I was able to completely relax between surges

Positive Birth Experience after C-Section:

My first birth didn’t go the way I planned. I took the birth class from the hospital, read the books, listened to the podcasts. What could go wrong?? I went in for my 39 week appointment and was pretty miserable. I am a school teacher and it was getting harder and harder to work, so my Dr. mentioned an induction. I was 3-4 cm dilated and 80% effaced everything seemed to be just right for the induction to work perfectly. So on September 12, 2018 I went in for an induction. I labored all day with no pain meds. My Dr. broke my water about 6 hours in and the surges got so incredibly hard that I had to get an epidural and had almost immediate relief. After about an hour I was 9 cm dilated, and I started to feel the pain come in pretty strong. The epidural wasn’t working anymore and I was feeling all the contractions so strongly. The baby wasn’t positioned correctly and I pushed for what seemed like an eternity to no avail. I finally told my nurse that I couldn’t do it anymore and asked for a c-section. I was in so much pain that they had to give me a very strong dose of pain killer which knocked me out - so my memory of the birth is pretty foggy. I struggled afterwards with the birth. I felt like I ran a marathon but 1 mile before I was finished I gave up. I felt devastated and like a failure. I realize now that my body did something so amazing and it was the best choice for both me and the baby.
Fast forward to a year later when we got pregnant with our second son. I told myself that I wanted to have a positive outlook on birth whether I had a vaginal delivery or a c-section. I heard about hypnobirthing from a podcast I listened to and was intrigued by it. So I did some research and found Melissa Spilsted’s Hynobubs Course.At 20 weeks I decided to purchase both the Positive Birth and the Change of Circumstance course, because I wanted to prepare my mind and heart for whatever turn my birth would take. I listened to all the mp3’s almost religiously every night and was able to get in a totally relaxed state- I feel asleep almost everytime A couple of weeks before the baby was born we practiced for the birth with the meditations Melissa provided. I felt more prepared for birth.
On May 12 at 39 weeks my Dr. felt that I should have a membrane sweep so the baby would come a little early. The next day I was feeling a little crampy but nothing to write home about. That night my husband massaged me and helped me relax then he went to sleep. Throughout the night I was feeling contractions, but was able to rest/sleep through most of them by listening to the tracks and quiet music. I tried to keep the mindset that this might just be a practice labor and really tried to keep calm. By 5am on May 14 the contractions were about 10 mins apart and were about 20 seconds long. I kept track of my contractions for a while but really didn’t feel like it was labor. I just focused on relaxing and letting my body do what it needed to do (again by listening to the tracks). I got out of the way of my body and my body did exactly what it was created to do. By 10:30 the contractions were about 5 mins apart, but still manageable. My husband and I went for a walk to help the labor along. I came back home and listened to the tracks again and at 12:30 my waters released it was then that I realized this baby was coming and he was coming soon. The surges got more intense so we called the Dr. and they told us to come it. We got to the hospital around 2pm and the nurses in triage checked me and said I was 6cm dilated.. I was in a pain crisis and didn't think I could do it without an epidural. When they got us to a room which was like 10 mins later I was feeling the urge to push. My husband put on the surge of the sea track and then played the birthing track. They checked me again and I was 10 cm. I pushed for an hour and a half but I was able to completely relax between surges. We had our sweet boy at 3:45pm without pain meds. It was such an amazing journey for all three of us.

Sara