Doermann Family Blog

Labor and delivery were amazing! Greg and I took hypnobirthing classes, and they helped us to look forward to labor and delivery rather than view it as a necessary evil. Hypnobirthers believe in going into deep relaxation and having pain-free births. Those who get an epidural are probably the only ones who truly experience a pain-free birth, but it was pretty remarkable to come close to that through relaxation. One of the affirmations I was supposed to repeat to myself was: "I will turn my birthing over to my baby and my body." That gave me the giggles, but it really worked! While it was not exactly pain-free, I can honestly say it was not that bad. It was really different to not be so consumed by pain (Pearl was induced that it was just so intense and unlike anything that my body had ever done, that it was not that great an experience) that I could focus on nothing else.

I had been having braxton hicks for nearly 4 days at pretty regular intervals, but when I woke up Sunday morning I had my first real contraction. I knew it because it was all in my back, just like the with Pearl. The picture is of me at about 10 am, a few hours into labor. My body took lots of breaks while laboring, so I kept doubting I was actually in labor, which is why by the time I actually got to the hospital I was dialated to a 6.5 and having 60 sec contractions, 90 sec apart. It went pretty fast from there, and probably would've gone even faster had my water broke earlier. She was born about an hour and a half after I was admitted.

The whole process felt instinctive and natural. The most amazing part of all was delivery. I know it generally goes much faster the second time, but I really didn't think it would go from 45 min. of pushing with pearl, to just a few minutes of relaxed breathing for Ramona. Instead of "pushing" her out, I did these things called "J" breaths and she pretty much just slid out. I swear it's true. I had been skeptical of the hypnobirther's delivery method, but when I did my first "J" breath (hard to explain how that works), I got this huge silly grin, IN THE MIDDLE OF DELIVERY, because I knew Ramona would be here any second and that it was going to be easy! My body recovered quickly too! I had my doubts and reservations, but I LOVE the hypnobirthing method.