In Hypnobabies we teach that your mind controls your body completely. What you focus on and spend time thinking about is typically what comes to pass. Of course with birth there are other factors and just positive thinking alone will not create a perfect, easier birth. It takes a lot of physical and mental preparation and a very supportive team to have an intervention-free birth. And for a variety of reasons out of our control, some people will need a more medicalized birth or even a surgical birth and it's wonderful we have those options in the cases where they are needed!
But today I want to share two examples of the amazing power of the mind to create your birth experience! One story shows how we can use this to our benefit and one shows how our subconscious mind can hold us back when we don't feel safe and supported.
But today I want to share two examples of the amazing power of the mind to create your birth experience! One story shows how we can use this to our benefit and one shows how our subconscious mind can hold us back when we don't feel safe and supported.
Recently I ended up attending two births on the same day! I joined the first family at the hospital around 1 am. The hospital was really busy (thanks full moon!) and the midwife on call was running around catching babies.... literally one woman (not my client) had her baby in a wheelchair trying to get from the triage room into a birthing room! For reasons I won't share in depth due to privacy, my client had a very negative interaction with the midwife on shift. She was very unhappy with her care and made it known she did not want that midwife catching her baby.
By now it was 2 am. I knew that the midwives changed shift around 7 am. I told my client this and we discussed that maybe she could just hang in there and wait until the next midwife came on shift to have her baby. And guess what? That is exactly what she did. By 7 am we were told the midwives would change shifts between 7 and 8 am. I had observed that my client had been flirting with transformation (transition) for a couple of hours but her body just wouldn't get her all the way to pushing. (She hadn't had any cervical checks yet, this was just my best guess having attended many natural, Hypnobabies births.) I begged the nurse to please have the new midwife come in ASAP because I knew mom was holding back and waiting for her.
Unfortunately due to all the stress and adrenaline of the negative interaction with the first midwife, this birth went much more slowly than it could have. But my client hung in there and finally around 8:10 am the new midwife came in and checked to confirm that mom was 9 centimeters! Soon after she gently started pushing. Just an hour after that her sweet baby was born! She got the natural, Hypnobabies birth she had planned and prepared for. It was a bumpy ride and not ideal but it is a great example of just one of the ways negative experiences can get into a birthing person's mind and affect the outcome of their birth.
Now, I had another client who was also past 40 weeks and birthing at the same hospital. I had been putting into the universe that maybe they would have their babies on the same day and even told a doula colleague that I was fantasizing that one baby would be born and the other client would call to say they were coming in and I'd just walk down the hall and meet them! As it happened, the second client texted me shortly before the first baby was born and said she had some bloody show and her waves had started but they were short and far apart. Wow! I was thrilled at the prospect of two births in one day at the same hospital and when I left after the first birth I told the nurse and midwife maybe I'd see them later!
As luck would have it I was able to go home, shower, eat, and sleep for 4-5 hours in the afternoon. By dinner time things were picking up with my second client. By 7:55 pm we were at the hospital and by 8:30 pm baby was here! I'll save the exciting details in case my client wants to share her birth story on the Hypnobabies Twin Cities website, but here's the amazing part about the mind...
A week or so earlier my client and I had been texting. Her husband was working overnights and she was nervous that he wouldn't be home when her birthing time started. My students know that when I teach about how birthing times start, I say that most of the time things start between dinner time and breakfast time. This seems to be due in part to hormones peaking in those overnight hours. I rarely hear from a client in the daytime that things have started. Of course babies are born at all hours because births can vary in length, but so often those early waves start at night. This client had a history of a fast first birth so we were prepared for a fast second birth and you can imagine the stress of thinking your partner might not be there to support you!
In Hypnobabies we have a visualize your birth track that allows birthing families to use their hypnosis to visualize and practice their dream birth. We encourage them to get very detailed and some like to imagine the time of day, the weather outside, no traffic, etc. I suggested to this client that she start visualizing her baby coming during the day, when her partner was home. She had been visualizing the dark of night but quickly changed that thought and started imagining her birth starting during the day. And of course that is exactly what happened!
And the same midwife caught both babies!
To learn more about using Hypnobabies to achieve the birth you want please visit HypnobabiesTwinCities.com or Hypnobabies.com.
By now it was 2 am. I knew that the midwives changed shift around 7 am. I told my client this and we discussed that maybe she could just hang in there and wait until the next midwife came on shift to have her baby. And guess what? That is exactly what she did. By 7 am we were told the midwives would change shifts between 7 and 8 am. I had observed that my client had been flirting with transformation (transition) for a couple of hours but her body just wouldn't get her all the way to pushing. (She hadn't had any cervical checks yet, this was just my best guess having attended many natural, Hypnobabies births.) I begged the nurse to please have the new midwife come in ASAP because I knew mom was holding back and waiting for her.
Unfortunately due to all the stress and adrenaline of the negative interaction with the first midwife, this birth went much more slowly than it could have. But my client hung in there and finally around 8:10 am the new midwife came in and checked to confirm that mom was 9 centimeters! Soon after she gently started pushing. Just an hour after that her sweet baby was born! She got the natural, Hypnobabies birth she had planned and prepared for. It was a bumpy ride and not ideal but it is a great example of just one of the ways negative experiences can get into a birthing person's mind and affect the outcome of their birth.
Now, I had another client who was also past 40 weeks and birthing at the same hospital. I had been putting into the universe that maybe they would have their babies on the same day and even told a doula colleague that I was fantasizing that one baby would be born and the other client would call to say they were coming in and I'd just walk down the hall and meet them! As it happened, the second client texted me shortly before the first baby was born and said she had some bloody show and her waves had started but they were short and far apart. Wow! I was thrilled at the prospect of two births in one day at the same hospital and when I left after the first birth I told the nurse and midwife maybe I'd see them later!
As luck would have it I was able to go home, shower, eat, and sleep for 4-5 hours in the afternoon. By dinner time things were picking up with my second client. By 7:55 pm we were at the hospital and by 8:30 pm baby was here! I'll save the exciting details in case my client wants to share her birth story on the Hypnobabies Twin Cities website, but here's the amazing part about the mind...
A week or so earlier my client and I had been texting. Her husband was working overnights and she was nervous that he wouldn't be home when her birthing time started. My students know that when I teach about how birthing times start, I say that most of the time things start between dinner time and breakfast time. This seems to be due in part to hormones peaking in those overnight hours. I rarely hear from a client in the daytime that things have started. Of course babies are born at all hours because births can vary in length, but so often those early waves start at night. This client had a history of a fast first birth so we were prepared for a fast second birth and you can imagine the stress of thinking your partner might not be there to support you!
In Hypnobabies we have a visualize your birth track that allows birthing families to use their hypnosis to visualize and practice their dream birth. We encourage them to get very detailed and some like to imagine the time of day, the weather outside, no traffic, etc. I suggested to this client that she start visualizing her baby coming during the day, when her partner was home. She had been visualizing the dark of night but quickly changed that thought and started imagining her birth starting during the day. And of course that is exactly what happened!
And the same midwife caught both babies!
To learn more about using Hypnobabies to achieve the birth you want please visit HypnobabiesTwinCities.com or Hypnobabies.com.
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