Rosalyn – a truly beautiful birth
This was my second pregnancy. My first came to an abrupt end in June of 2011 with the stillbirth of our first child and daughter Charlotte Mabel. It was a painful experience, not only for the grief of our child but also because I was so unprepared, my body was forced to birth. I did give birth to her though. It was a strangely beautiful moment.
When I became pregnant again I wanted this birth not to be, if I could help it, something that just happened to me. I was going to be an active participant. I was going to be prepared. Through HypnoBirthing classes I learned relaxation techniques, became educated on birth choices and claimed back a positive outlook on birth.
Week 38, on a Monday, my waters broke…….well trickled. I had booked in for an acupuncture induction that day, but cancelled thinking labor would be starting. By the following morning, labor still hadn’t started, so I kept my appointment with the doctor. The doctor was not impressed I had not come into hospital sooner and basically wanted to induce me straight away. I wasn’t ready, I knew baby wasn’t ready and I didn’t want to start interventions.
So for the next week I walked, bounced on my fit ball, ate spicy food, talked to baby about coming out and re-booked my acupuncture induction – twice. I went into hospital everyday to have baby’s heart beat monitored and get a lecture from the doctor on duty that I should be induced. Every day as I was being monitored I laid back and listened to my hypnobirthing audios. It was interesting to watch mine and the baby’s heart beat slow down when I listened to the HypnoBirthing tracks, and quicken when I listened to negative talk around me. The GBS test came back negative, I felt good and baby was moving. My only concern was I was Rh- (anti c) and wanted a special ultrasound to check baby was not being affected. On the Thursday morning I agreed to be induced on the Saturday and the doctor agreed to the ultrasound on Friday.
My second acupuncture induction was on the Thursday night. During the session I felt a big surge and they continued about 5 minutes apart that night. I woke up in the morning to no more surges. The ultrasound showed baby was fine and Friday passed without any more surges.
Saturday I went into hospital to be induced. I had my husband Andy, my mother and doula with me, and an iphone full of HypnoBirthing tracks. The midwives were fantastic. They were excited about being part of a hypnobirth and were so supportive of using the correct terms and respecting my need to be told what was going on every step of the way. I had talked to them about Charlotte’s birth and my concerns about induction, so they took it slow and always asked me before turning up the syntocin.
I did have constant monitoring, due to being induced and my previous loss. At first I was worried about not being able to move around but as it turned out movement was not my friend. The surges were coming regularly and strong. I decided to get up on the fit ball. The surges stopped. Back in bed and focused on the hypno, the surges returned. Lunch came, so I sat up and ate. The surges went away. I lay back down and concentrated, they came back. So I just stayed there and concentrated.
A few hours into labor, as I was listening to music, and ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ came on and I just started crying. It was a big release of emotion; I knew it was going to be all right. It was different this time. I felt surges and had beaks in between. I felt in control.
A change of shift and a new midwife, who again was happy to be part of a HypnoBirth. She asked to do a vaginal exam, as it had been about 8 hours since labor started and I was still showing no outward signs of laboring. I agreed, but sent the midwife outside to discuss what was going on with my doula and husband. When they returned, my doula said the midwife had felt a membrane across the head of the baby and wanted to use a hook to break it, as she felt this was holding up labor. I agreed and as soon as that membrane was broken baby moved down and I felt a big strong surge.
The next hour was intense as I felt my baby moving down and the surges becoming stronger. I will admit I had a moment where I thought ‘I wonder if it is too late for drugs?’ but my doula pulled me into line and I remembered what others had said. When you get to that point, you think you can’t do it anymore that is the worst it will be. After that I felt in a real rhythm, I had my HypnoBirthing tracks on, and was tuning out everything around me and concentrated on my body. Baby was crowning. With one surge she would start coming through and then go back in as I relaxed. This happened about 3 times. Then the midwife told me to push. I found out later the cord was around baby’s neck and they were concerned. I did push, which was the only time I felt uncomfortable.
A few more surges and Rosalyn Maya came out full force into the world. I had been on my knees, so she was passed through my legs and placed in front of me. For an awful moment she wasn’t moving, she wasn’t breathing. I heard someone say, ‘come on, just blow on her face, she is ok’. I could barely force the breath out, but as it hit her face she startled, arms up and began to cry. That is when I finally found the strength to pick her up and blubber all over her.
I was helped to turn around and sit down and was left with my baby skin to skin. I had requested delayed cord clamping. I don’t know how long we were left still attached to each other but it was a long beautiful time.
I felt so good after the birth. I was so proud (and grateful) for making it through without any further interventions or drugs. Rosalyn attached herself to my breast very soon after and was such a beautiful calm baby. It was so healing for me, Andy and my Mum to have a beautiful, calm, joyous birth.
I owe a big thanks to Bree and also to my doula Gabriella for helping me achieve that.
I still use the techniques learnt in HypnoBirthing– breathing, relaxing, focusing on the positive. Even a much wanted baby is still a handful.
