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.
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 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.
Home birth and Hypnobabies went hand in hand for me, I could not have done one without the other. Early on in my first pregnancy my chiropractor and friend mentioned a home birth midwife and everything about birthing at home seemed right. As I began to show, and people knew that I was indeed pregnant, the question began to arise “So, where are you giving birth?”, especially since I work in a hospital! The surprised reactions and horror stories, began to stir around in my mind, “should I really be doing this?”, “am I brave enough”, “should births really be in the hospital?”, “can I really do this?!” Enter in Hypnobabies...
My birthing time started when my water broke spontaneously. The first pressure waves started within an hour, and I started listening to Your Birthing Time Begins and followed up with the Fear Clearing track. My husband was working from home that day and asked if I could just give him two hours to finish up a project. I didn't mind at first, because I had plenty of tracks to choose from, but the pressure waves became fairly intense faster than I'd imagined. Soon enough we were working together through a Miles Circuit and various other positions, and after about four hours, I got in our bathtub and listened along to the Deepening track. That track, along with the warm water, really helped calm me down and focus my attention on the hypnosis. (possible Bubble of Peace) After getting out of the tub, however, I became really nauseous and started vomiting. The pressure waves were down to three minutes apart, and at that point, we called the hospital and my midwife told me to come in immediately.
Dear Mateo,
This is the story of our very first adventure together and how you entered this world. I’m writing this to remind you how fiercely I loved you right from the start. Not to mention, it’ll also serve as a nice little reminder of why your mama deserves a little respect when you’re an angsty teenager. So let’s start at the beginning. Towards the end of December 2015, I had a gut feeling that I was pregnant. I took three tests and they all came back negative. I knew it to be true so I took another test early January and there was a VERY faint line, meaning it was positive but it was so faint I couldn’t be sure. I of course spent hours googling what it could mean but I still couldn’t be sure. I took two more tests a few days later just to confirm. After the sixth test and a very dark “positive” line, I finally knew for sure! We felt surprised, overwhelmed, and full of joy all at the same time. 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...... Introducing my hypnobaby, born at home in the water on Sunday, July 2 at 8:38 pm. 8 lbs 10 oz 19.5" and perfect in every way! I awoke at 3:00 am at 40+4 with stronger pressure waves than any of the practice waves I'd been having, and thought this could be it! So I put on my tracks and ended up sleeping through them for another 4 hours or so. At around 8am I noticed they were getting more powerful and knew today would be it! I started timing them, ate a good breakfast and got a shower in while playing tracks. I live alone, so about 9:30am I called my mom and sister to come over and began my early birthing time tracks. The tracks were amazing as I began to experience feelings I hadn't before! My Hypno-Doula, Aileen Larson, showed up around 12:30 and immediately assisted me with my peace and relax cues during each wave. My sister ended up carrying around my bright orange hypnoanesthesia towel around on her shoulder as I found comfort in that. They continued to get stronger, a sensation I feel I couldn't have prepared for being a first time mom! I was very vocal, but apparently (I'm told) I was quite serene in between each birthing wave. My tracks were constantly playing for me all throughout the day and served me as a powerful guide and something to focus on. After about 12 hours of active birthing time I pushed for an hour when I felt the urge and out he came! It was an instant relief and I suddenly felt very normal, like I had just come out of another dimension It was the most intense day I've ever had, but I'm so proud to say I had the birth I envisioned at home in the water completely naturally. It's fun to put on tracks or relaxation music now and see my baby respond to it. I think he likes Kerry's voice better than mine!    It was the last full week of October and I was busy counting down the last 2 weeks of work. Our baby had been posterior or “sunny side up” from about 36 weeks so I had been spending lots of time on my hands and knees, doing inversions and seeing a chiropractor for some Webster technique adjustments. At our appointment at 37 weeks and 6 days we found out that he had turned anterior! Later that evening I went for another chiropractic adjustment and our chiropractor Rochelle said that things felt good. She also thought she could feel his hand by his face. I went to bed that evening and then awoke at midnight to my water breaking. I was so surprised!
The Beginning
I never really had expectations of birth education or birthing. I always assumed things would work out like you see in the movies. We would spend nine months laughing about pregnancy cravings, go to all the normal check-ups, and then give birth in the hospital. I didn’t think I would have much of an opinion on birth details and for the next nine months was going to agree with every decision my wife made. Things didn’t exactly work out that way.... |
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