Ande’s Hypnobabies Change of Plans Hospital Birth
“An hour later, I was at 10 cm, and felt like pushing! We stopped for a photo op, a quick walk around the birthing center, and attempted to use the bathroom. I started pushing, as it was a gorgeous sunset outside, we thought we were about to have a sunset baby!”
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*Bubble of Peace* (Hypnobabies tool to keep negativity away). This is long… and our plans did change. We experienced a little bit of everything, and I could not have done this without Hypnobabies!!
Before I got pregnant, I knew nothing about pregnancy or birthing. The only thing I knew was that I wanted a doula, because during my Yoga Teacher Training, we had an instructor take us through a pre-natal yoga class, and she was a doula, and I knew I wanted one when the time came.
When we first met with our doula, she mentioned Hypnobirthing, which I had never heard about, so as I researched it, I found Hypnobabies and decided to place my order for the home study course! I live in a smaller town in southern Minnesota, there are not local hypno-doulas available.
I went through all 6 weeks of the course, then 4 weeks of maintenance. My guess date (Hypnobabies for due date) was 12/27/18, that date came and went. On Monday 12/31 at 3 AM, I woke up from waves (Hypnobabies for contraction), and could not fall asleep, so I moved to the couch and started timing them… 6 mins apart. I started listing to Birthing Time Begins (Hypnobabies track that reminds about all the tools & cues for birthing) and Birthing Day Affirmations.
When my fiancé woke up for work at 6, I told him not to go to work, I was positive that we would be going to the hospital later that day. Throughout the day the waves went through phases of being 6 mins apart, then phase of being 10-15 mins apart. I continued listening to all of the birthing day tracks, and walking, and drinking water. This continued through Monday, and Tuesday, we went into hospital Tuesday night, and was only at 2 cm, so they sent us home.
I tried sleeping but was not able to sleep through the waves as they were increasing in strength, and were back at 5 mins apart, so we called our doula to come over at 4 AM on Tuesday morning. She had me sit in a warm bath, and helped me on the birthing ball, on stairs, with a few other stretches and with Rebozo wrap, and massaged my back. I continued listening to my Hypnobabies tracks. She thought based on my breathing during waves, that I still wasn’t progressing, so told us to get some sleep and she went home.
Wednesday evening, still having waves between 5 and 10 mins, I decided to take another bath, and when my fiancé came in, he noticed a smell, and thought my water had broken, but I hadn’t noticed anything obvious. Then my dog walked into the bathroom and started sniffing everything… which he doesn’t normally do. So, we went back to the hospital at Wednesday 11 PM. They tested and it was positive for amniotic fluid although the sack was still in place, so they admitted us, even though I was only 3 cm.
By this time, I had been having regular pressure waves (Hypnobabies for contractions) and not been able to sleep well for 36 hours, and I was ready to give up on my entire natural birth plan. That night, we sat, we walked around the birthing center, I tried to sleep; and I sat in the jet tub for a few hours until 9 AM, when they had the doctor break my waters.
At this point, I asked for IV meds so I could try to get some sleep and relax while listening to tracks and waiting for pushing time! By Thursday 3 PM, I let them check me again, and I was at 9 cm. Remember, I was ready to give up on natural many hours before this, so even though I never planned on having an epidural, my response to the nurse was “Oh shit; is it too late for an epidural?!” The nurse chuckled and said “honey, you’ve been doing great, I really don’t think you need it!” And I quickly agreed.
I continued listening to the tracks, and my fiancé had the Pushing Baby Out track (Hypnobabies special track for pushing) ready to play over the speakers in the room. An hour later, I was at 10 cm, and felt like pushing! We stopped for a photo op, a quick walk around the birthing center, and attempted to use the bathroom. I started pushing, as it was a gorgeous sunset outside, we thought we were about to have a sunset baby! I pushed for an hour, but no apparent progress, so I let them check again, and they found a small cervical lip. I tried a few things like Fear Clearing track (Hypnobabies track for releasing any fears), making horse and cow noises and laughing, but no luck. They started Pitocin and gave me more IV pain meds to try to relax and not push while the Pitocin would hopefully melt away the lip. A couple hours later, no progress yet, so they gave me Benadryl and told me sleep for an hour or two … yeah right!! I continued listening to my tracks, I was just lying in bed at this point, using my light switch and breathing through the waves in my Special Safe Place to try to not push when my body felt like pushing. I was too tired to do anything else at this point but could not sleep through the waves either. My fiancé and doula were helping with cool wash clothes and massaging my low back and legs.
Finally, now 1 AM on Friday, I was able to start pushing!! I never did have the epidural (thank god!) so I was able to try various positions for pushing, and the nurse was very supportive to work with us and our doula! After another 4 hours of pushing with no progress, the doctor came back to check… baby girl was sunny side up, and he could feel her eyebrows presenting and believed she was stuck on the pubic bone. He suggested a c-section at this point, and although I was planning a natural birth and hoping to avoid a c-section, I was very comfortable with making the decision to change plans and accept surgery. While the surgical team was prepping, it gave me time to talk with my fiancé and doula, our spirits were down, and we were all exhausted at this point, but we tried to take it all in stride.
At 5:37 AM, we met our healthy and happy baby girl!! Unfortunately, due to the hospital policies for c-section, we were not allowed to do delayed cord clamping, or skin to skin contact in the operating room. They did move us quickly back to our private room in about 10 mins, at which time I was able to have skin to skin contact and start breastfeeding! My body was numb from the spinal block (which was the best I had felt in days) and the joy of having a healthy baby girl on my chest was enough adrenaline to keep me awake another 18 hours to bond with our first child, and have the grandparents come to visit.
Sorry, it’s a long birth story, and many things did not go to plan… BUT we were amazed with the Hypnobabies tools! As were the multiple shifts of nurses and doctors that worked with us! I honestly do not know how I would have handled this birthing experience without the Hypnobabies tools and tracks!
I also want to give props to my fiancé. My fiancé had not been that involved in preparation (he didn’t read the book or listen to the tracks), but he knew what tracks to play for me and what key words to use! He was not totally sold on the idea when I started and was not very comfortable with being at the hospital and watching the birth as he is very squirmy, but he did it anyway! He also was in charge of charging phones and headphones so that I could continue listening! After the experience, he admitted that he was really impressed and happy with using Hypnobabies! He also got over all the squeamishness he had about birth, and I earned major badass points in his book!
The staff was also amazing, they each read my birth plan at every shift change and discussed it with me to make sure we were on the same page, especially as it changed as we went through the experience. The morning right after surgery, the director of the birthing center actually came in and talked with us and was curious how the team did in supporting our “detailed” birth plan, and we only had positive things to say!! It seems there was a lot of discussion out at the nursing station as well!!
I definitely will be using Hypnobabies again for our next child and will be planning a natural VBAC experience!
*notice the pictures… all of these were at/after full dilation! I was smiling, laughing, interacting with others between waves, even making jokes and swearing at times!
