45 Minute Labor - Start to Finish!

Here is a fabulous birth story, passed on from another HypnoBirthing practitioner in Canada...

(Comments from the HypnoBirthing instructor: "It is rare for me to share a birth story with you all. This one was so comfortable, quick and the parents so wise is knowing what was best for their family, wiser than the 911 and emergency workers, that I had to share. It is their second birth, 45 minutes total:")

I still can't believe how it all happened. It seems like a dream. When I started to feel like things were starting, I told D to put the hose on and fill up the pool. He made me a milkshake. I sipped it in the bath. It was past midnight and I said something along the lines of "I hope the baby is born before our son wakes up in the morning." The midwives told me to take his labour and cut the time in half, and that would be a rough estimate. So they were predicting 6-12 hours start to birth.

After my bath I sat on the couch and watched the pool filling up. We called the midwives and I told the student midwife that things had started but that I had not seen any "show" and also still had the water intact. She asked me if I had felt three "good" contractions. I said, these are very intense but I only feel the tightening in the lowest part of my abdomen, where I normally feel my period cramps. I told her that my balloon breathing exercise was not working to help, because I couldn't get my breath down low enough, and that the upper part of my uterus didn't seem to be engaged in the process. But the surges were coming really close together, like 2 or 3 minutes apart. She told me to call back when things start to get more intense. I thought things were already pretty intense, but I was also starting to feel nice and space-y and so I just shrugged my shoulders and said I would call back.

As I sat on the couch I felt that great sensation of floating and (this should have been a hint!) so I asked D to escort me to the bathroom because I wasn't too secure on my feet. Sure enough, on our way back from the bathroom I felt a really big surge in the hallway and had to stop to catch my breath. I kept trying to fill up my balloon but to no avail. D helped me into the tub and put on some relaxing music, and I asked him: Why can't I fill up my balloon? He saw the look on my face and called the midwives right away, and left a message for them to come.

As soon as he hung up the phone, my water released, and out with the rush I suddenly felt a head. I said to D, "you are going to have to receive her yourself." I'm pretty sure there was some adult language used at this point, when we realized we were all alone. Then, with the next surge the head popped out. I looked at D and said, you better dial 911 and ask them how to best receive the baby so we don't hurt her. D dialed 911, but the lady on the other end was obsessed about me getting out of the pool, and not helping D figure out how to deal with the birth, so he dropped the phone and got behind me.

The third surge brought the rest of the baby out, and then we just sort of sat there in shock. I was totally stoned from the endorphins. Here I had this perfect little girl in my arms, and it was so quiet in the house, we were all alone. D covered her up with some receiving blankets, and she started to root right away. So I put her to my breast and she started nursing. That's when I heard the footsteps of all the emergency workers ( EMS, fire and Police. 2 of each).

The 911 operator had D running around looking for a shoe lace, and I kept telling him, don't worry about the cord, it can stay for a long time, the baby is already breathing. The EMS people didn't agree and wanted D to cut the cord right away and to wipe off the vernix. I remember saying to the six men standing over me in the pool, while I sat there naked, "hey, thanks so much for coming but you can go now, our midwives are on their way." D was trying to coax at least 4 of the 6 guys to go back downstairs. The midwives arrived last, and couldn't believe what had happened. They said they would never have picked me for the rush delivery, given the length of my first labour.

In retrospect I now realize that when I called the midwives the first time, I was already probably fully dilated. That's why the surges were so low down in my abdomen, and if I had been aware of it, I would have tried to breathe her down. But, it's funny how blindly we believe in the "textbook" version of labour. I just assumed I was in prelabour because that's what I've been told happens first. I never dreamed it could happen in my sleep or without my knowledge!

M