnobirthing level of calm that we had some time to go before things were serious. But now that I had come to my senses I set him straight. �We�ll set up the pool when we get to that, it�s okay,� he said.
�So you�re not going to set up the pool, then?� I asked, with the tone I get when I�m serious.
He noticed the change in my voice. �Um, you want me to set up the pool, don�t you?�
�Yes,� I replied decisively. �I need you to set up the pool now.�
�Okay!� he said. This time he got it. All around me, everyone snapped into gear. Ben woke up Bernice and my parents and they were hovering about me, heating up water, checking vitals again, and listening to the baby with the doppler. But I was oblivious to anything but the surges that were beginning to get ahead of me. Ben tried some tried and true relaxation exercises with me � the ones that inevitably put me to sleep during our months of practice. But it was to no avail. By now the surges were strong enough that they cut through his words and demanded my attention. As they occurred in my lower back and just above my bladder in the front they seemed to play a symphony all their own. They were longer and though they did give me that much needed time to rest in between, it was too short for me to be able to fully connect with our longer relaxation scripts. Had we started earlier, I might have been more fully in the �zone� already and able to focus on the visualizations.
Ben wisely realized this and went fully into the short �reminders� that were also provided as a Hypnobirthing tactic. �Breathe up, up into the balloon,� he chanted. �Limp arms, limp legs, everything relaxed.� Now in the pool, I let myself float, and held onto his hand while I focused on his voice and my breathing. At some point, Ben put in the sleep relaxation CD that we had purchased. The gentle melodic guitar sounds spoke to everyone in the room and enforced a quiet stillness that left everyone automatically speaking in whispers. The surges were strong enough now that periodically my whole body would tremble, despite how relaxed and silent I was there floating. When Dione arrived, I turned to her and Bernice and asked, �What are we doing to do to help me get through this? Or am I just going to sit here and cry?�
�It won�t be long now,� was Dione�s reply. Later on, she told me that she could tell at that point that I was almost there. She put a cold washcloth on my forehead, which helped to bring me back to my body in contrast with the warm water I floated in. I kept with it but began to have thoughts that I wouldn�t make it. I realized I needed to make sounds that would speak out the intensity of what I was feeling, even though the stillness of my body did not. I tried a low pitch hum, which gave way to a new kind of breathing. Instead of the quiet breath through my nose I exhaled through my mouth and pursed my lips to feel and hear the air push through my mouth. Out of nowhere I felt a lump inside me, and suddenly realized that I was pushing. Although it sounds so predictable as I write it now, it really is impossible to describe how foreign and otherworldly it felt. How could I be pushing already? Was it really happening? I knew that I needed to stay calm, but on the other hand I knew that if I could just get baby out this would be over!
I shouted, �I can feel the baby!� That was Bernice�s cue to call her assistant. She was across the room now, on the phone. As each contraction came, my body rose out of the water, lifted by my legs on the opposite side of the pool. I let my voice go and alternated between steady breathy exhales and deep low pitched moans. All the while Ben held my hand and kept me breathing with his steady voice. �The baby�s coming!� I called again. I could feel his head moving down as I pushed with the contractions, still aware of Bernice on the opposite end of the room.
Now the contractions would begin as before, in my back, then intensify and move forward into pushing. I kept wishing I could simply push, instead of feel the terrible tightening of my back before each surge forward. Finally, Bernice was back at the side of the pool and I heard her voice telling me to let my body do the work. �Your body knows,� she said gently. Her words told me to calm down, not to push too quickly. Like I had been told through Hypnobirthing, I slowed down and focused on long exhales. As we got closer and closer I felt little Del move forward with each contraction, and then recede back as I rested. Then I could feel my skin stretching. I couldn�t believe that he�d ever make it out. The whole room was so still, with Ben still behind me holding my hand and my mom, dad, and son opposite, watching and witnessing little Delano�s head emerge and then recede. Then, finally, his head was out, and I got a break. �Just one more,� Bernice said. I had to keep going, now came his body. I rose again and suddenly he was out into the water. Before I realized what had happened, he was up on my chest. My baby!
How can you describe the surprise of suddenly having your child on your chest with your arms around him after all that hard work? Even though I had had him inside of me all that time it was still so unbelievable to look at him, a little person, lying there ready to be loved. He was still a bluish gray and quiet, having made a gentle transition first into the water. After a few moments he let out a single cry, but he was still a quiet soul. Quiet and alert.
I realized how high the water was around me, now that I was sitting up in the tub, and decided it was time to get out and into bed. At first I moved to hand little baby to Ben, until I was reminded that he was still attached to me by the umbilical cord! So everyone helped me balance myself as I held Stae and was lifted out of the tub and guided a few steps away onto our bed. There as I held Delano and Ben sat beside me I was reminded that I needed to finish and birth the placenta. So engrossed in my little boy how could I distract myself! Del was beginning to nurse by now, so I mustered up a push somehow, even though it felt foreign to me, especially in contrast to the active pushing I had felt earlier. Bernice showed Ben the placenta and the miraculous sac where Del had spent his first months. Then Ben cut the cord and little Delano was his own man.
