Many moms who have discovered the wonderful news that they are pregnant with twins begin to get mixed messages right from the start of their pregnancies about the safest way to give birth to their babies. It seems the best route for twin delivery is a subject of ongoing debate, with many physicians leaning towards automatic Cesarean Section as the direction of choice. Surgery however, is not necessary in many cases of twin pregnancy and for expectant parents who do their own research, vaginal birthing in the optimum circumstances has many benefits for the babies and the mother.
The latest report on this subject appeared in the February, 2010 issue of the medical journal Obstetrics & Gynecology . The report concludes that active management during second-stage labor facilitates vaginal delivery of twins.
"Vaginal delivery for twins is a safe and reasonable option, even in the setting of a non-cephalic presenting second twin," lead author Dr. Nathan S. Fox from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, told Reuters Health.
"Active management" included breech extraction of a non-cephalic twin (baby leading with a part other than the head) and internal version of a non-engaged cephalic twin followed by breech extraction. Dr. Fox and his colleagues note that in their group, the two senior obstetricians had formal training in internal version during their residencies, and these two trained the others.
Out of 287 twin pregnancies in their practice between 2005 and 2009, 157 were scheduled for caesarean section. The current article reports the outcomes of attempted vaginal delivery in the remaining 130 women and compares them to results in the caesarean group.
Rates of the primary outcome - 5-minute Apgar scores below 7 for twin B - were low overall and were not significantly different between the groups. Apgar score is a measure of the newborn’s well-being and is estimated twice; at 1 and 5 minutes of life. The highest score is 10.
In addition, there were no significant differences in rates of arterial cord blood pH values below 7.20 for either twin.
Twenty women (15.4%) had a Cesarean delivery in labor. The remaining 110 (84.6%) delivered both twins vaginally. No one who had vaginal delivery of twin A had a caesarean delivery for twin B, although twin B required breech extraction in 77 cases (70%).
Only one infant was injured during breech extraction. This baby had a fractured humerus (bone in the upper arm) during reduction of a nuchal arm, but without any permanent injury.
Compared to women who had Cesarean section in labor, women with successful vaginal deliveries were younger and more likely to have had a prior vaginal delivery.
5/20/2010 - My Twin Home Water Birthing with Hypnobabies:
My name is Faith and I’m 28 years old. My journey with home birthing began a few years ago, but this was my first birth using Hypnobabies. I previously had all three of my children at home, using a birthing pool. It was exquisite, and I always loved the idea of the warm water bringing such a comfort to my body as I was allowed to move through my birthing times in the comfort and safety of my own home. All three of the pregnancies progressed with very few, if any, complications, as did all of the deliveries. My babies were perfectly healthy, I always recovered quickly, and nursing was able to begin immediately. However, I always had a difficult time “staying in front” of my birthing waves, as I’m sure most naturally-birthing moms can attest to.
With my most recent pregnancy, I really wanted to find something that would help me to get into and stay in that place of relaxation. I knew it would take practice, and I didn’t want any of the fears of childbirth to cause me to lose my focus again. This being the case, I searched and searched until I came across Hypnobabies. I loved what I saw, but I will admit that I was a little skeptical of what I saw at first. Could I really trust MY mind to relax and force my body into hypnosis? Would I be able to overcome the powerful birthing waves for which I had three very vividly and painfully imprinted memories in my subconscious? I am no stranger to what birth feels like. But I certainly didn’t have anything to lose, and I knew I was planning a home birth anyway, so why not at least TRY?
I ordered my Hypnobabies CDs well ahead of my delivery date, giving myself five full months to practice. I figured I would need the time to get used to the idea of relaxation, and I had a four-year old, a three-year old, and a 2 year-old to take care of and knew finding the time to relax without interruption during the day would be very difficult. I remained optimistic. I faithfully listened to all my CDs – generally, I would listen to the assigned weekly excerpts with the birthing affirmations every other day instead of every day. Doing it this way, I was able to take two full weeks for each of the five lessons. I really enjoyed my relaxation sessions every day. I looked forward to this nap time that I would get, and I was dealing with an unbelievable amount of exhaustion. I was reassured that this birth experience was going to be better than any of my other ones and I was actually starting to look forward to my birthing time.
