Elliott’s Wonderful Hypnobabies Home Water Birth (First Baby)

I remember looking at the clock when I got off the phone with them and it was 9:30 pm. I felt my pelvis ache when I got off the phone but it passed. I asked my husband if he would read me a Hypnobabies hypnosis script. I had been mostly listening to the hypnosis tracks on CD during the maintenance phase of the program. But I loved hearing him read the scripts to me more than listening to them on CD so I was glad he agreed to read me one. It had been a while since we had done that. We probably finished the script at about 10:30 pm. I remember feeling my pelvis ache twice during the script. After the script was over, we turned out the lights and I had another ache in my pelvis that came and went.

I didn’t think anything of these aches because they felt nothing like how anyone had ever described birthing waves to me.  I just figured it was pregnancy discomfort, as I was pretty miserable towards the end of my pregnancy. Then I had another sensation and decided to look at the clock, just to see if there was a pattern. It was 10:59 pm.  Another one at 11:09 pm. Then around 11:25 pm. Then 11:34 pm. I got up to use the bathroom and had some bloody show. I hadn’t had any spotting throughout my pregnancy so that was definitely different.

I came back to bed and told DH that I thought something might be starting.  He went back to sleep and I spent the next half-hour or so just sending my Hypno-anesthesia to my pelvis and relaxing through the waves. I got up a little after midnight to call the midwife and give her a head’s up, even though I felt silly for calling her so soon. I went back to bed and relaxed through the pressure waves and got up a few times to use the bathroom, only to see more bloody show. I called the midwife back around 3:00 am to tell her the waves were still coming and seemed stronger and closer together.  I tried to wait as long as I could to wake up DH but after I called the midwife, I woke him up and told him I thought I needed some help.

The midwife said to try a bath so DH ran a bath for me. I got in and laid on my side and he put the CD player in the bathroom so that I could listen to my Birthing Day Affirmations while he rubbed my lower back, as I was starting to feel discomfort in that area along with my pelvis. Then I would turn on my other side for a while and do the same thing. I felt like I was using my hypnosis and relaxing very well and just saying, “Ahhhh,” during every wave. At that point, I was making noise because it felt good.  I decided to get out of the bath after an hour or so and tried a few birthing waves leaning over the side of our bed and on my hands and knees.

Around 5:00 am, we called the midwife again. She asked if I wanted someone to come be with me but I told her I would call her back in an hour. I called her back in 45 minutes! I told her I probably needed someone to come check on me, as things weren’t slowing down at all. I realized now that I was making noise because I HAD to. I had DH call my mom and tell her to come (she had about an hour drive) and to call my fellow Hypnobabies instructor, Susan, who was going to be at the birth.  I wondered before the birth how I would feel about having people around me while I was in my birthing time but in that moment, all I knew is that I wanted all the help I could get!

My mom thought we were going to call her back later to tell her to definitely come but when DH told me this, I told him  to call her back and tell her to definitely come now!  It seems like everyone got to the house around 7 or 7:30 am. I can’t remember who got there first but by that time, the midwife’ assistant and Susan were there, faces smiling knowingly at me! The midwife’s assistant asked it I wanted to be checked and I told her I wasn’t sure because I was worried I wouldn’t be very far along. I asked her what she thought and she said she thought it would be a good idea to see where I was.

So she checked me around 7:45 am or so and I was 6cm!  I had never been as happy as I was to hear that!  My birth team started getting the birth pool set up and DH rubbed my back and butt through each birthing wave. Susan ran back and forth to give me physical and verbal hypnosis cues during birthing waves and work on filling up the birth pool in between. I finally got in around 8:30 am. I hung over the edge of the pool and the  water felt so good. I had little bites of bagel and cream cheese in between birthing waves and plenty of water. DH, Susan, and my mom were all surrounding me.

The physical and verbal cues like Peace and Relax were really helpful because I had practiced them so often and was able to relax instantly when I heard or felt them. I was still breathing deeply and Ahhh’ing through the birthing waves. I felt like I got louder and louder as the intensity of the waves built up. But I was focused on relaxing and it felt good to keep leaning over the edge of the pool. Pretty soon, I started to feel my body bear down and I let the midwife’s assistant know. She called the midwife to give her an update.  They were trying to figure out if she should leave the third-time mom she was currently with or stay with her.

So the midwife’s assistant asked me to get out of the tub to get checked, so they could make a decision. I was fully dilated and it was about 9:00 am. I got back in the tub and they called the backup midwife, who was about 45 minutes away.  Susan put the Pushing Baby Out track on in the kitchen where I was. The midwife’s assistant told me to still try not to push but let my body do the pushing. I think that was partly because she wanted the backup midwife to get there but mainly to just allow for a gentle second stage.

I was a little confused about what I should be doing so I tried not to add to my pushing but my body was definitely pushing. It was getting harder to try and relax but I felt where the baby was inside of me and I could feel that he or she was making progress downward so that was inspiring! At one point, I felt a little pop inside and I think that was the hindwaters releasing because I could still feel the forewaters very taut around the baby’s head. The was so much pressure that I thought about asking the midwife’s assistant to break the forewaters but right when I was thinking that, she said how good it was that they were there to protect the baby’s head. The midwife’s assistant let me know that the baby would be crowing in the next few birthing waves.

I remember feeling intense pressure as he or she crowned although I had to be told that that’s what had just happened. The baby didn’t wait for the next birthing wave but came out all at once instead. It was 10:58 am. The midwife said, “There’s the baby,” and nudged him or her between my legs. I turned around quickly and brought the baby up out of the water as I sat down. I looked and said, “Oh!  It’s a boy!”  He was making noises and had a great heart rate. DH laughed and said, “You caught him yourself!”  The back up midwife walked through the door right after he was born. We couldn’t believe we were holding our baby boy after waiting so long for him and that everything had gone so smoothly!