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Bradley Method

Holly Poulson, AAHCC
American Academy of Husband-Coached Childbirth
740-376-0446
www.bradleybirth.com

Classes are held Sunday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Christ United Methodist Church, Third and Wooster St, in Marietta.  Call Holly for further information or log on to the web site.

Esali Birth

M. Danielle Bergum
304-273-4190 or 304-482-4729
www.esalibirth.com
info@esalibirth.com

Esali Birth offers independent perinatal ( complete pregnancy through postpartum) education classes in Parkersburg and Ravenswood, WV which include 10-Week complete (scheduled quarterly), 3-Day condensed (scheduled as needed), and Pay-Per-Class (coincides with 10-week series) perinatal education courses focusing on education for every type of birth and includes health & nutrition, informed decisions, and natural childbirth preparation.  Self-paced online classes & scheduled online seminars available – open for enrollment 24/7 (these are included with local classes).

Esali Birth also hosts the (free) MOV monthly Breastfeeding Cafe the 4th Saturday of each month at the First United Methodist Church (corner of Juliana & 10th in Parkersburg).  Registration recommended for first-time attendees.

Contact Danielle or visit web site for full details, schedule, and registration information. (Visa/Mastercard Accepted).  Teen, Military, & Single-Mom discounts available.

Hypnobabies

Amy C. Elliott, PhD, HCHI
Doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy/Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis Instructor; certified Hypno-doula
304-865-9600
www.hypnobabiesmov.com
1515 Grand Central Avenue, Suite 8
Vienna, WV 26105

“Enjoy your baby’s birth in comfort, joy, and love.”  Hypnobabies is a 6 week complete childbirth education course using Gerald Kein’s Painless Childbirth techniques. Private and group classes are available.  Call Amy or log on to the web site for more information and class schedules.

Lamaze

Lucy Juedes, LCCE
740-594-8039
www.birthprepbasics.com

This is a Lamaze series of classes where you’ll learn more about:

• Labor & birth basics
• Maintaining comfort & progress
• Natural & medical pain relief options
• Managing complications
• Relaxation & massage practice
• New baby, mom, and family care

These classes are ongoing, economical, and highly-rated by both moms and birth partners.  Classes are based in Athens/The Plains, for a total of 15 class hours.  For more info, please contact Lucy Juedes at lucyj@intelliwave.com.

Casual, comfortable, supportive women offering quality education and personal stories of breastfeeding success, difficulties, motivation, and everything in between.

Registration recommended for first-time attendees.  Please visit www.esalibirth.com/workshops for full details, or contact Danielle at mdbergum@esalibirth.com.

-Crysta Bourdon, Doula

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Valentina’s Home Birth Story

By: Christine Marasco

Disclaimer: This is the story of my daughter’s home birth, one year ago today. Currently only 1% of US babies are born at home, but there is a notable upswing in this direction. This is as back-to-basics as it gets, my friends. We have gained such a respectable understanding for the birth process in our (now) three home births and truly appreciate the way normal birth progresses when it is undisturbed and allowed to unfold in it’s own time. There may be a point or two throughout the story that raises your eyebrows. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

I woke up on the morning of Sunday April 6th feeling some very wimpy contractions. I wouldn’t even call them contractions, really. More like barely noticeable dull twinges. I knew two things. My contractions may have been due to all of the preparation Frank & I had been doing the day before, moving things around, straightening and organizing but one thing was for sure. I don’t ever have preterm labor, or spotting, or false labor. When my body decides to do something, it’s full force the first time, so I was sure this was the real thing. I was 38 weeks pregnant – and I had the green light.

