This was my second birth and second Hypnobabies birth. From the start this pregnancy was different from my first. With my first I didn’t really have any complaints aside from SI joint pain in the third trimester. With this baby I had severe acid reflux from 6 weeks, and symphysis pubis pain from 12 weeks on. Then at our 20 week ultrasound our son was diagnosed with ventriculomegaly and hydrocephalus which is enlargement and increased fluid in the ventricles in the brain. My pregnancy went from routine to high risk and I had to start following with the perinatologists at Minnesota Perinatal Physicians. My first son was born at the Minnesota Birth Center with the nurse midwives there so that had been our plan for this baby as well. I had a fetal MRI at 28 weeks to confirm the hydrocephalus and it suggested that his hydrocephalus was due to aqueductal stenosis which is a narrowing in the duct in between the third and fourth ventricles in the brain. I now had to give birth at the hospital, but our plan was to still have the nurse midwives attend our birth.
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In the 3 months that have passed since birthing our sweet Cora I've felt many emotions regarding her birth. Although it did not go as we planned I will say that it would NEVER have gone as well as it did and I wouldn't feel as positive about it without Hypnobabies and especially our amazing Hypnodoula, Anne. What a blessing she was to all of us in this time!
Bubble of Peace FOR CHANGE OF PLANS/OUTCOME In the wee hours of the morning (4 am) I awoke to birthing waves! We were 40w4d, had seen the OB the day prior and praise God he was even on call this very day! I feel incredibly blessed to have had the birthing experience of my dreams. From the moment we did a tour at Willow Birth Center, I knew it was the place. Being at Willow felt like being at home. It was so comfortable, beautiful, and tranquil. For our first child, we gave birth with a midwife team and doula at a hospital which was a good experience but I was disappointed I couldn’t use the nitrous while being in the tub. So I chose nitrous and gave birth in bed. This time I wanted something different. I wanted the entire birthing team to support the Hypnobabies birth philosophy. We had done Hypnobabies classes for our first and knew this was what we wanted to do again. I also wanted dim lights, a beautiful setting and not the sterile hospital feel. I didn’t want to be woken up by doctors and nurses every few hours to do tests and check on us. My vision this time was to experience a water birth while having nitrous oxide. At Willow I knew we could have all of this and more.
At my 37-week appointment, I was 37+1 and had not experienced being pregnant beyond this point. (I have a history of preterm labor and birth with my sons. Click here to access my previous two birth stories.) My midwife checked and my baby was in a sort of LOP/LOT position. She suggested I start some Spinning Babies moves. I started doing the 3 Sisters on a nightly basis. I also decided to see a chiropractor to help get baby in the best position.
May 21st I had my third son, second Hypnobaby and first home birth. It was absolutely amazing.
At 39 weeks I woke up around 6 am to a small “pop” and a gush of fluid as my water broke. I went to the bathroom, discovered bloody show and thought to myself, “I guess I’m having a baby today!”. My second hypnobaby came at 38+5 but I had it set in my head this baby was staying put for at least another week. It also happened to be the day of my oldest sons’ preschool graduation, that I would have liked to attend, but I was in transformation as he was graduating that evening (he had three grandmas that attended- very thankful for family). BOP (GBS+, causing minor interventions)
On Tuesday, May 29th, we had our 39 (+4) week appointment with our midwives. As we were close to 40 weeks, we had the option for a cervical check and while I know we don’t give birth by numbers, I was excited to see if there was any progress as baby was feeling really low. In addition, the midwife mentioned that a check now could lessen the need during admittance should my membranes rupture within a few days (a big positive being GBS+)! When she checked, I was 1 cm dilated, 50% effaced and Oliver was in station 0. At 37 weeks and 2 days I woke up with a bad calf cramp on around 5:30 am and woke Darby up to help me try to stop the cramp! Since I was up, I just went to the bathroom and there was nothing out of the ordinary. But when I went to stand up I felt a little tiny pop low in my uterus. I thought, that’s strange but oh well. So I went to the kitchen to get some water and planned to go back to bed. As I was drinking water I felt a little leaking and thought, well this is strange because I just went to the bathroom. So I went back to the bathroom and realized my water broke and was slowly trickling out. There was a little light pink blood. This was around 5:50 am and I made Darby get up and come into the bathroom. I had no waves and no discomfort. I was a little nervous because I’d hoped my water wouldn’t break until later in the birth process and of course, did not want to worry about induction.
I had some pressure waves at 1:30 in the AM on Sunday, but was able to sleep through them for about 3 hours until I realized they weren’t going away. They still felt more menstrual crampy, but they were wave-like. Then I got very excited and started to get the house ready from 3:30 am-4:30 am. I went back to bed to try and rest and listened to some different tracks (don’t remember exactly which at this point, but I used the cheat sheet and the guide to pick which ones). I was able to go back to sleep for a few more hours. I reached out to my birth team in the morning to give them a heads up. For the next few hours, we just got the house ready. I tried to rest, eat, drink water, pee, etc. I listened to tracks and worked on getting my hypnosis going.
by Anne Ferguson
I'm sharing this birth story from my own doula perspective with permission of my client. This story is not your "typical" Hypnobabies story. You might want to use your Bubble of Peace to read this story because this mom had to change her plans. But, this story is important. It shows us that even when birth goes differently than we planned, we can still have a positive and empowering story. Even faced with some really challenging circumstances. 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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