Erin & Juan's HypnoBirthing Story

Erin & Juan took Carol's HypnoBirthing classes on Thursdays at Seaside Women's Health in Encinitas, CA. Here is their story:

My husband and I have been married 6 years. We started trying to get pregnant in 2009. It was a long struggle and very emotional. I heard good things about acupuncture so I gave it a try. They suggested I change my diet to exclude soy, dairy and gluten. About a year later we got pregnant naturally! I continued my diet and acupuncture through pregnancy.

I had a pretty easy pregnancy. First trimester was nauseous most of the time but as long as I kept eating cantaloupe and rice cereal I was good. :) Second trimester We discovered I was anemic. I was really exhausted and dizzy but once I started taking iron i felt better within a few days. I started gaining more weight and getting my appetite back. I started seeing a chiropractor which helped with my upper back. Throughout the pregnancy I did prenatal yoga at home which helped relieve tension and maintained my energy level.

Before anyone knew we were pregnant, a friend came to my husband knowing we had been trying for a while and gave him some info on Hypnofertilty. Apparently his neighbor gave birth using the hypnobirthing method using no pain medicine. I didn't need to do too much research beforehand, just knew this was the method I wanted to use for our birth. I looked around for trained professionals on the Internet and asked my acupunturist if he knew anyone and he recommended Carol Yeh-Garner at www.AWelllivedLife.com. We signed up for the 5 week classes. We received a hypnobirthing book, a cd, as well as handouts each week to practice at home. I read the book, took a ton of notes in class, listened to the cd every night at bedtime and fell asleep to it. I just let it repeat throughout the night. I could feel myself relax and slept great when I listened to it. We practiced the other scripts a few times. We did the perineum massages about 3-4 times a week starting at 7 weeks to delivery. The only thing we didn't do enough of was practice the scripts or relaxation with a lot of distractions. I really enjoyed the class and felt prepared and more at ease about delivery and was determined to have a natural birth.

11/5 at My 37 week appointment I lost 2 lbs and my fundal height had not grown and the baby dropped into position. The doctor wanted me to get an ultrasound to check the baby's size. The baby was measuring small, in the 3rd percentile. She thought my placenta was starting to get worn out and the baby wasn't getting enough nutrients. In order to ensure the baby was ok they wanted me to start non stress tests and ultrasounds 2 times a week. I also did another blood test to check my blood count. This new info caused me to stress and worry. I was in the final weeks of pregnancy and very hormonal and fearful. It was an emotional roller coaster.

That Friday 11/9 the dr called and wanted me to go to the hospital to get another blood test. they wanted to rule out a form of preclampsia called HELLP. Signs were small baby, low blood count and enzymes in the liver. I had 2 out of 3. Knowing how severe that is, I was anticipating being induced that weekend. Not something I was prepared for since it wasn't following my birth plan. I reached out to my hypnobirthing teacher, Carol, for advice. She suggested a fear release and gave me steps to follow for induction and reminded me I could still have a natural birth and to relax and allow my body to take over. Going to the hospital, I felt prepared and was ready to accept what came next. They monitored the baby: "the best looking baby they had seen all day." The liver test came back fine and I was released. What a relief! The doctor still wanted me to have the baby before my delivery date and to try and naturally induce.

Then that Thursday, 11/15, when I did another ultrasound, it showed the umbilical cord was slightly restricted. My doctor called and advised me to go to the hospital for induction. This time it was real and I was so scared and not prepared. Knowing the advice Carol gave me the week before, we did a few fear releases to help change my frame of mind and accepted the path my birthing would take. It was my first lesson in parenting. I no longer have control over everything and need to go with the flow. :) I started to get excited knowing I was going to meet my baby soon.

On the way to the hospita,l we listened to the birth affirmations. As we arrived, I started playing the rainbow relaxation CD and kept it on repeat. We arrived at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla around 3pm. We asked for a hypnobirthing nurse and handed out our birthing plan to review with them. They wanted to monitor me the whole time since the baby could be at risk. We met the doctor and midwife on call. We prepared the room for my comfort, covered the clock so I didn't know the time, dimmed the lights and kept the rainbow relaxation in one ear on repeat. They did a vaginal exam but I asked they not tell me how much I was dilated. The less I knew the better my mind would allow my body to take over. We talked about the plan to induce slowly and allow things to take its course without pressure to advance faster. We did another fear release and shortly after started having surges on a consistent basis. The doctor decided to let me go for a few hours before interfering with any induction.

