More on BIG birth

Saloni and Vasant were in my childbirth class when I travelled to Mumbai to do the Hypnobirthing workshop with Sarojini. As we went through our 4 days together I felt that these were THE people to benefit from hypnobirthing.

To begin with they believed that birth was natural. It took me a while to decide how best to approach/offer them to consider a hypnobirthing class. So I offered my class without charge, primarily because I wanted to get a feel of how the classes would work in real. Also I told them that I totally believed in the philosophy of Hypnobirthing so any short comings were my own. The next big hurdle was to get the book and CD quickly. They ordered on Amazon and her mom carried it from USA.

We began in earnest. I studied each module many times and practised each topic each week before the class. By the second class they were into hypnobirthing. Vasant was very involved by now. At one point when we discussed listing of fears, he said "my biggest fear is that what will I do when she is in pain".

The EDD was sometime around end Oct, we decided not to go by dates. Also they had decided not to have many ultra sounds. They were also keen to use water for labour and we were set to give birth. Couple of times Vasant sent me an SMS that said ... she is having mild surges so we are going to do relaxation and sleep. Lots of practise, and there never seemed any sense of panic or urgency. The doctor was on board with this as well.

Saloni went for a routine check on the 3rd morning. The doctor did and internal and found her 1 finger dilated and asked her if she was ok with a sweep. Saloni agreed. By noon she was having mild surges, and was at a friend's place near the hospital but decided to go back home and wait and watch. I met them at home at about 3 pm that afternoon. She had eaten sandwiches and was relaxing. As I sat with her the surges seemed to get closer so we decided to go to the hospital.

En route things slowed down again. Upon reaching the hospital she was checked and was fully effaced and had dilated a wee bit more. There after we were on our own with periodic checks for the fetal heart rate. Vasant was taking video clips and at some point Saloni said.. I am confused if this is IT. With all the experience of start and stop she was joking about not being responsible if it stopped again. The doctor said she was definitely in labour.

Around 7 in the evening we decided to get out of the hospital for a bit. So we went out for dinner to a nearby G K I market restaurant. She wanted to eat her favourite sandwich at Cafe Turtle, just like they did after the Saturday class each week. There was a lot of joking and fun about this. Of course she could tell the surges... she did feel some thing. It was amazing to be laughing and sharing this time. Vasant recorded every detail of the food and other things... memories from the day of the birth.

I had a feeling things would get more intense after the food and the moon. At 10pm she was something between 2 and 3 cm, but I could feel labour getting stronger. The staff at the hospital felt it was too early and very slow but somehow I felt things were moving fine. I didn't think we could categorise. I felt more tuned to her feeling than findings. She started to talk of warm bath or shower. So first she took a shower and said that the surges felt different in the warm water. I knew she was ready to move to the warm tub. The doctor left the decision entirely up to us. However, some of the staff felt it may be too early. As soon as she went into the water, she visibly dropped down and the very next surge was longer and stronger, and she slipped into a trance there after. we had dimmed the lights and some soothing music was in the back ground, Vasant was whispering the hypno prompts to her and at one point it seemed that I was intruding on a really intimate moment. The gentleness of it all was overwhelming.

In the water she would spread her legs really wide and lean on the side of the tub and relax. She moved in and out of the tub a couple of times and sitting on a birth stool at one point her membranes released. She was already breathing the baby down by 3:30 am and soon after that she was ready to push. A junior doctor tried to organise the pushing but she tuned out and went with what she felt. The baby emerged slowly supported by her doctor's hands and as she held her baby the father cut the cord. Later when the baby was weighed .. they did it four times. No one could believe he was a 3.95 kg baby, the mom had a superficial tear.

Doc and I shared a cup of celebration tea and acknowledged...

had there been an ultrasound...

we would have an idea of the weight of the baby...

considering it was biggish ...

maybe we wouldn't have waited,

definitely not used water

and definitely had an episiotomy bigger and deeper than the tear,

and this would be the best case scenario.

And here the one thought I had was`"That's a lot of divine coincidences"

Her I was a doula, the childbirth educator, the hypnobirthing practitioner, friend, stand in sister, everything, nothing. I felt deeply connected to her as if i was in labour too and at some point I made some suggestions which were only in the realm of the above coincidences, and I didn't make them thinking, I felt the need to make them.

As we were sharing the birth together both the parents felt that it couldn't have been more perfect. To answer my question if this is what they had thought it would be like... they said this is what they hoped it would be.

I hope this is really a positive inspiration for all and I am sure all of us would be happy to answer any questions the reader may have