Jesse Elisha’s Hypnobabies VBAC Birth Story
“When I think of this wonderful birth experience compared to my previous two, I am amazed at how peaceful, wonderful, and empowering birth can be.”
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Before I go to the details of my VBAC birth, I want to tell a little about my previous birth experiences.
My first birth was a very typical hospital birth. I took a regular hypnobirthing (Mongan method) class and thought I was prepared for what was going to happen. On April 21st, 2010 (Two days before my guess date (Hypnobabies word for due date)), I woke up at 11:30 pm with some consistent pressure waves (Hypnobabies word for contractions). I stayed up all night timing them (silly me) and they were every 6 minutes. We got to the hospital at 6:00 a.m. on April 22nd. I was checked and I was a 6. They checked me again at 11 a.m. and I was still a 6. My OB was asking me to start doing Pitocin to speed things along. The thought of having Pitocin made me very nervous. After 12 hours of coping with back labor and having my OB pressuring me to get Pitocin, I caved in and got an epidural and the Pitocin. Even with the epidural things were very uncomfortable especially after they broke my water. Finally, the time to push came. After about 30 minutes of pushing my OB asked me if he could perform an episiotomy because I had a tight fit. I didn’t even know what an episiotomy was but I consented to it because my OB must know better right? Everything was very far from what I was planning and expected. My boy was born at 2:29 p.m. On April 22nd weighing 7lbs 8 oz.
For my second birth, I was more prepared and confident that I could have the natural birth I desire. I did the Hypnobabies home course and saw how different it was from hypnobirthing. I had a different OB who seem to be very supportive of the natural birth I planned for. As I approached the end of my pregnancy my OB became very concerned about the size that my baby was showing on the ultrasounds. He offered to induce me as soon as I reached 39 weeks but I declined. My guess date came and the baby wasn’t here yet. At 40 w 2 d, I had an OB appointment and my OB greeted me shaking my hand and saying very rudely: “YOU ARE STILL PREGNANT.” He measured the baby and the ultrasound said he was 10 lbs. He freaked out and told me that a C-section was the only way to go. He also told me that if I was his wife and planning on a natural birth with my circumstances, he would divorce me right away. [Editor’s note: this was a very unprofessional thing for an OB to say to any patient.]
I was more than shocked at what he had said and asked him for the risks of having a C-section, just to hear his answer. He told me that there were no risks in having a C-section. [!!!] I left the office and went to a hospital to get a second opinion. At the hospital they did an ultrasound and measured the baby at 12 lbs. after hearing that, I got a little scared for the baby and the risks he could face so I consented to the C-section. He was 10lbs 3oz at birth. I had a very bad recovery.
I did a lot of things to prepare for my third birth: Hypnobabies, Hypno-doula, 3 cups of red raspberry leaf tea daily since the beginning of my pregnancy, Dr. Christopher’s birth prep pills, wheat germ oil pills to strengthen my uterus, weekly chiropractic adjustments for the last 3 months of pregnancy, exercising, eating healthier than usual, head inversion exercises from spinningbabies.com, and most important lots of prayers. Here are the details of my Hypnobabies birth:
On Sunday, March 9th, 2014, I woke up at 3:00 am and started having some pressure waves. I decided to ignore them (so I can get more rest in case they were the real thing) and went back to sleep. I woke up again at 4:00 am to go to the bathroom and noticed I had some blood showing. I got excited and told my husband to let the stake president know he won’t be able to give his talk at church later in the morning. We cuddled together in bed while I timed my pressure waves (they were around 5 mins apart). At 6:30 a.m. I called my mom to let her know that they needed to pick my two sons up that morning. I went back to bed and started listening to my Hypnobabies tracks but I couldn’t fall back asleep, so I decided to have something to eat. My mom picked my boys up at 7:30 am. We hugged and took some pictures of us being a family of four (soon five).
