Hypnobirthing is not for crazy people...I promise!

I now have 4 close friends who have had wonderful experiences with hypnobirthing. Arika gave me permission to share her story on my blog. I am so thrilled that everything worked out as she had hoped for. When I handed her my hypnobirthing book (Anna's book that I kept passing around to pregnant people) she said, "Oh no Kristine, you are not going to push that crap on me!" (She said the same thing in high school when her friend handed her a book of Mormon. ha,ha!) However, I knew that Arika was just the type of person who would eat it up. Arika is super passionate about breast feeding and I believed that she would find a lot of helpful tips in the book even if she didn't do the whole hypnobirthing thing. So, yes, she did get hooked and ended up having her baby in the same birthing center I had Tyler in. I can't wait to come see Caden! Congratulations!!


Hypnobirthing Caden

I feel bad that it has taken me this long to write about our wonderful birth, but my sweet friend Aimee took Jackson for the morning so I finally have time. The night of the 29th, I went into early labor. We took Jackson to Aimee's for the night and went to the birthing center. We rested and waited for things to move along. By morning, we weren't making much progress so my midwife, Mary, broke my water around 9. That really got things moving. (I had a few friends suggest that I read their Hypnobirthing book when I was about 6mo pregnant and honestly thought they were crazy. There was no way I was going to give up my epidural! But the more I read, the greater my desire was to have a natural birth using these methods.) I was able to use the relaxation techinques I learned to help me. Levi was great through the whole process. We honestly had a lot of fun in the beginning. My midwife would check on us occasionally, but for the most part it was just the two of us in our room. It was a great bonding experience. As things kept moving I moved from the shower then to the glorious tub. Whoever thought of using these during labor was a genius! They were awesome! I felt totally in control throughout our labor. With hypnobirthing and Levi's support, I honestly was not in a ton of pain. No screaming or anything! :) My midwife even commented, "Look at you, you little hypnobirther, you just go into your zone and get through it!" Then I moved to the bed and only pushed for about 10 minutes and our beautiful boy was here! (With Jackson I pushed for over 2hrs) They layed him on my tummy and let Levi and I sit there with him for over an hour. It was so amazing! It was so nice to have that time to bond, and not have my baby scooped away from me. Afterwards, I felt great! I was able to get up and walk around-just like you said Kristine! :) I look forward to having all of my children naturally like this. It was such a beautiful, spiritual expereince with Levi and I and our new baby. Even Dr. Levi who was super sceptical from the get go, loved it!