After I stalled, the next step was to give me cervidil. An inducing drug that is inserted at to the cervix and can be pulled out at anytime. My surges started coming on strong and after about 2 hours, they pulled it out since I was advancing quite fast. The whole time I was listening to the rainbow relaxation and allowing myself to get into deep relaxation. I had no idea what was going on around me. Nurses came in and out without me realizing. My husband would make sure they didn't bother me during a surge and would tap my shoulder when they needed to talk to me after a surge. When a surge came on, I closed my eyes and focused on breathing up. I shifted positions often. The nurse brought in a labor bar across the bed and I leaned over it while my husband rubbed my back and did light massage. When he saw me tense up, he would place his hand on my shoulder and whisper "relax". I drank a ton of water and ate almonds as needed.

After the cervidil was out, things stalled a little so we did another fear release. The midwife came in to talk to me about some options and the plan. She saw in my medical history I had a colscopy and suggested we make sure there was no scar tissue and asked if she could try massaging the cervix to allow it to open. I remember Carol telling us that in class but forgot to mention it. I was glad the midwife knew what to do.

The midwife also gave me an option of a balloon/foley ball, but I didn't remember the pros and cons of it from class so I opted to wait and see how things progressed before we decided to go that route. Luckily things progressed.

I started showing all the signs of true labor, nausea (even threw up twice), bleeding and the urge to push. They did another vaginal exam and again didn't want to know how much I was dilated. But the midwife suggested to release my membranes.

We did another fear release. I got comfy and kept telling myself to bring on more surges cause it was bringing my baby closer to me. The more I said it, the better I felt. I had some back labor and the only thing that felt good was to lean back on my fist. Next time, I will bring a tennis ball to lean on instead.

After a while, I started to get really tired and surges were strong. Never did I think pain but more uncomfortable. I felt as if I were running a marathon and running up hill most of the time and kept telling myself the finish line was after the next hill.

Shortly after, I felt ready to push. The midwife came in the check my progress and she said "Erin, you are ready to have this baby. But you can't push just yet." Then they frantically started getting ready. My husband kept me in the zone and not focusing on what was happening around me. When I started pushing, I remembered to breath down like I was on the toilet. The midwife let me lay how I wanted and she would relax my legs when I tensed. I was not quiet at all, my brother in law could hear me outside but the noises were more from effort than pain. It felt so amazing on the last push and I felt the baby slide out. My husband announced it was a girl as they placed her on my stomach. The nurses did have to take her away shortly after to make sure she didn't have to go to NICU. Our Hanna Marie weighed 4lbs 9oz which was enough for her to stay with me and not go to the NICU. Everything at this point was a blur. There was so much going on and I was on cloud 9! I couldn't believe it was all over. She was very alert and started breastfeeding right away with some help from a nurse.

After the placenta came out, I was intrigued to see its condition. It was perfectly healthy and not worn out, no calcium deposits just smaller than "normal". Since the placenta was small, the baby was small but Hanna was healthy.

After everything calmed down, I asked my husband how the progression went since he knew how much I was dilated each time. From the beginning, I was at about 1 cm dilated, progressed to 2 after the cervidil and 2 after the massage of the cervix. When my membranes were ruptured, 2 hours later I was at 10cm, then I pushed for 35 min and Hanna was born at 5:51am Friday, November 16.

I'm so happy with the way things happened. Hypnobirthing really trained me to handle the whole process. We had all the tools and put them to work for us. My husband was such a great coach and very supportive. I was amazed at how he made me feel. I can't thank Carol Yeh- Garner enough for such a great class and support and advice. I would recommend hypnobirthing to anyone and looking forward to doing it again!

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Congratulations Erin & Juan! Thank you so much for sharing your birth story! I'm so glad that the classes helped both of you feel empowered & educated to make the best decisions for your birth & your baby. I hope you're enjoying your babymoon!

If you're interested in learning more about Carol's HypnoBirthing classes, please visit her website at www.AWellLivedLife.Net. If her classes don't fit into your schedule, she would love to refer you to other practitioners in the area. If you are outside of San Diego, please visit www.hypnobirthing.com for a list of practitioners in your area. Thank you!

A HypnoBirthing story--Roshni & Naveen

Roshni & Naveen took my HypnoBirthing classes at Seaside Women's Health in Encinitas to prepare for their second birth. Their first birth was a c-section and they very much wanted to have a vaginal birth after c-section. They decided to have a homebirth with Dr. Biter & San Diego Midwife, LaShel Montgomery and Jamin Sylvada.

