Another HypnoBirth story

Hi-
Here is an inspiring HypnoBirth water/homebirth story:

I went to my weekly midwife appointment Monday afternoon, November 19. My midwife examined me and told me that I was 1 cm dilated with a soft cervix, but the baby was at a -3 position nicely resting above my cervix. So I am thinking "great another couple days or a week to go" even though I was already 4 days overdue. My in-laws were in town, so we went to visit some family approximately an hour away. While visiting, I felt surges. I had been having strong Braxton Hicks contractions for about 4 days, but nothing that would remain consistent past 2 hours. So I assumed these surges to be the same and did not want to alarm my in-laws with prelabor. About an hour later, we departed for home. The surges continued to persist coming exactly 3 minutes apart. Again, I assumed they would stop before we got home. They did not. We arrived home and I told my husband I could possibly be in labor. I asked him to run a warm bath for me and I would see if the surges remained after an hour in the warm water. An hour later in the tub, my surges were continuing at every 3 minutes, lasting for a full minute. So now we decided to call my midwife. She told us to monitor for another hour and call her back. Around this time my doula called, I informed her of what was going on and she said she would be over. My doula arrived and began monitoring my surges which were now every 2 minutes. She contacted my midwife and told her the update. My midwife said she was on her way. About an hour later around 1:30am my midwife and her backup showed up at my house. She checked me and confirmed I was dilated 4 cms. But the baby was still up high, so I needed to walk him down. Time seemed to slow as I walked through the house for hours on end. Talk about "walking to nowhere". By 5am, I was dilated about 7 1/2 cms. We had a birthing pool set up for me, but my midwife refused to allow me in it at anything less than 8 cms. I begged and pleaded with her to let me climb in the water, but she refused me. I continued my plea and finally won out nearly an hour later, but found the temperature in the pool to be too hot. My husband removed the tarp covering and I had to wait for the temperature to drop. He checked the pool temperature after awhile and to my dismay, told me that the pool was now too cold. Now I had to wait for it to reheat. Finally the temperature was up to 98 degrees. My midwife told me it needed to be at body temperature of 98.6, but when that thermometer said 98, I stripped down and nearly jumped in! The water felt like heaven caressing my body. This feeling, however, was too short lived as I went into transitional phase of labor. By the time I was 9 1/2 cms, I demanded to get out of the water. I had climbed out of the pool, but did not have the energy to make it to a standing position. I ended up crawling to a corner on the floor. Huddled in the corner, I was finally clear to start pushing. But my idea of "push" was not the type of "push" that is required in birthing. I was struggling and now started resisting what my body needed for me to do. My husband came to my aid. He had me focus on him and he breathed with me. After sometime, I lost focus and begged to climb back in the birthing pool. Now back in the pool, I once again attempted to regain my focus. My husband got in the pool with me and reached out for my hands to comfort me. I realized that in order to "push" I had to let go of my resistance to the pain. I finally released myself to myself in a way that I had never in my life had to. When I did, my husband lifted our son, Ifayomi Ogunsina Awojobi G_____, out of the water to take his first breath of life. Thirteen and half labor hours, 6 pounds and 21 inches later, with no tears to Mommie--my first was born. Ifayomi means "God will protect me from danger".