MacKensie’s Magical Hypnobabies Hypnobirthing Home Birth
“It really was a magical experience. I’m so grateful for Hypnobabies and my birth team for supporting me so well.”
About two months ago I had my second Hypnobabies home birth and it was beautiful!
Here’s my story:
After a few days of having inconsistent waves (predominantly at night), things got real on Sunday, April 21. By 7pm waves (Hypnobabies term for contractions) were about 15 minutes apart and getting more intense than they had been the previous days, so I texted my doula to make sure she was up to date. By midnight they were 7-8 minutes apart and pretty intense, so we decided to call the midwives. Note: if my firstborn hadn’t been a precipitous birth where the midwives almost didn’t make it in time, I wouldn’t have called them yet, but our biggest goal was to not have EMTs at this birth this time, so my husband, Jason, convinced me to give them a call. My team of midwives and doula started heading over (they had to travel about an hour).
Meanwhile, Jason jumped to attention hanging the hypno-birth-affirmation pages everywhere (he had already set up fairy lights all around where the tub was going to be) and took our dogs to my parents’ house, and my mom came to be my stand-in doula, rubbing my shoulders and putting the heating pad on my back while I listened to my Your Birthing Time Begins track (Hypnobabies reminder of all the tools and cues for birthing) and my Birthing Day Affirmations track. I moved from my bed to the birthing ball and back. I thought I’d get into my regular tub at some point, but the midwives arrived around 1am and immediately set up the birth pool, so I didn’t need to.
They took my vitals and did my first-ever cervical check. I was so nervous that this was still just pre-birthing time (Hypnobabies term for labor) and I wouldn’t be dilated at all, but I was about 3.5 to 4 cm dilated and around 50% effaced. The waves got more intense after the cervical check, so at my doula’s suggestion, I got into an exaggerated side lying position to help get baby’s head into the ideal position. I felt a LOT of pressure in my lower back, but counter pressure was so helpful. Then I moved to the pool in the living room, and it was waaay more comfortable.
I kept listening to the my Easier First Stage track (Hypnobabies main birthing day track) at this point and squeezed wooden combs with both hands as each wave would come. It helped me feel more grounded to have something to hold onto.
The next several hours were kind of a blur, but not in a bad way. I was in the zone when waves would come and then I’d be chillin’ in the pool, eating snacks and joking around in between. I was really surprised at how normal I felt in between waves. My team fed me snacks and kept me hydrated to keep my energy up. I felt really hot for a while, and we turned on the fan and I’d put a cold washcloth on my face and shoulders.
Several hours had gone by but waves didn’t seem significantly closer together or that much more intense, so I consented to another cervical check where I was about 7cm dilated and 70% effaced. Baby had changed sides, so it seemed like she was trying to move with me to get her head on my cervix. I noticed my waves in an upright position in the pool felt more productive. I would sit on my butt when my legs would start to go numb and I’d feel baby kicking me like, Get up, mom. This is not it.
Each time I’d go to the bathroom I’d see more mucus plug/bloody show, but it was pretty light (with my first, the more I progressed, the more it looked like I was on my period. I just kept thinking how incredibly different this experience was from the first.
Time seemed to be going quickly for me though, likely because of the hypnosis, and I was genuinely surprised when my Monday morning 7am alarm went off. I didn’t like that the house was brighter as the sun came up. I wanted to be in a dark, cold cave, aside from my nice, warm water. At this point my toddler started to make noise from her room, so my sister came over to scoop her up and took her to have a fun day.
Again, it seemed like things were not progressing much after several more hours in the tub (but each time they’d check on baby she seemed totally chill, not distressed at all). My team had to keep refilling the hot water. I got out of the pool to take a shower, sit on the toilet, and see if a change of scenery would help. I realized there was a ton of pressure when I’d sit on the toilet, and the waves became more intense any time I stood up, so at my doula’s suggestion, I started taking waves in a lunging position as well as on the toilet with my legs up on the squatty potty.
