Corey’s Very Quick Hypnobabies Hospital Birth
“My sweet Remi and I had our own birthing time together alone, and it was definitely not what I planned, but I would not have had her any other way. I ended up not having to get an IV, have a cervical check, or be on the monitor (all things I wanted at the birth center!). My baby knew better than me that “the birthing journey we were on was the perfect one for 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.
I had been experiencing Braxton Hicks since my second trimester, and by the end of my pregnancy they became more pressure like each day (for the last couple of weeks especially). On Sunday 11/4/18, I pretty much felt miserable (guess date around 11/10/18), I had pubic symphysis disorder with this pregnancy and had been seeing a Chiropractor weekly and getting massages, but each day was pretty uncomfortable.
Monday, I worked my 12+hour shift (I am a nurse), and lost my mucus plug that night. I let my husband know, but since that can mean nothing, and with my long birthing time with my first, I went to bed and went in for my 12 hour shift the next day. I had been envisioning 11/8 as my birthing day when listening to visualize your birth, so I was fully prepared to start my birthing time (Hypnobabies word for labor) closer to then. During the morning at work, I had my usual Braxton Hicks, and as the day went on, I felt a little more pressure with them.
I texted my husband at lunch time that I was feeling more pressure, but it was probably just wishful thinking, and I ate lunch with my previous co-workers in an office. I noticed that when my pressure waves (Hypnobabies word for contractions) came I noticed them more, but nothing I couldn’t ignore, and at about 1:45pm I texted my husband I was going to have to come home because I was started to have a hard time making staffing decisions as work, and that I was going to have to let my Manager know. As I gathered my things to leave the office after lunch at that time, I felt something “weird” and as I was walking my water broke (or I thought it had at the time). I went quickly to the nearest restroom, cleaned up as much as I could, and called my Manager on her cell and texted my husband at 2:05pm.
She met me, and I let her know my water broke and needed to leave and gave her report off. She was very excited and asked if I was okay to drive and I told her of course. I told my husband, who was at home with our napping 2-year-old, that he needed to put all the things I had gathered for him to pack in a bag (planning to pack it together the next day when we were off), and take our son to my moms, and called my mom. As I made the long walk out to the downtown parking garage a block away, my waves were coming back to back (every 2 minutes when I did glance at my watch), but this didn’t worry me because walking briskly in and out of work had been making them this way for weeks (just not this strong).
By the time I got in my car, I told my husband I was just going to meet him at the hospital, instead of coming home. He and my mom (who would be watching our son) wanted me to wait and he would come get me, but I didn’t want to wait. It would have been 45 minutes before he dropped off our son and made the trip downtown. The brand-new birthing center I had been planning to birth in was not yet open, and the hospital was just 10 minutes from my work, and home was 25 minutes in the opposite direction. At that point I just wanted to get in a dark room and listen to my Hypnobabies hypnosis tracks, so I drove to the hospital, parked and walked in. This was 2:45pm.
I stopped in the bathroom before going up to L&D for triage. I was still leaking, and just sitting on the toilet felt good. I took the opportunity to lean on the safety railing and practice my hypno-anesthesia, and focus. I felt so much better after being able to do this. I grabbed my things and went to L&D. By the time I got there walking around was a bit challenging so I had to stop and take breaks and could only manage to say my water broke at work when they asked how they could help me. I gave them my name, DOB, and social, and they took me into a triage bay.
A nurse handed me a gown, and a cup and showed me to the bathroom to change and pee. I asked for something to wear because I was leaking, and she gave me a pad and mesh underwear. In the bathroom I struggled to get out of my scrubs, TED hose and running shoes, and to pee in the cup. I kept stopping to sway, hold the rails, and do deep breathing. Every pressure wave it helped to repeat “soften, open, open, open” and focus on relaxing my face and hands. I made it back out to the triage bay, and I was just focused on getting to a dark room.
I could not sit on the stretcher, so I got on hands and knees (almost with my butt sitting back on my feet though) and had my earbuds in starting to listen to Easy First Stage (Hypnobabies main birthing day track). Someone came in and asked me to verify the information on a name bracelet, and they had my last name wrong. She left, and someone else (or maybe the same person) came back and asked me to verify the new bracelet and my birthdate was wrong. At this point I started to get tearful because I did not want to keep answering questions, and I knew they would want to check me, and put me on the monitor. Instead of letting myself feel panicked I decided to just keep my ear buds in until I felt better (and really just ignore everyone until my husband arrived :)).
During this time, my water actually broke and was all over the stretcher, my socks, and the floor. Someone walked through the curtain and all I did was point, and she said something like “I see you have some fluid”, but I was too busy listening and focusing. She left and then I felt something like a weight and pressure all of a sudden, and my silly nurse brain momentarily started thinking something was wrong, and maybe my uterus was falling out and I might need emergency surgery (what years of working in acute care will do to you 🤦♀️ haha), because I still thought I was about 5-6 cm.
But then, I felt an uncontrollable need to bear down, and I let out a groan when I did, and her head came out. I reached down to feel and realized I still had mesh underwear on and was trying to pull them down when a nurse and my midwife came in. They helped me get them off and she told me to push again, and when I did her body came out as I helped pull her out. They unwrapped the cord from her neck that was wrapped a couple of times around, and I pulled her to my chest. I had only what my midwife called a “skid mark/ superficial abrasion” that she did nothing to, and I never noticed any soreness if there was anything. My midwife called my husband to let him know the baby had come, as I was nursing her already.
My sweet Remi and I had our own birthing time together alone, and it was definitely not what I planned, but I would not have had her any other way. I ended up not having to get an IV, have a cervical check, or be on the monitor (all things I wanted at the birth center!). My baby knew better than me that “the birthing journey we were on was the perfect one for us”.
My husband arrived around 4:00, after sitting in traffic, and Remi and I had our alone time until then. The only thing I wish I had was more pictures (any pictures really) of her being born. Instead her first picture was a selfie we took of her nursing 🤱
