It's that time again...

Time to start back up with Hypnobabies! Maybe you've heard me talk about HB before, but in case you haven't, HB is hypnosis during childbirth. It can assist you in delivering naturally, with drugs, or via a c-section. I delivered Sam naturally, and it was, essentially, pain-free. No funky breathing, screaming, sweating, puking, cursing, begging for pain meds, or threats towards my husband's privates at all during the process. I'm not advertising that every birth using HB is like that, but that was my experience. I am also not saying that pushing a watermelon through a straw was just another day at the beach, because it wasn't. That was some serious work, y'all. But totally worth it.

Anyways, I've got to start studying up on HB again so that I can be fully prepared for Second Baby's birth. I have a feeling that this kid's birth is going to creep up on me pretty quick. Kinda like Sam has been doing lately when you turn around to flush the toilet, and then turn back around to pull up your pants and BAM! There he is fixin' to head-butt you in the crotch. Stealthy little guy.

To summarize HB in my own words (and take it all with a grain of salt since I am no HB spokesperson), it is self-hypnosis used for relaxation purposes during labor and delivery. But it is so much more than that. The materials you study prior to giving birth give you such a complete education on the childbirth process, what rights you have as a patient, and procedures that you have a say in during and after birth.

For instance, HB taught me about the physical process of during labor and delivery. It taught me how the muscles in our bodies work together to achieve this desired result of getting that baby the hell out of your body. The more you resist, the more pain you will experience. Learning to relax and "go with the flow" will allow your body to accomplish what it was made to do. HB taught me about the different drugs offered during labor and how they work in your body. Some speed things up, some speed things up too much so you need something to slow things down, some slow things down too much, and then you might be faced with a c-section. Overall, I didn't feel like HB was judgey towards epidurals or anyone who wanted something for pain management. They just lay out the facts and let you figure out what will work best for your situation. Since it is an overall relaxation technique you are learning, it can be applied in any birthing situation, even if you end up with a c-section. I would say that going into a c-section would be a good time to employ some relaxation techniques, would it not?

I got into this freaky way of birthing a little bass-ackwards. A pharmacist I worked for in college had mentioned that she was going to use hypnosis to birth her baby, and she was going to do it naturally. I laughed and laughed and told her how crazy she was (lucky for me, I've always had great bosses that don't seem to mind my sassy mouth), but she ended up birthing an almost-ten-pound baby boy pain-free. I didn't believe her. I figured that those endorphins she experienced once that baby shot out were so great that her memory of pain was instantly erased. Pain-free birth. Psh. Get outta here.

So when I got pregnant, she gave me her book on Hypnobirthing. She said that I should read it, and even if I decided not to use it, I would at least get a good laugh out of it. So I took it and promptly lost it. I ended up finding it and reading it on a roadtrip one day. That is when it all clicked for me. It made so much SENSE. It was natural. It embraced the fact that God MADE my body to do this. Women have been doing this naturally for thousands of years! I can do it too! But Hypnobirthing just seemed a little incomplete to me. I searched the internet until I finally found Hypnobabies. This was what I had been looking for. It was a complete educational program that gave me quite a few "tools" to utilize during my birthing time dependent upon the situation. I enjoyed learning about all of my rights as a patient and had never before looked at the healthcare system as a group of people that were working for ME.

I told my doctor what I expected from her as far as interventions and coaching and she let me know the boundaries of what she could allow to stay within her hospital privileges. I lucked out and found a truly amazing doctor that had given birth naturally herself, so she was completely on board with my plans for a natural birth. Thank the sweet Lord in heaven that she was on-call the night I gave birth, because I can't imagine doing it any other way. She was so PATIENT and followed my birth plan to a "T" and even some of the other doctors who didn't think that this HB thing would pan out for me came in to "observe." Originally (pre-birth of course), I was all, "Ew, there will be NO ONE in that room staring at my hoo-ha except my doctor and a nurse. Steve will stay up by my head with the PG13 view." But as things progressed, there were more and more people in the room just WATCHING (not many babies born that night in Richmond apparently) and I was totally fine with it. I was in my own little zone and didn't even notice them there. Plus I think I knew that I would never see a single one of them ever again, so whatever. Stare to your little hearts' content!

I found out later that my doctor (who happened to be pregnant at the time), went to her office next door while I was in labor and ordered HB online for herself. Hearing that made me wanna get up and do one of those cheerleading splits in the air. But I wasn't sure how strong those hospital mesh panties were, and I didn't want to test their limits, so I refrained. I heard from my doctor recently (sadly, she did not move with us to KY) and she told me that she had a wonderful birth experience with HB and was so glad to be a part of Sam's birth. I told her that I will definitely try to plan a pregnancy/birth around Steve's Captains Career Course so that I can be her patient again.

I won't get into Sam's whole birth story or anything, but I am officially 32 weeks along now (YIKES) and this is the time I am supposed to start re-learning all of the HB stuff again, so I thought I'd share. The link to the HB website is here, but you can also email me directly if you want to ask me ANYTHING about my experience with it. I am probably way too willing to share the all of the gross details (just ask Rebekah!), so be ye not afraid!