Jennifer’s Joyful, Fast, and Healing Hospital Birth
I had the exact birthing I envisioned for my hypno-baby #3 (baby #4)! It was easier, joyful, FAST, and healing hospital birth. I wanted to be deeply in tune with the baby, conscious and aware of my surroundings at all times, and happy/smiling/calm between each wave. I envisioned it all many times and that’s what ended up happening! I’m so incredibly grateful to Hypnobabies for helping me have another natural birth without an epidural, but also a very healing and empowering birth after a more difficult induction with my last birth.
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Here’s the details of my birthing. Much of it was written in note form right after birth and I don’t have time to re-write it. So, please excuse the format!
Waves (Hypnobabies term for contractions) during early morning on 10/3 (4-6am). NST & OB on 10/3, membranes swept, 2cm dilated, baby high, bulging bag of water beneath baby’s head. No significant/sustained waves during day despite long walk and pumping. Listened to Come Out Baby (Hypnobabies track to encourage birthing time to begin).
10/4 strong waves starting at 3am, about 20-30 apart and >60 sec long, used Peace cue (Hypnobabies cue for instant physical comfort), legs very jumpy and couldn’t sleep between waves after 4am. Up every hour to try and pee, beginning to lose plug, rolled on ball to calm jumpy legs around 5:30 and back in bed and asleep by 6. Wave at 6:30 and texted husband that he should be prepared to come home early because baby would be here today or tomorrow. In & out of sleep with waves until 8am and passed toddler’s monitor to father-in-law and went back to bed until 10am with strong 90 sec waves every 15 minutes.
Waves fizzled after getting up but lost most of my plug. Very intermittent light waves throughout the day. Took the big kids to pool at 1:30 and walked around pool while they swam then to DQ for ice cream then home about 3pm. Husband got home early from work shortly thereafter (even though he’d planned to leave around 10am ). At 4pm we started readying kids for baseball. My oldest son had a game and daughter had practice, in different locations all at 6pm. We split forces and my FIL & I took the toddler to my daughter’s practice. I had a few strong wav
es thru the day but became more regular around 4 or 5pm, maybe 15-20 min apart. They were strong enough when they came that my FIL drove.
Waves 10-15 minutes apart at practice. I was feeling anxious about what was to come, especially with how powerful the waves already felt (they felt more powerful than previous births at this stage). I started listening to Your Birthing Time Begins and Birthing Day Affirmations while watching practice from the van. Got home around 7:45pm and left the kids to others so I could shower and settle into hypnosis. I was tired so started lying on the bed around 9pm listening first to Easy Comfortable Childbirth then Fear Clearing then Deepening.
Waves 10 minutes apart but very strong and sharp. Felt like baby needed me to move and body was working overtime to turn baby. Got on ball and leaned over bed. First wave was sharp then felt baby wiggling a lot and waves changed to powerful and centered. I was timing waves starting around 9:30pm so I’d quickly open my phone and start the counter then put my head down and use my Release cue (Hypnobabies cue for entering hypnosis) but I started having trouble being able to do it fast enough to keep the pressure under control. Saying “Peace” wasn’t enough. I had to control my breathing to keep my exhale long because when I released the downward breathing pressure to breathe in, the pressure would shoot up. So, I took long, slow breaths out and began telling myself the pressure was warm and comfortable. That helped so much better! At some point, I also started vocalizing with an “mmmmmm” during each wave because it helped me release strong energy and it made it feel so much easier.
All of my waves felt way more focused and powerful than I remember any of my other two Hypnobabies birth waves being. I think it was partially due to baby being in a really good position for birthing right from the start (thank you to Spinning Babies balancing moves, yoga, proper sitting posture and weekly chiropractic the last month) and my ability to completely let my pelvic floor relax and allow my body’s power to fully and efficiently flow through me.
Around 10pm, waves suddenly became 5 minutes apart, so I texted my husband that they were getting closer together. He had been getting kids to bed and everything lined up to leave. I had three waves 5 minutes apart and we both agreed we should move toward the hospital with the pace things were moving. (My OB had previously said to wait until waves had been at 5 minutes apart for an hour before going to the hospital, but I knew I didn’t have that much time to wait).
We left the house at 10:48pm. I sat in the passenger seat with my body pillow listening to Easy First Stage and was able to chat normally with my husband between waves. We arrived at the hospital at 11:15 and worked our way up to L&D (with stops for waves every 3 minutes and a bathroom break). I could no longer sit during waves, so I stopped and leaned into my pillow wherever I was. I leaned over a chair at L&D check in and had two long waves while waiting to get pulled back to triage. On one of the waves, I had the very beginning noise of pushing. I was walked back to a birthing room and able to bypass triage (one of my pictures is me leaning into my pillow against a wall to relax through a wave on the walk back) but my husband wasn’t allowed to come with me at first while they asked me intake questions (including a DV screening).
