Dear Debbie,

Just wanted to let you know we had the baby! I could not have done it without taking this class from you. I wanted to thank you for teaching such a good HypnoBirthing class. It was such an enjoyable experience for my husband and I both. On Friday around 12:30 my water broke right before going off to bed. At first there was a bit of a panic. My husband reassured me, "We have time, lets listen to rainbow relaxation." I then soon calmed down a bit, listened to the CD and used the breathing techniques. I was amazed within seconds I became relaxed, happy, and ready for my baby. After taking our time packing we left about an hour later when surges were closer together and gaining intensity. We arrived at the hospital relaxed, smiling, joking around and ready to have the baby. We were greeted by our 2 doulas who had gone to the nurses station prior to arrival and handed out several copies of our birth plan, one for each attending nurse. I soon went into a deep relaxation, so deep that I was asleep for a total of about 8 hours of surges. Literally asleep. My husband tells me that during surges he could see my eyes rapidly move back and forth as if I was in an REM sleep. I felt sensations, but I felt no fear. I wasn't completely aware of my surroundings because people who were there, later on asked me "did you even know I was there?"  I was so relaxed and ready for this baby. My body then had urges to push, I controlled the urges for as long as I could. Then when I felt I wanted to push I did. My midwife delivering told me that she had never seen anyone push like I had. I would breathe down the baby, then stop and relax and just smile and use breathing techniques. I was actually smiling! The nurses were amazed, and stated "Is she smiling?" "I can't even tell when she is pushing." With a few more birth breaths our beautiful baby was born with only an hour of breathing down. I awoke from my trance, and was so happy to finally be holding my baby. This was my first child, and my midwife and every attending nurse were very surprised that I had only first degree tears, given the baby was 8 pounds 12 ounces and 22 inches long. And I before I was pregnant was a 105 pound ballerina. I received so many comments from nurses and my midwife. "You are a pioneer woman!" "That was amazing! I have never seen any first time mom or anyone give birth like that!"  and lastly my midwife says "You were very in tune with your body, you knew when you wanted to push, when you needed to do things without promptings, and most amazingly you did this all through relaxing and listening to your body's needs." I just have to say that HypnoBirthing has changed my view on child birth. At first I was very skeptical about HypnoBirthing. Like yeah right this isn't going to work for me. I had always been afraid of hospitals, blood draws make me pass out, I thought to myself how will I have a baby!? But as soon as I took the classes and realized childbirth is something that is a happy, joyful experience, not something to be afraid of or something that "hurts". And as I let all my fears aside and listened to how my body wanted childbirth to be like I could only put child birth in the same category as something that is joyous. I was walking within hours of having my baby, eating steak and potatoes and smiling. I have to say that my baby could not be a calmer baby. I would have to say that that is in result to a non-traumatizing experience for him. No pain meds, no unnecessary testing, no early cord clamping, no vaccinations, no injections. And most importantly the bonding experience because I requested 24 hour rooming, for the baby to be placed immediately on my bear skin, and for any tests to be done in my arms. I can not express the amount of joy I have received from this experience. How much this has changed my life, how much I feel it has saved my baby and made childbirth joyous. I can't thank you enough. I hope more and more people become aware of your HypnoBirthing class. Thank you!

Lisa and Preston Hawkes and little baby Aiden too!

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