I walked over to where Frank was sleeping. He looked up at me. I smiled him a big “good morning”, and told him today was THE day. “The day for what?” he asked. “Uh, THE day” I repeated. “OH!” Suddenly he was paying attention, and demanded to know what was going on, and if I was in labor. I told him that surprisingly, not much was going on yet. I had lost some mucous plug and had a weak contraction here & there. And yes, I already called the midwife! Trouble was, she was not answering either her home or cell phone, which was slightly alarming. (For those of you unaware, our previous midwife missed our last daughter’s birth. So did my husband. *my fault* I had a completely unsuspected 2.5 hour labor, so I gave birth to Francesca in my spacious shower, with two amazing doulas and my almost three year old son, who was of enormous support. He was well prepared!) I was hoping Rebecca was at church and I was hoping Mennonite church services only last one hour. Our midwife, Rebecca, is Mennonite and brings a most calm & experienced presence when she walks through the door. It was an easy decision to place our third pregnancy & birth in her care. Rebecca’s fee includes our complete prenatal care through the pregnancy as well as the birth and 6 weeks of postpartum care for myself and the baby.

I then proceeded to alert the rest of my team about my impending birth. A phone list had been prepared along with a small shrine of trinkets and candles, well wishes and prayers set up on my bathroom countertop from my blessing way ceremony, only weeks before. The birth team included:

Holly: Bradley Method teacher, retired RN and mother of 4 (2 born at home)

Sam: International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, 17 year La Leche League leader, LPN and also mother of 4 (3 of which were HBAC’s – home births after cesarean).

Shayla: One of my best friends! (videographer for the day and pharmacist in real life, should the need arise for a dose of Sarcasma, our drug of choice)

My crew: Frank (babymaker and in charge of filling the labor pool and keeping the birth team happy) Christian (big brother and in charge of announcing the sex of the baby upon arrival – age 5.5) and Francesca (big sister-to-be – age 2.5).

Lisa (and 17 month old Truman): Kindly offering her mad photography skills so as to best capture the days events, with Truman, the little nursling in tow.

Do I have some cool friends, or what? I tell the birth team via phone to stay on stand-by. I’m not ready for anyone to come over at this point. Nothing worth mentioning is happening yet. Frank takes the kids out to eat, while I sit and email, vacuum, breathe in the day and relax. Still nothing. I finally get in touch with Rebecca, who insists on heading out to my house pronto, because of my speedy track record in labor (she lives 1.5 hours away).

After a while, the family returns and my birth team starts arriving. I’m feeling the slightest bit of performance anxiety at this point, as I make a mental note that two of my attendees have children to get home to bed that night, so this simply cannot take all day. I decide to take matters into my own hands and wonder which natural induction technique I can utilize at this very moment. Nipple stimulation? Perhaps. Sex? Completely inappropriate with so many bystanders. Blue Cohosh? Shoot – fresh out! I decide on the aforementioned nipple stim technique, that proves to be WAY more effective than Pitocin itself (not that I’d know – but 50 minutes from this point, the baby was OUT!). I ask my recently weaned daughter if she’d like to nurse. She delights at the thought and takes me up on the offer. She seems so long in my lap, legs hanging over the rocker, and I nurse her to sleep, as Shayla works on the labor inducing reflex points on my ankles, down in the man cave (Frank’s designated hang out). While nursing Francesca, I have three WICKED contractions. Woah! I wabble back upstairs after I hand her off to Frank and my instinct tells me to head to the toilet. More mucous plug, like the egg whites from 4 eggs on the toilet paper, tainted with blood. “Good stuff” says Holly in a reassuring tone. “That is a sign that your cervix is thinning”, she says. After a couple more Earth shaking contractions, I walk intently to the birth pool that Frank has been filling, bucket by bucket. It’s HOT, too hot for a baby to be born into, so Rebecca instructs him to go get some cold water now. Frank obediently dumps several cold buckets into the pool. As the cold water grazes my thigh on the way in, I’m completely sure Frank has no idea how uncomfortable that just felt, but I decide to let it go, since he’s been working his buns off for me.

