| It was the best experience ever!!!!!!! Unbelievable. Dear Emily,
Sorry for writing so late but i have to share with you our happiness. Just like they told us Ariana Lucia was born last tuesday 4/2/08. It was the best experience ever!!!!!!! My water broke on Tuesday at 4:45 and at 6 my labor started. My Mother in LAw acme to help with my two oldest and i started with relaxation. Alex came from the restaurant and at 9 we went to meet Karen( the midwife) She was unbelievable !!!! We walked and i had an excellent experience , ALex helped me so, so , so much just the way we practiced in class!
unbelievable.
Now my mom is here helping us a bit and everything is back to normal.
Please if you could forward the e-mail to the rest of the group i would love to share with them the wonderful experience.
love,
Daniela Zeppos, North Potomac, Maryland
I got to experience natural birth just like I wished 
Hi Dr. Wang! I wanted to let you know that my baby boy was born on Sunday March 30, 08 at 2:18am in the morning. I got to experience natural birth just like I wished and changing to a midwife was the best thing I could have ever done. Everything went exactly the way I wanted and he was born into a calm environment. It only took six hours for him to be born and he weighed 8lbs 2oz. Thank you so much for everything you have done for me and my baby!
Karen Marais, Bethesda, Maryland
Joe said I was amazing, and my doula called me a rockstar 
I'd like to announce the birth of our son, newly named Jackson about 10 minutes ago. He was born Sunday at 3:38 PM after 3 hours of active labor. 8lbs 2oz, 20.5".
In actuality, I was in labor during class and I pretty much knew it. I just practiced my breathing and it worked! After the birth, Joe said I was amazing, and my doula called me a rockstar. I will say that at the end I was not the picture of calmness that we saw in the videos...but the birth was amazing, there is nothing to compare it to.
The hypnobirthing worked wonders and I am really glad I found the class and was diligent about practicing. I wish you all a wonderful birthing experience like Joe and I have just had or better.
Emily, thanks again for everything.
Best, Joe and Tanya
We arrived at the Shady Grove hospital 1:15 in the morning. Frequent surges. 90% thinned, 2-3 cm. Moved to labor room, attached hypnoBirthing sign to door and a second sign - 'Hugs before drugs' in room (we left the signs for the next family). The same nurse throughout, totally accepting. Shower - 8 cm at 4 am (only 2 vaginal exams). Urge to breathe down begins. Sits on toilet. Nurse in and out of room. Bearing down intensifies. Moves to sitting in bed. No coaching from nurse, no positioning, no prodding. No doctor - all in surgery. RN receives baby, second nurse pops in - dad announces sex (girl), cord left to pulse, baby immediately rooting, patiently waiting for placenta. About 10 minutes later OB arrives and does minor stitching.
After what truly was an odd complication, we feel more confident than ever with birth! 
We labored at home, arriving at the hospital at 8 cm. Come to find out, our baby was in a FACE presentation! For those of you who don't know, this is considered an automatic cesarean for most care providers. However, when they discovered a little nose and mouth upon the internal exam at triage, because both me and the baby were doing so well and were 8 cm., they just let me continue doing what I was doing so well. And we did it! We had the baby in 4 hours. We are THRILLED with not only HB, but the care we received. We had wanted a big family (there are like 10+ kids in each of our families) and after our first two, we were afraid this third would be our last. That's why we sought out HB in the first place...to deal with the fear from the first two birth. Now, ironically, after what truly was an odd complication, we feel more confident than ever with birth!
I ended up trusting my body and its ability to open quickly. And it did!! 
With our baby being breech, the doctor and us decided to go for a trial of labor and cesarean.
I called the doula at 3:30 pm because I thought labor had started. I wasn't sure. She suggested a bit of a rest, water and relaxation CD and if surges progessed, it was labor. My husband called the doula in an hour asking her to meet us at the hospital. I was 1cm, not effaced and surges not really registering on the monitor. The nurse suggested us to go home since labor has not established yet. We were told that most likely we'll come back tomorrow. I was adamant that things were progessing and did not want to go anywhere. We discussed our options. Doctor came in at 7 and observed me during a surge. It commanded my attention and I was breathing through it beautifully. He suggested that we stay in the hospital.
