2nd Time Hypno-mom Melissa’s Home Waterbirth
“We thought we better get the tub filled quick! I must have been in transformation (Hypnobabies word for transition). As he was running the water a couple more waves came on and they were much more intense and stronger. At the very peak, I had a slight pushy feeling.”
Thank you to Hypnobabies Instructor Ricky of Comforting Hands Doula for sharing her student’s story with us!
Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis really does help you enjoy a much easier and more comfortable birthing! Use code hypno1528 for 10% off our Hypnobabies Home Study Courses.
This is the story of my 3rd birth and my 2nd time using Hypnobabies. If you would like to read about my 1st Hypnobabies birth with my 2nd child check out “Melissa’s Very Fast Hypnobabies Birth”.
I planned a home water birth in my jacuzzi tub for this birth for a few reasons. My 2nd birth was supposed to be a water birth at a birth center but the pressure waves (Hypnobabies word for contraction) were so manageable that essentially I didn’t realize when I was in active birthing time (Hypnobabies word for labor). I called the midwife too late; I couldn’t get into the car to attempt the 20-minute drive to the center and so I ended up having him in an ambulance on our driveway. Just 5 hours of birthing time and maybe 30 minutes of that I was pushing.
I’ve always wanted to have a water birth as I was fascinated by how relaxing and calm it looked. We decided since things went so fast with our 2nd baby, we would eliminate the drive to a birth location and just have a home water birth. We already had our own perfect tub!
I began practicing with my hypnosis tracks about 2 months prior to my guess date (July 7th, 2019). I followed the same listening outline as I did when I took the class back in 2016. As I listened to the 1st track, just hearing the music instantly put me right back into the hypnotic relaxation zone! I wasn’t able to listen to the tracks quite as religiously every day due to being on my own with 2 young boys and my hubby working out of town 2 weeks out and 1-week home. If the boys went to bed nicely then I was able to listen more often. Everything came flooding back so quickly that I was super confident that my hypnosis would work really well for this birth still.
July 3rd, 2019 I was feeling quite tired and a bit off but I brushed it off as just one of those fatigue days. I had been battling fatigue the entire pregnancy and the last 2 months I had quite extreme low back and symphysis pubis discomfort so some days were worse than others. I thought I could either be lazy all day or take the boys for a haircut that they desperately needed in preparation for upcoming newborn photos.
I figured I had better get it done just in case baby decided to come. It must have been my intuition speaking to me! While I took the boys out, Kevin my husband was working out in the yard. He was back home from working his 2-week shift and had the week off. It was comical that the hairdresser commented on how pregnant I looked and then she was shocked that I was out and about being only 4 days away from my guess date (Hypnobabies word for due date).
Later into the evening, my parents came by to drop off the exercise/birth ball my Mom owns. They got it all pumped up and I bounced on it for a bit to try it out. We joke now how there is something about this birth ball that makes the babies come out. If you read my previous birth story you’ll know what I mean!
After my parents left, we started getting the boys ready for bed. It was a later bedtime as we had been visiting. I was laying with my 3-year old until he fell asleep. I think I must have dozed off a bit as well. Eventually, I went to roll over to get up and I heard a click almost like when my hip pops. I thought maybe my water broke….nah, you can’t hear your own water break. I stood up and sure enough, my water had broken and a small gush came out. It was 10:43 pm. I wasn’t feeling any cramping pressure waves, only the practice waves I had been feeling for many months previously. I had a cranky uterus so there were many times these practice waves could become quite intense and I would need to use a heating pad on my low back to ease them.
I went into my 6-year-old’s room where Kevin was, to tell him the news. They were both very excited! Then I called our midwife Heidi around 11:06 pm. She said to just give her a call when I felt the practice waves become longer, stronger, and closer together and to try to get some sleep. I then called my Mom. We figured it would be best for her to come over right then just in case things went fast like it did with my last baby. One less phone call to make in the midst of a possible rush. It’s a good thing we did this! She was going to be my 2nd coach as well as help with the boys if needed.
