For this pregnancy I was excited for the opportunity to finally have my birth center birth. I had risked out and had to birth at a hospital for Isla due to hypertension. I found Willow Midwives and once I toured the beautiful facility, I was excited to give birth again. I had also decided to learn about Hypnobabies and use hypnosis for a more comfortable birth.
Rosalind Grace entered this world peacefully at 12:20 am on May 29, 2020, one day before her mom and dad’s 5th wedding anniversary, amidst violent unrest in Minneapolis, under COVID-19 quarantine...and born upon a throne, as a princess should (eh-hem, a toilet). (scroll down for amazing pictures!)
For this pregnancy I was excited for the opportunity to finally have my birth center birth. I had risked out and had to birth at a hospital for Isla due to hypertension. I found Willow Midwives and once I toured the beautiful facility, I was excited to give birth again. I had also decided to learn about Hypnobabies and use hypnosis for a more comfortable birth.
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My entire life I imagined my birthing time would be at a hospital using an epidural or receiving a C-section. If you would have told me that I pulled a 180 I would not have believed you. I first heard of Hypnobabies from my older sister who birthed two healthy boys using her hypnosis. For her first, I thought she was on drugs. Who in their right mind would willingly birth naturally and at a birth center nonetheless! That's not how they show it on the movies so it can't be right. For her second, I was more open to the idea of birthing naturally and was intrigued by this whole hypnosis idea. She encouraged us to look at all the options and to educate ourselves.
I suppose Priscilla’s birth story begins at my 36-week appointment, which was July 24th. I chose to receive my care at Roots Community Birth Center in North Minneapolis. Throughout my entire pregnancy I was so impressed with the quality, love, and expertise of the staff. I had an opportunity to get to know each midwife well and felt excited as my last weeks of pregnancy drew near. At my appointment Rebecca did a brief check just to see if I had any scar tissue left from a procedure I had done earlier in the winter. To my surprise I learned that I was already 2-3cm dilated and that babe’s head was very low. I left feeling excited, but also resting in the knowledge that I could be dilated at that number for a long time, and that numbers don’t generally mean all that much so early on. Throughout the week prior I had experienced a few light waves but nothing too exciting. My water broke at 3:30 am May 2nd. At first I wasn't sure if it was "actually happening" but after a huge gush I knew my baby was getting ready to meet us. After waiting a couple hours to see what would happen I called into the Birth Center and alerted our Doula. The Birth Center asked us to come in at 2 pm for a check up since my pressure waves were very inconsistent. I listened to Easy First Stage and Birth Affirmations on the way to the appointment which helped me get into the mindset that we may meet our baby soon. Baby looked good at the check up and they didn't want to admit us yet since my waves were still inconsistent so we decided to do some movements with our Doula. I felt a surge of energy after that so we decided to grab dinner and take a walk.
I’ve been putting off writing my birth story but as I sat here this afternoon with Phoenix sleeping and cooing on my chest, I was thinking about how I go back to work in just another week and I decided it was time to collect my thoughts.
My second child, Phoenix Wagner, was born on February 24, 2018, during a winter storm, in the water, out of hospital, at Roots Community Birth Center about a mile from our house located in North Minneapolis. Those present at the birth include our midwife, Holly Fix; a birth attendant; a student midwife, Evelyn; my husband, Devin; our 6 year old son Griffin; another student midwife/our doula, Britt Duncan; a sibling doula, Cheyenne Johnson, and a birth photographer, Raven Dibble. I can honestly say this was the best birth experience I could ask for! My birth team was amazing as were the midwives at Willow.
My waves started (very inconsistently) Jan 9th when I was sleeping. They didn't wake me up, but when I had to get up (bathroom runs) I felt a wave. The next day I had maybe 30 waves all day. Around 10:00pm Jan 10th, my water broke (in the middle of Target 🙊). I called my midwife and she suggested I check back in an hour. Well, I fell asleep and called her 2 hours later. By then the waves were coming every 15 min and they were definitely stronger than they had been. My midwife told me to sleep, and I couldn't have been more relieved. I really didn't want to go in to the birth center until I had to. Morning came quickly, and so did the waves. However, they were very inconsistent still. 4-6 min apart for 45 min, a few 8-10 min apart, some more 4-6 min apart, etc. This story was originally shared to our Hypnobabies Twin Cities Facebook page and is reposted here with permission. You'll have to jump back over to the post here to watch the amazing video!
So I'm finally writing out the birth story of our beautiful #rainbowbaby 🌈 daughter Lyra Joy born 7-12-17 at 42 weeks in hope of encouraging some mamas who are feeling pressured when they are past their guess date. No BOP needed this is a joyful story of how well hypnobabies worked even when passed a guess date. Give yourself some space and grace and maybe a nice bubble bath. You got this mama! My guess date was June 28, 2017 that was the day I had my membranes swept in hopes of having my birthing time start...... My VBAC Birth story:
(Bubble of Peace for a few twists and turns along the way) Very mild, Braxton-Hicks like waves began Friday (39w3d) morning, roughly every 5-10 minutes. We went on with our day until Friday evening and had my mom come grab our son just in case things began during the night. Things stalled out during the night, but began again Saturday morning, except at 3 min apart. I called my midwives and doula to let them know, and rolled around on my birth ball for most of the day, and walked around the mall. By the time 10 pm came, they were feeling stronger and I found a tiny bit of bloody show, but I was able to lay down and sleep for a couple hours. Around 12:30 am they woke me up and were becoming more intense, though still very comfortable- back to work on the birth ball! Our story begins 8 years ago with the birth of my first son. I had planned a natural birth. I had attended all my Lamaze classes and felt prepared…I wasn’t. I wasn't informed or prepared for the events about to take place. I had no idea of my rights as a mother or how unnecessary medical interventions would be performed on me because I didn't know I could say no.
This pregnancy, while very much wanted, was a surprise in many ways. I kept expecting it to go just like my other pregnancies and I was so thrown when things were different! I started getting practice pressure waves around week 36 and they gradually grew in strength and frequency during the lead up to our guess date. By the time our guess date (1/29/17) rolled around, I was very ready for her to be born, but since our other two had both gone past 41 weeks, I was firmly planning on having a February baby. Our last Hypnobabies birth went pretty quickly, so we were a little bit worried about figuring out the timing of who could help up with our older girls and had many contingency plans in place for who we could call depending on the time and day of the week. During the night/early morning of Jan 30th, my body woke me up at 1am with strong pressure waves coming every 7 minutes. I listened to my tracks and tried to sleep with little success, although I got into a nice relaxed sort of haze.
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