The nurse called the doula out and asked what mom wanted to do. She relayed doctor's suggestion and that was what we, the parents had decided to do. The nurse said it would be at least a day or even 2 before I could progess to 5 cm. When we settled down in the room, we did a fear release to get rid of all the negativity and to trust what I was feeling and knowing to be true. At 8 I went to the bathroom and uterine seal came out with a
big plop! Progress!! My husband and the doula took turns going to supper. The entire time, I was breathing through the surges, deep inside. At 9PM I told them the surges were more intense. At 9:30 I asked to be checked and was 5CM!! Baby was born at 10:43. I knew all along what I wanted. Although I was swayed by what I heard, I sought my path to a better birth experience for my baby. I ended up trusting my body and its ability to open quickly. And it did!!
This was my first child. I was 2 days before my "guess date" and really felt ready for the birth. The night before I sat on the birthing ball and really focused on my child and said the birthing day affirmations. All evening I concentrated on those and telling myself everything was going to go great and that it was time. I woke up the next morning and immediately knew it was the day. I was having surges, and they just felt different from any other "practice" ones I had had in the past. I really wanted to stay at home for as long as possible. My husband had the day off work, and we spent the day organizing the baby's room, our house, our hospital bags, etc.
The contractions stayed about 6-7 minutes apart for most of the day and I really focused on the visualization of satin ribbons. Early evening I lost my birth plug and knew it was almost time. Around 9, I decided I would start to get organized to go in. At around 10:30 pm my water broke at home, and we left for the hospital. During the 10 minute drive, my contractions got quite a bit stronger and were about 3 minutes apart. When I was initially checked around 11:15 pm, I was 4 cm. Because my water had broken, they admitted me. I had planned on doing a natural birth, but at this point my surges were quite a bit stronger than I expected, and I wasn't sure I could handle multiple hours of that intense pressure. After they checked us into our labor room, I felt a strong urge to push. I was rather confused since I had only been 4 cm minutes earlier. I had my husband get a doctor to check to be sure.
When they checked me, I had already progressed to 7.5 cm. I realized then that my labor was going to be very quick and that there would be no time for an epidural, nor did I really want one if it was going to be quick! During the next couple surges I progressed to complete and the doctors and nurses frantically tried to prepare for the little one so desperate to come out in the world!
I "pushed" only a few time, 5-10 minutes. It was very intense, but before I knew it she was out and in my arms. I had not expected to have such a fast birth with my first child. While it was extremely intense, I am grateful, overall it was an amazing experience. I really didn't have time to get my HypnoBirthing cds and such out, but I really feel that the visualizations of blue satin ribbons, and during birth an opening flower really helped me out. Just the experience of HypnoBirthing really helped me to be confident and strong through the strongest of surges.
It's so true that "we are wonderfully and fearfully made" I noticed my surges were getting frequent & regular at about 2pm on wed. they were 10min apart and about 60s long when I timed them. I then called Phil to come home so he could take care of Nicole, and we also told her that mummy's body was preparing to give birth to the baby. We informed Ginny and I went to bed and used the rainbow relaxation CD through the surges. They were painless and very manageable. I found these helpful: (1) the blue satin ribbons visualization to help me imagine my cervix opening up to birth the baby, (2) slow breathing in. and the affirmations (3) each surge brings me closer to my baby (4) I meet each surge only with my breath, my body is still, (5) 1 surge more is 1 surge less.
The surges stayed about the same frequency & length all the way till around 5pm, so we didn’t call Ginny (the doula). They were increasing slightly in intensity and I had to concentrate on relaxing, but still painless and manageable.
I was putting Nicole to bed at 7pm and thinking that we'd call Ginny after she had gone to bed. But as I was putting her to bed, the surges got pretty intense, to the point that I had difficulty maintaining the relaxation in my body and staying still & calm. I was also stressing and thinking, "hurry up and fall asleep, Nicole!", which didn’t help! I could really feel the difference between surges where I could relax and those where I couldn’t. I could still cope with the surges where I could maintain my relaxation.