I was so excited and a little bit worried things would play out like they did with my last birth and end up calling an ambulance or catching the baby ourselves. This was one of my fears along with birthing time starting when Kevin was on shift working 3 hours away, and of course a little fear of being able to give birth naturally for the 2nd time. The fear clearing hypnosis track was amazing for helping me through this as I was practicing during the weeks leading up to the moment. Since some of these fears were creeping in I said to Kevin I was going to get comfy in bed and start listening to my tracks. I put on Your Birthing Time Begins (Hypnobabies reminder of all the tools and cues for birthing) & Easy First Stage (Hypnobabies main birthing time track) so that I could calm my anxious feelings.
Around 11:30 pm my Mom had arrived and she laid in the bed with me while I listened to my track. Kevin grabbed some supper and a shower as he had been doing yard work all day and didn’t get a chance to do that yet. By then I could feel cramping like waves and Mom and I attempted to see how far apart they were but I decided to stop and listen to my track as I knew I needed to get focused and get rid of the anxious feeling. I’m so glad I did this!
It took the entire hypnosis track for me to get focused and relaxed and for all the anxiety to melt away. I felt so great! I had a sense that the pressure waves were pretty close together. I even counted the time between them a few times in my head as I was listening to my track. They were about 2-3 mins apart. I probably should have paused the track and called the midwife when I realized how close they were but the waves weren’t intense and I didn’t think I could be very far along only 2 hours into birthing time. So, I just continued to belly breathe and concentrate on fully relaxing until the track was done.
Once the track was done I asked my Mom to get Kevin so he could check how far apart the waves were. After tracking a few waves, we realized that they were 30 seconds to 1 minute apart already and lasting a minute long! Kevin called the midwife, it was 1:18 am and then everything happened soooo quickly (again haha!). The waves at that point were getting quite strong and it instantly reminded me that they felt this way just before my body started pushing during my last birth.
We thought we better get the tub filled quick! I must have been in transformation (Hypnobabies word for transition). As he was running the water a couple more waves came on and they were much more intense and stronger. At the very peak, I had a slight pushy feeling. Kevin was still tracking the waves as he was filling the tub and I thought I better get in that tub if I don’t want to miss out on having a water birth again! I was currently lying in bed on my left side and I got up to use the bathroom to make sure my bladder was empty.
The change of position and movement of just getting out of bed and sitting on the toilet must have been enough to fully bring me out of transformation and right into the pushing stage. I came off the toilet and had to lean on the tub for a powerful wave that instantly turned into a pushing wave and as soon as it was over I got right into the tub. I was determined to have a water birth!
The warmth of the water felt so amazing! My low back was starting to ache with the pushing waves and the warm water really helped ease that discomfort. Just like with my 2nd birth I didn’t find the pushing waves to be crampy at all. They were just very strong, moving baby down, and I was still so amazed how these waves were creating a push that I wasn’t doing myself. It was all my body doing it on its own!
I was on my knees in the tub sitting back on my heels hoping to slow the pushing waves down as my midwife was not there yet and I was getting worried this baby was going to come before she got there! I could feel the head coming down and so I checked and quickly realized I was crowning! I could feel baby’s hair and I’d say the amount of baby’s head that was coming out was the size of an orange! I was getting worried and asked Kevin how close he figured our midwife was to our house.
He called her again at 1:34 am to say that baby was coming fast. My poor Mom was running up and down the stairs checking for the midwife, making sure the door was unlocked and the front lights were on. I was trying my best not to add any extra pressure to the pushes that were happening. After a very powerful push wave baby made a huge movement that was quite uncomfortable. It made me gasp and it was wild since I had never felt or maybe not noticed baby movements during birthing time with my other 2 births. (Later baby developed a cephalohematoma which is a blood bruise between the skull bones and skin that occurs when the baby’s head is pressed against mom’s pelvic bones. I’m sure the huge movement was due to baby repositioning into a better birth position.)
