I had a beautiful pain free birth with my dd. I took a hypnobirthing class and feel it helped me alot. I had two visualizations that I used with every contraction. The first was of a waave. I just pictured a wave at the start of every "surge" (the hypnobirthing book prefers to call them surges instead of contractions, I never could get used to that). I knew that the contraction would start gradually, then increase in power and intensity then gently fade....just like a wave beginning, growing, cresting and ebbing back to the ocean. The other one was of a multi-petaled flower opening. I imagined that my cervix was sort of like that....with every contraction, it was opening a little bit more to allow the baby out. I was able to stay relaxed throughout my entire labor and delivery with the exception of two contractions I had in the car on the ride to the birth center. I lost my visualization on one and when I did that, I pulled up my legs and I tightened up and the contraction actually was uncomfortable. I wouldn't say it was painful, but it was not painfree as the others had been. Another contraction came before I was able to get my focus again and that one hurt too. I had to make myself stretch out my legs and relax and I was able to get back into my groove, back into my visualizations and get my head out of the way to let my body work. I got to the birth center at 9 cm and was told I could push whenever I felt the urge. I was blown away as the labor had been so easy. When I was telling the midwife about losing my focus in the car, she said I was probably in transition then.
For me, it worked wonderfully. But my baby was positioned correctly-not posterior. She was actually wiggling her way around to get positioned just so even as she was moving down. You could see her movements making my tummy move. I feel she was a very helpful participant in the birth process.
I think for me, getting my head out of the way to let my body do what I truly believe it knew how to do was the key to having such a pain free birth. I also didn't realize how long I had been preparing for birth. I've been a reader of Mothering Magazine since I was 19 years old. I didn't have dd til I was 35. In those years, I had accumulated quite a library of birthing books and I have a deep seated believe that my body knows what to do.
