I think the best way to start off this story and to illustrate how effective being a well-educated pregnant Mama with a support team around her can be is to say that Miri's birth was VERY close to how I envisioned it, even down to the number of hours in birthing time (labor) and time of day she was born.  Miri is our second daughter.  As wonderful as our first daughter, Evelyn's, birth was, it wasn't the experience I wanted. Interventions were introduced and even though everything was peachy keen, I knew that I needed a natural birth in the future to help me heal emotionally from my first birth.  I decided that I wanted a water birth.

My son’s birth story starts weeks before he joined us earth side. When I was 33.5 weeks pregnant I went into preterm labor and was put on modified bed rest. Then at 35.5 weeks pregnant I once again went into preterm labor and was put on strict bed rest until I was 37 weeks. There were multiple occasions during this 3 ½ weeks that the OBGYNs (I was transferred to their care at one point because I was so early), midwives, and nurses were convinced our son was coming. One nurse said to me, “you better tell your uterus to calm down” -- I did, so it did.

This is the story of Jane Rose’s birth, July 26th, 2013.  It was such a wonderful birth that I just have to share it. My first birth was the med free and uncomplicated birth that I wanted, but it was nowhere near “easy” or “comfortable.” I had listened to the Hypnobabies tracks and read the material, but I never practiced and didn’t use them at all. This time I really embraced the Home Study. I started early, practiced often, and really focused on visualizing my birth with the tracks and through prayer. I slept wonderfully falling asleep to the affirmations and even used an inversion with the Fear Clearing track to flip my baby when she was breech!

I've put off writing about the birth of my daughter Harriet for some time now, even though it's been on my mind a great deal, but not for the reason you might expect.  Birth is hard to capture in words because when you're going through it, you're in such a different state of awareness.  Especially because I used Hypnobabies, I was able to experience the birth process moment by moment, to really be present in it.  But, if for no other reason than that I benefited from stories like these in the months leading up to Harriet's birth, I will do my best to sum it up.

Before starting this birth story, I feel the need to mention my 1st and 2nd births.  They are the beginning of my journey and very much affected how I gave birth to my 3rd child.  My first came a couple weeks early with my water breaking in the middle of the night.  I went to the hospital before contractions started and after walking around a bit, they started me on Pitocin.  It took the whole day for contractions to get strong, and after 2 hours of strong contractions, an epidural and a cervical check resulting in little progress, the OB recommended a cesarean.  Besides asking if we could wait, I didn’t know enough to fight this recommendation, so my first baby came to me via an unplanned, and what I have come to realize, an unnecessary cesarean.  The reasoning was “failure to progress,” or maybe we could call it “failure to wait.”

About 4:30 am on Thursday, 9/20, I woke up to persistent cramping.  I was pretty sure they weren't waves (what contractions are called in Hypnobabies), just constant cramping strong enough to keep me awake.  I wasn't sure what it meant other than my body preparing for birth sometime soon, so I proceeded with my day as usual.  When I told my boss what happened I joked that I would let him know if anything "exciting" happened.  Though I didn't believe anything would, by 4 pm I noticed more cramping, but this time with waves.  It was getting harder to focus on talking serious business, but I still assumed it was because I was so tired from the short night of sleep the night before.  I left work a little early in hopes of napping when I got home.  On the bus ride home, I decided to try out the app for timing waves.  To my surprise, they were fairly frequent (every 6 - 7 minutes for about a minute each).  They didn't seem as strong as I imagined they might be, so I still didn't think much of them.  

Enjoy this great story from a couple who took Lindsay's class back in 2011!  We love how it shows that each birth is so different and each Hypno-couple will use the Hypnobabies tools that feel right to them during their birthing time. 

Click HERE to read the story!

Enjoy this fantastic story from a local RN who used Hypnobabies for her first birth. You can watch her beautiful birth video here:

I knew even before I was pregnant that I wanted a natural, intervention free birth. When we met Lindsay McCoy at a Childbirth Collective meeting and learned that she is a Hypnobabies instructor, something clicked. I spent the next several days researching Hypnobabies and watching videos on YouTube. We decided to take the Hypnobabies class and use Lindsay as our doula. Our Hypnobabies class and the tracks were so helpful to me during my pregnancy and birth. I really feel that it helped me to relax and enjoy my pregnancy to the fullest.

Enjoy this fantastic birth story from a couple from Anne's first ever Hypnobabies class!

Shanna shares her thoughts on why she chose Hypnobabies:

I chose Hypnobabies because I wanted a comprehensive childbirth education course that also offered a variety of ways to manage pain- I wanted more than just the usual breathing and visualization techniques that are offered in other courses. Previously, I had a little bit of experience with hypnosis and knew that I was receptive to it. Also, Hypnobabies is so much more in depth than some of the other childbirth hypnosis courses, which I liked because I wanted to be well prepared. After reading reviews from others who have gone through the Hypnobabies course and finding so many of the women had such positive experiences I knew that I had made the right decision.

Juniper’s Birth Story

I had been experiencing frequent braxton hicks for a couple weeks before the birth. Even though I had them most of my pregnancy they were starting to become more frequent at night making me believe that “tonight was the night.” They never turned into anything and left me unable to fall asleep for hours.

My guess date came and went which didn’t surprise me all that much, but when the 41 week mark came and went I started getting impatient. I loved being pregnant but was mentally and physically ready to meet this new little one.