The Hypnobabies Choice
At our first pre-natal visit for Kiddo, the Dr. asked three questions,
"Are you planning to breastfeed?"
"Are you planning on an epidural?"
"What are you plans for birth control after the baby?"
The third question really caught me off-guard. I mean, how far was that from my mind?
I had already decided to breastfeed if I could, but I wasn't really sure about the epidural thing. I had heard so many mixed opinions and ideas about it that I just wasn't sure.
Now my Dr. was great about supporting me in anything I decided to do, but he wasn't always great at providing information unless I asked for it. And me being me, I didn't really ask him about it until I had figured it out for myself.
After much research (and a blog post I really liked), we decided to go the self-hypnosis route. I felt kind of weird about it because I am one of the most skeptical people I know. But I thought it might be worth a shot.
I selected the Hypnobabies program after a not so helpful hospital class on natural methods. I felt good about it and DH was very supportive of the choice.
So was it a good choice? After secretly hoping for a birth like this one, I was interested to see how the whole thing turned out.
Stay tuned for the next installment... "Preparing for a Hypnobabies Birth" or "How I took an 35 minute nap each day and counted it for practice in labor".
5 comments:
Hi! Congrats on your first child!
I can't wait to read the next installment. It took me two births to successfully breastfeed, and three births to get my non-epi, embrace-the-purposeful-pain birth.
Thankfully the bc question is easy to answer--I'm allergic to everything.
Love the joint-blogging with the pink/blue backgrounds.
Kermit-the-frog,
Wow, I'd love to hear how you got to the point of embracing the "purposeful pain" part of birth. Please share.
I'll be the first to jump on the hyp-birth band wagon. I did it with my first birth and it was AMAZING! I did have to practice for about 40 minutes a day for the 7 weeks leading up to birth but it was so worth it.
This is the program I used.
I haven't been practicing this time around and just have been keeping my fingers crossed that after two year of scant practice I've still "got it." Yeah right.
The great thing about this kind of self hypnosis is that you can use it to control pain or tension in any kind of situation. I found putting myself under hypnosis worked like a charm every time I couldn't relax enough to sleep. It's also helpful for any physical pains you would otherwise feel.
I really did experience 24 hours of hard contractions without "minding" the pain last time. You just put your mind in a happy place and let your body do it's thing until it's time to push. That's when the purposeful pain part comes in. But thanks to my hypnosis, my mind was calm enough to get through the rest of labor without any other drugs.
What can I say? I love this mind-over-matter nonsense. Go for it!
It's a really long story, heh.
Condensed: epi with second birth never took, so I had an unplanned no-pain-relief birth. Was utterly unprepared, and suffered greatly in labor. Still, realized I was *capable* of doing it. Third birth was all in my hands--no IV, no epi, birthing ball, no monitors, no lying in bed, no annoying counting during pushing, dim lights, no TV, amazing birth. (I did take three half-doses of fentanyl when I felt panicky; next time I hope to have learned hypnobirthing so I won't need fentanyl.) Was up and walking within 30 minutes and back on the playground in seven days.
Super condensed: the pain has a purpose, it WILL end, and our bodies are designed to handle it.
Sarah and Kermit-the-frog,
Thanks for your perspectives on successful hynobirthing experiences. I am still ruminating on how it all went and what I think about the whole thing, so come back and discuss it with me when I get that far in my story...
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