Fast forward to the 18th week of pregnancy. I was going in for an ultrasound to determine the sex of my baby. The ultrasound technician put her wand on my stomach, and immediately two little heads were visible on the screen. I was going to have TWINS! It thrilled me to the core, and the fear one would expect to have with such a prospect quickly dissipated as I realized my Hypnobabies training would still work with this delivery. I believed it in the core of my being that I would still be able to have my natural home birthing with both of them and that there would be no complications. I ordered the Twins Affirmations and Birthing My Twins Naturally MP3s and began to listen to them on an almost daily basis. Nothing really changed with my Hypnobabies routine, except I begin to realize that I would need the ability to relax more than ever, since there are more complications that can happen with any twin birthing. I constantly spoke the truth to myself about my body, my ability to birth, the health of my babies, the delivery being smooth.
Of course, my husband and I had to really guard ourselves from negativity – it’s unbelievable the sense of doom that is forced onto twin pregnancy. Everywhere I searched online, every doctor I spoke to, and many of our friends thought we were ridiculous to go for natural birth, let alone home birth. So I stopped reading stuff online, I stopped reading “what to expect with your twins” types of materials, and started to trust my instincts and continue to feed positive statements to my spirit. I was calm and welcoming of my birthing day. Towards the very end of the pregnancy, I had another ultrasound to confirm the positions of the babies. Bearing in mind that I had been visualizing my babies both being head down and speaking to them every day, getting regular chiropractic care, watching my posture, and exercising daily, I did not expect a negative report from the doctor.
Baby A was in the vertex position, but Baby B was transverse. I had done everything right, so how could this be? I was going to be given one week to wait and see if the babies would both turn and cooperate, and if that didn’t happen, I would be allowed to delivery Baby A vaginally, but would most likely have to have Baby B via c-section. Of course, this was devastating to me. I almost threw out my Hypnobabies stuff because I felt that I had been let down and that it wasn’t going to work for me to have my beautiful birthing experience after all. We decided to take that week to pray, speak to the babies, and let birth begin on its own.
The day of my birthing came when I was just about 37 weeks, 3 days short of my “determining ultrasound”. Full-term for twins! We had hired an out of state midwife who was very familiar with all types of twins deliveries, including breech and transverse inversions. My birthing waves started at about midnight. They came every seven minutes, and though they didn’t get very intense or closer together, I was able to sleep most of the night. When I was checked in the morning, it was discovered that I had reached 6 centimeters during the night. I was so happy that it had gone so smoothly and had been pain-free. I listened to my Hypnobabies affirmations over and over, trusting that Baby B was going to turn (at this point, he was still transverse, but I visualized him being born naturally). The birthing time progressed as my three daughters woke up and had breakfast. It still was not painful or intense, and I started to get frustrated that the birthing waves were still about seven minutes apart. Then I began to accept that this birthing time would be long, but I should be fine with it because it was comfortable.
My husband and I walked outside, I sat on my birth ball, and we transferred in and out of the tub several times. I kept my lightswitch (Hypnobabies technique) in center for most of the birth because there were many interruptions from the midwives to stay informed about the well-being of the babies. The most helpful Hypnobabies statement for me was “I welcome these birthing waves” and “no matter how intense or powerful my birthing waves become, I and my babies are safe”. It helped especially during my transformation (transition). I was in the birthing pool with my husband speaking affirmations directly into my ear. I welcomed my baby forth, and pushed her out with one big gush. It was beautiful and she was perfect. I quickly had to get myself back into the moment, though, because I was not yet finished!
The next two hours were more difficult. Despite my best intentions to use Hypnobabies to deepen my hypnosis, I simply could not get around the anxiety about the position and safe birthing of Baby B. I knew I was putting every bit of my trust in God to deliver this baby safely. He had a hard time descending into my pelvis and was lying sideways until the very end. I was given four shots of Pitocin to get my uterus to continue to push him down, which did not help with the relaxation factor. It took him quite awhile to cooperate. During this time, I got out of the pool and leaned on my husband, who continued to speak comforting affirmations to me. My doula kept her hands on my hips, giving me counter-pressure to relieve pain in my back. I knew this was going to require every ounce of strength and belief in my body.
