Brandon and Danielle

Laneah Aven was born October 10, 2006 at 11:21 am. She was 8 lbs 5 oz and 20 and ½ inches with beautiful bright eyes and light brown hair. (P.S. Laneah is pronounced “la-nay-ah”)

What a wonderful day! Laneah is a healthy, happy, sleepy, growing baby and I owe a lot to HypnoBirthing. I had been having practice surges for about two weeks before she came, and lots and lots of lower pressure. I was carrying her really low and this added to the pressure. About 9:00 pm Monday I started feeling really crampy and uncomfortable and by 10:20 pm I knew that these were the “for real” surges. I was really excited when I realized we would meet our daughter soon, but was still calm. The surges were about 2 minutes apart but my doctor appointment that morning showed I was only dilated to 3 cm so I decided we should wait a little bit before heading off to the hospital. I did some things to help, I took a hot shower, relaxed on the bed, swayed in our computer chair. My husband rubbed my back and put pressure on my lower back which helped. I listened to my relaxation music and HypnoBirthing cd. We did this for about 2 and a half hours and then decided to go to the hospital. I know I could have waited longer at home, but it worked out fine the way it did.

We checked in and I measured at a 5 cm so they kept us there and moved us to our birthing room. For the next hours I did my best to relax through the surges, breathing up as slowly as I could and relaxing my whole body as they peaked. It was hard but I realized that I felt in control and that I was feeling confident and pleased with how it was going. My husband and I were sooo tired, (just being awake in the middle of the night can do that to you!) and I tried to doze between surges and found that I was drifting in and out of sleep and wakefulness. This was great because it helped the time pass by so quickly. My husband was great, he would rub my feet or hold my hand as it got a little more intense and I was having a harder time relaxing. It was also great because he would ask if I wanted to listen to my ipod with my relaxation tracks. This went on through the night and the nurses were in and out and basically it was calm and not too eventful.

My nurses were absolutely fantastic. My first nurse had heard of hynobirthing and was interested in becoming involved himself, but he switched shifts and was off at 6 am. But just having him know about it helped me because I could tell he was supporting us. My next nurses honored my birthing preferences even though I could tell she didn’t agree with some things. But I got many of my birth preferences as I wished. For example, I didn’t have an IV administered, just a heplock, they didn’t ask me the “pain on the scale of 1-10 questions” and when it came time to birth my baby they let me direct it rather than it being coached by them.

About 7 am the nurse gave me the option of having the doctor rupture my membranes. She said that baby was sooo far down in the birth path and I had dialted to 7 cm and this would really bring the baby soon. I weighed my options and felt really tired and was still focused, but wasn’t sure how long I was going to be able to maintain my relaxation with the effort it was taking. We decided to take her advice. Soon after my surges really intensified and I found myself surprised with how quickly the change came. The next few hours were tough- I was still smiling and talking, but finding that the surges were really really hard and that my relaxation was slipping. Some of them I could breathe through it and felt fine, and others would come at me hard. Either way I was doing fine and I knew my baby was coming.

The very hardest part for me was right before it came time to birth my baby and I really really really felt the urge to push. My whole body wanted to and the only feeling I can compare it to, is the feeling you get right before you need to throw up. I know that sounds gross, but that overwhelming feeling that you can’t help, but that kinda seizes you and makes your whole body tense up…well this is the closest thing I can come to describing it. It was hard because the nurse told me my cervix wasn’t ready and that I needed to resist it. This was soo hard, I took her advice and did these short quick breaths to avoid the overwhelming urge to push. I know that there must have been some hypnobirthing option that would have helped better, but I was ready for any help that I could get and this did help me until my body was ready and my cervix was ready.

Finally they said I was ready to “push” because the baby was coming. The nurse called my doctor and I was so relieved to not have to resist those hard surges anymore. I began to do the birth breathing as I felt the need to, but soon the nurses suggested that I do the whole tuck chin in and “bear down” and push. As I was terribly ready for this baby to come I took their advice. Whether or not it was working, they gave me so much encouragement and were so kind and supportive that I was ready to do whatever they asked if it brought my baby to me.

After a little bit of this the doctor suggested they bring a mirror for me to see my progress. This helped me IMMENSELY and I was able to really progress as I could see a little of her head crowning. It took about an hour of pushing but it didn’t feel like an hour, it only felt like 10 minutes. I really did what they said and gave it my “all.” I felt like for every step forward I had to take steps back, but I relaxed between surges and then did what they said and pushed! I felt a lot of pressure and even some burning right before her head was born, but once I saw her little head coming I didn’t feel a thing. Soon they had her warm, squirming, purple, wonderful little body on me and it was soo amazing to hold her. I was just crying and smiling and soo happy that she was here. Oh it was such a miracle and I was sooo lucky to have her come to us!!

I was sooo glad that I got to give birth to my little baby without any pain medication, she was so alert right after birth and so beautiful and bright eyed. I felt really tired after, but didn’t need anything after for pain either. I tore a little bit when she was being born, but avoided getting an episiotomy. I have healed really really well and now that she is 2 weeks I feel better than ever. She is a healthy, wonderful, calm little baby and we are so lucky to have her!! It was sooo worth it for me to use HypnoBirthing and I will take refresher courses with future births.