|
This birth story is about our 3rd
child – Christian Luke Robinson. My due date was 10/8. At
11:30 pm of that night I was complaining that nothing
exciting happens to put me into labor, my surges usually
just start. On 10/9 at 12:30 am as I was headed to the
bathroom my water actually released! I was really excited
even as my surges started strong - 5 minutes apart 15
minutes after my water broke. I really wanted to trim the
labor time down to my wish time of 6 hours.
Initially I struggled to
establish control, focus and relaxation. The strength with
which the surges started was quite a surprise. I usually
have plenty of time to build up to this point in the
birthing. My husband put on soothing music that we had
previously picked out and started with Light Touch Massage.
We labored for approximately
the first 1.5 by ourselves before calling my mom, who is a
midwife, to come over. I used my birthing ball and sat on
the toilet for most of this period of time. My attending
midwife arrived about 3 am. At this point I moved to the
tub, my husband read scripts and we listened to both of the
HypnoBirthing disks that were provided in our class over and
over.
I knew that this was going to
be a 6 hour labor because this is what I wanted from my
experience, the goal that I was focused on. There was such
a difference with this birth versus the previous two that
I’d experienced. Even though I’d done this two times
already, I was more educated about the entire birthing
process. I embraced my surges and truly welcomed them;
knowing that they really were bringing my baby closer to
me. In comparison to my other births I could actually feel
my body doing the work for me and quickly too. I had my
midwife check me a couple of times to see if I was ready to
breathe the baby down because I felt strange sensations that
I wasn’t familiar with. This was just the baby moving lower
into the birthing position.
I remember asking Phil several
times what time it was because I knew that I only had until
6:30 and then my baby would be in my arms. My midwife had
me leave the tub and labor kneeling next to the bed, to
further move the baby down about 5:30 or so. During this
time I started using birth breathing to accelerate the
journey. I’m not sure how long this lasted, it wasn’t
long. Time truly does cease to exist in the miracle of
birth. On one hand it seems as though it was taken so long
to get to a particular point, but overall the experience
passes so rapidly and hours fly by unexpectedly.
I was nervous to push because
of my prior experience of just launching the baby across the
bed with one or two huge pushes. I wanted to avoid this in
order to heal quicker and enjoy my afterbirth recovery.
When I had the urge to push I was actually able to do it
slowly and controlled, pausing when my midwife asked,
thereby eliminating unnecessary tearing. I attribute this
to visualizing this portion of the birth over and over.
Our beautiful baby boy was born
at 6:46 am, he was received by his father and welcomed with
all the love our hearts are able to contain. He was
immediately placed in my arms, while we awaited the placenta
delivery. The blood from the placenta was delivered back to
him before Phil cut the cord. Our baby boy didn’t cry, was
the most remarkable pink and didn’t even require suctioning
of his nose. I was able to immediately nurse him, a
remarkable experience that early even though I feel as
though I haven’t stopped since then.
The baby was able to remain at
my breast, with his father’s hand on his back until we were
ready to relinquish him to the midwife about an hour later.
He weighed in at 8 lb and 1 oz and was 21 inches long.
I don’t have just a favorite
part of the birth but many favorite parts. It was by far my
favorite birth, the ease with which I birthed, the speed and
the recovery has been amazing. I’ve felt fantastic and
haven’t experienced pain other than typical afterbirth
pains.
There is so much to be said for
delivering in the comfort of one’s own home and room,
surrounded by familiarity. It was incredible to welcome a
new child into our hearts while our other children slept
down the hall. I will never forget the looks of stunned
astonishment on my daughters’ faces when they entered our
room about 45 minutes after the baby was born. We were
immediately able to bond as an entire family.
The thing that probably sticks
out the most in my mind was being able to feel my body do
its job the way nature intended. The difference was marked,
I could indeed feel the birth happening, our baby was
extremely calm upon being born and unlike my other two
children there were no markings or bruises on the baby or
his face from a laborious intensive birth experience.
The only thing that I would
change is the amount of time that I had to practice and
incorporate the HypnoBirthing techniques and belief system.
We started our class at 35 weeks pregnant and finished just
one week before the baby was actually born. However, even
with the small amount of time that we had to practice
HypnoBirthing the amount of change in the birth was very
substantial.
Kristen
Robinson
Back to Birthing Stories |
