So here is a story of how I gave birth twice without any medications and actually enjoyed the experiences - it is possible!
Even before we were expecting our first son Liam, I kept hearing stories how a childbirth is the most painful thing one can imagine, it is long and hard. It seemed to be the case for most women but I refused to accept it as my fate too. I was convinced that this is their experience and not mine - I truly believed that my birthing will be beautiful, quick and easy. Sure enough, this is exactly how it ended up being! I do believe that a lot of it is in our heads - we become and experience what we think and feel about.
I have always been a happy-go-lucky type of person and try to take the most of every day and truly enjoy the little things around us, and when I got pregnant, my colleagues started joking that knowing me, I will probably sneeze my baby out. Well, this is pretty much how it ended up being - BUT HOW you wonder?
I believe there are few things and circumstances that contributed to it:
- I kept my mind positive, even through severe nausea and tiredness
- I was fairly active and drank a lot of water
- I used Hypnobabies childbirth program
As long as I can remember, I have always loved babies and little children and when we got our positive test, I was super excited and could not wait to start showing and wearing my bump with true pride! I wanted to tell everyone that I am becoming a parent and soon there will be a little one calling me his MOMMY :) That happiness helped me through the first 4 months of full on nausea. I literally vomited 4-6 times a day, every day, yet it did not bother me at all, I cleaned up my smiley face and felt gratitude for the child growing inside of me, and that insane thought that my body knows how to build another human being - still blows my mind :)
Besides being happy and positive, I also tried to eat healthy for the most part, drank a lot of water (ca 3L a day) and walked/swam a lot. I have never been a gym-goer and exercise for me means either walking, dancing or swimming. So I walked a lot, around 10km pretty much every day, in addition I also swam quite a bit (in a lap pool). Swimming was a perfect exercise for me as I could not feel that extra weight on me and I felt like my entire body got something out of it. During my walks and laps in the pool I was listening to music or hypnobabies learning tracks. Hypnobabies is an unmedicated birthing program I heard about from my husband. He was a firm believer that this stuff works and I figured, I could give it a try as I literally have nothing to lose - people seem to believe that giving birth is super hard, painful and that experience might keep you from ever wanting another child so why not try something that might help, even though if at first it sounded like a hocus-pocus mambojumbo for me and I certainly was not convinced.
Hypnobabies program uses hypnosis and positive affirmations, it teaches you to think different about your pregnancy and birthing in general. My biggest takeaway from the program was that my body knows how to give birth and that birthing is natural, it has been done since the beginning of times. It explained that when you listen to your body and eliminate fear (which makes you tense up your muscles and that causes the pain during delivery) birthing can actually be calm and harmonious. In this program there are tracks for each stage of pregnancy, a specific track for each week + reading materials but I never made it to the end as my little one wanted to come out before the due date.
Liam was born on 38th week and in a way I had only dreamed about. I walked another 10k on that super cold winter day with my mom, I went to the movies and had a nice dinner. Before going to bed I felt that something is different on that night and told my mom who stayed over, that I feel like ants are waking inside my belly, it was a little itchy feeling that came in waves. As this feeling did not go away and kept coming back I called my midwife and explained what I was experiencing and asked if these could be contractions. She thought it was a little funny that someone could mistake contractions for a little itch as for most cases once you get them, you will know. According to her experience women are hurting so bad that they want to crawl out of their skin during their contractions and she told me to go to bed and call again when something progresses. Well, something did progress, just not the pain part. Soon my waves kept coming back every 2 to 3 minutes and really made me feel like I need to go potty. I called her again and described what I felt and then we were in a hurry, she told me to get in a car and meet at the hospital. My water broke the moment I sat in a car so I had to keep my entirely wet pants on until we made it to the hospital.
My midwife had just made it there and was still wearing her home clothes, met me at the door and asked me to go with her as fast as I could walk. We went straight to the delivery room where I asked if I could use the tub as I had thought about giving birth in water. To my surprise she said we have no time as she can already see the baby's head and he is coming out now! Well, that was a total surprise for me as I walked to that room on my own and had just laid down on the bed. Sure enough, my baby was out few minutes later. I even told my midwife that I can feel a wave come and with the next one I will push my baby out then - this is exactly how it went. I felt no pain, my body worked with me and I even asked after the delivery if that was it?! It was all so quick, I had no time to think OR overthink :) It just happened so naturally and harmoniously, no stress, no medications, simply a beautiful experience meeting my baby boy. I was also glad I made it to the hospital as if I had stayed home any longer, I probably would have given birth in a car.
My second delivery was pretty similar to my first one with a small difference, this time I made it to the hospital 30 minutes before my baby came out, I actually had time to sign in and change into a lovely hospital gown that was probably 80 years old and was missing a few buttons, but still, the experience was nice, calm and yet again pain free. I did feel the contractions more this time, It was not just tickling the second time around, but nothing so terrible I could not bare.
So I am a living proof that it is possible to give birth without screaming your head off and wanting to forget about that horrific pain and experience. For me it has been a beautiful experience and I hope that there will be more stories out there like mine. Weather it was Hypnobabies that worked or my carefree attitude towards it, I am glad it did and I truly wish the same for other mommas-to-be. I think it is very important to keep an open mind and stay positive, just trust and listen to your body, you have got this!!!
