Another amazing homebirth story in Atlanta! Sandy and Earle were accompanied by Rachel and Beth of Birthing Way Midwifery as they welcomed their son.

Here is his birth story, as told by Hypno-Mom Sandy: Charles Earle, or Charlie as we call him, was born on February 16 at 5:31 PM.  He was 8 lbs., 9 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

On February 15 at around 7 PM I lost my mucus plug. I had been having sporadic pressure waves throughout the day, but it started getting pretty regular around midnight. I used my fingerdrop technique a couple of times. Although it helped me to temporarily relax, I did not get a sense of getting any hypno-anesthesia. Earle was convinced the pressure waves were Braxton-Hicks because the spacing was not regular and not getting consistently closer together. He timed them on his phone every time I told him I was getting another one. He did this for about two hours before finally saying he had to get some sleep around 2:30AM. I kept on logging the pressure waves myself and slept as much as I could in between. Sometimes it was as much as 10 minutes, and as little as about 5 minutes. Each wave lasted about 30 to 45 seconds. At 10 AM the waves seemed to lessen a little and I decided to listen to the Deepening Hypnosis CD to try to get some rest. It really helped and I was able to sleep until about noon, waking up only a few times.  I listened to my birthing day affirmations CD after I woke up and it made me a little emotional. At 1:30 PM, pressure waves were about 5 to 6 minutes apart and lasted about 1 minute. Rachel, one of my midwives, came at about 2:45 PM to check my progress. She checked my dilation and called Earle in to say I was at 8 centimeters, which made me cry because I had no idea I was that far along. Earle had been filling up the birthing tub and it was ready. Rachel said I should get in the tub after the next contraction or I may never get in it. After the next pressure wave I went to the bathroom, had another contraction while in the bathroom, and then I got into the tub. The water was so relaxing it immediately soothed me and made the pressure waves seem much milder. Beth, my other midwife, got there soon after I got in the tub. She said I looked good and I felt good too. The tub made me get a little too hot, though, and Rachel suggested some cool, wet washcloths on my forehead. Earle got the washcloth and held it to my forehead, which helped a lot, and he kept refreshing it to keep my head cool. As the pressure waves got stronger I changed positions so I could lean my arms over the side of the tub, sitting up on my knees. This felt better than sitting on the bottom of the tub because my bottom kept floating up before.

After I had been in the tub for maybe about 20 or 30 minutes, transformation started and Earle put on the Pushing Baby Out track on a loop. As the pressure waves got really intense, I tried using my peace cue, but I also let out a few screams, which seemed really loud to me, but Earle later said were not very loud. Rachel suggested I use my energy to focus on pushing instead. I was a little hesitant at first to start pushing because it seemed scary to me, but the further I got in the process the harder I wanted to push and the more natural it felt. Earle kept reminding me to breathe during the pushing and used the shoulder and forehead cues to keep me relaxed. Right before the final pushes Rachel put some oil on me and was supporting my perineum in the tub. I felt some burning sensations and Beth told me to imagine that it felt cool, which did help. On the final push I think Rachel was trying to get me to let the baby out easy, but I had such a strong urge to push that I told her I had to push. As I pushed that last time it felt as if the baby’s entire body just shot out all at once. It didn’t hurt at all it was just a feeling of release. It was so amazing!

Overall I think that Hypnobabies helped me make this birth a positive experience. Earle and I really enjoyed the classes …