I’m extremely happy that we joined your class and so is Vladimir who kept calling me a ‘hero’ – hahaha.

If you want, I can try typing up our birth story: first half = how it shouldn’t be (labour stalling in clinical environment), second half = how it should be (letting nature do its thing by managing clinical environment).

warm hugs,Birgit, Vladimir and Victor

Dear Group

Victor announced his arrival on Sunday the 16th when my water broke late at night. He was born naturally at UCH labour ward less than 16 hours later on July 17 slightly prematurely.

We’re totally in love with the little guy!

How it went down:

For a hot second it looked like I would have to go down the road of an induction or cesarean because I initially thought I had no surges after my water broke without any warning when actually I had rather too many surges, i.e.  3 to 5 per ten minutes, that didn’t show a clear progression for more than 12 hours. But my body did end up doing what it is supposed to do once I managed to get into the zone by

* Taking the positions that worked best for me and moving around freely (especially to the bathroom) irrespective of whether it allowed for easy monitoring,

* shutting down any form of questioning/intrusion/interaction,

* keeping my eyes shut and my mind concentrated on my music list,

* breathing,

* turning up TENS as I could feel the next surge approaching.

Once in the zone, labour progressed so neatly that baby was born within less than 2 hours. I gave birth standing (poor midwife probably needed a chiropractor afterwards), very loudly and without any intervention.

Next to the TENS machine, the best pain management was probably my body position: either standing and pulling on something, or standing and pushing against something made breathing through surges possible and entirely sufficient. When my legs got tired, I tried lying on my side, but the surge felt so strong that I couldn’t stand more than one. If I had been confined to this position, I would have yelled for an epidural within minutes….

You can probably tell that I was and still am fascinated by how everything worked out and how hypnobirthing techniques and philosophy actually work and why traditional birthing doesn’t ! 🙂

Now I just need to apply hypnobirthing for the rest of my parenting challenges and life.