Our HypnoBirthing^® Stories

Aurelia's Story

Welcome Aurelia Cedar! Our darling angel from heaven arrived March 19, weighing in at 6 lbs on the dot. Aside from the fact that she arrived safely, the two big pieces of news related to her birth are that:

I was planning to have a homebirth but because she was so early, my midwives said I had to go to the hospital to deliver her. But they agreed that I could labour at home first. Baby's choice was awesome! Who knew what it would mean!?

Here’s the quick run down: My water broke at 4:30am and I went back to 'sleep' until about 8am. The midwife phoned at 9am to see how I was doing. I replied that I was crampy, but couldn’t tell if I was having contractions—I didn’t know what they felt like. She told me just to ignore them and go for a hike or do something active. At 10:45am, I called and asked the midwives to come over because these 'cramps' had become pretty intense. They said they'd be over but there was no rush. Little did they know. At 11:45am, the baby was born!

Yes, it’s true. We had a completely unassisted birth—at home—where my husband received little Aurelia. We called the midwives to tell them she'd arrived and they panicked more than we did, especially because she was a month early. They instructed us to call 911 and the fire brigade and ambulance service arrived 5 minutes later.

Now picture this scene: Four BIG burly guys race up the stairs where I'm sitting naked (except for pink socks) with my brand new baby—placenta still inside. Yet, I'm totally calm and fine. The baby is breathing and totally fine. I walked past them, saying "Excuse me, fellas," and went to the bedroom to birth the placenta. They wanted to take the baby for oxygen and measure her vitals but my husband

stood in the way and said, "NO WAY! This is a natural birth and keep your voices down!" He then kicked them downstairs to wait for the midwives to arrive. We birthed the placenta in privacy and the midwives showed up about 10 minutes later.

I had no tears despite the speed at which she shot out. The midwives couldn’t believe it. I had minimal bleeding. And, although the cramps were a bit achy (like bad menstrual cramps), I had no pain. The second stage was EXTREMELY intense with lots of rushes and delirium but, again, no pain.

The birth breathing TOTALLY helped. The urge to push was extreme but I forced myself to breathe through it. My husband described my breathing as 'machine gun' breaths, as my urge to push (and hold my breath) was subdued by my will to breathe through it. I think that's why I didn't tear.

Thank you so much for all your help in preparing me for the greatest adventure of my life.

I went through this experience in total confidence, as comfortably and as quickly as possible. I know that was in large part because of the HypnoBirthing® work that we did together. My midwives have NEVER missed the birth of a first-time mother before and were amazed at how well both Aurelia and I were doing. They were joking by the end and made me promise that the next time I 'feel funny,’ I have to call them immediately!

- Aurelia and Family, Calgary AB

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Zachary's Story

Around the half way point of my pregnancy I began to start reading about labor and delivery and began to panic and get quite scared. There were several things I knew already though: I wanted to have as natural a birth as possible and I did not want to have an epidural! My husband recognized this fear and began looking for alternative options for child birth and found HypnoBirthing. Of the people listed in Calgary, Mona was the most helpful in answering my questions, so we signed up.

At first I wasn't sure if I could achieve the relaxation required but after practicing with the rainbow relaxation I found myself easily slipping into a hypnotic state. We diligently practiced the various readings and tried the perineal massage, which I found very useful. Mona was very good at reassuring me and answering any question I had regarding the process.

The classes proved so useful that I became relaxed regarding not just the birthing process but in everyday life as well. The night that my birthing started was a surprise as I had felt nothing during the day, an obvious sign of my relaxation. I'd had only two noticeable surges before my water released, and after the initial panic I experienced realizing that my baby was on the way, I immediately began my breathing and listening to my relaxation CD's. I even managed to doze for a while before it became evident that I should leave for the hospital.

Once at the hospital, I read over the birth affirmations while listening to my music. My husband would read the prompts to me during surges and I stared at the rose blossom and envisioned the baby emerging. Immediately after being transferred to my delivery suite I felt the urge to push and 20 minutes later, my son was born. The quickness of the entire event was surprising for us, as this is our first child, with a total of 7 hours of noticeable labor from start to finish. I strongly believe that the relative ease of my son's birth is because of the relaxation techniques of HypnoBirthing. And I had accomplished what I set out to do, delivering naturally with no medication or interventions (except for when they jabbed me with a needle of synthetic oxytocin to help delivery of the placenta - something I never agreed to, nor did they ask before doing it - that fact still bothers me and could be what hurried this stage too

much).

When sharing birth stories with members of our baby class run by the health region, mine was by far the only natural birth. Every other woman had either utilized pain medication or had an intervention.  And while they mostly viewed their deliveries as successful, I found their experiences painful to listen to, knowing how wonderful it can actually be. (Also relieved to be one of the first so that I didn't hear everyone else's story and start freaking out!)

To sum it all up, I wouldn't think twice about using HypnoBirthing again, because you can only dream about birthing like that and I proved it is possible!

You gave me something pretty great - the empowerment I needed to believe in myself. Thank you again for everything and I will definitely recommend you to anyone I know that becomes pregnant! - Tiffany, Jeff and Zachary, Calgary AB back to top

Alexandra's Story

When I found out that I was pregnant with my second child, I was excited about having a birth that was really different from my first baby’s. For my first daughter’s birth, I had been induced and pumped full of drugs so I felt like I had no control. I don’t even remember her actual birth and I’ve always felt sad that such an important moment was completely blanked out.

