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Birth Stories
Shawn Michael born in peace & love on July 30th 2007. My birthing began at 12:10 am with my bag of waters releasing. I was pleased knowing that I would meet my son soon - but didn't know EXACTLY how soon that was to be! I woke my husband up and told him we needed to go to the hospital immediately after my bag of waters released. He was confused, as we planned on waiting to go to the hospital until I was well into my birthing time. I told him that I felt we should go anyway despite having no pressure waves (aka contractions). By the time the babysitter for my first-born son arrived and the car was packed it was 12:50am and we were on our way!. My pressure waves began to come and go as soon as we began our drive. I was completely comfortable and even commented "wow, these are pretty short". My husband countered "yes, but they are every 2 minutes". I hadn't paid attention to the frequency, I just remained in hypnosis turning off my lightswitch (you'll learn it with Hypobabies) with each wave. When we got to Vassar Brothers Medical Center at 1:15am I began to feel anxious, and some discomfort. I knew that the discomfort was a result of my anxiety and began to use my hypnobabies tools (which were very effective). I was in triage and upon exam was 4cm! This was a big deal to me as I was "stuck" at 2 cm for quite a while during my first son's birth. I asked my nurse if I could use the jacuzzi. She was very happy to accommodate me. While she was filling the tub I just emersed myself deeper into hypnosis. I'm not sure how long she was gone (it didn't seem long), but she came back and requested that I have another vaginal exam. I was surprised that she asked this, and agreed without thinking about it. She said that I was 7cm and am progressing too quickly for the jacuzzi. I requested the shower and she readily agreed. We walked to my birthing suite and prepared the shower. It was at this point that I decided not to go into the shower but sit in a rocking chair. A few minutes later my doctor arrived and I looked at her and said "I think I need to push". Less than 5 minutes later I was holding my beautiful son! I had very little pain and no repair was required to my perineum! THANK YOU HYPNOBABIES!!!!
Owen Quincy born August 5, 2010. As a Hypnobabies instructor I know people have high expectations of my "performance" during birth. I was nervous to publish the details of Owen's birth due to the fact that it wasn't the "perfect Hypnobabies birth". However as I examined my experience, it really was amazing. My birthing time started after my prenatal appointment on August 4th. I was between 41-42 weeks in my pregnancy and my amniotic fluid levels were low on the ultrasound in my doctors office. She suggested we have it measured another time to be sure and wanted to induce my birthing time if my fluid was low on re-exam. My levels were checked a total of 3 per my request and each time the number was consistently the same. Based on my first birth (not published), which was also induced, I momentarily feared the birth. HOWEVER my Hypnobabies cues were there to help, my fear release script came in handy to alleviate the fears. I was experiencing. When I was admitted to the hospital I affirmed to myself that my birthing time would start without pitocin and indeed it began only using Cervidil (a prostaglandin). My waves started pretty much immediately after the Cervidil was inserted and my membranes stripped at every 3 minutes (7pm). I remained calm and relaxed using my Hypnobabies cue, and MP3 tracks. I was only monitored intermittently and was able to use the jacuzzi freely. At 10pm I knew that my birthing time was well on it's course. I remained relaxed, focused and breathed easily through my pressure waves. My husband was commenting on how easy I was making everything look. I chose to use the jacuzzi for a while because things were starting to feel quite powerful. After a few more hours (in the jacuzzi) I began to feel the waves one after another with little break in between. I began to loose focus at this pint and needed some assistance and redirection from my birth team. I chose to go back to my room to try other positions and wanted to be examined to see how far I had "progressed". (3am) My pressure waves were every minute - I admit I felt out of control - yet my Doctor said I wasn't. I asked for an epidural. I couldn't seem to get my focus unless someone from my birth team used the hand on the forehead technique (taught in Hypnobabies). One of the nurses was a former Hypnobabies mommy and despite my request for an epidural she used Hypnobabies tools and techniques to get me from one wave to the next to the next. Before I knew it I was involuntarily bearing down with the waves (at 7cm). My doctor and birth team didn't disuade me from what my body wanted to do. They let me bear down lightly when I wanted, let me stay in whatever position I wanted to and gave me all of the autonomy I wanted. (Time for your bubble of peace). The birth team knew my philosophy on birth and decided I could give birth without an epidural - after allI was progressing very quickly. They reassured me, continued to calm me using my peace cue, and hands on my forehead which was very grounding and calming. I reached 10cm and only beared down twice after that before Owen was born at 4:09am. So out of my 9 hour birthing time, 8 hours were pleasant, calm and actually easy. It was the last hour of hyperstimulated birth waves (that's what we call contractions) that were difficult for me. I am proud of my birth team for standing by me and helping me through it. I am happy I was given autonomy to direct most of my birth, and when I lost my ability to focus - my birth team was there for me and used Hypnobabies cues to help me. Hypnobabies was a fantastic help with my induced, birth with no pain meds.