Baby Ira’s Birth Story

Wednesday, 2 November started out as a pretty regular day for us, with Naveen working from home like he does most Wednesdays and me getting Rian, our 3-year old ready for school. I had my prenatal appointment with Dr. Biter at noon and Naveen wanted to come along since we thought we would get to see our little one in an ultrasound. I had been getting practice surges for a few weeks now and also some cramping but nothing else and so was convinced that I would be going over my “due date” of 4 November. Although we were anxious, we tried not to think about it. We wanted to give ourselves the best option for an unmedicated natural VBAC and so had opted for a homebirth with Dr. Biter and the dream team.

We were very excited and anxious at the same time and the last few days were hard to focus on anything but the birth and how it would be. We had prepared the supplies and everything was ready to go! So to distract my mind, I activated my new iPhone that morning with the intention of immersing myself with learning to use it and also went around doing errands before my appointment! Then we went for our appointment with Dr. Biter at noon and were pleasantly surprised to see LaShel there. We ended up chatting with her for a while and she reassured us that everything would be fine. She also noticed my tummy tightening. Then Dr. Biter came in and also said the same thing. We did an ultrasound hoping to get a good 4D picture of our little angel in her now cramped home but she had turned face down and we could not get a clear picture, nevertheless I still took the very first photo on my new iPhone of our little angel inside her home within me! Dr. Biter then said he would see me early next week and then chuckled “or maybe tonight”!

We had lunch and returned home at 2 pm. I was very tired and went to take a short nap at 2:30pm. At 2:36 pm I felt this strong kick and quite painful cramping for about a minute. Then for the next half hour I felt strong cramping every 8- 10 minutes as I lay there on the bed. So I called Naveen and then got out of bed. It felt like my water had broken but I was not sure. So I called Dr. Biter and he said that if nothing changes then he would see me the next morning to determine if my water had really released. I called our doula Dawn and was talking to her when I got up and suddenly there was a strong gush and there was no doubt that my waters had released. The surges now were still of the same intensity and about 8-10 minutes apart. They were just uncomfortable but bearable.

So now that we were officially in early labor we started preparing our bedroom and Naveen got busy spreading plastic all over the carpet, setting up the water tub etc. I helped where I could in between the surges and alternated between the birth ball and helping Naveen. Dawn and I decided that she would come over at 7 pm to be with me while Naveen went to drop Rian off at my sister’s home in Orange County. Later my sister called to say that she would instead come to our home and bring Rian with her so that Naveen did not have to leave me.

I am not sure how the time went and before I knew Dawn arrived home and I felt an immediate sense of comfort. She observed me for a bit and said that my belly was low or “pendulous” and the baby was not quite in the pelvis. My surges were now 4-5 minutes apart but very short in duration. So she suggested that we go for a curb walk (one foot on the curb, one on the asphalt) to help the baby engage into the pelvis. Dr. Biter called me to check how I was doing. He said that he would come very soon to “catch the baby” and that I should try and rest as much as possible. Rian was being quiet and staying away from me as he must have guessed something is going on. So we asked him if he wanted to join us but he said he “no thank you, I want to relax with my dad”. For a moment I felt guilty that I was the cause of this discomfort in my little one and that our exclusive and precious Rian-Mama times together was coming to an end, but I canceled that thought quickly thinking that this was temporary and that he would have a sibling to play with soon.

So it was just Dawn and me and we went outside at 8:30 pm and walked for perhaps 10 minutes. By then my sister and her family arrived and we came back inside the house. My surges started getting longer, a bit more intense but further apart. Dawn, my sister and I headed upstairs and spent some time together chatting before Rian and my sister’s family left. Rian was a changed boy once he saw his cousin and playmate and was happy again!

When Naveen joined us upstairs my labor actively progressed as Dawn had predicted and the surges got more and more uncomfortable, and I also started feeling cold and started trembling. Don’t quite know how things changed after that but I went into active labor and Naveen and Dawn helped me through each of the surges as they became more and more intense. Initially I made low moaning noises but then I got tired and breathless and eventually I just tried to breathe downwards through each one with Dawn’s help. She kept reminding me to embrace the pain and not fight it; to imagine the energy moving down and out. She also applied counter pressure on my lower back which helped a lot and Naveen simultaneously squeezed my hand.

I alternated between lying on the bed and sitting on the toilet. The surges on the toilet felt like they would lift me out of my body at times and so I asked Naveen to stand on my feet so I would feel grounded when the surges came and would not fly off! All that pressure somewhat relieved the sensations from the surges. I also got into the shower and the water tub at times but I kept getting cold and did not feel good in the water tub at all. Sometime, probably around 11 pm I opened my eyes and saw that Dr. Biter had arrived and his calm presence gave me an instant relief and also the reassuring feeling that things were progressing well. He examined me gently and also massaged away some cervical scar tissue while I went through another surge. Although this was very uncomfortable, Dr. Biter was ever so gentle and encouraging through it. He then said that I was getting close and that I was between 6 and 7 cms.