I was so calm/normal/aware between waves that nobody was really grasping how far along I was and how close I was to having a baby! I was a bit annoyed with the nonchalant questioning since things were so intense and I just wanted my husband to help me, and I wanted to focus on my hypnosis. I told them I NEEDED him, and they brought him right back (I’m so proud of my ability to verbalize and advocate for myself this time around!). During our mini script practices, I had my husband stroke my back while giving me the Peace cue because I respond more to physical touch and struggled with imagining the orange hypno-anesthesia. His back strokes during my waves were THE MOST helpful thing he did to strengthen my hypnosis during my birthing time (Hypnobabies term for labor)!
I couldn’t sit or lie down after arriving to the hospital because it felt better to stand and lean into something and let the power flow directly through me. Sitting made it feel like the power got bottled up in my bottom. I vocalized with a powerful “MMMMMMMMM” through each wave after 11pm and it really helped me release energy and keep my pelvic floor relaxed. My body was also pushing on its own with each wave after 11:30pm. On about my 3rd wave in the birthing room (I’m pictured leaning over the hospital bed while standing), my water spontaneously burst in a very dramatic pop and splash all over the floor (11:48pm)!!
The room quickly filled with people trying to do all the things to bring baby safely here. One nurse was holding a Doppler, one was mopping the floor, the doc was trying to get me on the bed for a check and ultrasound to confirm head down, one nurse was giving me an IV port, and there were more I wasn’t aware of. One nurse helped me on the bed and helped take my shorts off. They kept asking what position I wanted to be in. I wasn’t sure so I just stayed on all fours. I heard someone say they needed to make sure I wasn’t pushing against my cervix before it was ready and the doc tried checking me just as a wave started but I was able to vocalize for her to stop.
I’m not sure which came first but I think it was the quick ultrasound, in which doc said baby was low. Then I think she did a cervical check and said it was at +2. Baby’s heart rate dropped below 100bpm after my water broke and wasn’t coming back up so someone told me they needed my best, strongest pushes. I began pushing without a wave while on all 4s on the bed. The nurses were very helpful with asking what position I wanted and suggested side lying. I wanted to try knees so I could better watch baby be born but I could feel my hemorrhoids taking extra pressure and it felt like my body was working very hard on my knees, so I went to my left side and asked someone to fully hold up my right leg. I used my next wave to begin strongly pushing through my bottom. It was much easier on my side, and it took only one or two pushes to get baby out. I felt the baby crown then its head was born. Normally, my babies slide right out after that but I heard nurses saying to keep pushing and then I felt the doc strongly help baby’s shoulder out. The cord was double wrapped around baby’s torso and doc/nurses worked to get it free. I told them NOT to announce gender and was able to see for myself very soon that baby was a GIRL!! Baby was very healthy and doing well. I was able to cut her cord, although they clamped it before it was fully white. Then baby remained on my chest until my placenta was easily birthed several minutes later. Baby’s head was born at 11:59pm but with the extra time of birthing her shoulder, her official birthday carried over to 12:00 am on 10/5/2023!
Since the last 45 minutes of my birth was intense and wild at times, I wasn’t able to focus and deepen my hypnosis like I wanted, but I was still very much in hypnosis and used my tools to remain calm, advocate for my needs, remain more in tune with my body and surroundings than I ever had before, and I was able to allow my body to birth my baby smoothly and efficiently. I am so joyful and proud of this birthing experience! It happened almost exactly as I had visualized. Another helpful thing I noticed during my birthing time was how often the Joyful Pregnancy Affirmations played in my head to remind myself to stay relaxed, that each birthing wave brought my baby closer to being in my arms, that I experienced each birthing wave as a warm, comfortable hug, and that after each wave I smiled and felt very happy. I also focused a lot on talking to my baby during and after many waves, telling baby to tuck its chin and look at my back so I could gently push it out, encouraging baby as we rode each wave together, and telling baby how excited I was to meet him or her. Also, my guess date was 10/1 and I’m 42 years old, so docs really wanted baby out at 39 weeks but not past 41 weeks. Hypnobabies kept me calm and focused each day. I continuously envisioned baby coming on its own without Pitocin and I envisioned a fast birth in which baby would be born soon after arriving to the hospital. I’m still blown away at how similar it actually was to what I envisioned.