Daddy continued to speak to his son to come forth, to listen to his words, know that he was loved and wanted in this world, and that we really wanted to hold him. With that proclamation from his dad, my son pushed his foot through the birth canal. He was going to be born footling breech in the posterior position. My midwives had me on my hands and knees, and after the second foot came down, it was only a few moments before his little body started to come out. I won’t lie when I say this was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. However, it would have been so much more difficult if I didn’t have the Hypnobabies mantra going over and over in my head. I CAN do this. My body was created for this. I welcome this baby. Every wave brings my baby closer to my arms. All of it helped me to deliver that baby. Finally, his head was born, and I started weeping with relief. It was over, and I had conquered the worst of my fears. He was healthy and began crying right away. Both my son and daughter were over 6 pounds, which was amazing.
Though my birth experience did not end up being exactly the way I had visualized it, I am thankful that I had the most important aspects of my birthing plan. For them to be born at home and to be healthy was such a blessing. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience, considering all the factors that could have worked completely against me. I didn’t have the anxiety I had in previous births, and this was by far the most complicated and difficult birth I had. My fourth and fifth children are here now. They are 10 days old, nursing vigorously, and my body is recovering remarkably well. I did not tear, I did not hemorrhage, and my babies were born in safety and peace, if a lot of hustle and bustle. Thank you Hypnobabies for helping me get my mind and heart in the right place before giving birth. A pregnancy that most surely would have ended in an emergency c-section has ended right where it needed to…at home with God and my husband leading the way.
~ Faith
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Twin Mom’s Hypnobabies birth story, told by her doula:
This is a twins mom who has a platelet disorder. She was not allowed an epidural with her first baby but didn't really feel that she needed one anyway. She was looking to be more calm and comfortable for this recent pregnancy though and took Hypnobabies. She had her twins a few weeks ago at 38 weeks (after beginning the birthing prematurely at 24 weeks and being on hospital bedrest until 34 weeks, she listened to the Hypnobabies "Baby Stay In" Cd a LOT!) and was so relaxed and comfortable that she was sleeping peacefully at 6 cm during the birth. A nurse came in and said "Are you DROOLING?!" The mom thought that was pretty funny.
The babies were born healthy, one vertex and one breech and the breech needed just a few hours of NICU time to evaluate a genetic disorder that they already knew she had. The mom told me just how thrilled she and her husband were with their experience with Hypnobabies! :)
I just love hearing great birth stories, so I thought I'd share. :)
Track # 1 - Birthing My Twins Naturally is a deep hypnosis session with many enhancements: bringing your babies’ movements into your hypnosis session as deepening and comfort techniques, suggestions for carrying your twins to full term, and your babies *both* being head down and in the perfect position for an easy, comfortable, vaginal twin birthing. There are many confidence building suggestions and cues for you to use as you prepare for your babies' entrance into the world, including a visualization of the birth itself, and one for being much more comfortable and relaxed throughout your twin pregnancy.
Track # 2- Twin Birthing Affirmations. This wonderful track has no hypnosis inductions - it was designed for you to be able to play it anytime - in your car, while falling asleep at night, during the day…. at any quiet time. The purpose of affirmations of any kind is to keep positive, affirming statements coming in from the outside, at the same time deep hypnotic suggestions are training your inner mind with a new belief system (track # 1). Affirmations neutralize any negative thoughts, comments or influences that you may be exposed to on a daily basis, allowing your confidence level to increase every day, which is *so* important as you prepare for your babies' vaginal twin births.
We also have an excellent hypnosis track for addressing Pre-Term Labor so that your babies will have a better chance of being born full-term: Baby Stay IN!
STOP Pre-Term labor in its tracks!
Excellent for anyone experiencing Pre-Term Labor, our Baby Stay IN hypnosis session brings you deeply into hypnosis and calms down uterine activity, has suggestions for keeping the cervix closed until at least 37 weeks gestation, (or until it is safest for baby to come out) and allows you to communicate with your unborn baby, programming your inner mind and your little one to work together to keep the baby safe and healthy until it is safe for him/her to be born.
Our Baby, Stay IN track has helped many expectant moms to enjoy a full term pregnancy, even with a history of several pre-term births. Your mind controls your body completely and in hypnosis, can create for you wonderful physical changes that positively affect your pregnancy and birth!
(Also available as an MP3 Track, for instant delivery)
