Birth Stories

HYPNOBIRTHING® BIRTH STORIES

Annie’s Story

(On a level of 1 to 10 of fear, 10 representing terror, Annie was a 9 when she first came to me, and a 1 when she finished.)

I just wanted to start by saying that I was very stressed about the birth after taking courses at Mary Birch. They only prepared me for having a horrid experience. Then I came to you about this HypnoBirthing method. I was skeptical at first, but after the first few sessions I found that hypnosis is only a state of mind that I can put myself in, not one that someone can impose upon you. After practicing the relaxation exercises, I found that I was in control of how I felt.

The day that my water broke I knew it was time to put all of my plans into action. I had given many copies of my birth plans to the nurse. I was fully prepared for all that was about to happen, and I was comfortable and relaxed.   The first thing I did was inform my nurse about my method of birth and she was so positive about it. She made sure that nobody hassled me about taking drugs. She also made sure that I was well comforted.

In the morning the nurse was in to check on me, she told all of the new people that I was doing this without the epidural. When it finally came time for the baby to come, she was the one who ended up delivering the baby because the on-call doctor said that the baby was not going to come out anytime soon. I decided that I didn’t want drugs because I wasn't that uncomfortable.   I breathed the baby down slowly with every contraction. When Tin saw that I needed some help he got me to concentrate to relax and to remember my breathing. He did the breathing with me to the end, and it helped a lot. The next thing I knew the nurse said that she could see his head and all I had to do was one last push. Then there he was, the nurse placed him right on my tummy and he crawled up and latched on and started to nurse all by himself. There he was, my perfect angel. He opened his eyes and all I saw was my baby. My labor for my first baby was five hours.

Thanks again,
Annie

Hi Lenay,

How are you? Thanks for helping us with the HypnoBirthing technique. It was great! Without it, I don't think Ann could have a natural birth. Thanks again. I'm sending you some pictures of us three.
Best Regard,

Tin Tran

Jennifer's Story

Jennifer, Devin, Santa and Greg

I was having my first child at the age of 40. My membranes released early, and the doctor wanted to induce me as soon as I got to the hospital even though I hadn't started labor yet. I bargained for a six-hour delay to avoid inducing as long as possible. The doctor, who was married to a labor and delivery nurse, assured me that I would be there for hours in severe discomfort and encouraged me to use an epidural. He told me there was no cheering section at the end of a natural birthing delivery, when in fact, that was an untrue statement.

At the sixth hour I started very mild contractions, but showed progression, and I was pretty comfortable for much of the time and used hypnosis to relax deeply with the assistance of my husband. After being examined, an hour later labor progressed to the point where I asked the nurse to examine me again. She was reluctant to conduct the examination because they believed I would be there for many more hours laboring. It was a big surprise to the Nurse to find I had dilated from 3 to 10cm in an hour and was ready to birth because the baby was crowning. The nurses called for the Doctor on call and she hardly had enough time to prepare due to the baby progressing at such a rapid rate. During transition Greg was right there for me, helping me to keep my focus and relaxation, and helping me to breathe the baby down. The total birth took five yours.

I have talked about my birthing experience as a fabulous delivery to my friends and family many times. Delivering my son, Devin in such a positive manner made the experience a joyful one. By the way, there was more than a cheering section at the end of this experience. Not only were friends and family proud and supportive, the nursing staff expressed their excitement to have been involved in this natural delivery, as well. A couple of Nurses shared with me they had never been a member of a team during a natural delivery due to the high number of epidurals that are normally done, and they felt privileged to assist in such a positive experience.

Natasha's Story

My contractions started about 24 hours before I delivered. They were irregular, coming every 4-15 min. or so, but with some longer breaks in between. During the day I watched Shrek to laugh a little and this helped. It did though have a temporary effect on my Hypno Birthing. After the film, when I was imagining filling up my big green balloon with each surge, I could only see myself blowing up an enormous green frog with his little head, arms, and legs poking out, just as Skrek did for Fiona. As much as I tried to get the picture out of my head, the clearer it became.

Before I went to sleep that night, I got on the computer and set-up my baby’s birth announcement. For her birth date, I put in the next day because I knew she’d come soon. I could feel that it was really close. I labored through the night, sleeping between contractions, which were coming every 8-15 minutes. Unlike my first child, my contractions never reached 5 minutes apart. I kept waiting for this to happen, but it never did. My surges became so strong that finally at about 5:30am, I woke my husband and said it was time to go. My doctor told me it is at this point that I can say my labor began, although I’d had contractions the whole day before.

When I was examined at the hospital, I was so disappointed when the nurse said I was only 2.5-3cm dilated. This just could not be the case since this is what I was at two weeks previous AND I had been laboring for almost a day! I still think she read me wrong. In any case, she said she would “let me walk around” and see where I was at in an hour. There was NO WAY I was going to walk around, I could hardly stand, so I asked for a birthing ball and got to work on my Hypno Birthing with my husband. I told myself that I WOULD dilate and that I would NOT be sent home. I WOULD relax now.

Up until this point I had been on my own by using the Rainbow Relaxation tape and breathing through the surges by myself. I had not had my husband with me yet and I was really looking forward to finally having him help me by using the tools we had learned in class. If I could do anything different the next time around, it would be getting my husband involved as early as possible. I let him sleep and labored through the night alone. I probably could have saved myself many hours of surges if he were to have helped me along from the beginning.

I am convinced of this because the moment my husband laid his gentle hands on me and started whispering the prompts in my ear during surges, I felt myself release, let go, & melt. It was as if the relaxation and breathing melted away the pain. The surges became cycles of melting where I imagined my cervix turning to butter. By this time, the big inflated green frog picture had replaced by a budding red rose. With every exhale I pictured it opening up. My husband did the light touch massage, which I think helped tremendously. He also began the glove relaxation script but we had to stop because the nurse came in.

It was one hour later and she arrived just on time because I vomited. She examined me and to our wonderful surprise, I was suddenly at 8 cm! Just like that! I was in triage this whole time because there were no rooms available for me. She wheeled me into my birthing room and from then on, time just zipped by. I was only in that room for 55 minutes before the baby came. We didn’t even have time to put on the relaxing music!

The only thing I requested from the hospital staff was for them to let me know when I was 10cm and crowning. There was no one at the base of my bed to tell me this or to see my membranes release because it was like a race trying to get everything ready. My doctor still was not there yet and I was really on my own with my husband. I breathed the baby down and then felt the real urge to push. I just started pushing on my own and then my doctor arrived for the last 2-3 pushes. He needed to cut me, which was fine, because my little girl’s shoulder was a bit stuck. My baby was born healthy and I felt like crying as I remembered the scene I imagined in my HB class of how happy I would be with my baby placed on my chest and my hands on her. I had a wonderful birth experience. It truly was a celebration of life – the birth of my baby!

Thank you, Lenay.