Finally Nicole was asleep (about 8pm) and I got off the bed (was lying down up to that point). Then I really felt like I had to pee/poop right there & then! The urge was so strong I was afraid I was going to wet/soil the bed! it was so difficult to hold it in when my body was trying to push the baby out! Then I panicked! I rushed out to the toilet and called phil. But after sitting on the toilet for a few minutes, I realized there was no poop and felt a gush of water, which I think was my water bag bursting. I told Phil I think the baby is coming out and that's when he saw the baby's head. Then I remembered the birth breathing ... had been too panicky before that! So squatting in front of the toilet, with Phil supporting me from behind, I gave birth to Sophia. Phil caught her head and I caught her shoulders as she emerged crying at 8.28pm. It was as smooth & easy as we'd seen in the videos! And it felt wonderful to hold her and nurse her after birth. the placenta was born about 15min later, after she had nursed for some time.
Ginny arrived shortly afterwards and confirmed that both me & the baby were fine. we drove to the hospital with me on the back seat and Ginny holding the baby. I have a skin-only tear (1st degree) of the perineum and stayed just 1 night in the hospital before returning home.
That first night, I couldn't sleep until 3am because I was just so exhilarated that "I did it!", I continue to be amazed at my body's accomplishment of having given birth to sophia in such an easy, smooth, pain free way. It's so true that "we are wonderfully and fearfully made" (Psalm 139:14).
Claudine
Both were delivered naturally without any issues Claire's membrane's released early on the 24th without any other labor signs. We went into Georgetown hospital and were told to stay there until the birth, whenever that might be. The doctors were keen to induce on the 25th so we set about trying to get things moving more naturally: in the end the sideways walk up/down stairs did the trick.
We had a fairly nice delivery room and Claire's surges started in the evening of the 24th. At that point we were using the hypno CD so Claire could relax. Because of twins we had little choice over an epidural so that was taken around midnight. Claire then used hypnosis until 7.30 am, when the doctor 'woke' Claire up so Isaac could be delivered. Isaac arrived at 7.44 and Imogen at 08:31.
Isaac was head down but Imogen was breach. However both were delivered naturally without any issues (no tearing even). The birth was a very positive experience and the hypnosis techniques I believe made all the difference because Claire had all her energy for the final delivery. We had quite an audience for Imogen because she was breach.
I feel like I had the best birthing experience possible 
I guess it started on January 4th. I started having contractions in the middle of the night. We went to the hospital. Everyone there thought that I was in real labor and going to have him, but after about 12 hours the contractions stopped, and they sent me home. From that day on, I had a lot of "braxton hicks" contractions, nearly every 10 minutes. It was a difficult time! My due date was January 21st, so I had a long time to wait.
Then on January 16th I woke up to some cramps. As the morning progressed, my typical braxton hicks kept getting stronger. I thought that it might be the real thing, but after my false labor experience, I was skeptical. I had a doctor's appointment that afternoon, so I waited to see what the doctor would say. At the doctor they hooked me up to the machine, and I was contracting regularly. As I was there, the contractions kept getting stronger and closer together. The doctor told me to go home and relax and call back when they got 3 minutes apart.
When we got home, I took a bath and listened to my cd that you made. It was amazing! My pain went away and time seemed to stop. It was truly an amazing experience. I stayed in the bath all afternoon and all the pain and discomfort I felt earlier stopped. Eventually I started to think that since the pain was gone, it was false labor again. So I got out of the bath and turned off the cd. But I was WRONG- as soon as I stopped relaxing, the pain started again.
Shortly after that we went to the Holy Cross hospital. It was 5pm. My pain was so intense at that point that I opted for the epidural. Everything went very quick, and my son Julian David was born at 10:16pm. It was so fast. It was actually a very enjoyable experience. I feel like I had the best birthing experience possible, and I would not have changed a thing. I am so grateful for my quick labor and for a very healthy son. I contribute my easy labor to the fact that I practiced hypnobirthing all afternoon. I believe that the relaxation helped my body to progress as quickly as it did. Everyone at the hospital was very surprised by my good attitude and how fast it I progressed.
