It was so much easier than my first and some skeptics say, "well it's just b/c he was your *second* baby but considering that he was born "sunny side up" with the cord wrapped around his neck (I know, not unusual
) and I had no back labor _at all_, at all and he had no heart decelerations (they kept saying, "Oh this baby must be a girl it's doing so well" while I was pushing him out and in transition) I think that this was no fluke or coincidence. I attribute it fully to the state of hypnosis I was able to achieve and the education I had.
I began my "birthing time" (labor) around shortly before noon, it was my early birthing time so I walked and took my son to the park. We continued our day as usual. Around dinner time I knew that it was time to start relaxing deeper so I retired upstairs while my mom continued to fix dinner and I called my dh home from work to help out with ds#1. I sat on my birthing ball and put on my relaxation music and began deeply relaxing during each "birthing wave" (ie contraction). I went completely loose and limp while leaning over onto the bed for each wave. In between I walked and there were a couple of phone calls from FIL and SIL who asked if I was in "active labor." I told them I didn't know (b/c I really wasn't sure, it felt very easy. I felt a little something at the very peak of each wave which I now suspect was his hand). In honesty I was in the middle of active labor. I felt completely relaxed between each birthing wave as well.
Around 8:30 pm I decided to get into my bathtub as I had always heard how wonderful warm water is during labor and I wanted to try it out. My first birth the hospital which had had a huge whirlpool had just ripped it out the night before my baby was born. I was determined not to miss out this time around
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. I was inbetween active labor and transition and my toddler came in to see how and what I was doing. I had him come in the tub with me for a few birthing waves but they were starting to come closer together so I had Grandma take him out. By this time I had dh start to time them, they were 2 min.s apart. I began to feel pushy and had the little voice inside my head say, "if you want to have this baby in the hospital then you need to go now." So I got out of the tub and had dh slip just a loose dress over my head. We walked downstairs and got in the car. It was a 7 min drive to the hospital and I had only one wave (I told myself to slow down in the car). Then as soon as we got to the hospital I began right into transition.
The waves were starting to come very shortly apart. As I walked in I told the nurse that I was in labor and needed a room. She looked at me and told me that I needed to go to triage first (she didn't think I was in labor). I held up my hand and said, "just a minute" and dropped down onto my birthing ball through another wave then stood up and said, "No, I _need_ a L&D room right now." She promptly escorted me 2 feet to the nearest L&D room. She then checked me and I was 8.5 cms dialated, 100% effaced and the baby was 0 station. She called the midwife (who I had actually called 1/2 an hour before to let her know that I'd be going to the hospital but who didn't believe I was that far along) and told her to come "*Right Now!"
I layed on my left side as I wanted to give myself the most time to fully dialate and not push against any lip or rim of cervix. After the midwife had arrived I decided to start pushing and hung off the end of the bed while dh sat behind me and pushed ds#2 out. It was less than 1/2 an hour of pushing as opposed to ds#1 which was 4 hours (ugh. I was sitting right on my tailbone thinking that I was doing a good job by sitting vertically not knowing that I was actually impeding his way by closing off my pelvis and I rebroke my tailbone). He came out beautifully and I never would have known that he was born posterior if the midwife hadn't told me so.
Within 5 min.s of giving birth I said, "If giving birth were always this easy I could have 12 children!"
I was able to bond with him for a couple of hours before having to move to the Recovery room (forgot about that). So I walked his bassinet over and all the nurses at the desk were chiding the nurse for "making" me push his bassinet
I smiled and said, "No I actually wanted to walk, it's good for me
."
I know that each person's birth story is special and I do believe that for certain people, certain methods work just right for them. For me Hypnobabies was literally a God Send. It worked beautifully. I was 90-95% pain-free and it always felt manageable even through transition and pushing. I felt that it was not only a comfortable experience for me but for my baby as well. That's my story
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