BIRTH STORIES

Birthing Luella Bird


                                                                                  photo 2 hours after the birth

I did the Hypnobabies Home Study Course and took Hypnobirthing classes. Believe it or not it totally worked. Here's my story....
I'm not an 'om' kind of girl. I grew up in a very logical, practical, fairly traditional kind of home. I never thought I would 'meditate' to give birth to my baby. I thought I would get a scheduled c-section like all busy New York City girls and that would be that. After I became pregnant, all of that changed. My husband was the one who opened my eyes to trying a natural birth. It's mildly annoying when a man suggests how you are going to give birth but it started me thinking.  I remembered a t.v. show I had seen as a kid that showed women 'in hypnosis' giving birth. I must have been about 10 years old and I remembered it seemed amazing that women could give birth without drugs and then just walk out the door. So I started researching it and soon became a hypnobirther. I moved west to the land of fruits and nuts and I loved it. I met the most amazing like-minded women in my birthing class, women that later would become my friends and some my heroes for walking first in the steps I was about to take.
Little Luella Bird was born October 1st at 8:17pm she weighed 7lbs 15.5oz and was 20 inches long. 
My water broke on Wednesday the 30th at 9am (11 days before my due date), while I was standing in the bathroom brushing my hair. My husband hopped out of bed, saw the water and we smiled and hugged...(the kind of side hugs you can only due when you're 9 months pregnant.) It was very exciting..  I had been walking 3 miles a day up until that day and had been going on long hikes in the park throughout my pregnancy.   I went in to see my OB, he hooked me up to a fetal monitor and confirmed that my water had broken. He said I could go home and labor at home and that usually contractions start within 24hrs for (98% of women). I had lots of Braxton Hicks contractions during my pregnancy (up to 25 a day) so I was unsure what to look for as far as signs of "real" labor. Doc said "when they hurt"...which was totally antithetical to my hypno training, but I got what he was saying, so I went home and nothing happened that day or night. My husband and I went on a long and vigorous walk that night through the neighborhood. I felt like I could walk forever and had lots of energy. The next morning we went on a long walk again. I was achy and I could feel my pelvis bone moving. My sacrum and my pubic bone.  Since there is a time table to give birth after your water breaks, I decided to induce with Castor oil (with Dr's permission) instead of the hospital injecting me with pitocin. My OB had already let me go 27 hrs since my water had broken, so I knew I was running out of time.   I made us omelets with cheese and spinach, did some laundry, got the car washed (while I was still leaking amniotic fluid), and ran some errands. Then we went home and I took my first dose of Castor oil, another at 12:30 and another at 1:30pm. I mixed it into a shake with orange crush and vanilla ice cream. Stephen and I watched a movie and waited for the results. I felt cramps. They were 5 min apart and not painful just a little more than Braxton Hicks. By 2:30pm they were getting stronger and I threw up the last dose of castor oil. The contractions went from 5min to 1 min apart in less than an hour.  We headed for the hospital, with my neighbors and the UPS guy cheering us on. I listened to my hypnosis for childbirth cd on my headphones in the car and completely zoned out. We checked in at the hospital at 3:30pm. There was a woman there chatting it up at the reception desk-obviously not in labor, it seemed to take forever to check in behind her. I had another contraction and leaned on our birthing ball. When we were directed to our room there were 30 people in there on a maternity tour....it was pretty funny, all the pregnant moms- to- be were rooting for us before they ushered them out of the room.  I was put on a monitor and had my cervix checked. At that point I WAS ALREADY at  8CM...I completely attribute this miracle to my hypno training that I was able to make it to 8 without very much discomfort.  Things started to pick up from there...I had pretty intense contractions about a minute apart for almost 2 hours. It was a little hard to focus on my hypnobirthing because I had so little time between contractions but when I was able to have 1 to 2 minute break (instead of 40sec) I was able to really relax and breath through them. I had 2 contractions where I felt no pain at all and just rocked and swayed my hips. The nurse kept asking me lots and lots of questions while I was having contractions. Questions like where I went to college and my SS number. I had already answered all these questions when I did my pre-registration but they couldn’t find the form. I was contracting and screaming out my Social Security number. Pretty funny. There were some intense moments during the next 2 hours. I had many moments of self doubt and Stephen and Nancy the doula were unbelievably supportive and helpful. I could not have done it without them...they were both truly amazing. I tried many different positions during transition, the best one for me was kneeling on the bed facing the wall and leaning over the back.  By 5pm I was fully dilated and ready to push. I never thought I was much of a moaner, but I was grunting and moaning and making sounds I've never heard before. I'm sure I was scaring people, but I had to go with it. It was almost out-of-body I could sort of see myself birthing and making these sounds but I was sort of removed from it  in a way. I pushed for 3 hrs, which was pretty tiring, but again  my cheerleaders  helped me, they kept me focused. The pushing part got easier towards the end because I would sometimes get a 2 min break between contractions were I could rest and I think I fell asleep in one of the breaks. I was getting closer and Stephen said he could see her head, the Dr. asked if I would like to have a mirror to watch, and I declined. I was focused on my pushing. Then little Luella Bird arrived. It was such a surreal moment when she came out and such a relief, I thought it would never happen after 3 hrs of pushing.  Luella had a good size head and when she finally emerged I was so happy. Her shoulders took another push and then the rest of her body. She was warm. They put her right on my chest and instantly I only felt happiness and  all the uncomfortable moments of labor were gone. She was so sweet and calm and wide-eyed alert. Stephen and I were ecstatic. We laughed and smiled and stared at our beautiful baby girl. We kissed each other and we kissed her. Luella nursed a little and sucked on Stephen’s finger.
The only snag was that my placenta did not detach, by this stage I was pretty much over being poked and prodded and very tired of pushing, I just wanted to close my legs and be with our little girl. The Dr. was getting more and more concerned as time went on (over 2 hours) and the placenta was still attached-apparently this can be very dangerous, and a common cause for maternal death-I could not handle any pushing on my uterus, it was very painful and it was not successful at expelling it. My choices at that point were to go under general anesthesia to remove it surgically, get an epidural, or get an IV with a cocktail of valium and some kind of amnesia drug. I chose option 3 and the doc removed it with his hand. I don't remember this part but Stephen said it was impossible to watch and that I was pleading with the Dr. to stop...I'm thankful I did not remember any of the pain of this procedure, but it was kind of ironic that I had to get an IV post delivery after a successful, drug free natural birth! We feel so lucky that we had such a fantastic Dr. and doula. I do not believe we could have done this without them. My family were in the waiting room and everyone came in to see and hold Luella.  It was an amazing experience- the most challenging and beautiful of my entire life. I can't stop raving about hypnobirthing and hypnobabies, the training helped me achieve the birth I had hoped for.