Laura’s Hypnobabies Home Waterbirth Story and Video
“The next wave came, and I felt his head emerge quickly and gently. I said ‘Yay!’ as soon as his head was all the way out. I told my husband to feel him since I know that helps to begin the bonding process. He felt him and said, ‘I can already tell he’s gorgeous.’ ’
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Here is my sixth birth story and video . No BOP needed.
It all seems to have been a dream. Or at least that’s how it started. On January 14 at 1:45am I was dreaming, about what I’m not sure, but I distinctly remember thinking in the dream, “Something wet and warm is coming out of me.” I awoke and went to the bathroom. As I’m sitting there, I’m thinking to myself, “Ok I’m peeing, still peeing, ok I’m pretty sure I’m done but there’s still something coming out of me. My water couldn’t have broken. There’s no way. This isn’t how I birth” and I kept chuckling to myself. I turned the light on and saw the water looked clear but a little cloudy like how amniotic fluid looks and I had a tiny bit of bloody show. I was 37 weeks and 1 day. Thoughts raced through my head: All my babies come at 40 weeks or later; I still have weeks’ worth of client appointments; what about my spa day; I didn’t get my belly henna; I have other things planned, etc.
I got up and put a pad on, still thinking maybe this wasn’t it. I went back to bed and laid down. With every breath I took more water came out. Well, there’s the answer to that question. I got back up. Time for the reliable ol’ depends. I dug one out of my birth kit and my husband asked what was going on. I told him I was pretty confident my water released. He said, “Are you sure? How many weeks are we?” I said yup, 37+1. I texted one of our midwives and our doula to let them know what had happened and that I was going back to bed since nothing else was happening. I am sure they were not expecting to hear from me since all five of our other babies have come between 40-42+1. I turned on my Reiki (I’m a Reiki Master and had been using my Reiki along with Hypnobabies this pregnancy to increase my hypno-anesthesia, healing and to set Teddy and I up for a great birth). I put on my Hypnobabies tracks – Fear Clearing (Hypnobabies track to release fear), Birthing Day Affirmations, Deepening Your Hypnosis (Hypnobabies track to deepen the level of hypnosis) – and tried to sleep and rest. What came to me was the question, “What lesson is this baby trying to teach me?” The answer came pretty quickly: to let go of control. I found a lot if peace in that.
I listened to my tracks and tried to rest. I started having some very short, easy waves (Hypnobabies term for contractions) that were pretty spaced apart. I did a little uterine unwinding (craniosacral therapy technique) in bed and watched an episode of Queer Eye on my phone. I was able to sleep for a little bit. Our toddler woke me up a little after 7am so I got up and went downstairs with her. We had planned to have our kids home that week anyway with some school covid exposures and waiting for tests and such to come back so they were all hanging out on this beautiful snowy Friday.
I had been taking a reflexology course, so I texted my amazing teacher and asked her for some advice on induction points. I went through her protocol and found some good spots on my feet and noticed some waves. We went about our day being in PJs, with the fireplace on, my mother-in-law cleaning the house because she wanted everything in order (so nice!). I took a shower and did French braids in my hair. I tried to snack but wasn’t super hungry. I ate a little here and there and then had some homemade Mac n Cheese for lunch.
I had a feeling nursing our toddler for nap would bring on some waves. I had some stronger waves while I got her down and then I laid down for a rest. I timed the waves on an app while I laid down and they got closer – about 8-10 minutes apart – and were a minute and a half long. I was listening to my Hypnobabies tracks and was doing fine but this was kind of how my fifth birth went and as soon as I stood up and gravity set in, she came 50 minutes later so I was a bit hesitant to stand up and have the same thing happen and not have my birth team on their way on that snowy day. I talked to my midwife Emme, and she said to get up and if things quickened, she’d hop right in her car and be on her way. Emme said she guessed that we would get the kids to bed and then I’d relax, and we’d have a baby! I said she was probably right especially since 11pm is always the time where things get real for me when it comes to birth.