I noticed my waves were inconsistent, so I went to bed and listened to the Hypnobabies Deepening track (Hypnobabies track to deepen the level of hypnosis) on repeat. I was able to take an hour nap which helped me a lot. Around 10 a.m. my husband needed to check the lab for work so I decided to go with him so I could walk around the lab. I walked for a while and during that time I always felt my belly tight so I couldn’t tell it if was because of pressure waves or just the walking. We did 3-4 Abdominal Lift and Tucks (Where I leaned on him and he pulls gently up on my belly 1-2 inches in during pressure waves. This is to help baby get in a good position). After about 1.5 hours, we decided to go back home. My waves were 5-10 mins apart Lasting 30-45 seconds, sometimes more and sometimes less than that. With my first, I got “stuck” on 6 cm for a while so I didn’t want to show up at the hospital and have that happen again, especially since my wonderful OB (Dr. Z) was on vacation.
The plan was to go to the University of Utah hospital where I was told all the OBs are VBAC supporters and thankfully my doula, Talya Matheson was there for me. I spent most of the day texting and talking to my doula over the phone. I didn’t feel I needed her at my home yet. I just kept her informed and she would tell me what tracks to listen to from the Hypnobabies audios (she is a Hypnobabies instructor as well). I did some more lift and tuck and some nipple stimulation at around noon and things would speed up a little but they would slow down again. My hubby was telling the baby to please make it before 12 am so we both could have some “sleep” (ha, be careful what you wish for sometimes).
Our kids came back from my mom’s house at 6:30 pm and we put them to bed at 7:30 pm. After they were down, we decided to go to bed. At 8:00 pm, I started to time my pressure waves again while using my Hypnobabies Center-switch technique and listening to Easy First Stage track (Hypnobabies main birthing day track). They were 5-6 minutes apart lasting 1(+/-) minute long but now the menstrual cramp feeling was from beginning to end. It wasn’t painful. It was just intense, and I needed to concentrate more through them. Suddenly, the pressure waves jumped from 5 to 4, 3, 2 minutes apart in a total time of 30 minutes and since the hospital was an hour away I thought that it was time to go. I called my doula. She gave me some hypnosis prompts over the phone and we coordinated how we would be meeting at the hospital. After I finished talking to her, I woke my husband up and told him it was time to go to the hospital.
He looked at the clock and pointed out that it was only one hour after we went to bed. He asked me if I was sure it was time to go. He didn’t believe it was time because of how calm I was, which for his own good 🙂 I took it as a compliment. I told him that my pressure waves were around 2 mins apart now. We woke my mom up who was sleeping at our house and told her it was time. During our car ride to the hospital, I was laying down in the back of the van while listening to some hypnosis tracks. I would just close my eyes during my pressure waves and breathe deeply. After what I thought was halfway through the ride, I sat up and was surprised to see we were almost there.
We got to the hospital at 10:00 pm, and it took us 30 more minutes to get to the maternity area since I was stopping every time a pressure wave came. At 10:33 p.m. we got out of the elevators. I felt I needed to empty my bladder and the closest bathroom was being used. We waited and while I was in the bathroom I had 3 more waves. After I was done, we went looking for the place we needed to go. It seemed we were the only ones there. We found a nurse, and she took us to the triage area. She started asking me questions. I would answer as long as I didn’t have a pressure wave. Then, she asked if I was having contractions. At that moment a wave came and I leaned on the desk to relax. My husband took over from there and told her that I was using Hypnobabies and that they were pressure waves and not to call them contractions. I was very proud and impressed with his answer. I wasn’t as firm about not calling them contractions as he seemed to be.
Finally, they took me to a triage room and put me on the monitor. The nurse told me that they needed to check me to see if I was going to be admitted. I told her: “oh, I KNOW I will be! I guess I was too calm for her. My doula arrived at 10:45 pm and started rubbing my feet. She was of great help since she arrived. I was on a bed which was not very comfortable because it had me leaning back a little bit. During my whole pregnancy, I would avoid being on my back and I would even drive leaning forward. At 10:47 p.m. my water broke and it was an amazing feeling. I was wearing diapers thinking it would be enough in case my water broke and oh boy was I wrong. After my water broke, the pressure waves were every 2 minutes and lasting 90 seconds long, so I got only 30 seconds (or less) to try to get in a better position. They checked my cervix right after the water broke and I was a 5.5 cm.