Contractions seem to be spaced far apart and I rest my forehead on the side of the kiddie swimming pool, as Sam places cold wash cloths on my neck and forehead. Doulas are God’s gift to women, by the way. Husbands, no matter how wonderful, will never ever understand what a woman goes through as she gives birth. THIS is where a doula comes in. A doula is a birth professional, hired by the pregnant couple to carry out the intended birth plans, whatever they may be. Doulas rock, and have this innate gift to say the right things at the right times (emotional support) or to apply counter pressure on your hips or sacrum when you need it (non-medical physical support). Every woman deserves a doula and mine have been enormous blessings.

A few more contractions later, and I’m feeling the urge to push. I bare down, and Sam whispers a gentle reminder not to push too hard. We want to avoid any tearing, but the urge is too much and I bare down some more. I hear the shutter from Lisa’s camera snapping away. I hear some whispers from the birth team and I hear my daughter offering little Truman a toy. Everyone is quiet and so am I. I wait. The sun is pouring in the room. Another mean contraction and a mass of quick confusion, which I figured out later was Rebecca struggling over the edge of the tub to get a good reach on me and the baby’s head. The baby’s head was emerging but she was still too far away. I was on my hands & knees at this point. I hear Rebecca say “Get her out!”. Since we did not know the sex of the baby, I knew she meant ME, so I stood up, gave one more push and delivered our baby into Rebecca’s loving hands. Rebecca turned the slimy new baby toward Christian, who announced “It’s a girl”, as if he already knew and my new baby was passed through my legs, as I sat back down in the water and held her for the first time. She let out a few cries to let us know she was okay, and I just sat and stared at her face. She was a good size, alert, with a full head of dark hair, and before I knew it, Rebecca stood over me to place a newborn hat on her head. Our new baby never left my arms. At this point, the baby nursed for the first time and I remember being impressed at how quickly and efficiently she latched on. After a short while my doulas encouraged me to deliver her placenta. When the placenta had been delivered, and after her cord stopped pulsating, Christian cut her cord. We all gathered around the birth tub to talk for a while and observe baby ‘no name’. We chatted about what to name her and how the doulas almost missed the birth this time. Everything had fallen into place just perfectly. I passed the baby off at some point, and got out of the tub (now looking like Merlot) to take a shower.

Afterward, we spent some time getting to know our baby, as Rebecca completed her thorough newborn check and Shayla journaled the days events. We took some more pictures and slowly, the members of our birth team headed home one by one. We were left that night, as a family of five, with a new baby girl to raise and love.

Valentina Maria Marasco

(her name was finally registered with the state of Ohio when she was 10 days old – yep, it took us that long to name her!)

Born April 6th, 2008 @ 38 weeks gestation
8lbs 5oz
20 3/4 inches
5:30pm

For more information on the option of midwife attended home birth and for present day statistics, visit www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com.

For more information on waterbirth, visit Waterbirth International at www.waterbirth.org.

My Wife: The Birth Warrior

By: Nathaniel Miller

As I sit here writing this my youngest son lays swaddled tightly next to me in the office chair and my other gorgeous boy is snoozing in his bed. It seems just yesterday we were bringing Paul home from the hospital and my nights were starting to turn into days and days to nights… What a beautiful journey life has become! Never before has my life felt more fulfilled or meaningful than when I became a parent and now that feeling has doubled. Bringing newborn life into this world and caring for your children can only be described as one of life’s most beautiful miracles.

This past weekend I was able to witness the miracle of birth once again, but this time as it truly should be. Let me qualify that statement by saying that I am not writing this as a rant against the medical profession or to say that every person and every birth should be an all natural, home birth as Elizabeth and I were able to enjoy with Gideon Guthrie. Honestly, Thank our Father in heaven there are medical professionals focused on childbirth and on keeping babies and mothers healthy and safe in situations when it seems they may be anything but. There are places and situations in which many of the modern interventions that we tried to avoid in our birth experience are truly needed and warranted. It is unfortunate that the controversy over birth has grown to such an extent that both sides (natural vs. medical assisted) are oftentimes not even on speaking terms, let alone able to collaborate. How many more mothers could be helped if we could put aside our differences in opinion and truly focus on facts?

