Luke's Birth
(Kate and Paul) written by me after talking
with parents, then they added things to what I wrote and gave me
permission to share.
At about 8pm on Monday night, Kate had liquidy/bloody discharge.
She called the doctor but did not receive a call back. While
waiting for the return call, she and Paul listened to the Fear
Release CD together. Around 1am, Kate decided to call the
doctor’s service again. This time the doctor called back
within 15 minutes and told her to go to Labor and Delivery to
have the fluid checked. (Kate was Group B Strep positive and the
doctor wanted her to start antibiotics as soon as she began
losing any amniotic fluid.) She was sent home from the hospital
around 4am due to “no progress” and the fluid was
negative for being amniotic.
The following morning, Paul decided to go to work, but returned
home around noon with a feeling that he should be home with Kate.
Coincidentally, pressure waves stared around noon. Prior to that,
Kate had been having menstrual-like cramping and was still having
discharge. When Paul arrived home, he set Kate up with what they
thought was the Your Birth Day CD, only to discover that it was
the wrong CD! He left to go exchange CDs with their instructor
and Kate listened to Your Special Place and Fear Release. When
Paul returned, Kate baked pumpkin bread and brownies for the
nursing staff. Paul began reading the short scripts during
pressure waves and Kate did a lot of rocking and hip swaying,
while laying her head on the cool countertop in the kitchen.
Around 4pm, the pressure waves began to get a little stronger and
more regular, so Paul began to time them. They weren’t at
411 yet, so Kate listened to the Your Birth Day CD and continued
to rock/walk around the house.
At 6pm. Kate had a bowl of vegetable soup, stopping to breathe
through the waves. She and Paul took a walk outside. It was a
beautiful evening.
At 9pm, Kate listened to Deepening and was able to take a
nap.
At 11pm, the pressure waves reached a new level of intensity and
woke her up from her nap. Paul began timing the waves again. They
were at 411, sometimes 2-3 minutes apart. Paul called the
doctor’s service and told them they were on the way back to
the hospital. Kate took a shower, got dressed and off they went.
In the car, they listened to Birth Day Affirmations.
Around 1am they got to the hospital. Kate was checked and she was
2.5 cm. The nurse read through their birth plan and explained why
she could/could not do some of the things they’d requested.
She was nice, but not very supportive of the hypnosis program.
Since Kate was only 2.5 cm, she couldn’t officially be
admitted. However, due to the Group B Strep positive status, the
doctor on call wanted Kate put on an IV as soon as possible. The
nurse allowed Kate to walk around for an hour and a half to try
to get to 4cm. Kate listened to a CD and walked around the
hospital room.
3:30am, Kate was checked again and had progressed to 3.5 cm. She
was admitted and the nurse had her fill out the paperwork for an
epidural because “she’d probably want it and
wouldn’t want to take the time to fill out the paperwork
later.” The OB on call wanted Kate on an IV instead of
heplock, despite her OB/GYN agreeing to a heplock on the birth
plan. The on call doctor also wanted Kate on Continuous Fetal
Monitoring so Kate was in bed for the remainder of her birthing
time.
By 4am, all the paperwork was signed and Kate had lost focus
because of the nurse’s attitude. She was very uncomfortable
during pressure waves and was gripping the rail of the bed
through each pressure wave. Between 4-5:15am, she was
disappointed and feared that she “couldn’t do
it”. Paul continued to read her the short scripts and tried
to get her back into hypnosis. Kate was having a lot of pressure
low in her pelvis. Finally, her water broke around 5:15am and
then she felt less intensity with each pressure wave and was more
comfortable, but still experiencing discomfort.
At 7 am, the nursing staff shift changed. When the new nurse
entered the room, Kate was throwing up bile and experiencing very
strong pressure waves. She could hear the first nurse telling the
new nurse, “last time we checked her she was 3.5
cm…first-time mom…it was going to be a long
day." In hindsight, they were totally ignoring the signs of
transformation taking place in front of them.
Once the first nurse left the room, the new nurse read the birth
plan, asked what class they had taken and was very interested in
Hypnobabies. She talked with Paul about what he was doing to help
Kate relax and gave him some tips to help Kate regain her focus.
Paul started talking to Kate about her special place and Kate got
back into hypnosis and was COMFORTABLE! (It turned out she was in
transformation, so Kate went from discomfort because she was
fighting against the pressure waves to comfort by getting back in
hypnosis and relaxing through the pressure waves DURING
transformation! It is never too late to get refocused!)
Paul could see on the monitor a difference in her pressure waves
between being tense and relaxed. When Kate was tense, the waves
were showing up very jagged with high peaks and not very low
valleys. When she was relaxed, they were in more of a smooth
pattern, with distinct peaks and valleys. The only way he could
tell Kate was having a pressure wave by looking at her was her
breathing would slow down.
Between 7:45-8am the nurse said she needed to do internal
monitoring of the baby because they couldn’t find his
heartbeat on the external monitor. After a momentary discussion,
Kate and Paul gave the go ahead. While inserting the monitor, the
nurse checked her dilation for the first time since 3am - Kate
was almost complete, with just a lip left! The nurse asked if
Kate felt like pushing, she said she did and the nurse sprang
into action, getting the equipment set up for delivery and
calling Kate’s doctor.
Paul kept talking to Kate about her special place keeping her
calm, focused and comfortable.
The nurse was on the phone with Kate’s doctor, telling her
to get to the hospital for delivery, but after about 30 minutes
of waiting to push, Kate simply had to push. The nurse said,
"I can catch this baby if I need to."
Kate began pushing, laying on her side. The nurse did perineal
massage to avoid tearing. At about 8:55am, the nurse grabbed the
doctor on call from the room next door, saying “this baby
is coming now!” The doctor put Kate in the stirrups and had
her “count” during pushing. Kate tried to avoid
“purple pushing” and to AHHHH breathe the baby out,
but it was difficult with so many voices telling her to do
otherwise.
Lucas Christopher was born at 9:11am. The cord was around his
neck twice. They cut it off immediately and took him to the
warmer for a minute or two. He had Apgar scores of 8 and 9. Once
he started to cry, they brought him directly to mom’s chest
where he stayed for almost two hours. Mom had two tears that
needed to be stitched up, but otherwise had no problems. Even the
most skeptical of their friends and family commented on and was
amazed by how great she looked after delivery and how quickly she
was back to normal. Lucas’ birth was a transformative
experience for both of his parents. Paul felt like a true partner
and like part of the process from start to finish.
Kate and Paul are looking forward to using hypnosis for their
next birth.
