Hypnobabies hypnosis for child birth that really works

My due date came and went…Even though I was working with a midwife group, I was still concerned that I may have to be induced. So I took action. I ordered the Hypnobabies Baby Come Out CD and got it within a day (thank you Sooze – my Hypnobabies instructor). I booked an appointment with a chiropractor that my Doula, Elena, recommended. Meanwhile, the midwife group advised me to have appointments to monitor my baby’s movements and water levels.

I listened to my Baby Come Out CD and my Hypnobabies Fear Release CD’s a few times over the weekend. That Tuesday, which was exactly 41 weeks, I had an appointment with one of the midwifes. I asked her to measure my cervix opening. She said I was at 1 centimeter. This was encouraging. Later that evening, I had an appointment with the chiropractor who specializes in working with pregnant women. While at the chiropractor’s office, I went to the restroom, I started having pressure waves

(contractions). I explained to the Dr, only do a mild treatment, because I think I am on my way to having this baby. They gave me a wonderful massage and a small adjustment. It was starting…

In the car, on the way home, it was confirmed. I had several pressure waves. My husband, Steve, and I practiced my Hypnobabies scripts in the car. That evening the pressure waves became more regular. With each wave, I would use the “finger drop” technique to relax (the finger drop technique is a way to instantly hypnotize yourself). I had practiced the hypnosis for the previous 2 months every single day. We put on some classical music and my Hypnobabies relaxation music. We monitored the pressure waves. We talked to our Doula, Elena, at about 9pm and she said to see if we can make it through the night.

Things progressed and by about midnight, the pressure waves were around 6-8 minutes apart. I felt a little sick to my stomach. My husband brought me a cut up banana. Then I took a shower. I have always been a “water person” taking long

leisurely showers and baths. I thought water would be my friend during my birthing time…but no, neither the food nor a shower helped. I threw up the banana and the shower gave me the chills. My husband called Elena and he tells her “Thea just threw up”. She replied “Good, she’s in labor”. She came over at 1am.

She told my husband to go to sleep so he will be able to drive in the morning. She and I stayed up all night together. The beauty of pressure waves is tha tyou have time between each one to relax and gear up for the next one. Also, between waves we were chatting about all kinds of things. I just laid in my bed propped up by pillows. With each wave, I would say my scripts to myself to relax and get through them, “Deeper and deeper with every exhale…”. By 6 the next morning, the waves were pretty regular, around 5 minutes apart. Since I was birthing at UCLA medical center, it was about a 40 minute drive and could be much worse if there was morning rush hour traffic.

We decided to head over before traffic got too bad. The car ride was not fun especially during pressure waves. Again, I would self hypnotize, but the pressure was intense in the car. I also listened to “My birthing day” CD which helped to keep me calm. I am glad we went early because a car ride later may have been very uncomfortable. Also, since I was giving birth with a midwife team, they assured me I could have the birthing time as long as I want. I know some hospitals or doctors want you to deliver within a certain amount of time. Having that freedom was important to me. That is why I chose to deliver at UCLA – they did not let me down – I was very pleased with my experience. When we got to the hospital, they put me in a wheelchair and took me to labor and delivery. It was nice to relax in the wheelchair.

At the hospital…

I was very happy to see Shadman, one of the midwifes when we arrived. They took my blood pressure and checked my cervix. The good news was that I was 4 centimeters dilated, the bad news was that my blood pressure was up. They gave me some grape juice and took it again, it went down a little. My blood pressure was fine for the rest of the day (but they still had to check it regularly which kind of annoyed me). We got a room right away. It was nice and spacious.

They hooked me up with the heparin lock for the IV. I had tested positive for Strep B so I had to have antibiotics every few hours. Originally, I was going to decline the hep-lock, but since I tested positive for Strep B, I had to have it. Anyway, it turned out to be a good thing because I needed fluids since I couldn’t eat or drink. Not that they were restricting

me from eating or drinking (I had a whole bag of food and drinks to keep me going), but I couldn’t keep anything down. I felt fine as long as I wasn’t eating or drinking. Everyone was so nice, the nurses and the midwife. They switched shifts at 8am, so now Polly was the midwife I was working with. I was really pleased with my team.