As we spent the next few hours in a daze Del quietly gazed about the room with his big dark eyes. Janice, Bernice�s assistant, remarked at how calm and quiet he was. �Looks like you got might have gotten lucky and got an easy baby!� she said. I don�t know about easy, but I think we got the most perfect baby in the whole world.
The MLU in Drogheda had a hypnobirth on Sunday - mum seemed to sleep through most of her labour - the midwives were fab as usual. This was a hypnobirth from the US.
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Jack Aaron has arrived on January 4, 2022
Hi everyone. I don't post a lot, but I wanted to share the amazing experience of Jack's birth. I just have to thank my wonderful birth team for making the birth perfect.
First I will give background as to how we came to the decision to home birth our son. Feel free to skip this paragraph. We already have one daughter who is eighteen months old named Annaliese. She was born in a very conservative hospital and the birth had complications. (I am not against hospitals, just the experience we had at this one). This prompted me to research alternatives. I found an independent midwife who performs home births and as soon as we talked to her on the phone, we fell in love with her.
Jack was due on December 29, 2021 and that day came and went. Boy was I getting ansy. On January 3, 2008, I went to a group of home birthing parents facilitated by our midwife, Ingrid. There were new parents of a 8 week old and they suggested I hold their son to promote positive birth vibes. I had pressure waves consistently until 10:30 that night and I thought it could be time finally. But of course they stopped. I told my husband Will it would be lovely if the birth would start in the morning and end in the afternoon and we went to bed. I actually slept pretty well.
At 6:15 a.m. on January 4, I felt a trickle and knew my water broke. I called Ingrid and she said that because the baby was high the day before and my water broke there could be a chance of a cord coming down first. She said to lay down and make sure the baby was moving around. Right after I called her the waves started every 2-3 minutes. I called Ingrid back and she agreed to come right away. I also called our Doula, Hannah to come (For those of you who can't afford a doula like us, there are volunteer ones and Hannah was wonderful). My sister watched our daughter as I thought she might be too young to attend the birth.
As soon as I laid down on the sofa, water gushed as my water completed broke. It was like a dam breaking. Luckily I soaked just the pants I was wearing. I got to the bathroom and that is where I stayed until everyone got there.
The pressure waves were coming much faster than with my first birth. A couple of them made me fall to my knees so I had to hold whoever was closest. I sat on the birthing ball and rocked until I could enter the pool. The pool was heavenly. I was more relaxed and the pressure waves did not seem as hard to handle. I had to get out however because it relaxed me to the point the waves were slowing. My midwife had me lay on my bed on my stomach with my legs spread out in a certain position. It was supposed to help open me up more and it sure did. The waves were at their strongest. Ingrid finally performed an internal exam ( I had not had any until this point). I asked her not to tell me how far along I was at this exam. I found being on my back was the most unpleasant and turned over on my hands and knees. This was my favorite position. Ingrid then performed a second exam and stated she thought she could feel a scrotum and not the head. This would mean that we would have to go to the hospital. I was devastated at the thought of my home birth not happening. I also was thinking that he was coming soon and I did not think I was going to make it to the hospital. She performed one more check and did feel the head at this point. They allowed me to then enter the pool, which felt wonderful. However, the baby did not like the position that I was in and they made me get out. I had some cervix left as well so I had to lie on my back on the floor with my legs above my head to move the cervix. Ingrid said that I could have gotten back into the pool, but Jack decided to come right then. With three pushes by him, he came out. Afterwards Ingrid said that I went from 6-7 to 10 cm in 20 minutes. The pushing stage was 15 minutes. Total time was 7 hours of labor. He was 7 lbs 14 oz and 20 in. He was 1 1/2 pounds bigger than my first.
There were several things that helped me. I had practiced the Hypnobirthing breathing techniques for the month before. I do not do well getting into deep hypnosis, but the breathing did work through the waves. I also breathed and relaxed as much as possible between waves so that I started each new waves as relaxed as possible. I also created a visual image of my son's birth and it made me smile each time I thought of It. The smiling then relaxed me through the waves instead of tense. I pictured me riding on a wave of water watching the opening of a cave. I saw Jack coming out of the cave on a little boat, peaceful and ready to meet the world. The last thing may sound crazy, but it was wonderful. I made horse sounds like blowing raspberries during the most intense waves. It is impossible to tense when you making this sound. (this came from the book, Guide to childbirth by Ina May Gaskin (last name unsure).
I have read other numerous stories through this group and I admire everyone's loving ability to birth their children in the environment they feel is best. May future moms have the same stories.
Tracey- the more I read about hpnobirthing the more interested I am.
Do you run courses in Waterford?
Currently I am 17 weeks pregnant and am starting to think alot about the type of birth I would like. It's my first baby so the whole experience is new. exciting and terrifying.
I would love to be able to conquer the fear and manage my birth well.
If you don't run courses in Waterford do you know of any other practitioners in the area? Or can you just purchase the cd's and books?
Most of the above stories seem to have been with birthing pools- is this possible in the South East?
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