Elizabeth and I have been blessed to observe both an in hospital Cesarean section birth and an at home, completely natural birth with our two wonderful baby boys. I can in all honesty say that I would not change anything about either birth. We believed whole heartedly in each instance that we were doing what was best for our unborn child and I have no regrets. Both of them are here and no worse for the wear. However, tonight I wanted to reflect on our most recent experience and try in my own humble way to honor my beautiful and unbelievably powerful wife, Elizabeth.

I call Elizabeth the Birth “Warrior” not because of the sometimes unfeeling or scary connotation that the term “warrior” often invokes. I chose that word carefully as it depicts strength, preparedness, and a steadfast, unwavering trust in something for the greater good. Elizabeth wholeheartedly trusts in childbirth. She always has. She has known from day one how she wanted her children to enter this world and has never swayed in her desire to pursue a natural birth. She didn’t choose this path because she thought it was “cool” or because it was easier (far from it…). She certainly didn’t choose a natural birth because of all the support she got from her caregivers or what she heard on the news. She chose to pursue a natural birth because she feels that our all knowing God in heaven knows whats best for us and has given mothers all of the mechanisms to birth in a safe and natural way.

I have always supported Elizabeth and wanted her to be able to achieve her dream of a natural birth. But I have to admit, when first approached about having a home birth I had concerns. I mean I heard that there were possibilities of complications in which mother and child could be in danger, that home birth was backwards and unconventional, and of course that a home birth was “unpredictable”. However, because I knew how much it meant to Elizabeth, had complete trust in her decisions, and wholeheartedly believed in her strength, I agreed with almost no hesitation.

Even before we came to the conclusion that we were going to pursue a home birth, we attended a small meeting in Marietta entitled “MamaMeets”. This was a meeting organized by Mama*ology, an organization focused on parenthood, community, and of course, birth CHOICES. This small group meeting was the first step that eventually changed our family’s life. In this first small group meeting, the mothers of the group really reached out to Elizabeth. She had underlying concerns and disappointments associated with some of Paul’s birth experience that neither she nor I even completely realized existed. In the folds of this group, Elizabeth was able to let her guard down and truly express her feelings surrounding birth. These women encouraged Elizabeth, cried with her, and at times even threatened to start a lynch mob to chase down anyone who had ever wronged her. I had never seen her feel more at home or at peace with herself and others. These were OUR people. Focused completely on their kids, family, and a life devoid of someone else telling you how you had to bring children into the world. The idea was simple: when it came time to give birth to your child, YOU had choices to make, not someone else. If you wanted a fully medicated hospital birth, they were cool with that because that was your choice. But if you were interested in natural child birth with as few interventions as possible, they wanted you to have that as well. Bottomline-you are paying caregivers to assist/serve you, not tell you what to do.

We walked away from that group knowing we had formed a relationship that would not soon wither. We kept in touch with several of the members and eventually began attending the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth classes. We became fast friends with our instructors, the couples in the class, and the founding members of Mama*ology. For whatever reason, they seemed to like us as much as we liked them. Through our classes we learned about many of the physiological changes and adaptations in the human body in preparation for the birth. We watched videos, practiced relaxation techniques, studied medical terminology so we knew what to expect when we walked in the doors of the hospital. As fast as it all went by, it was as intensive a class as I have ever taken in school. There was a huge difference in this class compared to our first birthing class. With Paul we had missed the signup for the full length class so we took the weekend “crash course” for birthing at Marietta Memorial Hospital. The couples in this class were different in that they seemed scared or unsure…and no one seemed to do a good job of consoling them. We took a tour of the birthing wing, which was nice and looked similar to some hotels I had stayed in. However when things got crackin’ in these rooms, lights came out of the ceiling, beds came apart, stirrups were flying…all of this is pretty intense for a first time set of parents. Our Bradley class was calming. It informed us, but didn’t try to scare us or overdramatize the situation. Yeah, obviously it was going to hurt…but women had been doing it for hundreds of year in exactly the same way, so just based on the track record we knew that it was an achievable goal. What I especially liked about the Bradley course was that it also informed us of the interventions that may be necessary for the birth, their implications, and when they were TRULY needed. I am not saying I walked away a trained medical professional…far from it…but I could at least hold an intelligent conversation/debate with our OB/GYN when needed.

