Honora Vivian’s Birth
Story
My back story was that I had a
really difficult birth with my first baby, and when I was pregnant again about
a year later, I was determined to find a different way…enter Hypnobabies! This is my 4th birth, and my 3rd
Hypnobaby, and I am thankful for that first bad experience, because otherwise I
would probably never have known the subsequent births. J My first baby was born at 41 weeks, my second
at 41 weeks 2 days, and my third, on his due date! This time around I have a close friend,
Melissa, who is a doula and birth photographer, and I was so excited to have
her onboard my birthing team, along with my husband, who is always so great
during birthing, my midwife, and the nurses.
I was going in for my 39 week appointment, 5 days before my due date,
and my friend said that she was teaching Lamaze during the days on the weekend
that would be easier not to have to schedule around, and then I looked at my
family’s calendar, and this week was so open, but the next was not, and I
started to think it would be a good time to have a baby! So, when my midwife asked if I’d like her to
sweep my membranes, I thought, why not?
I’d had it done after 40 weeks with my others and it had really never
started much up, but I thought I’d go for it anyway.
My appointment ended around 11
am, and I went to lunch with Melissa and had a few “means business” pressure
waves, but I kind of thought it would fizzle out. Instead, they started establishing a
pattern. About 8-10 minutes apart by the
time I was home around 3pm. We went to a
business dinner at 6pm and I think they were about 6-8 minutes apart then, but
I wasn’t timing. We walked around a bit
so that we could come home after the babysitter had our other little ones in
bed for the night. J We decided to watch a movie while I chilled
on my birth ball. I texted my midwife
around 10 pm when my waves were 4-6 minutes apart, but relatively intense, and
we agreed that I could probably try to finish my movie for the next hour and
make a decision. So in an hour, I
decided I wanted to get on the road, because our drive was about an hour long
and I wanted to have freedom to move as things progressed. My doula said she’d meet us at the hospital,
and we got there sometime around 1 am. I
got all checked in and hooked up to an IV, b/c I was Group B Strep Positive, I
was at 4cm and 90% effaced at check in.
When they were finished with all that jazz, I started walking with my IV
pole. I was pretty sleepy and wanted to
have my tracks onboard, and they were in my room, so I headed back after about
30 minutes and hopped on the birth ball for the next while. I settled in with Early First Stage playing
in the background, and I think I got some sleep in between waves. I started to vocalize a bit, and my doula
reminded me that lowering my pitch would help keep things loose, and it was
such a good bit of advice for me to focus on.
I recognized that my midwife, Anne arrived, and Melissa said that she was
pretty confident that I was further than I appeared. She had asked earlier if I might want to labor
in the tub for a bit, an I started to think that the warm water would feel
nice. Before I went to the bathroom, my
midwife checked me and said I was at an 8.5 to a 9 with a bulging bag of
waters. I started for the tub, and I
heard Melissa and Anne talking, and they asked me to sit on the toilet for my
next wave. They told me they thought I
was pretty close and maybe getting in the tub might not be a great idea if I
didn’t want to birth there, which I didn’t—it is a nice jetted tub, but no
birthing pool for sure! So I made my way
back to the bed. I think by this time I had vomited about 5
times. I had some more vomiting, which I
learned was my body trying to rupture my bag of waters. I was pretty tired of puking, so I asked if
it might be a good idea to rupture my waters.
My birth team was very supportive of what I wanted to do without telling
me to go for it, but I was really over throwing up and wanted to get the show
on the road. ;) Anne ruptured the
bag for me and said it was a “bag of steel.”
I got settled in on my side with a few pillows between my knees and had
2 or 3 more productive waves, and then I told them I was starting to feel
pushy. I guess I was so calm that they
didn’t think much of it. But, bless my
husband, he started up my *Pushing Baby Out* track. I focused on what Kerry was saying and on
keeping my pitch low and my mouth round, because of what Melissa said, and
because I think I recall Ina May saying something about that helping things
open as well. I was feeling pushy more
and more often, and I looked to my side and saw my midwife sitting on the floor
cross-legged watching me progress, and my friend nearby. My husband was providing the best counter
pressure on my back with each strong wave.
My sweet L&D nurse Shana came up and asked if she could listen to
the baby’s heart with the stethoscope on my belly, and I declined. Everyone thought I was just having a
particularly strong wave, and they started to think about getting up and ready
for Pushing Stage, but in reality I was confused at why she asked, because I
was actively birthing my baby. I had two
more pushing waves and Shana came back to see if she could check baby’s
heartrate again just as I felt her body birth, and I told her, “Sure, she’s in
the bed.” And my husband simultaneously said, “The baby popped out!”
My doula, midwife, and nurse all
hopped up and said, “What did you say?!”
Anne came over, lifted up the sheet and saw that Baby
Honora had a nuchal cord once around, and undid that and passed her up to
me. They were completely shocked and
awed. Anne didn’t even have her gloves
on! She said that in over a thousand
births this was the first one that she completely missed from about 2 feet
away. Melissa, said, “Well, I’ve
never seen it before, and I may never again, but you really just breathed that
baby out!” They were so sweet and
supportive. My nurse said she groaned
when she saw that I had a doula, and my birthplan, but she was a believer and
felt so privileged to be there to witness everything. I got to cut the cord (my first time ever),
and Honora had vernix all over—another first for me! She had apgars of 9 and 9 and she was my
tiniest little peanut at 7lbs 14.8 ounces.
Blessed again to be a Mama! She
nursed immediately and has been an effective little nurser ever since. Each new person who came in asked how all of
this worked, the lactation consultants listened to some of the tracks, and one
of the pediatricians on call told me I should teach “my method,” because people
would drive for something like that!
It was a crack up, but I am
seriously so thankful for the Hypnobabies curriculum. I always feel so empowered in my decision
making leading up to and during labor. I
know that I make educated and informed decisions for me and my baby, not necessarily
what everyone else would do for themselves or their births, but it has so
helped me to heal from my first birthing to take ownership of the process of
bringing life into the world. We are
confident that our family is now complete, and I will miss Hypnobabies and
childbirthing. I am in awe of the Lord’s
design for the process and so thrilled to have been able to be an active
participant.
Melissa is putting together a
birth slide show that I’ll probably post for you all when it’s finished too,
but I wanted to get this written up while Honora is still in her sleepy newborn
stage! J