With my second child, I knew I wanted to try using hypnosis and my mom, of course, was totally supportive. She’s a hypnotherapist and trains people who want to use hypnosis during childbirth.

I did the HypnoBirthing class with her and I admit that I was a little nervous having my mom teach me, but after the first class my worries disappeared. I loved it and my husband liked it too. We did the full five classes, starting when I was four months pregnant. On top of the hypnosis techniques, you learn everything for life with a baby—way beyond the birth. It was really an empowering experience—feeling like birth is a natural process, not something negative that you have to be scared about. My mom was totally professional; she treated me like a regular client. I made appointments. I paid. I got the same workbooks and CDs as everyone else. I saw the same videos—which were phenomenal, by the way. Just the videos alone made this class worth it.

I really enjoyed the whole pregnancy and I think that was due, at least partly, to the HypnoBirthing classes. During my first pregnancy I remember feeling drained all the time, so much so that I couldn’t wait for the baby to be born. My pregnancy with my second child was totally different. I felt so good, I wouldn’t have minded if it didn’t end.

As my due date got closer, my friends all told me, “You’re going to have to get induced again.” When I told them I wasn’t going to be induced and I wasn’t going to be having any drugs, they were shocked. But I was right!

The day that I went into labour, I woke up feeling some kind of contractions. I didn’t think they were real though because they weren’t painful. They came throughout the whole day, every six minutes, with no pain. My husband and in-laws and I went to the mall and spent hours shopping and wandering around. I totally enjoyed myself and completely denied that I was even in labour.

When we came home at about 6pm, I ate a huge supper—something I don’t normally do. My body must have known what was up ahead. I got into the tub after that and I was feeling good—so good in fact that I even shaved my legs and texted my friends while I was there! Slowly something started to change and my brain clicked. I started the breathing that I had learned in the HypnoBirthing class.

Now I felt some pain; maybe a 2 on a scale of 1-10. Still it was pretty easy and I just kept breathing like that until about 11pm. I was so relaxed.

When I told my husband that I felt that I needed to push, he pulled me out of the tub and got me dressed. My brain was just processing slowly and I was remembering the videos we watched.  I thought, "Okay, now it's time to stand and rock."  Then we headed to the hospital, but even then I was able to take the time to write my sleeping four-year-old a little note.

I was breathing and calm during the ride; in fact I was the one keeping my husband calm. The surges were coming every minute and they were a little more painful—about a 5 on a scale of 1-10. When we got to the hospital, I knew the baby was right there. I sunk to the ground rocking myself. My husband pulled me up to get me into a wheelchair and whisked me into the hospital. We got into triage and literally my water broke at that moment.

Everything was slow motion for me though around me there was excitement. My brain just told me “it’s time to push and bring your baby into the world.” The nurse was telling me not to push. But my baby needed to come; we were two minutes from the delivery room.

Then the baby was right there. I felt pain during the “ring of fire”, but it only lasted a few seconds. It happened so fast that I didn’t get to cut the cord. I was totally alert. Unlike the birth of my first daughter, I remember every second of it. They cleaned the baby up and I started nursing her right there. Within 30 minutes I was in the shower while my husband was still in a daze. I felt like I could go out and run a marathon. I couldn’t have done that with my first child. Our second baby, Alexandra, was totally calm and happy-go-lucky from the first moment. And she was fast—that night my mom dubbed her our “rocket baby.”

- Christine, Brian and Alexandra, Strathmore AB

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Carys Jade's Story

Our precious baby girl, Carys Jade Bossy, arrived a week early on November 19 at 2:23 am. She weighed 7lbs 1oz and measured 20 inches. Today she is 2 weeks old already! Time is flying but we’re enjoying every minute of it.

Once we took the HypnoBirthing course with Synergy Hypnosis, our plans changed. Instead of using the Birth Centre, we decided on a home birth and it couldn't have gone better.

I had a very fast labour; the time from my water breaking to her birth was five hours. Before my water broke, I really had no major signs of labour. I only had a nagging backache that started that afternoon and at the time I didn’t think much of it. That evening I took a bath to ease the backache and  relaxed in the tub listening to one of the HypnoBirthing CDs. When I got out of the tub, my water broke and almost immediately my contractions started at three minutes apart. The midwife arrived at about midnight and did my first and only exam. I was already at 9.5 cm. I laboured in bed at the beginning and then moved to the toilet, which is where I was

when the baby started to crown.

The midwife asked me to either go back to bed or climb in the birth pool. I chose the pool since we wanted a water birth. I entered the pool at 2:19 am and Carys was born at 2:23 am. We just barely made it a water birth!

Two midwives and a doula were with us for the birth. All of them said I coped extremely well. They could tell I was in my own zone and realized that I needed little or no help from any of them. They were impressed that whatever it was that I was visualizing or

thinking about during the contractions sure worked. Indeed I was replaying in my mind the birth affirmations as well as using a couple of the visualizations. I truly credit the HypnoBirthing techniques in helping me have such a quick and easy labour and birth. Thanks again for such a great course! Since this experience, I've recommended HypnoBirthing and Synergy Hypnosis to many people!

- Jody, Ryan and Carys Bossy, Calgary AB

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