It was through this class that I saw Elizabeth grow and develop such a laser like focus on birthing naturally that I simply knew it would work out this time. She studied her class book and other sources diligently, got involved with many of the Mama*ology members in other community activities, walked every day, drank gallons of water, and followed an (for the most part ) impeccable diet. Not only was this an obsession for her, but it became a way of life for our family. We all were focused on bringing Gideon into this world on our own terms and in as healthy a way as possible. Thus it was after a particularly unsettling meeting with out OB/GYN that Elizabeth approached me with the idea of having a home birth. You see it seems her care provider had basically told her, “Well we will humor you while you explore this natural birth thing, but on the day of will probably give you a C-section anyway.” To say I was enraged would be an understatement. I never set foot back in their office and I to this day have no intention of ever giving them business again. Elizabeth called me at work in tears, literally crying because no one in that office believed in her. We talked and I agreed that a home birth sounded like the best option for us, so we began assembling our birth team.

We first asked two doulas to attend our birth and expressed our desire to have a home birth to cut out the medical professionals that so callously wrote my wife (the Birth Warrior, remember) off. We of course approached Holly and Crysta, two of our new friends from Mama*ology to act as our doulas. It was Holly who suggested we then contact Donna Spellman, as our midwife. What a true blessing this group of ladies were to us. They all came to our home and began to provide prenatal care and check ups. Thats correct, they came to OUR home. We didn’t have to visit their office or wait in line. When they came, the focus was directly on Elizabeth and our new baby. The check ups were very personal and regularly lasted several hours just so everyone could get to know each other and feel completely comfortable. In between visits I sometimes would become concerned about the birth and some fears that I had, so much so that at one point I finally emailed the birth team and expressed my fear. You want to know what it was? Are you ready? My biggest fear wasn’t that something would happen to Elizabeth or the baby because I had come to peace with that aspect of it…the fear was that Elizabeth would be in a situation of compromise, and I would be completely powerless to help her. As the husband and father I felt it was my duty to protect my family, and in this one situation I would have absolutely no way of providing that protection. The birth team reassured me that while my sentiments were sweet, they were not the focus of the birth. It wasn’t my job to protect Elizabeth and the baby. This was all about them. It was a situation that, regardless of what other people say, they were completely in tune with and control of. I would not understand the gravity and truth to that statement until the day of the birth.

I can only explain my feeling toward our birth team as one of complete trust. They emanated experience, poise, and an overwhelming sense of calm. Between the three of them, they had seen hundreds of births and understood the process even more than I could imagine. We prepped the house, gathered supplies, and washed baby clothes. With each passing day, Elizabeth and I’s excitement rose as the due date loomed ever closer. Finally, about a week and a half before the birth, everything was ready. The house was clean, birth supplies gathered, and I had even built a ridiculously amazing (yet it turns out, unused) birthtub in our kitchen. Elizabeth continued to visit the OB/GYN down the street as we wanted to make sure to cover our bases with a backup in the event a hospital intervention was needed (however, rarely did she show up “unarmed” without one of our doulas in tow to make sure the doctors knew we meant business).