Suddenly I said out loud “Should I even be in the tub without the midwife here!?” Each push wave I was thinking just stay in baby I really don’t want to have to catch you on my own! I think it was maybe 5 more minutes and my midwife arrived. She dropped her bags and quickly placed her hand on baby’s head. I was so relieved and was able to fully concentrate on breathing and relaxing without having to hold in a baby. Kevin asked if I needed my tracks. With everything being a rush, I had stopped listening when I had got up to go to the bathroom. I was so concentrated on my breathing that all I could say was “I think I’m ok”.
I knew this was the time to put on the Pushing Baby Out track (Hypnobabies track just for easier pushing) but I actually just wanted to be able to hear any words of encouragement from my Mom, Midwife, and Kevin. I was already feeling more relaxed and was breathing through the waves well. It was encouraging with my Mom saying, “Yes that’s it keep breathing”, and my midwife saying, “You are doing so well, you are so controlled”. I was still on my knees but leaning over the tub and holding onto Kevin’s arm. Baby’s head was making its way out and it was a bit surprising that the stretch was more intense this time than it was with my last baby.
I thought this baby might be bigger. I said, “ohhh this kid’s head is making me nervous”. My midwife said “How come? You are doing so great”. I said, “Ohh it’s burning this time”. I put more focus on relaxing this area and just letting my body take it’s time to adjust and stretch to allow baby to come out. I couldn’t take breaths in during a push wave because they were bearing down so strongly it was like my breath was taken away. After the wave passed I was able to take my big belly breaths and concentrate on relaxing everything. I really wanted to slow things down and really memorize the moment especially since this was our last baby.
In just 3 push waves baby’s head came out. I thought baby’s body would slide right out just like I experienced with my other babies but my body took a little break and my midwife said, “Baby is turning”. The next wave I added just a little bit of extra strength to the push to help with the shoulders and my sweet baby girl Lilah entered the world at 1:44 am weighing 7lbs 9oz and 19 1/4 inch long. A very fast birthing time of 3 hours and just 10 minutes of pushing!
I was so surprised that I had birthed another baby naturally and amazed that it happened so fast that I just remained in my leaned over position. I was frozen haha. Then my midwife said, “You can grab your baby” and I sat back on my heels and before I knew it she was suddenly placed in my arms. It was amazing! We were so ecstatic about the whole birth that we didn’t even check to see if we had a girl or a boy. My mom who couldn’t wait any longer said “Well are you going to check to see what you had!” She was so excited! I took a look and we were so thrilled for our girl! I said, “I knew it!!”. This pregnancy was so much different compared to the boys.
After a few minutes, I sat back and just held my baby girl. My oldest son was still awake and had heard Lilah cry so he wanted to come to see her. He was so excited to find out he had a sister and to see her right away. He always thought he was going to have a sister.
Just 6 minutes later I birthed the placenta and there was no extra bleeding. We discovered that the cord had a true knot which was somewhat frightening but our midwife reassured us and we could see it was not tight. After a few more cuddles and just taking in all the baby cuteness Kevin cut the cord and Lilah was already wanting to nurse. After feeding she had skin to skin cuddles with Kevin while I got cleaned up. Lilah and I then had our checkups and I was so happy to find out I didn’t tear! I thought for sure that I would have had some sort of tear like I did with the boys especially since she felt bigger and she was. The magic of a water birth my midwife exclaimed! She just kept saying how amazed she was that I had so much control and was so calm.
Once we were all settled in and our midwife left we just relaxed in bed, Lilah cuddling on my chest for most of the night as she settled into her new environment. In the morning when I went to get my youngest son he said, “I hear a baby crying”. I asked, ” Can you guess who’s baby is crying?” With a gasp and an excited face, he instantly said “It’s your baby!!! Your baby isn’t in your belly anymore?! Is it a sister baby?!” He bolted down the stairs to see his sister and he was just beyond excited!
Overall with experiencing two births using Hypnobabies I am just so amazed with how well it works to calm any fears, fully relax your body and mind, and how it gives you the confidence that you can birth your baby(s) naturally with very minimal to no pain!
Ps. I’m ecstatic that I made it to the tub this time haha!!
