Emilie & Mark

Just thought I’d share a quick recap of our baby girl’s birth story.  The next morning (after a full day of trying to convince her to turn, doing upside down handstands in a pool, etc.), I started into labor naturally.  Starting at 1am Sunday, my surges were about 7 minutes apart and about 30 seconds long.  I spoke with my doula and she encouraged me to wait until the surges were longer to go to the hospital.  For about an hour the surges got closer together and even more intense, but then started to spread apart again.  By 6am, they had become much more sporadic.  I called our doctor to ask if we should change anything about our approach given that she was breech as far as we knew, and they confirmed that we should wait to go to the hospital until contractions were 5 minutes apart and at least 60 seconds long.  We worked through the surges all day at home until about 7pm when we went to the hospital.  We anxiously watched as the ultrasound was performed again– and reconfirmed that she was still breech.  With this news, preparations started for the c-section.  Not the “natural” birth we’d hoped for, but we were relieved that both baby and I got through it with our health intact.  I’m comforted that we gave our baby girl literally all the time that we could possibly could to turn (and waited until she was ready to come) before she was born.

Anyway, we were grateful that we had the tools we learned through hypnobirthing available to us.  They helped us to keep calm and relatively relaxed as we labored all Sunday, and helped us to feel prepared for whatever the next step in our birth would be.  Thanks so much for your caring teaching and support throughout the class.  Maybe next time we have a baby we’ll be able to use those tools throughout our entire labor!

Hope all continues well with you!

Best,
Emilie and Mark