Around 10am on Monday I had another cervical check, and my midwife could see my bag of waters was still intact and bulging, but baby was in the perfect position. Same dilation as before and I was 90% effaced. So now the goal was to get my water to break.
I started doing a circuit from one bathroom to the other, stopping in between to take waves standing up (and listening to my Pushing Baby Out track). My team wanted me to take several waves from the toilet and then some with my leg up on the side of the tub. Needless to say, this was not my favorite part of the day. It got so intense with just this wild pressure feeling (but knowing it wasn’t the kind of pressure you feel when baby is actually coming out), so that’s when I started ma
king my guttural animal noises and saying PEACE (Hypnobabies hypnobirthing cue for instant physical comfort) over and over again.
It felt so different from my first birth, so I had no idea if I was making progress and it had been a long time since I’d slept at this point. I was feeling a little defeated wondering why this was taking so much longer than I thought it would. I just wanted to get back in the pool, but I knew we needed to be done soon, so I kept doing the circuit until my midwife suggested breaking my water for me (she even said I could do it myself, but I wasn’t into that idea).
Basically, I thought, if I don’t have to do this toilet circuit thing anymore and I can get back into the pool, I’m down. So she broke my water and I had a little break. I ate scrambled eggs, hydrated, and got back into the pool to prepare for what I knew were about to be next-level waves.
We turned on the Pushing Baby Out track (Hypnobabies track just for easier pushing) loud on the speaker this time. I knew if these next few waves didn’t feel like progress, I’d have to do that circuit again and I did NOT want that, so luckily being upright on my knees on the side of the pool, my intense wave had that familiar I’m-about-to-push feeling at the top of it. I let the midwives know, and they said go for it if I feel like it.
Next wave was in fact next-level. I pushed down and felt baby come down. Next one was even more intense, and I bore down because I felt like it. I didn’t have to force anything. I consciously thought, I’m only gonna push if I feel like it. I did that a couple more times and felt the head crowning. At this point Jason took the combs and let me squeeze his hands instead. Later he said he was afraid I might break the combs
Then the head was out, which felt like a huge relief, and the next couple pushes were great in comparison. Pushing felt so powerful and relieving after that head was out even though the waves themselves were still very intense. Baby was out at 11:22am after only FOUR minutes of pushing!!
She came out in the water with her umbilical cord wrapped around her chest like a little Girl Scout. We had to figure out how to unwrap her without dunking her back in the water. We kept her attached to the placenta until it stopped pulsing.
I admired my little blue baby who quickly got her color and started crying.
Then, just like last time, I started bleeding a lot and the placenta didn’t want to come out. But I just kept smiling at my baby trying to embrace the moment. Once Jason cut the cord, I got a shot of Pitocin for the bleeding and it helped me birth the placenta—which was super easy compared to a baby with bones.
Then moved to the bed where they could monitor bleeding better. I took the herbal tincture shepherds purse orally to help control bleeding as well. The midwives kept monitoring bleeding and checking the fundus while I bonded with baby and tried to get her to latch.
Then finally vaginal check to see if there was tearing and there was NONE. No tearing, no stitches, bleeding slowed down enough that I didn’t need any other medications, so I got into a more comfortable position for breastfeeding and continued bonding. Eventually it was time to take her measurements and do her newborn checks and she was perfect. 7 lbs 14 oz, 20ish inches long, 100% oxygen, most of the vernix was floating on top of the pool water and she was pretty clean except for a cute little blood clot in the shape of a heart on her head.
The midwives left around 1pm so about 12 hours of work together. They cleaned up everything and all was back to normal, just me, Jason, and baby lying in bed together.
We took a nap and had my parents drop my toddler off around 5pm to meet her baby sister. She was like “look at her tiny hands!” and kept booping her nose. And of course we had to sing happy birthday to her all together.
It really was a magical experience. I’m so grateful for Hypnobabies and my birth team for supporting me so well.
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