Jordyn's Birth

I have two daughters and two birth stories that couldn’t be more different from each other.  The first was long, difficult and disheartening while the second was fast, easy and empowering.  I owe the difference in large part to the hypnobirthing principles I learned and applied to my second birth experience.

To appreciate the difference hypnobirthing made for me, allow me to explain my first birth experience.  As the due date for my first daughter (Peyton) approached (she was born October 10th, 2006), I was definitely feeling a lot of fear and apprehension about the whole thing.  By the time I went into labour, I had had numerous horrific birth stories told to me by friends and I had heard my mom comment on numerous occasions that she hoped I wouldn’t have to have a c-section given that so many of my siblings’ kids had been born that way.  I certainly had negative thoughts and pictures replaying over and over in my head.  I also had no appreciation for how important it is to be emotionally and spiritually prepared for giving birth – I just thought that if I was mentally tough enough and pushed hard enough when the time came, that I’d get the baby out somehow.  In the end, Peyton was born after a 48-hour labour, complete with taking every drug they offered me, as well as an epidural.  I pushed for 3 hours, only to have the whole thing end in a c-section for which I was completely anesthetized.  I only met my first daughter 12 hours after her birth and after experiencing much pain and birth trauma – both physically and emotionally.  I cried many tears over the next few months whenever I would think about her birth and/or try to tell anyone about it.  I felt like I’d failed somehow and was so disheartened that the experience hadn’t met my expectations.

When I got pregnant a second time, I momentarily considered just signing up for a scheduled c-section, especially since the doctor who delivered Peyton told me that the same scenario would simply play out again with a second delivery.  Nonetheless, I couldn’t shake the determination I felt that things could be different the second time around, and so I enrolled in Marie’s hypnobirthing classes and also made sure I hired the same doula I’d had for Peyton’s birth.  After taking the classes and reading the materials provided to me, I can’t say that I was a model student in preparing for the birth .  I didn’t do any practicing with my husband (it just felt weird to think of him reading the prompts to me) and I didn’t do any relaxation practice during the day.  I did listen to the relaxation CD’s at night as I went to bed and also chose a number of mantras to recite to myself whenever I thought to do so during the day.  As my due date drew closer, I also picked three words that I recited over and over in describing what I wanted out of this birth experience – fast, easy, and empowering.  I also invited some of my closest friends to a “Blessingway”, which I’d highly recommend!  It was such an affirming and inspiring thing to do and contributed to my sense of peace and confidence going into my second birth experience. 

And in the end, I definitely got the “fast, easy and empowering” experience I had been envisioning!  It was a 3 and 1/2 hour labour from start to finish with no drugs at all and I got to hold my daughter (Jordyn) on my chest as soon as she came out!  My husband cut the umbilical cord and we sat in the labour/delivery room for a couple of hours afterwards talking and laughing about how incredible and surreal the whole experience was this time round.  I know the hypnobirthing work I did in preparing for her arrival allowed me to let go of my fears and surrender my body to the process.  In turn, my body was relaxed and ready to do what it needed to do to bring Jordyn into the world.  One of the mantras I had recited many times over was “I trust my body to do what it needs to do to birth my baby” and this is exactly what happened…the best way I can describe the 10 minutes I spent “pushing” is to tell you that it simply felt like my head was attached to a body that wasn’t mine – it had an agenda of its own and was going to get that baby out whether I was ready or not!  A very cool sensation! 

I’m so thankful that I learned about hypnobirthing in time to have such a great second birth experience and only wish I had known about it sooner. 

Cheryl Loeppky, written August 2009

   “In this photo, I think the

   look on my face says it all -

   just feeling so amazed and

   blessed at how well things

   went.”