This is another birth story from the November Hypnobabies series in Atlanta. All four Mamas sent in their birth stories and all four had their babies free of epidural, all 4 were vaginal births, with 3 of the babies born at home!!
One came a bit early (read Alexandria’s hospital birth story here), one on Christmas Eve (read Abigail’s Homebirth/Waterbirth story here), this ‘Story’ and one more Homebirth/Waterbirth story to come soon…
Story Amelia Kalmes was born on the 27th at 3:35 AM. This is her Mama’s account:
I had been feeling moderate to heavy cramps for nearly a week before Christmas, but day after day crept by and still Story didn’t show up. Finally it was the 24th, and I switched from wishing she’d hurry up and come already to hoping she’d cruise on through ’til the 26th. Late on Christmas day, I started leaking small amounts of amniotic fluid, but still wasn’t having pressure waves.
By noon on the 26th, the situation was still pretty much the same. My midwife, Charlotte, was concerned that if the amniotic sac was broken or punctured, there was a risk of bacteria getting to the baby, so she sent me out to get some herbs to help kick labor into gear. Very late on the 26th, I started experiencing significant pressure waves. I laid down and listened to my Deepening CD for a while. At 12:42, the pressure waves were five minutes apart, and we called Charlotte and asked her to come over.
What followed was a much more intense experience than I had really been prepared for. At this point, I’d really had no more than about a dozen pressure waves, but suddenly they were coming hard and heavy, one right on top of another. By 1:45, I was wanting to push, and Charlotte still hadn’t arrived.
Because of how fast my labor was, a lot of my plans for pain management sort of went out the window. I never really felt like I had time to get my hypnotic “legs” under me. I remember at one point a pressure wave ended, and I told Mark, “Ok, I’ve got to use this time between waves to calm down, because I’m just getting too panicked.”
But almost as soon as I’d finished the sentence, another wave slammed me. The birthing tub also didn’t work out the way I expected, due to time: first it was too hot, then too cold, and then there was no time to wait for the hot water tank to refill because things were just happening too quickly.
I did chant “peace” for a while the way one of the women from the videos did (although a lot more loudly), and that helped me have something to focus on. I was in a lot of pain throughout the entire time, though.
