by Heidi Wilhelm
Well, my son Zach was born in 2002 on May 9 (his Daddy’s birthday too!). He was 8lbs, 3.5 oz and 22 inches long. It wasn’t a classically simple HypnoBirthing, unfortunately, but it was a successful HypnoBirthing. We experienced a couple of special circumstances.
My birthing process started at 1 am, but it really hurt! I tried relaxing in all different positions, but couldn’t get it to abate. I realized that the surges were happening every 3 or 4 minutes, and that it didn’t hurt until the middle of them, and that it only hurt at the base of my uterus along the crease at the top of my thighs. When the midwife arrived, we realized that it was the round ligaments that were hurting me – and ligaments don’t respond to deep relaxation! These ligaments were worn out from a respiratory virus that had been aggravating me for the past week and causing me to cough incessantly. I guess when the surges were pulling up and opening the cervix, they were also pulling on the ligaments. The surges themselves didn’t hurt at all! I could tell I was having one due to a tightening feeling, or if my hands were resting on my belly. I’ll tell you, I was mad! Here I was, deeply relaxing, doing all the right things for a HypnoBirthing, and it still hurt. Ugh! These ligaments also prevented me from lying down on my side, my back in a reclining position, or even on my knees. It was just too painful. They demanded that I be standing and swaying back and forth, up and down.
After laboring for 9 hours, my lungs were burning and my legs were burning. I felt like I must be completely dilated – I had all the hallmark signs – spotting on the pad, feeling like I couldn’t do this anymore, temperature fluctuations, etc. My midwife checked just to make sure and discovered that I was only 6 cm and the baby was oblique and wasn’t even presenting his head at the cervix!
To be completely honest, at this point I decided that I needed an epidural (didn’t happen) because I couldn’t breathe anymore and needed the pain to stop. I told her it was time to transport to the hospital. So we got into the car and by the time we arrived at the hospital (7 min ride) the baby had changed position. When we arrived and were checked, I was 9 cm. The nurse berated me to give a little push to open the cervix to 10. The only way she would let me stand back up again was to do it, but I was mad again! At that point I said, “Great, now we can go home again!” But Zach’s head was now ready to come down, so as soon as I stood back up again, she said to start pushing. I said that I didn’t want to push, that I was going to breathe the baby down which I did for a few minutes. The doctor wanted me to get back into or onto the bed because she’d never received while the mom was standing, but I said, “Sorry, not going to happen.” The nurse started perineal massage and I told her to get out of there and put my hand over my perineum to protect it. Then the uterus gave two expelling surges and his head was born. So I received Zach’s head – mine were the first hands to touch him! That was really neat. Crowning and birthing his head were easy. No problems or pain. But as his shoulder came out, they discovered that his other shoulder had the cord wrapped around it, so they pulled it out. I felt that and said, “Don’t pull! Don’t pull!” Too late, that’s when I think I tore. I think the cord being wrapped around his shoulder is what kept Zach in an oblique position for weeks.
Now in hindsight, I think if I hadn’t been so sick and tired from lack of sleep due to coughing, I would have been able to go up and down the stairs several times to help Zach get into the right position and would have been able to birth at home. Or if Zach had been in position at the cervix, then I would have been able to manage being sick. But I didn’t have the wherewithal to manage both. But I still had a natural, vaginal birth without interventions and now I have my beautiful baby. If not for HypnoBirthing, I think that this may have turned out to be a highly medicalized birth. Thank goodness for Mickey!
Unfortunately, they took Zach to the bassinet across the room because they assigned him an initial APGAR of 5 and he was a little blue. Guy, my fabulous husband, stayed with him, always having a hand on him. As soon as I got on the bed to wait for the placenta, I insisted that they bring the baby to me NOW. As soon as the nurses paused, Guy picked him up and took him away from them to bring him to me. We had immediate skin-to-skin and breastfeeding. He was and is perfect. Our doula told me later that she didn’t think he was a 5 APGAR at all. She thinks they just said that to justify taking him. His second APGAR was 8, so no problems.
I think I learned a lot from this birth – not the least that just because the first child is born at 37 weeks (my daughter Kate), the next one may have his own schedule – Zach was born at 41 weeks. Maybe he would have been earlier if he hadn’t been oblique. Who knows? But it was a very long 4 weeks from 37 to 41. I was emotionally and psychologically prepared for a baby at about 37 weeks! I had been under the very false theory that women have varying gestation periods, but that each woman will probably gestate for roughly the same period of time with each baby. WRONG!