© 2010, Carol Peterson, ICCE, CD(DONA) Erie, PA

Birth Journeys

Carol Peterson, ICCE, HCHI, CD(DONA)

Instilling Confidence in Birth Since 2004

814-899-7722  * cbecarol@yahoo.com

 

Despite the fact that I have been attending births for fourteen years, my first experience with Hypnobabies happened only a year ago…and I have to admit that I wasn’t looking forward to it. Why not? Because I’d had previous experiences with “hypno”-classes and the subsequent births were often MORE challenging as the parents were not only under-prepared for what they were about to experience, they were set up for disappointments with unrealistic expectations of a “pain free” birth if they just did their hypnosis “right”. It was not unusual for my client to feel labor becoming active (generally 3-4 cm dilated) and panic, thinking she was not doing things ‘right’ because of how it felt, losing all confidence in her ability and desire to complete the job at hand…the exact opposite of what you want in labor.

 

The upcoming birth was a first time mother and, as most people know, first babies tend to be the most challenging. I was skeptical and nervous about it as I knew this was a “hypno-birth” mother. I braced myself for the false alarms I often saw, emotional breakdowns, the pep talks I was used to giving about how she was NOT failing or doing it wrong, that her body COULD do this, that nothing was wrong. During our prenatal visits I would ask her if she had any questions this week about nutrition, signs of labor, questions about the birth – and I was always pleasantly surprised at the depth of her knowledge and she would always assure me that they’d just gone over that information in her Hypnobabies class! My curiosity was peaked, but I did remain skeptical.

 

I got the first call early in the morning that the mother thought her water had broken, but they assured me that she was doing just fine and would keep in touch with me and let me know if anything changed or she needed me. She planned to do what she’d learned in her Hypnobabies class…to eat well and rest until labor commanded her attention. Plan for the day was to take naps and watch a DVD! Alright…now I was impressed! I didn’t have to tell a first time mom to take it easy in early labor, or calm a panicking family because her water had broken! How refreshing!

We kept in contact throughout the day until I headed to their house late that evening.

 

Contractions were coming very regularly, but she was still calm and handling things very well. I figured I’d be there for quite a long time as it still sounded like it wasn’t far into her labor. I got to their home and she was listening to her CD’s, calm and happy – uh oh, more confirmation that I’d probably be there a long time. Imagine my delight when their son slipped out into the world while his mom sat on a birth stool in her peaceful bedroom! Tucked into bed, mom smiled and looked at me and said, “That wasn’t nearly as bad as so many people told me it would be! That was AWESOME!”

 

I was thrilled beyond words – but figured that the chances were great that it was the parents that succeeded IN SPITE of the method, not because of the method. Glad that they had such a positive experience, Hypnobabies hadn’t quite won me over yet – I would need more experience with it before making a final judgment.

 

Read on...

A Midwife’s Experience with Hypnobabies