Since then my life has really changed. I love being a mom! I can't wait to see what each new day brings!
Natalie Colter Aguayo, College Park, Maryland
My due date was March 28th, but I didn't have my baby until April 3rd. I felt my first contraction at 12:22am, and the first 3 were 7-10 minutes apart, so I decided that since I couldn't sleep I would take a shower and do my hair/makeup while my husband slept. However, during my shower and shortly after when I was trying to blow-dry my hair, my contractions were getting closer and closer, and I couldn't even finish drying my hair. My husband finally told me we had to leave since my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and he was getting worried. I put on my hypno CD and we drove to the hospital (Cottonwood) and arrived shortly after 2:00am. They put me in a room to check me out and had me put a gown on- about 3 minutes after I laid on the bed for my check my water broke- we were very glad that it happenened there and not in the car or at home because we didn't realize how much there was! The nurse checked me and I was dilated to a 5. My contractions soon started getting a lot closer and a lot stronger- I was trying really hard to relax w/ my CD but they were so close that it was really hard to do. However, my husband was guiding me through deep breathing and trying to help me relax through the contractions. About 20-30 minutes after my water broke I started to push- I couldn't help it! The nurse checked me again and I was dilated to a 9++. She called my doctor (since the doctor on call was already delivering a baby and she didn't think there would be time for him to finish). The nurse actually gowned up herself because she wasn't sure if my doctor would make it on time, either. He made it there in 5 minutes, though. I pushed for a total of 20-30 minutes and at 3:46am I delivered my 8lb 3oz (19 1/2 inch) daughter, Macie Kathryn Davies. I did end up having to have a class 2 episiotomy, which the local anesthetic shot was probably one of the worst parts! The whole labor only lasted 3 hrs and 20 minutes- not bad for a beginner! I'm glad I was preparing for a natural birth because I'm not sure I would have even had time for an epidural had I wanted one! I didn't even get time to try the birthing ball or the bathtub or anything- I was on the bed the whole time! The doctor said I better get to the hospial ASAP on the next baby because it will probably take no time at all! I'd say it was a pretty intense and yes painful experience, but it was tolerable and well worth it. I think I would have done better had I had some time to get into a deeper relaxation, but I can't complain about how fast it went, either! Ashley & Tony Davies
We were amazed at how easily she came, especially as I had stressed so much about the `pushing' stage! It was a wonderful birth, I still can’t believe how peaceful and easy it was and Edie is just beautiful - a very placid little thing - totally different to our first baby!
Edie Su, our second child, arrived on Monday April 2nd at 08:41.
I decided to sleep on the sofa on the Sunday night as I was weeing every 20 mins and couldn't face the trek down from the bedroom. At 6.30am, I started to have some surges which were quite strong but were 20 mins apart. By 07:00, they were at about 10 mins apart but still quite erratic so I went to wake my DH and tell him to start filling the birthing pool. I texted my midwife (who lives a good hour and a half from us) to let her know that I
thought things were starting. At that, I settled on the sofa with my rainbow relaxation and started to relax. The surges were still quite erratic but very easy to breathe with and I felt really good and excited that we were on the way to seeing our little baby. By 8am-ish, I needed Liam's help with the surges. It must have looked like quite a comical scene, in between surges he was flying around with hoses and buckets of water and then would drop everything when I called to hold my hand and breathe with me. As soon as the surges receded he would launch to his feet again in a mad dash! I remember two big surges and then suddenly releasing that the baby was coming …. I stood up, whipped off my PJs and quickly got in the water. The relief was instant and I felt my whole body go limp. At this stage, I took off my earphones and with one breath, little Edie's head emerged. About a minute later, her body slipped out and I lifted her to my chest. She was covered in vernix but eyes wide open and very alert. She also had her membranes intact. We were amazed at how easily she came, especially as I had stressed so much about the `pushing' stage! Shortly after, the midwife arrived but we will never forget the precious half an hour we had with her on our own. It was really special. Our hypno/home/water birth was an amazing, peaceful experience.
Can't get enough of the wonderful HypnoBirthing stories? Read more at the HypnoBirthing website.
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