First, some pictures...it took a ridiculous number of attempts to get this one good picture of Leila. It is hard to get a flattering picture of a newborn!
Kaia is so proud that she can hold Leila on her own. I've caught her trying to pick her up on her own a couple of times.
I'm never able to take pictures of Asher near Leila because I have to keep a close watch on what's happening. He loves her too much sometimes! Putting these glasses on Leila was his doing:
I’ll admit it. I am a passionate advocate of natural birth. Here’s why: my two natural birth experiences have been THE MOST exhilarating and
empowering experiences of my life. No other experience I’ve had has even come close to replicating the feelings of empowerment I’ve had immediately following Asher’s and Leila’s births. In fact, Asher’s birth triggered a change in me where I became more assertive and began pursuing personal goals with much more zeal than I ever had before. If I could give birth completely naturally, I could do anything!
Let me make clear, first of all, that I am very grateful for modern technology. I am so grateful that C-sections are as safe as they are so that Kaia could be born safely (she was breech). Second, I do not in any way judge those who use drugs to get through labor. But I do wish people would be more willing to give natural birth a shot.
At the beginning of this pregnancy, I heard about the
Hypnobabies program, a self-study course to prepare for labor and birth by learning to deeply relax. I was a little skeptical of the claim that labor could be pain-free using this program, but I figured that since I made it through Asher’s labor just using my own resources and intuition, it certainly couldn’t hurt to prepare for labor using Hypnobabies. Here’s a brief explanation from the website: “Many people think hypnosis is like the stage hypnosis shows they've seen where people seem to be unable to control themselves, act goofy and provide entertainment for the audience.
In reality it is a state of focused concentration where the body and mind relax together. Hypnosis is very simply: a natural state of mind in which the body and mind are extremely relaxed and yet the mind is also highly aware and focused.”
On to the actual birth story…My mom flew in on Tuesday evening (November 3). At the time my mom flew in, I was having Braxton Hicks contractions but nothing painful. I woke up the next morning around 7:15 feeling crampy. I wasn't sure if it meant anything so Peter left for work. By 8:00 a.m. I started timing contractions; they were every 5 minutes lasting 1 minute each! I didn’t want Peter to come home if this was false labor, but my mom convinced me to call Peter and tell him he'd better come home!
By the time Peter got home and we finished packing the hospital bag, it was 10:00 when we were heading out the door. Both my mom and Peter were completely stressed about me getting to the hospital in time, but I was so relaxed. During each contraction, I would just stop where I was and rock my hips back and forth as I focused all my energy internally. Kaia's farewell to us was "Birth in the car! Definitely yes!" Fortunately we made it to the hospital without having a birth in the car. By the time we got into the hospital, it was about 10:45.
I had been hoping to labor in a birthing tub, but by the time we got there I just knew that I wasn't going to have time to get in a tub. When Peter mentioned this to me (he knew how important that had been to me), I said that I’d rather have a fast labor than a tub labor.
The nurse checked me when we first got there; I was dilated to a 4, and my contractions were about every 3 minutes. I had the same problem in this labor as in Asher's - the contraction monitor never showed my contractions going past 40% intensity even though I knew they were much more intense than that. In fact, I later learned that when the midwife first arrived, the nurse suggested that they might want to send me home because she didn't believe I was really going to give birth anytime soon. The midwife came in, looked at me and then at the monitor, and asked me how intense my contractions really were (I looked so relaxed that she didn’t believe I was very far along in my labor). I told her the contractions were pretty intense. She decided to check me and was shocked to find that I was dilated to an 8 - I had gone from a 4 to an 8 in half an hour!
I got off the bed and onto a birthing ball. Being on the birthing ball was incredibly helpful. Rocking my hips back and forth made the contractions much more bearable. Even still, the contractions were getting pretty intense pretty quickly. The midwife could tell by my reaction to the contractions that things were speeding up, so she suggested that if I got up on the bed on my side, the baby might be ready to come out. I stood up and immediately felt the baby ready to come out. The feeling of her dropping terrified me, so I sat immediately back down on the ball! I was worried about that next step. With encouragement from the midwife and Peter, I stood up again and got on the bed at 12:24. My water broke on its own at 12:25, and after 6 intense minutes of pushing, Leila was born at 12:31 p.m.
My birth experience was very intense but so worth it. I’m not sure whether or not I would say that the labor was pain-free. I would definitely say it was more intense than it was painful. Pushing was painful – thank goodness that only lasted 6 minutes. It was amazing to give birth completely naturally. I learned in the next couple of days that of the 9 babies our pediatric nurse was in charge of, ours was the only baby not born by C-section.
The long and short of my experience is that I completely recommend natural birth and the Hypnobabies program. Here in summation, are a few of the things that using Hypnobabies did for me:
• I would usually listen to the program on my iPod after middle-of-the-night trips to the bathroom. During my previous pregnancies, I would often lie awake for a long time before falling asleep even though I would be extremely tired. Listening to my hypnosis would put me to sleep, usually within minutes! The program still works if you fall asleep because your subconscious mind is absorbing all the messages. (It may sound hokey, but I’m convinced it works!) The price of the program was honestly worth it just for the great sleep I had after listening.
• I felt wonderful this entire pregnancy. The Sunday before I had Leila, people at church were asking how I was feeling and I felt like saying that I was feeling too good to be having a baby within days. I attribute this to the Hypnobabies – the relaxation that came from practicing decreased the degree to which I felt the aches and pains I’ve had in my previous pregnancies.
• I felt very empowered through the Hypnobabies program even while pregnant. The program focuses on how you, as the pregnant woman, are able to make your own decisions for yourself and your baby. This encouragement led me to switch from my OB to midwives at about 6 months pregnant. I’ve never regretted that decision.
• I wholeheartedly believe that my labor was only 4 ½ hours because I was so relaxed; instead of fighting against the pain, my body worked with the contractions to get Leila here so quickly.
• I was also able to use my Hypnobabies to get through the afterbirth pains – those really do get worse with each birth! Relaxing during them made them much more bearable.
• Although I was so grateful that I had a natural birth with Asher, for months afterwards, every time I thought about or talked about the labor, my stomach would start clenching up and I would almost feel sick to my stomach. I don’t feel that at all when thinking about Leila’s birth. I guess the relaxation I felt during the labor made a difference even in how I remember the laboring experience.
