Here's an interesting birth story for those of you who might be considering hypnobirthing. My hubby and I were thrilled to have found hypnobirthing. We planned on having set birth preferences and a delivery with the least amount of medical interventions as possible. So long as nothing was wrong with the baby or me. I had a complications free pregnancy so everything seemed to be on our side. At one point I even considered a birthing center but chose to remain with my OB because it made me feel more comfortable being a FTM at 35, silly I know.

Fast forward to 39wks, surges (contractions) went rapidly from painless every 2 hrs to painful every 3-4 minutes in a span of 4 hours. I had planned on laboring at home until the surges were about 6-7 minutes apart, but that never happened. It went from 2 hours apart no pain, 30 min apart no pain, 3 minutes apart with pain. I was both scared and confused it had progressed so quickly. We decided to go to the hospital once we clocked 5 surges in 15 minutes.

I started using all breathing techniques I had learned and they were LIFE SAVERS! Still planning on going through this as natural as possible I kept a positive attitude. Checked into hospital and proceeded to labor. I was offered pitocin 6 hours into it as I had stopped making any progressed. I refused. My doula helped so much, changing positions, aroma therapy, using birthing balls, etc. 3 hours passed by, no progress so I accepted the pitocin. What followed was excruciating pain that due to my breathing and overall composure, the medical staff did not believe how painful it was! I kept hearing "wow you're so controlled" it made me feel great, it made me keep going. At 17 hrs of labor without progress, same dilatation as when I checked in, no signs of baby engaging in pelvis, doctors started to throw around the word I had feared all pregnancy, "cesarean". I cringed. Something came over me an hour after that, after they had to increase the pitocin, the pain no longer felt productive, my body went into a tense state I had not felt. I thought of all those women with their birth stories, way longer labor, how they endured... I was so in awe of them. There I was, feeling defeated. Not much longer went by when, after discussing it with my hubby, I agreed to the c-section. I felt shivers all surgery long, so strong that my upper body muscles felt sore. And then the grand reveal... the baby had not engaged into the pelvis because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck in such a way that he was stuck. At that moment I felt like my decision was validated but nothing could prepare me for the emotions after derailing completely from the birthplan. But none of it matter because the moment we saw our little one, we fell in love even more!

Sorry for the long story. I hope his helps someone, especially those considering hyponobirthing in a hospital setting. Be prepared to make decisions on the fly and stick to your convictions if you choose to. But hypnobirthing can be for anyone, I used it and it made a huge difference in my book!!

Good luck to all of you expecting mammas!! ❤️💙💛