Hypnobirthing for a quick labour
The birth story of Darcie Hanna ?
I’ve been meaning to sit and write this for a few weeks now, so I’ll try to get all the details in with our it being too long!
Baby had been teasing us with labour for a few weeks leading up to her birth day.
I didn’t “pre labour” as such, but had lots of pressure, heaviness and just overall discomfort along with everyone around me telling me “any day now!” That overall just made me more impatient! Even my midwives were expecting a slightly early baby and told me to not be surprised if I had a 38/39 weeky.
But! She had other plans and hung out in there quite comfortably. We spent some time every day doing our hypno birth practice, pressure points and got the baby come out track to listen to.
I eventually resigned myself to being pregnant forever and decided to just relax and stop trying so hard! I’d been told baby was tracking along the 50th percentile and to expect a 7ish pound Bub, similar to my first 2 babies. Size of baby was never a concern for me as I trusted my body to birth whatever was thrown at me but I still found it comforting to know that if she was late, she probably wasn’t going to be ginormous!
I’d had my first baby at 39+2 weeks and my second at 40 on the dot (he likes routine) And my due date loomed. I was starting to re consider a few of my wishes in regards to intervention and hubby and I had spoken about our options and our starting point should I be well over due.
I had an appt with my midwife scheduled for my due date if baby didn’t come before and I decided to discuss my options with her at that appt as I was well and truly getting over it and was suffering a decent amount of pelvic pain.
I walked in and she took one look at me and said “you’re done aren’t you?” At that, I cried!
She asked if I’d like her to check to see if I had any dilation happening to see if she could give me a rough estimate on labour starting to put my mind at ease a little. I agreed and said if favourable, I was ok with a stretch and sweep also. When checked I was a good 4cm, mostly effaced and nice and stretchy so she gave my cervix a gentle stretch. She mentioned that it would be very very easy to break my waters and baby was sitting right there ready to go and she suspected I’d labour that night on my own but that she was also happy to break my water that afternoon if I liked.
Given some time to have a think about it, we decided to go ahead with breaking my waters later on that afternoon. We decided this as I’m a very organised person and get quite anxious about not having things in their time and place so having a little bit of a plan put my tired, over thinking mind at ease. I was a little concerned if I left things much longer I was going to be too tired and overwhelmed to get in to a good head space for labour, so knowing myself well enough, decided this was the right choice.
At this point, it was 1pm on my due date. The kids were at school and my midwife said if I’d like to return at 3:30pm we’d get the process started. I was very much not wanting further induction intervention so after discussing this, my midwife assured me that she was fairly certain she could just break my waters and my body would happily do the rest. I trusted her and my body so we agreed to go ahead.
We picked up the kids from school, sorted the bags etc, got every one dropped where they needed to be and headed to the hospital.
I was a little sad that for the first time, I wouldn’t get to go into spontaneous labour, but I was starting to get a little anxious and I was so tired that I’m completely comfortable that I made the right decision for myself by choosing my labour day and time.
Once at the hospital I was checked again by my midwife. I was so happy to have my own personal midwife through my whole pregnancy as I felt I could be more open about my wants instead of having to repeat myself to multiple staff. I was still the same dilation, but fully effaced and very stretchy, so she got the needle, easily nicked my waters, which broke every where! Then left me to it.
By this time, it was 4pm.
Once my waters were broken, I was able to get up to do whatever I wished. I set up the tens machine, got my headphones on and ready with all my hypno birth affirmations and tracks and sat on a fit ball to wait!
It wasn’t long, maybe 10 mins before the cramps slowly started. They picked up a steady rhythm right from the get go and we’re very mild and easily managed. It was only myself, Ben, my midwife and my student midwife in the room and everyone was just chatting quietly. The midwives hung out in the corner and left me completely alone! It was amazing.
I sat like this for about an hour and pretty much 5pm on the dot, my contractions became a lot more real and close together. We weren’t timing, but my midwife quietly told Ben that she considered me in active labour from about 5pm based on the change in my body language and the fact that I’d gone very quiet. It was at this point that I turned up my headphones, closed my eyes and blocked out the world. Although I knew every one was there, because they were leaving me alone i was able to just be in my own space. Ben sat quietly beside me, occasionally rubbing my back or quietly asking if I was ok. To be honest I was quite happy just being left to it!
