Lily finally arrived yesterday morning at 11:01am. She weighed 7lbs, 10oz and was born perfectly healthy. I’m not sure when labour really started, but my surges were about 10 minutes apart and 45 seconds long at 2 am on the 23rd of December. I slept until 11am that day then they somehow got to be 4 minutes apart by 1pm. I went into the hospital to see at least what was up but hadn’t progressed so I went back home to relax.
I hadn’t eaten much that day from practice labour the day before and I wasn’t able to keep anything down after that so I tried to eat some fruit and thank heaven I did. [Marie’s note : many women find that fruit is a good labour food] At 8pm the surges had been 3 minutes apart for a few hours and were getting to be really painful at this point so we went back in to see if there was any progress. The nurses said they were impressed that I was able to remember to breath during surges so that made me feel better considering I still had no progress but was having a hard time with the surges. I got a shot of morphine so I could relax for a bit at home. I was planning on not taking anything but these surges were nowhere near anything I’d felt before and couldn’t be touched or moved during them and was only in latent labour…
By 2 am the morphine had been worn out for quite some time and I couldn’t get any rest so we went back to the hospital. This time I had progressed to 4cm, 100% effacement, and my water was ready to break. Once I was placed in a room and was settled for an hour or so I requested an epidural. It was at that point when things got a little scary. My blood pressure started dropping to dangerously low levels then when that finally got a bit better baby was having a hard time with surges and her heart rate would drop after each one. The only way to prevent that from happening was to have me on my right side but then I would be completely frozen on my right and feel the surges happening on my left. It wasn’t too bad and I was able to sleep through a lot of it.
The doctors started talking about a c-section but I asked if we could just try and see if I’d progress. By 8am I had only progressed 5cm and they started talking about a c-section again but one doctor suggested that maybe we try some other things before ruling out a natural birth. When my doctor came at 10 am I was only 6cm and he was worried about the baby’s heartbeat still and was worried about her oxygen and the fact that I had really bad shakes.
The surgery was difficult, but if I focused I was able to relax and stop shaking. I was mostly upset just that I didn’t get to see her until about 10 minutes after she was born and wasn’t able to hold her until I’d been in recovery for an hour or so. All that matters really is that she’s perfectly healthy and I’m recovering really well.
Even though my labour didn’t go as planned and I wasn’t able to use everything I learned in hypnobirthing I still think it was all worth it. I would have had much worse anxiety and stress had I not taken the classes. My mom had 5 c-sections and was quite impressed at how I handled the news of an emergency c-section and how well I’m recovering.
Listening to the disc during surges definitely helped make them easier to handle the breathing techniques I learned made everything a much better experience than it could have been.
Thank you do much for everything you’ve taught me and my mother. I would most definitely say that my calm attitude towards the labour and everything that happened is because of hypnobirthing and I’m excited to try and use it again with my next:)
Lily is a very happy baby. She rarely cries and only when she needs our attention for something. She’s learning to feed and we’re both being very patient with each other in learning how to be a mom and baby. Thanks again:)
Also I’ve found that hypnobirthing is not only for pregnancy, labour, and birthing. I’ve definitely found that I still use it a lot. When I’m starting to get frustrated or feel a bit of depression coming on, I try to relax myself and kind of go inward and then all of the sudden I realize that a large amount of time has gone by and that I’m feeling better. I’m so glad I took your classes.
Lily Juanita Rae Earl
7lbs, 10oz. Born 11:01am December 24th. Perfectly healthy, happy baby girl.
written by Jazsmin Earl, January 2012
Marie’s note : I think it’s important to know that the skills one develops with hypnobirthing are helpful even in the event of a c-section. Jazsmin’s and Lily’s story is a good example of that. 🙂