Days went by and the waiting seemed excruciating. Elizabeth went through stages of excitement and eventually sadness as it seemed to her as if the birth was taking forever to arrive. Then after a day in which she said she felt like she would be pregnant forever, the time came. She woke me up at 6am on a Sunday morning with a fresh pot of coffee brewing in the kitchen and a hushed “Nat, I think its time.” Needless to say, I got right up. She had apparently been laboring off and on through the night and had finally gotten up at 5am as she couldn’t sleep through contractions anymore. She let me sleep another hour as she knew I would need it later on. Looking back this seems funny to me because she is the one who needed rest. The birth team and I didn’t do a quarter of the work she would do within the next 24 hours, but she still felt the motherly need to look out for my well being.

We got up and had breakfast, watched some cartoons with Paul, and just walked around the house. Her contractions were hard and frequent, but it wasn’t until 7am that we alerted the birth team that today could be the day. Everyone was on standby, but stayed away from the house to give Elizabeth some time to labor on her own. This would help to keep the labor progressing, but also allowed us some time to just enjoy this exciting time in our little family’s life. We played with Paul and even talked to our parents on the phone between contractions (no one knew we were laboring yet). When Elizabeth could no longer walk through a contraction and was shedding a few tears each time, I finally said that I was going to call everyone. She agreed and the calvary arrived a short time later! The team came in and quickly set up shop, preparing laboring areas on our first floor, boiling water for instruments and the birth tub, and chatted with Elizabeth and I as they checked her and the baby out.

Our team was incessantly professional and at all times was focused on the health of Elizabeth and the baby. Elizabeth labored for 22 hours total that day. She was absolutely and without a doubt a complete warrior. Focused on the goal that she had prepared for months in advance, she called on seemingly every ounce of knowledge she had gleaned over that time period. She tried different positions, used breathing techniques, and at times simply clenched her teeth and bore the contractions. Never before have I witnessed such raw power from my beautiful and sometimes timid little wife. With each wave of contractions came a new level of pain oftentimes greater than the time before, but she seemed to almost welcome them as she would slowly draw in a breath and forcefully blow it out, her gaze focused on some distant point that none of us could see. She had to have been visualizing the birth as only she and the baby knew it would take place and was taking cues from the innate sense her body had regarding how the baby needed to be moved.

The birth team calmly watched Elizabeth move through the motions that only her body knew it needed. They encouraged her, observed her and the baby, and suggested positions when Elizabeth would ask for them. I want to say that I was able to be the calm and supportive husband that I needed to be. For the most part I was, however nothing could have prepared me for when Elizabeth was in transition stage (the stage of birth prior to pushing) leaning on my chest and looked directly in my eyes, tears streaming down her face. She said, “Nat help me.” And with those three little words, my defenses and steadfastness melted into goo. Anything else in the entire world I could and would have done for her at that time…however I was absolutely powerless in this particular situation. The birth team stepped in at this point and reassured Elizabeth that she could do this and that we would do all we could for her, but she was the one who would birth the baby that night. This reassurance not only helped Elizabeth get through transition, but it empowered her to become the woman that I have always known she was. In a time when I couldn’t be as strong as I needed to be, our doulas and midwife were complete rocks. They were the foundation we needed as support at that point and I can not imagine having gone through the night without them.

Elizabeth labored on for several more hours (pushing for nearly 5 ½ hours) and even when she had reached a point where her legs were so tired I wasnt sure she could stand up anymore, she continued to change positions and rock her hips to help the baby move into position. Finally, at 3:32am on Monday morning, Gideon Guthrie Miller was introduced to this world quite happily. The only crying going on in the room was mine as Gideon was slid up onto his mom’s stomach to meet her and I for the first time. He was alert and taking it all in and there was a sense of peace like no other that came over the room. Each person standing there, regardless of how many births they had witnessed were still in awe of the indescribable miracle of bringing another human being into this world. Gideon, Elizabeth and I got to know one another and eventually, when the sun was coming up a bit, called the grandparents, aunts, and uncles. It was an experience easily described by one word: Perfect. What Elizabeth and I experienced was some of the best if not THE best care I have ever witnessed. It was simply a group of women doing something they knew how to do intricately well. You certainly don’t need a medical license to do that. How many times do you think our birth team has checked in with us since the birth? EVERY day one of them has stopped by in person to make sure we are doing ok. How many messages have I left for our OB/GYN? Two. What have I heard back from them? Zilch, nada, nothing.

