My daughter loves to hear stories at bedtime. Recently she’s been asking for stories/recaps of recent events. I was surprised and delighted when she recently began asking me to tell her the story of when her baby sister was born; a birth she witnessed. She smiles as I recount the events that lead up to the birth, when she discovered she had a little sister (we decided not to find out ahead of time). She adores her baby sister, as does her little brother. She loves hearing the story; we both love it, so I thought I’d share it with you, albeit a longer version but also a fuller one. Take some time, sit down, relax and hopefully enjoy reading the birth as much as I enjoyed experiencing it. Mahalo!
Once upon a time…
I sat on our couch with my mother and husband when I began to feel my first twinge. I had acupuncture that night, not to induce but to get my body ready. I smiled at the sensation and shared the news. I didn’t yet chalk it up to labor as my body had begun warming up for weeks. Around 12 a.m I felt some more twinges; I decided to head to bed. I would need the rest, especially if this birth was as long as my first two (23-27 hours). Around 2 a.m. I could no longer sleep and walked around the house, tidying, breathing and then finally waking my husband a couple hours later to let him know I was fairly certain this was the beginning of our birth journey.
Around 6 a.m. I felt the surges increasing in strength and length. I played my HypnoBirthing tracks, woke my mom up to let her know and started the bath. She was ready to head back to bed, figuring it was still early, until she heard the water running. We chatted about this birth progressing, her feeling it was early, but me feeling I was farther along, much farther, sooner, than my other two births. My husband and mother timed the surges to see if they were getting closer together, to confirm what I knew, I was indeed in real labor. My mother lovingly stayed by me, doing hip compressions as I had a bit of back labor/sore back. I slipped into the tub, had my hypnosis tracks, ocean waves and birth music played. My husband stayed near the tub, doing a few hypnotic suggestions here and there as I laid back and breathed with the surges and relaxed in between. I had given myself hypnotic suggestions during my labor about relaxing as labor progressed and indeed I did! In between the intensity of the surges I would be utterly and completely relaxed. It helped to float in the water and watch the full moon from the window near my tub. In between surges I relaxed, chatted, stayed hydrated and smiled. This was it, my baby was coming soon!
We called the midwife, who felt it was still early after talking to me, but agreed to slowly make her way over. By the time she came I was already 6 cm dilated, less then 2 hours later I began to feel my body work on releasing the baby. I watched the full moon go from being embraced by the dark, to welcoming the light and soon, my baby. With the light, my body released the water that held my baby; very soon after, I began to really breath down my baby. There was no pain, just focus, sensation and intensity. My 2nd baby’s birthing stage was very quick so after awhile of birth breathing the midwife checked and discovered there was still 1 cm left to dilate. No wonder I thought, as I had expected to already meet my baby.
My flash of frustration turned to focus as I took some arnica, changed position and breathed through the birth surges, allowing that last cm to dilate before bearing down once more. After a couple surges, I felt my baby would arrive soon; I called my daughter back in the room (she was there when the baby began to descend but had left for a bit). After a surge, I explained to her what mommy was doing and how the sounds mommy made helped bring baby down (low vocalizing can help with moving baby…this is a instinctual, releasing vs yelling/screaming). My birth music played and I smiled.
Then the room quieted, right before the baby made her entrance. I felt her move down me, felt her body, felt her head, felt life coming through me. I was excited and happy, yet focused, I would meet my baby soon! A few birth breaths later, my baby emerged into the water. My husband received her and she was quickly put on my chest. Upon announcing it was a girl, my daughter squealed with delight, ‘I have a baby sister!’….She had her sister and I had my 2nd baby girl and 2nd beautiful water birth. Her little brother came in the room shortly after, excited, albeit perhaps a little disappointed it wasn’t a baby boy.
In the end, the birth was a family celebration, a celebration of life.….What a blessing, a beautiful birthright, to be able to bring life into this world, with my family around me. I loved my birth; it wasn’t necessarily because it was quick (9 hours), and fairly smooth, but because it was peaceful and beautiful and relaxing and intense, and wonderful. I get teary eyed at times thinking of it all, how grateful and thankful I am and what a privilege I feel it is to have shared this experience with my daughter, for her to see how beautiful, natural and wonderful birth is. If I am blessed down the road to have a 4th, I look forward to the birth with joy, to add what I learned from this birth and to implement even more of the wonderful techniques HypnoBirthing and hypnosis has to offer.