At that moment I started feeling some pressure on my bottom and it was VERY uncomfortable. I told my doula that I was going to throw up. The nurse hurried and got a bowl for me. My doula got out some essential oils and let me smell a ginger one that smelled so good. The oil made my nausea go away and relaxed me a bit which was wonderful. At that moment, all I could think was that I was only 5.5 cm. I started to wonder if I was going to be able to do it. I got out of the bed with some help and knelt on the floor. That didn’t feel any better. It didn’t cross my mind that I was already in transformation (Hypnobabies word for transition). I felt lots of pressure and I wouldn’t say it was painless at this time. I stood up and leaned on my husband and I felt a strong urge to poop (sorry for the word but that’s how I felt it like I had a big poop that was coming out). I asked the nursed if I had pooped and she said:” no, you didn’t, but I need to check you again right now.” It had only been about 15 mins since they checked me, so I was not happy about that.
She checked me while I was standing up and said that the head was right there but that she needed a better position to be sure and asked me to go on the bed. I wasn’t talking at that moment, but I just thought: “wow… if the head is right there, why in heavens do you need to check.” My husband tried to help me sit on the bed but as soon as my bottom touched the bed I stood right up and said that there was a lot of pressure on my bottom and that I couldn’t sit. I jumped on top on the bed and knelt facing the back of the bed. At that moment, everything changed for the better. As soon as I got on that position I didn’t feel a thing, no pain, no pressure, no feeling of pushing, I was just feeling very hot. I kind of went to my own world at that point.
I noticed everyone was panicking and hurrying things up. Suddenly the room was filled with medical staff and one nurse pushed the bed I was leaning on to the birthing room because we were still in the triage room. Everyone was running and I was smiling. It felt so good to feel the breeze on my neck from them running while pushing the bed. I think this was my favorite part, a nice cool ride. They got me to the birthing room and asked me to move to the other bed. I did this without a problem. I was GBS positive and while I was pushing there was a nurse trying to hook up a hep-lock to do antibiotics, which it seemed pointless at this point but I was too focused to argue about it. All this time I’d been pushing only when I felt like it. It was amazing how I didn’t feel any pain, but my body would just push and I knew it was the right time. I was also expecting to vocalize while pushing, but I kept doing the same calm deep breathing I was doing since I began having my early pressure waves.
My doula was next to me telling me: “Claudia, it is just pressure.” She later told me that the medical staff was saying: “we know it hurts but keep pushing” [which you should never say to a birthing mom!] but I honestly didn’t hear a word the medical staff said. The only person I heard was my doula. After she reminded me it was pressure I told her: “I don’t feel anything, I don’t feel pressure. I just feel I need to poop. It was like I couldn’t feel my stomach, the only part of my body I felt was my perineum area. Now that I am writing this down I think it was the Hypno-anesthesia which worked on me so well. I could feel the head coming out and at that moment I wondered if I would feel the ring of fire some people talk about and nope … I didn’t. I just felt that I had the baby there and that it was stretched to its maximum but it wasn’t uncomfortable at all. Hypnobabies really works! I heard people say: “he has a lot of hair.” Then I knew the head was out.
I tried to push after my body pushed the head out just to help things along and maybe avoid tearing but it seemed like it wasn’t doing anything. I waited until I felt it was right. I think I pushed 3 times total and baby was out. He was born at 11:28 p.m. (before midnight like my husband had asked our baby to do) and only 38 minutes after my water broke. I went from 5.5 cm to baby out in 38 minutes! It was intense during transformation (Hypnobabies word for transition) and I thought that I lost it, but my doula told me that I was always so calm and very composed even if things were crazy inside during those 10 minutes or so. That was always my goal, to be calm even if it wasn’t pain-free but of course, the painless pushing phase was a plus that I loved. I told my husband that he should’ve recorded my Birthing Time (Hypnobabies word for labor) when we were at home and when we got to the hospital and he said:” well…you were so calm that I didn’t think things were happening and neither did the hospital staff.”
My baby was 7 lbs. 12 oz. 20 in long and in the perfect position. He was born 3 days past his “guess date” according to the first day of my last period but right on his “guess date” according to ovulation. I did have a 2nd-degree tear and the stitching part was no fun. I guess I wasn’t on the hypno-mode anymore. [Editor’s note: Hypnobabies moms can continue to use their hypno-anesthesia after their baby is born when they remember to!] However, I would take that a thousand times instead of a C-section. When I think of this wonderful birth experience compared to my previous two, I am amazed at how peaceful, wonderful, and empowering birth can be.
Claudia B.
