monkeydo
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- Jul 22, 2010
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The short version -
Jasper was born at 1:02pm 6lb 13oz after a hypnobirth at the birthing centre. He was born in the pool and I didn't have any intervention or medication. I had a retained placenta which was manually extracted again without medication. He is calm, happy and gorgeous!
The long version -
My waters broke at 10:00pm on Sunday 5th February. I had not had any signs at all that it might happen. I was 39+5 and convinced I would be overdue. That night I had spent about 2 hours rocking on my birth ball. I had some mild surges during tea time but nothing more that I had been having for the last week.
I was sitting on the sofa reading when I felt a “pop” sensation down low. I knew straight away it was my waters, but when I stood up nothing happened so I managed to get to the toilet before I felt anything. There was only a gradual trickle, but it was definitely waters because unlike a wee I had no control over it. I put a pad on and carried on reading. There was continuous dripping but no big “gush” like I was expecting. I decided to go to bed and get some sleep, but then I had a read of my hypnobirthing book which said to contact your caregiver if your waters had broken but you weren't having contractions. I phoned the hospital who said I should go in so they could check it was my waters. In hindsight, I think I should have stayed at home and given things a chance to start off properly, but I did what I was told.
We went to the maternity assessment unit and had to wait for almost an hour to be seen. The midwife just checked my pad, said it was my waters and then explained in great detail what would happen if I hadn't started having contractions within the next 24 hours. She booked me in for induction at 10pm on Monday. I started visualising my uterus contracting and the baby moving down to encourage labour to start.
We got home around midnight. I went to bed and put on the positive birth affirmations. Within an hour I felt my first surge, it was nothing like the ones I'd been having the last few days, it was much more “muscular” and I suddenly understood how the uterus was going to work to move baby down. I tried to carry on sleeping but found that I was not comfortable lying down. I left Karl asleep so he would have all the energy possible, and went downstairs. I drank some raspberry leaf tea and put on my Steven Halpern relaxation music CD. I turned on my scented oil diffuser which has soft coloured lights which gradually change. I sat in the dark and focused on the coloured lights and felt the surges getting more regular and intense. I used the blue satin ribbons visualisation which really helped. I didn't specifically use surge breathing at this stage, I just kept my breathing very deep and regular.
At 7am I asked Karl to phone the birth centre as my surges were every 3 minutes lasting 40 seconds each. The midwife said we could come in.
We got to the birth centre and met our midwife Mary who was so lovely. I was talking between surges, laughing and joking, but I had to focus on my breathing during the surges. Mary said she would examine me and when she went out to get something I did have a moment when I lost focus on my body and was thinking about the internal, which made me anxious. I started to cry because I was worried I was going to be sent home because I had ages to go. Karl refocused me and told me that my body would do what it needed to and we would get there when we needed to. Mary checked me and I was 4 ½ cms dilated and she could feel baby's head. She said she was surprised I was so far gone given my presentation. She went to fill up the pool for me. After the internal the surges became much more intense and regular and I had to really focus through them, but they were fully manageable.
I got in the pool at 9:00am. The relief from intensity was immediate. Karl put the Steven Halpern CD on and I focused on relaxing and breathing. I spent 95% of the time on my hands and knees. A cold flannel was my best friend, it was so soothing on my head and the back of my neck. Karl was amazing at helping me refocus when I lost it, which did happen a few times. The main reason for losing focus was when I looked at the clock which was above the pool, and time seemed to be moving really slowly, I kept saying nothing was happening yet. Karl reminded me that every surge was bringing our baby closer to us.
I got the feeling that the baby was moving down at about 11:30am. I felt the need to push and for a couple of surges I did what I thought I was meant to do which was properly push into my bottom. I found this surprisingly painful and unpleasant. It felt counterproductive. At the next surge I tried “J breathing” instead and this was so much better. I'm so glad I practised this everytime I had a bowel movement in the last 3 months, because it felt quite natural. I continued in this way until around 12:30pm. At some points I had to be reminded to losen my jaw because I was tensing up which was stopping my progress. As soon as I relaxed things continued to move forward. From this stage I did actively push into my bottom, but it felt right and I could feel it was effective. The midwife did not interfere unless I asked her questions. I changed position to leaning back on my hands with my pelvis wide open and my bum off the ground, the water supported this position well and it took the pressure off my bum. When baby's head began to crown I think I lost focus because I did feel very uncomfortable and I think I made a lot of noise. Karl was refocusing me and reminded me to breathe between surges so I only got a 1st degree tear which I elected not to have sutured. Jasper was born at 1:02pm into the water. He was wide awake and alert. The lights were very dim so he had his eyes wide open from the start. We had skin to skin for 30 minutes and he had a feed.
My placenta would not detach, I elected not to have the injection in my birth plan but after an hour agreed to it, this did not help and I was transferred to the delivery ward where an hour and a half later, around 4pm, an obstetrician said I would need surgery to get it out which would involve an epidural and an overnight stay. She agreed to try manual extraction first which involved massaging my tummy very rigorously and pulling the cord whilst I pushed with all my strength. I visualised the placenta detaching and gave it all my energy. I relaxed my jaw and breathed deeply and properly and thankfully it came away. I did not take any pain relief for this either and the obstetrician was surprised and impressed.
I went back to the birth centre to bond with Jasper as Karl had held him for the last 3 or so hours, we were discharged by 6pm and home by 6:30.
Jasper is on the whole a very relaxed baby, he is very alert during his awake time and is so strong.
I would recommend hypnobirthing to anyone. I signed up because I was so scared of birthing but it totally changed my mindset and I had a short labour with no pain medication and although it was hard work I did not feel I needed any intervention. It was such an empowering experience and I feel that I went through it working with Karl and my baby so we formed a really strong family bond during the birth.