I got up and then things slowed down so no rush to gather the team. We had breakfast for dinner and watched Sing 2. The big kids went to bed, and I nursed my toddler to sleep, the last day she would be “the baby.” While I nursed her, I had three big stronger waves, had a little bloody show and could feel it more in my back. We got ready for bed and turned the lights off at nine. I didn’t sleep but listened to more Hypnobabies tracks and did Reiki. The waves intensified and lengthened. They came closer together and I could tell this was the real deal cause of how my back and hips were feeling. I texted my birth team at 10:15 that I thought they should come since the waves were quite strong. At 10:30 I woke my husband up cause he wanted to take a quick shower. He did and then used a massager on my back while I rocked on my hands and knees on our bed. My doula, Lindsay, arrived and did a little CST on me and checked on my sacrum. It felt aligned and balanced. My midwives arrived and did some quick vitals. The waves were closer and strong, and my back was uncomfortable, so I got in our jacuzzi tub. I was feeling a little pushy but not too strong.
I usually throw up at some point, so we had a bowl on the edge of the tub. Emme moved it and I projectile vomited into the tub! She brought the bowl back quickly and I threw up a few more times into the bowl. You have to have a sense of humor about these kinds of things, so we all laughed at the timing. I drained some of the water and put some fresh water in, but it was still pretty gross. Emme said it was ok if baby was born in it since I felt pushy, and we didn’t know how long we had if we could drain the tub or not and get it filled again. Some more time passed, and I used the jets on my back. My other midwife Grace asked me if I thought there was enough time to drain the tub, clean it and refill? I said I thought so and plus it was pretty gross. I had been thinking that I probably should simply stand up and that would make things kick into gear to meet our baby, but I also didn’t really want to stand up and let the weight of gravity set in. But the idea of getting washed up and in a fresh tub sounded good so I decided to do that. The moment I stood up the pressure changed, and I started vocalizing. I hopped in the shower to rinse off while they drained the tub, cleaned it and began filling it again.
They were so quick! I got out of the shower and stood at the edge of the tub wondering if he was going to be born standing there but thanks to their quick work, I was able to get back in the tub. Within minutes I could feel his head coming down and bulging at the end of a wave. I let his head sit there and let my tissues stretch as I tried to stay with my breath and listen to my Hypnobabies Pushing Baby Out track. The next wave came, and I felt his head emerge quickly and gently. I said “Yay!” as soon as his head was all the way out. I told my husband to feel him since I know that helps to begin the bonding process. He felt him and said, “I can already tell he’s gorgeous.” My midwives asked if his head was all the way out and I said yes. I could feel him rotating his shoulders, getting ready for the next wave. Something inside me told me he needed me to shift so I slightly shifted one of my legs to free up more space for his shoulder and I felt him rotate and he was born that next wave. I could see his eyes open, and he looked like he was crying underwater. My midwives said to turn him face down so he didn’t gulp water with his first breath – a nice new trick for me! I rotated him and then brought him out and up to my chest. It was 12:44am on January 15, 2022.
Ahhh relief! He was so tiny and cute and looked just like my oldest son as a baby. I rubbed him and did a little diaphragm release to help him clear his lungs. My midwives, in the background, doing all their stuff while I just enjoyed the moment. Emme noted I had a separation gush so I could birth the placenta whenever I felt ready. My husband said our oldest was up, so he went to get her. She came in and said he was so tiny, and we looked at his big feet and long fingers. She went to our bed to wait for us.
A few more minutes passed, and I felt a little crampy so tried to birth the placenta, but it wasn’t quite time. Fun fact: I have caught our last five babies and caught my last four placentas. I decided to stand up to let gravity help and the placenta easily came out into a bowl Emme was holding. I did a little fundal massage, my birth team teasing me that I do everything myself. We made our way to the bed, Teddy still attached to his cord and placenta. My bleeding was great, I felt good and steady. He nursed for a while, someone got me a hot pack for the cramping I was feeling, and then we took some pictures, my oldest cut his cord (the third sibling she has done so for) and Emme did his newborn check. We all guessed on his weight and to our surprise at 37+2 he was 7 lbs 9 oz and 20.5” long! If he had gone to 41 weeks or so like the others, he probably would have been our biggest!
We sent our oldest (who was very reluctant) to bed, got a little tour of his placenta, took some more pictures with our birth team, Emme and Grace fed me and continued to check on us and then they all left by about 3:30am. Tired but elated we went to bed and looked forward to introducing Teddy to the rest of our kids after some sleep. Teddy’s birth really couldn’t have gone better. It started in a dream and ended up being dreamy.
