Henry's Birth

My waters release Tuesday morning (October 28th is the day I'd been imagining since the HypnoBirthing classes, it's my Grandma's birthday and this was her first great grandchild), a very nice feeling. The doctor wanted us to go get checked at the hospital, so after a shower, a nice long bath, and some listening to my CDs, we headed in. I was in good shape, relaxing during the surges, They checked, it was definitely my waters, though I was just 2 cm opened. We decided to go home and "rest".

My sister came by for a bit while Gordon got a few last minute things done, and my dog cuddled me. I took another shower and bath, and soon after that, surges were coming a minute apart, and lasting from 45 seconds to two minutes. They were starting to get very strong, so we headed back to the hospital. The car ride there sort of did me in. I lost my relaxation almost entirely. We went upstairs and Dr. Miller came to see us. He checked and I was very disappointed that I was just 4 cm at about 3:30. At that point I was getting into a teary mess, and ended up asking for an epidural. I figured that was it, all my hard work with practising HypnoBirthing was over, and I was quite sad. We got into our room (room 9! Super big!) and by about 4:00 I was letting the medicine kick in and was able to relax again, after reminding myself it was a competition and no one was taking anything away from me, the prize at the end was the same. My surges slowed down, to about 5-6 minutes apart, but sometimes as much as 10 minutes in between. I decided to really focus on the rose opening and keep using everything I'd learned instead of wasting it. By 6:30 the nurse was getting concerned about the spacing between surges and checked me. We were all shocked when she smiled and said that was it, we were ready. The rose had worked! I started to breath baby down when the surges came, but with surges still so far apart, it was much less productive as the baby slid back in while I paused. Eventually, they added some pitocin (not that I was happy about this either) because Dr. Miller was getting worried about being fully opened without giving birth for so long. So by about 11:00 or so at night, I was finally getting some consistent surges. I worked hard breathing baby down, and finally, at 12:20 am, Henry Gordon West was born.

I was upset that it wasn't quite the birth I'd planned and focused on for so long, but I know that despite that, HypnoBirthing was good for us. My blood pressure was perfect all through the pregnancy, labour, delivery and afterward as well. I think the relaxation did that for me. Henry's heart rate remained perfect the whole time, and he's quite healthy, again, I think it was the relaxation. He'd inhaled a lot of meconium, and did cry quite a bit after birth to clear that all out, but now he's quite content. Plus, those last 6 cm flew by, and I'm positive that was because my body knew what to do, it just needed some help relaxing. So overall, it was a good experience, and while it didn't go perfectly for me, it still ended well, and HypnoBirthing was a big part of that.

Written by Twylla West, Oct 2008