Opening up…

From about 8 in the morning until 3pm, my cervix slowly opened. We listened to music. I didn’t really feel like listening to my Hypnobabies CD’s. I know they would have helped, but I felt good without them and letting things progress naturally and using the self hypnosis worked fine (I had been so dedicated the past few months that I knew the CD’s pretty well). Sometimes, I would “ohm” during the waves to experiment on what worked best for me – “ohming my baby out” was a nice way to relax, too. Steve gave me big hugs during the pressure waves. Sometimes I would lean on our exercise ball as I hypnotized myself. As the day progressed, I knew with each wave that I would be closer to seeing my baby which was comforting. My body felt a little stiff maybe because of the chiropractor from the day before (or maybe because I was having a baby). I had been doing birthing exercises everyday and yoga 2-3 times per week, I thought I would belimber and squatting. Unfortunately, I was stiff and as the day went on, I felt like I had a bowel movement coming, it was the baby coming down. At about 3pm, I felt a warm

gush of fluid, I knew instantly that it was my water that broke. We all thought, baby will be here by 5:30 or so…not so fast.

Stalled….

I was exhausted. My body was ready, but I wasn’t. I was also nervous about how I was going to push this baby out. Up until this point, I felt very competent about my Hypnobabies training. The hypnosis was great for relaxing me and letting my body open while only feeling pressure. The idea was to breathe your baby out. I remember reading in my Hypnobabies book, that you can choose to use the hypnosis or not. At this point, I guess you could say I chose not to. It may just been psychological, I needed to believe that I could push my baby out. I did not listen to my pushing baby out CD, I decided to go for it with the help of my Doula and Midwife. But as I said, I was nervous about this last final step. The pressure from my team grew as did the crowd. I purposely only invited my husband and my Doula to support me. Then there were 2 nurses because one was training the other one. Then since it was almost 5pm, the midwives were changing shifts and there 2 of them all excited to help me push the baby out. The result was I had an audience and did I mention that I was exhausted?

Susan, the evening/night midwife, was exactly what I needed to get things going. She was confident, positive and challenged me. She stated in a matter of fact way “you are not ready to have this baby, you are not pushing hard enough”. She was right, I could not feel my pressure waves and the crowd made me feel like uncomfortable. Susan recommended that I get a dose of pitocin to “get things going”. I was horrified because I had a negative view of pitocin because you usually hear about it being used when someone is not dilated to induce labor.

The nurses changed shifts and now there was only1 for the evening. Steve and I tried to get things going and then a walk around the hospital. It was about 5:30pm, we caught up with Elena, our Doula, who said “okay, you have a few choices, (1) You can breathe baby out (which we were concerned would take all night and did I mention I was exhausted?), (2) You can take the pitocin and push the baby out as soon as possible, or (3) You can get a C-section.” Let me clarify, no one had suggested C-section, but we were all concerned that if things didn’t progress, it may come to that. We discussed how the situation was right for the pitocin (my bishop’s score was where it needed to be), I was fully dilated so it would not create any pain, it would just strengthen my contractions. I decided to go for it and get the pitocin. Normally, my Doula is not a big fan of pitocin, but in this situation it was the right thing to do and it worked out well.

Pushing baby out…

They didn’t get the pitocin going until about 8pm. The nurse seemed to have some challenges, but that was okay, it gave me time to mentally prepare. One of the things I thought about to prepare was that I would visualize my vagina opening. I remember reading in Ina May Gaskin’s book that your vagina will stretch large enough to deliver a baby, the BIG secret is that you must visualize it. I have to say these last couple of hours did include focus and intense work, but they were very exciting and fun. I knew with each pressure wave, that we would see Isabel and it was so close. As soon as Susan, the midwife, came into the room I said, “Let’s get this baby out”. Susan’s response was “Okay, now you are ready to be a Mom.” She said that she hadn’t seen that enthusiasm from me before.

The pitocin and Susan were what I needed to get my baby out. She was a great coach. The audience and support team were smaller: Elena, Susan, Steve and the Nurse. A doctor/intern came in for the last few minutes. The pitocin gave me the energy to push. In between the pressure waves, Susan and Elena were having the best conversation. They were like old friends catching up. It was light hearted and fun. I remember them all trying to hold back my legs because whenever they said push, I would push my legs and everything, but they only wanted me to push the baby. We would all laugh because I couldn’t help but push with my legs, too. The pressure waves were so nicely paced, it gave me time to relax and get my energy focused for the next one. Steve was such a positive coach, too. He would say what a great job I was doing and he never left my side

the entire day!