Jasper was born at 1:02pm 6lb 13oz after a hypnobirth at the birthing centre. He was born in the pool and I didn't have any intervention or medication. I had a retained placenta which was manually extracted again without medication. He is calm, happy and gorgeous!
The long version -
My waters broke at 10:00pm on Sunday 5th February. I had not had any signs at all that it might happen. I was 39+5 and convinced I would be overdue. That night I had spent about 2 hours rocking on my birth ball. I had some mild surges during tea time but nothing more that I had been having for the last week.
I was sitting on the sofa reading when I felt a “pop” sensation down low. I knew straight away it was my waters, but when I stood up nothing happened so I managed to get to the toilet before I felt anything. There was only a gradual trickle, but it was definitely waters because unlike a wee I had no control over it. I put a pad on and carried on reading. There was continuous dripping but no big “gush” like I was expecting. I decided to go to bed and get some sleep, but then I had a read of my hypnobirthing book which said to contact your caregiver if your waters had broken but you weren't having contractions. I phoned the hospital who said I should go in so they could check it was my waters. In hindsight, I think I should have stayed at home and given things a chance to start off properly, but I did what I was told.
We went to the maternity assessment unit and had to wait for almost an hour to be seen. The midwife just checked my pad, said it was my waters and then explained in great detail what would happen if I hadn't started having contractions within the next 24 hours. She booked me in for induction at 10pm on Monday. I started visualising my uterus contracting and the baby moving down to encourage labour to start.
We got home around midnight. I went to bed and put on the positive birth affirmations. Within an hour I felt my first surge, it was nothing like the ones I'd been having the last few days, it was much more “muscular” and I suddenly understood how the uterus was going to work to move baby down. I tried to carry on sleeping but found that I was not comfortable lying down. I left Karl asleep so he would have all the energy possible, and went downstairs. I drank some raspberry leaf tea and put on my Steven Halpern relaxation music CD. I turned on my scented oil diffuser which has soft coloured lights which gradually change. I sat in the dark and focused on the coloured lights and felt the surges getting more regular and intense. I used the blue satin ribbons visualisation which really helped. I didn't specifically use surge breathing at this stage, I just kept my breathing very deep and regular.
At 7am I asked Karl to phone the birth centre as my surges were every 3 minutes lasting 40 seconds each. The midwife said we could come in.
We got to the birth centre and met our midwife Mary who was so lovely. I was talking between surges, laughing and joking, but I had to focus on my breathing during the surges. Mary said she would examine me and when she went out to get something I did have a moment when I lost focus on my body and was thinking about the internal, which made me anxious. I started to cry because I was worried I was going to be sent home because I had ages to go. Karl refocused me and told me that my body would do what it needed to and we would get there when we needed to. Mary checked me and I was 4 ½ cms dilated and she could feel baby's head. She said she was surprised I was so far gone given my presentation. She went to fill up the pool for me. After the internal the surges became much more intense and regular and I had to really focus through them, but they were fully manageable.
I got in the pool at 9:00am. The relief from intensity was immediate. Karl put the Steven Halpern CD on and I focused on relaxing and breathing. I spent 95% of the time on my hands and knees. A cold flannel was my best friend, it was so soothing on my head and the back of my neck. Karl was amazing at helping me refocus when I lost it, which did happen a few times. The main reason for losing focus was when I looked at the clock which was above the pool, and time seemed to be moving really slowly, I kept saying nothing was happening yet. Karl reminded me that every surge was bringing our baby closer to us.
I got the feeling that the baby was moving down at about 11:30am. I felt the need to push and for a couple of surges I did what I thought I was meant to do which was properly push into my bottom. I found this surprisingly painful and unpleasant. It felt counterproductive. At the next surge I tried “J breathing” instead and this was so much better. I'm so glad I practised this everytime I had a bowel movement in the last 3 months, because it felt quite natural. I continued in this way until around 12:30pm. At some points I had to be reminded to losen my jaw because I was tensing up which was stopping my progress. As soon as I relaxed things continued to move forward. From this stage I did actively push into my bottom, but it felt right and I could feel it was effective. The midwife did not interfere unless I asked her questions. I changed position to leaning back on my hands with my pelvis wide open and my bum off the ground, the water supported this position well and it took the pressure off my bum. When baby's head began to crown I think I lost focus because I did feel very uncomfortable and I think I made a lot of noise. Karl was refocusing me and reminded me to breathe between surges so I only got a 1st degree tear which I elected not to have sutured. Jasper was born at 1:02pm into the water. He was wide awake and alert. The lights were very dim so he had his eyes wide open from the start. We had skin to skin for 30 minutes and he had a feed.
My placenta would not detach, I elected not to have the injection in my birth plan but after an hour agreed to it, this did not help and I was transferred to the delivery ward where an hour and a half later, around 4pm, an obstetrician said I would need surgery to get it out which would involve an epidural and an overnight stay. She agreed to try manual extraction first which involved massaging my tummy very rigorously and pulling the cord whilst I pushed with all my strength. I visualised the placenta detaching and gave it all my energy. I relaxed my jaw and breathed deeply and properly and thankfully it came away. I did not take any pain relief for this either and the obstetrician was surprised and impressed.
I went back to the birth centre to bond with Jasper as Karl had held him for the last 3 or so hours, we were discharged by 6pm and home by 6:30.
Jasper is on the whole a very relaxed baby, he is very alert during his awake time and is so strong.
I would recommend hypnobirthing to anyone. I signed up because I was so scared of birthing but it totally changed my mindset and I had a short labour with no pain medication and although it was hard work I did not feel I needed any intervention. It was such an empowering experience and I feel that I went through it working with Karl and my baby so we formed a really strong family bond during the birth.
I'm so glad it went well for you!
).