Through this experience I have had the privilege of knowing the awesome power and complete understanding that my wonderful wife has. I have witnessed the strength of women through all adversity and that God truly has a plan in all things. But most of all, I have learned exactly how important my family is to me. Sure its sad that we had to fight off doctors and essentially be shunned by the medical system in order to have a say over our child’s birth. Its sad that some of the reactions we got when I said we were having a home birth were of horror or disdain, as if our medical care had suddenly been relinquished to a few band aids and CPR cards stashed in our birth team members’ wallets. But the bond that we now share as a family and with our birth team cannot be described. Elizabeth, and all women like her, truly are Birth Warriors.

Most Americans think giving birth without medication is crazy and perhaps even a little barbaric. At the very least, most would probably say childbirth without painkillers ranks right up there with torture.  I used to believe that, too.  My first baby’s birth was certainly very painful, and I requested an epidural early on in the process.

While the pain relief from the epidural was excellent, I ended up feeling very detached from the experience. I felt like I was watching someone else give birth, which was a bit surreal and rather negative overall. Let’s just say I wasn’t keen to have any more babies and repeat the experience.

During my second pregnancy, I started really researching birth. My goal was to learn what I could do to make the actual process of giving birth a more positive event. I read anything and everything I could find about natural childbirth. The more I read about the risks of routine obstetric procedures, the more determined I was (barring complications) to have a non-medical birth experience. With the research on my side, I sought a care provider and birth setting that would not interfere with the birth process unless medically necessary. After carefully weighing my options, I decided to give birth at home with a supportive midwife.

But what about the pain? I knew I couldn’t have an epidural at home. Most natural childbirth techniques involve embracing birth pain as a good thing and learning how to cope with it. As a total pain wimp, I really wasn’t interested in that approach. Pain was one of my biggest fears! Surely there had to be some way to make birth more comfortable without drugs.

That’s when I found hypnosis.

At first I was skeptical. I mean, really, hypnosis? However, the hypnosis birth stories I read were nothing short of amazing, so I figured I’d give it a shot. While hypnotic childbirth may not be for everyone, I found it was perfect for me. I listened to Hypnobabies recordings for my daily practice sessions and looked forward to that relaxing half hour or so I spent learning my hypno-anesthesia skills. I slept better and felt confident, ready, and eager to give birth again. It was great!

My efforts were rewarded by a wonderful, easy, and blissfully comfortable unmedicated labor and birth.  I realized that birth isn’t just a means to an end. It’s a life-changing experience that stays with you forever. I was overjoyed to learn that I could have my cake and eat it, too. A healthy baby and a positive birth experience are not mutually exclusive! Hallelujah!

My second baby’s birth was so empowering and joyful that I felt inspired to help other women have better birth experiences, too. I’ve since started teaching Hypnobabies childbirth education and have been honored to help many other women learn how to give birth more easily and comfortably. Their birth stories and my own experiences giving birth with the aid of hypnosis have proven to me that natural childbirth doesn’t have to be excruciatingly painful.

Laura Lund is a certified Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis Instructor and founder of the Unmedicated Childbirth Advocacy Network (UCAN Birth). She lives in Provo, Utah with her husband and five daughters. She can be contacted via her website: www.BirthNaturally.org.

For more information on using hypnosis for childbirth and local Hypnobabies classes contact:
Amy Elliott, PhD, HCHI
Doctorate in Clinical Hypnotherapy/Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis Instructor at (740)525-6857 or log on to www.hypnobabiesmov.com