Alex’s Covid-19 Positive Hypnobabies Induction
“Our doula reminded me to use my tracks and we put on Easier First Stage (Hypnobabies main birthing day track) out loud. I was able to fall right into hypnosis and Tyson said he noticed me immediately relax. I was able to manage and ride each wave so much better!”
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.
On Jan 6, at 40+6 weeks I woke up with a sore throat and a cough. I was supposed to see my doctor in the office that day, so instead he sent me to the hospital for an NST and a Covid swab. It was positive. I was so upset. Of all the times in the last 2 years, this is when I get Covid?? The following day at my repeat NST I was a bit more congested and my O2 sats were a couple points lower than where they wanted them, so they decided to induce me. This was not how I wanted her birth to start. I really did not want an induction and had tried EVERYTHING over the last week to encourage her to come on her own, to no avail. I had listened to Fear Clearing (Hypnobabies track for releasing fear) the night before and it helped me to come to terms with the situation. Thankfully I had very mild Covid symptoms so other than needing some oxygen via nasal cannula, I felt pretty good.
We did a Foley catheter to start and later that evening when my cervix was ready, we started the Pitocin drip at 9pm. The first few hours we relaxed and tried to get a bit of sleep before things started to ramp up. I listened to Your Birthing Time Begins (Hypnobabies reminder of all the tools and tracks) and used my Mental Light-Switch (Hypnobabies tool to enter hypnosis) as waves started.
Unfortunately, our doula couldn’t physically be there with us because I was covid positive, so we FaceTimed her and set the iPad up on a rolling chair. I tried listening to Deepening Your Hypnosis (Hypnobabies track to deepen level of hypnosis) as the intensity of my waves increased but I kept getting interrupted. The Pitocin needed to be increased every half an hour and the IV fluids made me have to pee so often! Instead, we decided to put the relaxation music on out loud and rotated between a few different positions.
My husband, Tyson read hypnosis scripts to me and reminded me to use my Peace cue (Hypnobabies cue for instant physical comfort). I really had trouble getting into hypnosis at first and eventually reached a point where I didn’t think I could do it anymore. Our doula reminded me to use my tracks and we put on Easier First Stage (Hypnobabies main birthing day track) out loud. I was able to fall right into hypnosis and Tyson said he noticed me immediately relax. I was able to manage and ride each wave so much better! I was using a Tens machine as well (which was amazing by the way) and Tyson said he was grateful for it as well because it has a boost setting that I would turn on at the start of every wave and at times that was the only indication I was having a wave at all.
The most frustrating part for me was moving and changing position with all the wires I was attached to. I had; the IV, the fetal monitors, the oxygen tubing, a finger O2 monitor and the tens machine. It was a big production to manage all of these anytime I wanted to change positions or go to the washroom.
Things progressed quite quickly once I relaxed into my hypnosis. Tyson had been using the Relax cue (Hypnobabies cue to deepen hypnosis) frequently during my birthing time (Hypnobabies term for labor) and it worked so well for me. At about 04:30 am I had been feeling increasing pressure in my bum. The nurse checked me, and I was 8 cm! Transformation (Hypnobabies term for transition) was honestly a mental turning point for me. Up until then I had still been wrestling with thoughts of “I don’t think I can do this” and then suddenly at one point I was in the washroom with Tyson and suddenly I said to him “I got this”. And I felt it. Not long after I began to feel quite pushy. Once I became unable to resist the urge to push, at 5:15 the nurse checked me again and I was fully dilated! Only a small anterior lip which she was able to push out of the way with the next wave. I tried pushing on my hands and knees, but I wasn’t feeling it and eventually settled on a side lying position. I enjoyed that I got to lay back and rest in between each wave.
Tyson put the Pushing Baby Out track (Hypnobabies track just for pushing) on out loud, but I honestly don’t think I listened to any of it, I was in my own zone. What it did do though was keep the whole room quiet for me. In addition to the doctors and nurses caring for me, there had been some fetal heart rate abnormalities with pushing so the NICU team was there as well. They were all so calm and quiet and allowed me to remain focused. I was able to do self-directed pushing like I requested!
My nurse was great and let me do my thing, offering only encouragement. She also held a warm perineal compress which not only felt amazing but gave me some direction on where to concentrate my pushes. 45 mins later at 6:05 am, Jan 8th, Norah was born! They put her right on my chest and I reminded them to please wait until the cord stopped pulsing to clamp it. The Doctor mumbled something about Jaundice (which made me laugh in my head) but respected our request and even showed us that the cord was limp before she clamped it.
*Bubble of Peace*
We waited for quite some time for my placenta to be born, but eventually, even with traction the doctor said it wasn’t coming. My uterus began to lose tone and I was bleeding quite heavily. They gave me multiple drugs to stop the bleeding while my doctor explained she would need to do a manual removal of the placenta. It ended up being what they suspect was an undiagnosed Placenta Accreta (where the placenta grows into the uterine wall) and she ended up pulling out the placenta in pieces. I used my Peace cue through all of this and she said to me after that fact that she was very impressed with my pain control! This was definitely the most challenging part of my birth experience. Once the placenta was all out my bleeding subsided. I ended up with some cervical tears (they think that anterior lip may have popped back when I started pushing) and I opted for a conscious sedation in the OR for repairs as I had hit my limit by that point. Tyson got to do skin to skin with Norah while I was gone, which was a really special experience for him.
In the end they estimated I had about a 2000mL blood loss (average for a vaginal birth is 500mL) and so because of that my milk supply has been hit really hard. The last couple months have been a long journey of breastfeeding, supplementing and pumping, but we are slowly getting there!
I’m so grateful that I found Hypnobabies and was able to have the natural, empowering birth experience that I had hoped for!