After that it was just trying to get through each surge and for the next two hours I was in transition and at times felt like this would go on forever. Suddenly when I was in the tub Dawn whispered that I was 9.5 cm! Wow, I thought, soon I could push and our baby would be out. Dr. Biter asked if I had the urge to push but I did not though the surges just kept getting stronger and I just wanted to be on the bed. Shortly after, I did get the feeling to void myself and apparently I made low grunting noises which was when Dr. Biter suggested that I try pushing.

I think pushing was the hardest part for me because no matter how hard I tried I felt the baby was not coming through and I felt I was not engaging the right muscles. Dr Biter made me change positions several times and move from side to side. I also sat on the toilet again to see if that would help the baby descend further down. I was then asked to squat. Although it was painful, Dawn whispered in my ear that the pelvis gets 33% wider in a squatting position and she recommended that I squat for a couple of surges. After that I was back on the bed and it was time to push again! I don’t know how many times I pushed, just remember being extremely exhausted with the pressure and having a tremendous urge to just close my eyes and sleep, but each time my surges went down, my uterus was massaged to start it up again.

Dr. Biter then softly talked to me about going beyond the exhaustion, giving me the example of walking over hot rocks on the beach to get to the beautiful ocean, about how close I was to having the VBAC that I had dreamt of. He also asked me to reach down and feel the baby’s head just waiting to emerge. He was so soft and so encouraging and my sweet husband Naveen fed me grapes and coconut water so I get more energy to push further.

Then out of the blue during one of those pushes Dawn asked me to open my eyes and look down, and there she was-magically out of me at 3:06 am after two hours of pushing-7lbs and 8 oz, and 20 inches long! Naveen and I lifted her gently while Dr. Biter supported her and our little angel Ira was on my chest. It was the most amazing and beautiful moment of my life so far that I still cannot believe happened. Just for this one moment I would go through all of that pain and more! Ira was our champion and stayed strong through the whole labor. Never once did it even occur to me that I should take any medication for the pain or that I was having a VBAC! Everything was so natural and almost sacred in so many ways and the support I had from my husband, Dawn and the dream team was just awesome.

I had a very minor tear that Dr. Biter sutured up gently, did not feel a thing! He then revealed to us that Ira had an arm on her head (nuchal hand) and the cord was wrapped loosely around her neck, arm, waist and her leg twice! So Dr. Biter had to slowly ease her out while I pushed! So although Ira showed no distress, she sure was all tangled up! No wonder I felt like I was pushing my heart out and she just would not descend! Dr. Biter was so calm and confident that no one could tell what was happening! Ira latched on immediately and she is such a calm, happy baby, nurses and sleeps as they say just “like a baby”!

I was diligent in listening to the Rainbow Relaxation CD every night for the last two months but somehow I never got to listening to it during labor at all, but Dawn said that I used all the hypnobirthing tools during labor and was very calm, quiet and focused especially during transition. She even said that it was hard at times to tell whether I was having a surge and she was concerned that perhaps things were slowing down. But then she realized that I only reacted at the very peak of the surge! I do remember reminding myself to think of being closer to my baby during each of the surges and that the pain was getting me closer to meeting my baby.

Dawn was simply amazing in reminding and coaching me to embrace the pain and go towards and not fight it. Anyone looking for a doula, look no further!! Thanks Carol for the tools you provided us during hypnobirthing class! Many thanks for the wonderful and loving support from my husband and many thanks to Dr. Biter and the dream team to help us achieve our dream birth. San Diego is truly fortunate to have them and I hope that many more will be able to have the transformative experience that we did! An unmedicated totally natural birth is the most empowering and beautiful experience a woman can ever have! After my previous C-section, this has been a sacred and healing process for us! Homebirths are the way to go!!
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Thanks for sharing your story, Roshni & Naveen! It is such an inspiring story! I'm thrilled that you were able to have such a healing, empowering VBAC!

If you are interested in taking HypnoBirthing classes to prepare for your birth, please visit Carol's website at www.AWellLivedLife.Net to learn more.

If you are interested in hiring Dr. Biter & San Diego Midwife, LaShel & Jamin, please visit their website www.sandiegomidwife.com. You can also contact Dr. Biter at 760-642-0800.

If you are interested in hiring Dawn to be your doula, you can contact her via her website at www.douladawn.com.

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