My only disappointment was that Isabel did have some stress during her birth because there was meconium. I believe this is when the baby has a bowel movement while in delivering, it is a dark green color. When this happens, the hospital has a team, Steve nicknamed them “The Baby Pit Crew”. There were 3 doctors that arrived before Isabel made her appearance. Isabel was fine. The reason I was disappointed was because we wanted the umbilical cord to pulsate and then have Steve cut it, but because of the stress on little Isabel, the doctors wanted to check her out so they cut the cord instead. This was a very minor disappointment in the scheme of things.

I was also very pleased with Susan during the delivery. Every time I pushed, she applied pressure to keep my vaginal area from tearing. I did get 2 tiny little tears, but they were very minor. It took a total of 2 hours, but of course I only pushed every 4 minutes or so for about 1 minute.

She arrived…

At 10:30pm, I heard a loud cry and there was my baby. Everyone was commenting on her beautiful raspberry lips. The baby pit crew examined her and then they brought her back to me. I immediately breastfed her, she stayed on the breast for at least 20 minutes. She was so sweet and calm. She was 7 pounds 11 ounces and measured 21 inches (bigger than we thought). Steve was such a wonderful support. We were so happy to have our angel baby. Elena was such a great support, Steve and I were so pleased and thankful for her enthusiasm and insight.

Commentary…

When you give birth, things don’t always go as you expect. You have to be ready to go with the flow. Visualize your beautiful birth, but also be flexible. Some things I imagined that did not work for me were taking warm showers, eating snacks, drinking Gatorade or juice and doing squats. Other things were better than I hoped, like the hospital staff – they were so helpful. I also thought I would deliver the baby in a non-traditional position to minimize tearing, but instead chose to be on the bed. I think the bed was in more of an upright position, but I was still on my back.

I took Hypnobabies Classes, prenatal yoga classes 2 times/week, walked for 30 minutes at least 3 times/week and did perineal massage for about 1 month before the birth. The yoga and walking made my body feel normal and worked out any tight areas – some of the trainings in Lisa’s class were great mental preparation for pressure waves. By the way, I hated doing the perineal massage, but knew it would help me stretch and minimize tearing. I also had an easy prenatal yoga video that I did often.

I read Ina May’s book on Natural Childbirth, Henci Goer’s Thinking Woman’s Guide to Childbirth, and I read positive birth stories. One of the best aspects of Hypnobabies is their positive affirmations CD’s which keep your mind on track. I also did not allow anyone to tell me their negative birth stories nor did I watch any TV or movies about childbirth. I would tell people, “I am sorry, it is part of my training not to hear negative birth stories, you can tell me after I give birth to my baby” (of course they would forget). If you are planning to have a natural childbirth, I would highly recommend hiring a Doula (they do not replace your husband or partner, they compliment them).

I must admit that prior to my birthing day, I was not fully convinced that the hypnosis would work. Or that I could do it without an epidural. What I did to reconcile these thoughts was to have a great birthing team and make sure I practiced my Hypnobabies no matter what. I also told myself, even if there is pain, it is only one day of my life. I can get through it. I looked at it like it was a marathon (not that I have ever run one), but this was the biggest day of my life. I knew that even if the hypnosis did not entirely eliminate the pain, that it was a technique I could use to at least reduce it. In the end, the hypnosis

was amazingly calming and I did not miss the epidural at all! One thing that Elena had said during one of our first meetings is that whatever you expect your birth to be, is what it will be. So I was very positive about it.

Having a natural childbirth was a wonderful experience for me. It was important to me to preserve and respect my own body and to bring my baby into the world in a safe way. Many had warned me, some supported and inspired me, but ultimately it was what I wanted. With Hypnobabies, Steve became educated and was my biggest supporter! Delivering at UCLA with the Midwives and having a Doula made it possible. Thank you to everyone who inspired and supported me!

~ Thea Rae Lewis