Shoko's calm induction
Shoko’s second baby, induced, calm and very different to her first birth experience
I am writing this with holding my baby sleep soundly on my lap :)
On Sunday afternoon at 1:00 pm, I was in the hospital induction room. Having induction was the hospital’s recommendation, due to my age being over 40. I was given an induction pessary, after the doctor confirmed I wasn’t dilated.
They said it doesn’t work for everyone, but in my case, it worked immediately – my surges started in no time.
But they weren’t regular, so I just lay down in bed.
At 6:00 pm I was given a check-up. The midwife put a monitor on me and it showed strong and frequent surges – it seems the pessary worked very strongly with my body.
I stayed calm (even while in the next bed, a lady was screaming).
My midwife was surprised to see how calm and quiet I was.
The midwives/doctors discussed whether to take out the pessary from my body, because surges were so unexpectedly strong and frequent, (we couldn’t believe this kind of thing could possibly happen ..). They decided not to pull it out, but to carry on monitoring my body’s reaction.
I was told to keep the monitors strapped on me, had dinner, and waited for the doctor’s check-up. But the doctor was too busy to come, so I asked to have a sleep at half past midnight.
With the monitor finally removed from me, I lay down flat and closed my eyes – I kept having strong surges, but I stayed calm.
For the entire time, I was listening the Hyponobirthing MP3s Zoe gave me (relaxations, breathing, statements for empowering birth, music) on my earphones.
It REALLY helped me stay calm and positive. From these tracks, I really believed that “my body can naturally do it,” confidently.
At 2:40am, I woke up with such a strong surge, and from last birth experience I sensed this was it. I woke my husband (sleeping on sofa next to me) to ask him to push the button to call our midwife.
She came and said I was fully dilated, and needed to move to labour room immediately.
After arriving in the labour room, I gave birth within no time at 3:10 am. In the end, I was making loud noises, but to me it just felt natural and right thing to do at that time.
I felt so good and proud when our baby came out.
This experience was totally opposite to my last labour 3 years ago, in which I was just scared, terrified and unsure of everything happening around me ...
If I look back at that now, my body was closed firmly with fear and tension. No wonder I had such a difficult long labour – with epidural but still in pain, I took 24 h to dilate in a hospital bed and ended up with a forceps delivery.
I felt much more positive and relaxed, by trusting my body this time. The hypnobirthing class and MP3s made it happen.
If I hadn’t attended your hypnobirthing class, I wouldn’t have known how much my mentality, especially trust and confidence, could affect my body / hormones and as a result, my labour.
My husband was also a massive support, encouraging me to relax by staying by my side and giving me words of positive affirmation and reinforcement.
I used to think that people who had a smooth labour were just being lucky. But I am proof myself that it is not the case.
You, yourself, are in control of what happens (in whatever situation we are in - Induction, C-section etc)
Thank you very much for teaching this to us, Zoe. And I am really thankful to my friends who recommended hypnobirthing to me too.
Emma with big brother Leo
