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Madelynn Hollis Morgan arrived on March 8th
at 8:14 PM. I started the HypnoBirthing class in early
November when I was about 24 weeks pregnant. From that
time on, I was practicing what I learned in the class. I
would sit on my exercise (birth) ball every evening
while watching Friends reruns. I also frequently
listened to the birth affirmations and “Rainbow
Relaxation” cd. I will admit that I did not listen to
the cd every day and there were even a few weeks where I
maybe only listened to it once or twice. I did,
however, keep my favorite affirmation (“My body was made
to birth. It does it easily and well.”) posted on my
bathroom mirror so that I could see it and say it out
loud every day. In addition, I bought Steve Halpern’s
Effortless Relaxation cd and I would often
fall asleep at night listening to it and visualizing my
“perfect” birth.
I
had an OB appointment on March 8th. I was
almost 41 weeks pregnant and was a bit anxious. I
wasn’t worried or fearful of birth, and I knew that my
providers would start talking interventions if things
didn’t happen soon. My appointment went well. But as I
suspected, my providers mentioned that if I did not have
the baby by Monday, I would need to return to the office
for an NST and a BPP. If I did not have her by the
following Friday, we would need to consider induction.
Like I said, I was not fearful of birth at all, but was
afraid of being induced. I knew that it often led to
other interventions that I really wanted to avoid. I
asked my provider to check my cervix to see if anything
was happening. I had been having occasional surges but
nothing regular or even really noticeable. To my
excitement, I was 4 cm opened and about 80% thinned! I
agreed to let my provider sweep my membranes. I thought
that that was a much more minor intervention than others
that could come in the very near future. When she swept
my membranes, she felt a surge and I had some bleeding
and was hopeful that I would go into labor within the
next few days.
I
continued to have cramping throughout the day, but
nothing major or real regular………until about 3:30 PM. I
was in a meeting when, what I call a “real surge”,
came. I wouldn’t really call it painful, just
uncomfortable, and a strong sense of pressure. (Keep in
mind that when we did the fear release exercise in
HypnoBirthing class, I said that I wanted my labor
sensations/surges to feel like pressure and for my labor
to last 6 hours or less.) I decided to wait out the
meeting, through which I had a couple more of these
“real surges”. I didn’t want to alarm my colleagues and
I wasn’t in pain, so I thought that waiting it out was
best. I returned to my office and sat at my desk at a
little after 4:00 PM. I continued to have “real surges”,
and left at about 4:30 PM. During my commute to home I
had several more surges 3 or 4 minutes apart. The
pressure was getting more and more intense and I
occasionally had to breathe through it. I thought about
pulling over a time or two and even calling my husband
to meet me and pick me up (thinking it probably wasn’t
wise for me to drive while breathing through surges). I
think I still was kind of in denial that this was all
happening. I thought I would go home, get in my Jacuzzi
tub, and it would go away. I called both my husband and
my mom to let them know that I was probably in labor and
that I was heading home. I made it home (I don’t really
remember some of the drive.) and my husband met me. I
told him how far apart my surges were coming and that I
wanted to go in and get in the tub. I called my provider
and she listened as I experienced a few surges. Since I
was managing them so well, she encouraged me to relax
and eat a bite and call her in about an hour (or sooner
if need be). I got my Rainbow Relaxation cd and
got into the tub. That is when things really started
moving along. Within minutes of my being in the tub, I
started having an interesting surge pattern, every
minute and a half, I would have a longer surge that
started off gradually, peaked, and then went away, but
then about 30 seconds after that, I would have a shorter
surge that started off very intense, at peak, and then
went away as quickly as it came on. Time distortion
started kicking in at that point, so I am not real sure
how long I stayed in the tub. My husband called my
provider back to let her know about this surge pattern.
Because I had not eaten, nor had I had much to drink,
she advised me to get out of the tub, eat a bite and
drink some water, and see what happened. I got out of
the tub and put on some clothes, stopping to kind of
sway back on forth and breathe during surges. I
attempted to eat but that surge pattern continued on and
the short, intense surges were getting more and more
intense (still felt like pressure, but more intense). My
husband noticed a change in me and he made the decision
for us to go to the hospital. He called my provider and
my mom to let them know to meet us at the hospital.
Managing my surges was more difficult in the car. I felt
over stimulated by the combination of surges and the
motion of the car. When we were about a mile from the
hospital, I started feeling a “fullness” and felt the
urge to breathe down when the shorter, intense surges
came. My husband hurriedly drove to the hospital,
parked, and walked me to L&D. (We arrived at exactly
7:00 PM.) I met a nurse that I know well in the hall and
told her that I was feeling the urge to push. Nurses
started scurrying around in every direction. There was
not a triage room ready so they had me change clothes in
one room while they readied another. When I got into a
triage bed, they hooked me up to the monitor and checked
my cervix. I was a little more than 7 cm opened and
almost completely thinned. They started my IV (I was GBS
positive) as they ran through a gamut of questions
(which completely annoyed me as I was working so hard to
stay inside myself and relaxed). I am not sure how long
I was in triage, they wheeled me on over to my L&D room.
I remember waiting for a surge to go away before my
husband and my mom helped me climb into my L&D bed. At
that point I really felt an urge to push and my nurse
checked my cervix to find that I just had a tiny bit of
it left. She encouraged me to relax and go with what my
body was telling me to do. A few minutes later, my
provider arrived. She noticed that I was sort of bearing
down (trying to do birth breathing). I was still having
the longer then shorter surge pattern and my body was
telling me to “push” during the short surges (which
actually felt kind of good) and gently nudge with
downward breaths during the longer ones (which I
continued to follow even though my husband and the
nurses were doing the stereotypical “push cheer”). I was
focusing so hard on my baby and my body that much of
what else that was happening around me at the time is
very fuzzy. I do remember the intense burning sensation
when my baby was crowning and I think I still had some
fear left about tearing because I remember not wanting
to push or even do any birth breathing at that time. I
asked for a mirror to be able to see my baby crowning
which helped me release that fear. At some point my
provider suggested that she break my water. I was so
inside myself that I vaguely remember just nodding my
head. I just wanted it all to be over. I remember my
provider saying that there was meconium, and they called
for the NICU, which scared me, but also motivated me
again to focus on my baby and finish bringing her into
the world. My mom said later that she was amazed at how
I was confident in my body and allowing it to do its
work. Very soon after that, my provider asked my husband
to come over to help receive the baby and my mom helped
me unfasten my gown so that they could place her on my
chest, skin-to-skin. There was such a release of energy
when she was born and was placed on my chest. I cried.
My mom cried. My provider cried. My husband got teary.
Everyone was hugging. It was absolutely amazing. The
nurses did need to suction and inspect my baby within a
few minutes of birth since there was meconium and since
I had only had time to get one GBS treatment, but they
returned her to me very quickly and we began nursing
right away. She latched on very well almost immediately
and took to nursing like a pro. My husband and I were
given some time alone with our baby to bond as a new
family. We both just sat there holding on to one another
and looking into the eyes of our precious baby girl. It
was so beautiful; a moment I will never forget.
- Erin
Morgan, SC
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