Tracey shares her birth story with us
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My membranes started to slowly release on Friday the 12th of March, nothing to be to concerned about, however my midwife liked to keep a close eye on me. Her last visit was at 6pm and we had “the talk” about if nothing had happened by morning what were our options. My midwife always knew from our very first visit that we intended on having a water birth at home….and that when the time came I didn’t want to be inspected, poked, or prodded, I didn’t even want her to check to see how dilated I was.
Our birth process was to be left to my body and our baby to decide when and how with no intervention, unless Spida (my partner) thought otherwise.
Our midwife was always understanding and supportive of our request and left with a smile saying ” I might see you tonight”. So hoping for the best Spida and I head off to bed at 9pm to make sure we got some sleep – just in case??
Spida was asleep without a doubt by at least 9:05pm I on the other hand was still watching tv with no sign of anything about to happen. An hour later, by 10pm that all had changed and for the next hour I was consistently having a strong surge every 2 minutes, lasting 1 minute. I was fine, I relaxed and just concentrated on my breathing, plus I was actually trying to watch tv. Spida was none the wiser I was peacefully quite during each and every surge well he remained in dreamland, besides he needed his rest, I believe now its more exhausting to be the birthing companion then to be the birthing mother!!
At 11pm I thought it was about time to wake Spida and fill the birthing pool, so during this hour we filled the pool, when I say we, I really mean he, as I just watch , wiggled, and breathed. I was never in any “pain” and could talk and walk around easily. Now I’m gonna admit this…. Spida can multi task!!, he was filling the pool, heating water, giving me light touch massage, turning music on…. turning music off and all with a smile.
12am its time to call the midwife and jump in the pool, I can feel the pressure of our baby down really low. The water adds to the relaxation. It wasn’t that I didn’t struggle to focus on my breathing, my breathing was beautiful, this time round I struggled to completely let go, it wasn’t through fear, I’ve done this before I know it works and more importantly I know I can birth easily without any discomfort.
But I did come to a crossroads during our birthing of Lennix, I could have gone either way. It did cross my mind that to scream would bring some relief, relief from what? I don’t know as during my whole birthing process I was not in any pain. At this stage the only thing I can bring it down to is trying to perfect our birth..more!?? I think that really means control!
My mind was busy with all these thoughts and then I remembered to control is to constrict and so I just let go, I let my body birth and our baby take the lead. I calmly said “the baby’s coming” and with one more strong loving breath at 12:50am Lennix was born into her Daddy’s arms without a sound from either of us.
Lennix took to the breast pretty much straight away, she was very alert and aware of her surroundings, me I was fine, fresh and wound free. Our midwife enjoyed every moment of hypno birth and mentioned later that it was hard for her to do her job as during our whole birthing process she had no idea at what stage I was at.
Luckily for us she is very cool and believes in Hypno birthing, so she just took trust in both myself and Spida and basically just left us to it. She did say she was somewhat lost for words when I mentioned calmly that “the baby was coming” she said she wanted to say to me.. ” what do you mean? ” do you mean like.. right now?” She said the calmness of my voice and of Spida was very confusing for her. However again she put complete trust in the three of us and just let us birth 🙂
Actually another funny thing is, we took a video of the birth and while the baby’s head is out, my mother walks pass me in the pool to get a drink of water, she didn’t even realise I was crowning!!! She was about 5 meters away from the pool, walks back into the kitchen to see her new granddaughter, she was shell shocked, the two rooms are basically one and she had no idea I was about to give birth as nothing had changed in my body language or tone of voice.
~ Welcome Lennix ~
Tracey is now certified to teach this amazing birthing technique and hopes one day not to far away all women can be empowered back to their birthing instincts, trust their birthing body’s and have beautiful calms births. You are welcome to view the Hypno Birth here http://www.Gentle-Birthing.com.
