Our cultural narrative around birth is scary and negative. But positive births do exist and each time you read one, you build trust in your body.
In that spirit, here is Dana’s story…
Jason and I are overjoyed to share with you the birth of our son J.R. (James Robert).
Our birth story was made possible by hypnobirthing.
The mindset we gained from your course and at home study gave me the focus I needed to have the birth I dreamed of.
My contractions started at 11:40 on the thirteenth. I started on the birthing ball but the soon made my way into the tub as that was where I did a lot of my hynobirthing meditation.
The time came where I thought maybe we should make our way to Estevan so we got in the truck and I told my husband not to speed and we arrived at the hospital at about 9 AM.
Upon arrival the nurses were very excited to see us as we were supposed to be induced the next evening. I was 3 cm and they admitted me feeling that if I was going to be induced anyways it would be a good idea to stay at the hospital and see how things go.
I spend most of my labour standing up, leaning over the edge of the bed and squatting as that was the most comfortable for me. As my contractions intensified I decided that I wanted to spend time in the tub, Estevan is a very quiet hospital and we were very lucky to be able to use the tub for as long as we wanted.
The tub was where I really gained my focus with hypnobirthing, I turned on the recording and I really began to visualize my body working. I found the birth affirmations was the one I use the most and preferred.
I went into the tub about 6 cm in about an hour or so later I told my husband he should get the nurse. She was very calm and told me she would check me and see how I progressed, upon her surprise in the short period of time I had progressed to 9 cm. We walked from the tub room to the labour room where the nurse told me that my doctor would be along shortly to deliver but I had the urge to push so she told me I could start pushing and my doctor came to deliver soon after. My pushing was only about a half hour duration, it went very fast.
Hypnobirthing helped me have the birth that I was imagining. I was able to have a fairly short labour with no interventions. I had no IV, no induction, and I know this is too much information but no tearing it all!
The next day when my doctor was making her rounds, she came to visit JR and I and she had a student with her. She was talking to the student about my birthday experience and she was talking as if I was a unicorn! How a first time mom had had an uninstalled, short labour with no tearing or no interventions!
My husband has been sharing our birth story with a lot of people and has been singing the praises of hypnobirthing. He witnessed firsthand my focus during my contractions and how it helped me progress. My own explanation is that it’s like an inner body experience.
Where we delivered made a difference also my doctor was very laid-back as were the nurses. The nurses had a very “listen to your body attitude”, as did my doctor.
I never got pestered over interventions or pain management. There was us and one other woman delivering that day, and even with that the nurses really gave us our space to focus. They told my husband that they weren’t gonna bother us and that if we needed anything that they would be close by.
Thank you very much for the knowledge you shared with us .
All the Best,
Dana, Jason and J.R. , in Saskatchewan
We welcomed him into this world on August 14th at 1:34 p.m. Weighing 7lbs. 1 oz.
P.S. – The doctor and nurses were very surprised how alert he was and how calm he was when he was born… Hypnobirthing baby !
You might enjoy reading more birth stories from some of my hypnobirthers so that you can an idea of what a gentle and calm birth can be like. https://birthbliss.ca/category/birth-stories/
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