I am due with my first in 6 weeks. I have always known I wanted a non-medicated, natural birth, and was considering bradley with meditation-then my doula handed me a hypnobirthing book. It is AMAZING! Just reading it makes me feel like-I am woman, hear me roar! It is so reassuring and nice to have someone reffer to birth as an experience and pressure and a natural process instead of PAIN--PAIN---PAIN! I mean, I know my body will feel intense sensations, but I always wondered why it had to be considered PAIN! I have been meditating for years, and use it as a technique to relieve my constatn migraines, as I do NOT like drugs of any sort, so I knew once I read the book that hypnobirthing was for me! The relaxation CD's are great, and I just practice at night before I fall asleep. I am not doing a class, as I am a good self teacher and have my doula to guide me. I will recommend this method to anyone and will let you know how my birth experience goes!
Birth Story
Dahlia Lyneigh Hett
Born: Sept. 20th, 2008
Time: 1:12 p.m.
Weight: 7 lb 13 oz
Length: 18.5 inches
On the evening of Thursday, 9/18/2008, I started having contractions. The contractions began around 11:30 p.m. and continued, but without a regular pattern, until 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning, 9/19/2008. At about 4:00 a.m. on the 19th, I called my Doula, Lorraine, to see what she recommended. We had decided to labor at home as much as possible to avoid a long drawn out hospital process. She told me to get some rest and that it was only early labor and we still had a ways to go. The contractions stopped around 9:00 a.m., I rested for a few hours, and then went for a nice long walk to see if we could get started again. At about 7:30 p.m. on Friday the 19th, contractions started again, but still had no consistent pattern. I could not sleep due to the contractions, but was able to lie down and relax through the night.
Around 5:00 a.m. on Saturday the 20th, my contractions started getting more intense and closer together. I thought they might be forming a pattern, so I woke my husband Chad up to start tracking them. We tracked contractions for one hour, and they were between 4-6 minutes apart, and fairly intense. At 6:00 a.m., we called our Doula, Lorraine, again to see what she recommended. She came over to the house with some homeopathic supplements for labor (primrose oil, castor oil and massage oils) and our midwife did a cervical check, determining that I was dilated to a 4-only 1 cm since Thursday’s Dr.’s appointment. Lorraine told me it was still going to be a while, as my cervix was still pretty firm and needing to soften and dilate. Her and my husband gave me a nice foot and calf massage with the oils, to help stimulate contractions, which were still inconsistent, but getting between 2-6 minutes apart. After the massage, she recommended I get some rest, so I took a Tylenol PM and laid down again. She also had Chad give me a vaginal dose of a Primrose capsule to try to soften my cervix a bit more. I laid down at about 8:25 a.m. and rested, but was unable to sleep because the contractions were still coming frequently and were still fairly intense. Lorraine went to pick up a few more things for labor while I rested.
At 9:30 a.m., I had to get out of bed because the contractions were much more intense and back labor had started to set in. The back labor was VERY intense, so my husband suggested we get into the shower and let hot water massage my lower back. We put a chair in the shower and I sat facing the back, while my husband held the shower head on my spine. I had some incredibly intense contractions that our friend Sara timed while we were in the shower. They were 1-3 minutes apart and were DEFINITELY getting my attention! We decided after 4 massive contractions to call Lorraine again to have her and the midwife check me again.
We called at about 10:00 a.m. Lorraine arrived back to the house at about 10:15 a.m. My cervix was dilated to a 7 at this point. We got into an all fours position in the living room on some towels to facilitate contractions. My back labor was soooo intense that I was marking the beginning of every contraction by saying “pressure, pressure!!!” and my husband, Lorraine and Sara were trading off putting their fists into my lower back. Finally, after about 4 more contractions, I decided that I wanted to labor standing up, so I went and braced myself against the kitchen counter. That next contraction-I needed to push! I told Lorraine-“I feel like I need to push, but I am trying not to!” She asked if I was sure it wasn’t a bowel movement-I said “YES I’m sure!” so she said-“Everybody get in the car!” At this point it was almost straight up noon.
I threw on a bath robe (because I was only wearing a towel!) and my leopard slippers and got into the back of Sara’s car on all fours with Lorraine beside me. Luckily we had already loaded the car that morning!! On the way to the hospital (which is only 5-10 minutes away by car), I had 4 more contractions and was feeling the need to push with each one. I was trying not to push, but my body was still doing it without me! Finally, Lorraine told me to flip over onto my back after the third contraction, just in case! We arrived at the hospital just as I was having the fourth contraction-I finished the contraction and we rushed in. They got me straight into a room, the doctor came running and I started pushing! They were hooking up the fetal monitor as I was pushing!! As the doctor examined me, we realized that my bag of waters had broken, but I hadn’t noticed because it happened while we were in the shower! They detected some meconium in the amniotic fluid still present, so we had to get her out! Luckily, she was ready. I pushed through five contractions in the hospital and my baby girl was born!
Chad got to catch her and cut the cord, and they needed to immediately assess her because of the meconium, but as soon as she was cleared they placed her on my chest and put a blanket over her. Almost immediately she started suckling and we got her latched on to breast feed for about 15 minutes. My sister was able to get the birth on video-BARELY!-because everything went so fast, she got the tape rolling right as I was in my final push! I had NO tearing!!!
Within 20-30 minutes, I was up and moving around to go to the bathroom. I did have some bleeding, so they gave me a shot of pitocin after her birth to get contractions going to firm up my uterus, but other than that, everyone was happy and healthy and good to go!
We used hypnobirthing for our labor technique, and I am convinced that all of the meditating and easy relaxation techniques got us where we needed to be quickly and peacefully with no major complications! I really thought we might deliver her right there in the backseat of Sara’s car for a minute because it all went so quickly-but we made it right in time!
I can't figure out how to post the actual pics, but here's link to her birth album...
http://s404.photobucket.com/albums/pp126/Aksnowbunie/dahlias%20birth/
please share your experiences when your little ones come!!