I recall my midwife gently touching my belly through one contraction and saying they were nice and strong. That was the only time during labour that I was touched or checked in any way and she went back to quietly sitting in the corner.
By this time, I was on my knees laying over my fit ball.. when I felt a contraction coming I’d turn the tens machine up a little which I really felt helped take the edge off and gave me some thing to focus on. I had my affirmations playing through my headphones, and although I wasn’t following her every word, I found them very soothing and was just able to mentally disappear with her voice.
At 6pm, I very suddenly went from simple labour contractions, to very heavily feeling baby descend. It was like flipping a switch! I was amazed at how fast I went into transition and how aware I was of what was happening in my body. I could feel exactly where baby was and knew that she wasn’t far away at all. I started to shake a little and this prompted my midwives to know something was changing. She suggested to my student that they’d best put some gloves on and they came to sit quietly beside me and wait as shit just got real!!
This is how I laboured and actually exactly where I gave birth ? on the middle of the floor! Headphones and tens on ☺️
At 6:16pm on the 16th November, 1 hour and 16 minutes from being considered in actual labour, baby Darcie was born. 16 minutes after very suddenly feeling an immense amount of pressure and “holy shit this is actually happening!!”
A midwife managed to capture her birth on video and from just starting to see her head, to full baby out was under 1 minute!
My midwives were amazing and aside from catching Bub, didn’t touch me at all.
I had originally wanted Ben to catch her, but I didn’t let go of his hand long enough! I didn’t even realise until she was out and he said he didn’t get to catch her! Oops!
She was passed up to me and immediately on to my chest where she quickly exercised her little lungs and told us all about it.
I hopped up to move on to the bed to lay with her on my chest and wait for the placenta. Darcie stated attached to her cord until it was completely white and empty. She wasn’t moved off my chest and scored beautiful 9s for her apgar scores.
She latched on within about 10 minutes of birth and fed beautifully off each side. This is where we stayed for over 2 hours. Just allowing her to feed side to side and snuggle skin to skin.
Once she had fallen asleep, Ben got his first daddy cuddle while I showered.
After this we weighed her and to our surprise she was 8lb5oz! My biggest baby after my first 7lb babies and easiest birth! She was also 53cm long so was definitely curled in to a tight little ball in there and was tricking everyone in to thinking she’d be a little tacker
Overall, I absolutely loved everything about my labour and birth. A few things about our “plan” changed but I’ve always believed you can’t really plan birth and I’m content in the choices we made as they were perfect for what we needed as a family ?
I rave about our hypno birthing experience to any one that will listen. Even though I didn’t get a long labour to try all the tracks and tips and tricks, I feel like it prepared us so well leading up, made us comfortable about our choices and most importantly made us a lot more informed about our preferences and about what we were and weren’t able to do in a hospital setting.
It really gave us the confidence to have an amazing pregnancy, labour and birth journey that was all on our terms
Kate Vivian is a self-professed pregnancy and birth geek who is finally learning to embrace the chaos of having 3 kids. It was the birth and ‘bringing baby home’ experience of her first baby, and the overwhelming guilt that went with it, that led her to start Bright Mums – and create a world where Mums matter.
A Certified Hypnobirthing Australia Practitioner, childbirth educator and birth and postpartum doula, Kate works with Mums-to-be not only supporting them through pregnancy, and birth but also teaching them to honour themselves at a time when the world is telling them their baby is the most important thing.
With almost 2 decades in adult education, Kate has the ability to create a safe space, a non-judgey space. A place where Mums can relax and feel supported regardless of what their journey looks like.
A keen traveller in a former (pre-kids) life, Kate dreams of the day her kids are big enough to take skiing and they can completely show her up while she is busy falling down mountains.
Find out more about Kate or how Hypnobirthing Australia classes can help you prepare for a calm, positive birth.