I would love to share my experience, specially since it was a very positive one. At my 38 week visit to the doctor, I was already 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. I was not getting any surges yet. The doctor noticed elevated blood pressure and asked me to go to the hospital for monitoring. Upon monitoring and a few blood tests, it was decided that labor had to be induced due to pregnancy-induced high blood pressure. Just like it was taught at the hypnobirthing class I remained calm and requested the doctor to let me eat a decent meal before induction. I was induced at around 9.30 pm. The monitoring device showed that I started getting surges around midnight. I couldn’t believe the nurse since I wasn’t feeling any pain at all. I was doing the surge breathing by this time. The nurse asked me multiple times to rate my pain level and was amazed when I told her it was a 2 or 3. The pain level stayed the same till I was 100% effaced and 7cm dilated at around 9 am the next morning. I slept through the night and was well-rested for the birthing phase. At 9 am, however, I started getting stronger surges and the pain level was much higher around 5 or 6. Around this time, I was listening to the birthing affirmations. I was trying my best to be relaxed and calm. I was avoiding talking as well. The doctor and the nurses suggested that I get an epidural since I looked very tired and would have to experience the surges for at least a couple more hours and that I needed energy for the birthing phase.

After discussing with my mamma and husband, I decided against getting an epidural. The main reason for avoiding an epidural was the decision I had made earlier in sound mind and the encouraging “you can do it” that both of my birthing companions had given me. At 9.50 am the same day my baby born was born. The birthing phase was very short since the baby was very low. While the nurses kept chanting “push push push”, my husband was by my side yelling equally loudly “breathe our baby out!” The doctors and nurses were quite amazed that I was so calm and relaxed and everything went so much faster than anticipated. Each nurse I met that day asked me how I managed to do this without an epidural and how I dealt with the pain. I drank positively charged water before the induction was initiated. Also for the entire duration, my mom was with me giving Reiki for relaxation and calmness and I am a strong believer in the strength of this technique. When I was thinking about the whole birthing process, I realized the thing that helped me the most was the fear release mediation from the hypnobirthing classes. I was totally free of fear while birthing and that helped a lot. Off course the reiki that my mamma was giving and the gentle massage technique (taught at the class) by the hubby, counting numbers for surge breathing all helped me relax more. To sum it up, it was a great experience and I am so glad that my baby had such a positive way of entering the world with his mamma all relaxed, calm and overwhelmed with happiness and not writhing in pain or screaming/worried/tense.

Another positive change I noticed in me was the fact that ready to take up any challenge/new information in a calm way (generally I am not that kind of a person, I need to be prepared for everything otherwise I get stressed).

Thank you so much Rubina for the hypnobirthing meditation and information/teaching sessions.