Belly to Cradle Birth Stories: The Hynobabies Birth of Sebastian Gareth

To prepare for Sebastian’s birth I practiced Hypnobabies homestudy course from about 26 weeks until he was born. The terminology in this story is a little different with “waves” being used in place of “contractions”.

Because my first baby was a 42 week induction, as my due date neared I started “natural” techniques to try to jumpstart labor, and I was happy to hear at my office visits that I was having cervical changes that I had never had with the previous pregnancy. My due date however came and went without a baby so I started doing even more home induction techniques to try to get things going. On the 20th I did a few minutes of nipple stimulation which set up regular painless pressure waves that continued every 3-5 minutes throughout the day. I went and had my first ever acupuncture visit and went home truly expecting to have my baby in my arms before midnight. The waves continued to come regularly for about half the night and then unfortunately fizzled out. The next morning my husband accompanied me to my 41 week pre-natal appointment where it was discovered that my blood pressure was elevated quite a bit and because of that, in addition to my very favorable cervix (dilated to a 4 and 70%) (and my insistence that I was OVER being pregnant) my midwife agreed to an induction that day. 

"To prepare for Sebastian’s birth I practiced Hypnobabies homestudy course from about 26 weeks until he was born. The terminology in this story is a little different with 'waves' being used in place of 'contractions'."

The induction was by nipple stimulation which worked really well to start regular pressure waves every 3-5 minutes, however I had to keep the stimulation up or they would peter out. After 4 or 5 hours of this, my midwife checked me and found that I was 5cm and 80% so she gave me the choice of continuing as we were doing or she could break my water. I chose to have the water broken. There was heavy meconium in the fluid which made me really upset and I was trembling uncontrollably, but Amber used one of my Hypnobabies cues to help me calm down.

​After my water was broken, I still needed to either be up and walking around or doing nipple stimulation to keep the waves coming steadily, but they were apparently growing in intensity. I was still very comfortable, no pain, just tightness of my abdomen during the pressure waves. I labored in the bathtub for a while, but really didn’t find this to be that relaxing, so I chose to do most of the rest of my later labor sitting in bed. 

"I labored in the bathtub for a while, but really didn’t find this to be that relaxing, so I chose to do most of the rest of my later labor sitting in bed."

At some point I was checked again and found to be at a 9. I was so excited because I was about to meet my baby! The midwife left me to labor for a while longer, checking back periodically to ask if I felt “pushy” or “different” and the answer was always “no”. After several hours of this, she asked if she could check my progress and said I was still dilated to a 9 and she felt that the baby was a little tilted and therefore was not making the progress we wanted. She recommended I labor on my side for a little bit. This I found to be really painful for my pelvis (I had symphysis pubis pain my entire pregnancy) so we switched to laboring on the birth ball for a little while. It was while on the birth ball I started to actually experience pain with my contractions because I couldn’t really use my hypnobabies relaxation tools in that position. I don’t know how long I stayed on the birth ball, but I eventually said I had to move and we went back to the bed.

​Even though I was still dilated to a 9 and not feeling the urge to push, the mid-wife suggested she would like me to try a practice push. I did, and suddenly there was a flurry in the room because baby started to crown with that push! I then REALLY had the urge to push and after two more totally involuntary pushes Sebastian was born! He was placed on my abdomen because his cord was very short. After a few minutes my husband cut the cord and they brought baby to my chest. We had 10-15 minutes of skin to skin time while the placenta was delivered and a few stitches were put in (the same area I tore the first birth re-opened). 

It was a beautiful and peaceful birth.