Wendy’s FIRST birth’s – Birth Discovery

“When you change the way you view birth, the way you birth will change”. ~ Marie Mongan, the founder of HypnoBirthing®

WENDY’S FIRST HYPNOBIRTHING STORY

“Thank you, Yen! Your prenatal classes were very helpful especially the last few days as I got thrown into breastfeeding at 2-hour intervals. I was flipping through your notes on all the crying cures and how to latch etc. Fortunately, Lila latched quite well and has been quite a calm baby. At least, when she cries, we understand why.” ~ Wendy Chua, first time mother

I Felt More Like Pressure Than Pain

My birth didn’t go as planned. I was feeling more Braxton contractions towards Sunday when I was due to be admitted at night for the inducement. I knew my cervix was softening and I was closed but may have needed that extra trigger. They gave me prostaglandins to soften the cervix at midnight. By 3.00 am, I started having labour contractions. By 8.00 am, it was at 2 minutes interval and quite intense. But I was only 2cm dilated. I was still managing the contractions quite well in the ward, feeling them more like pressure than pain.But when I went down to the delivery suite, things quickly got out of my control. They got me strapped down again with the heartbeat monitor, take a laxative to clear my bowels and blood pressure reading etc. And of course all the questions about pain level despite our birth plan stating not to ask that. I had to negotiate at every step asking when can I have the birth ball, when can I get off the bed because lying down made the contractions worse.

Pitocin Stress Me Up

My Doctor wanted to proceed to the next step which was breaking the waterbag and giving me the Pitocin drip and she did that. I guess the stress built up and at a certain moment, the contractions visibly went from pressure to pain. And it was very difficult to go back to relaxing and breathing it away. Also, with it being so intense at 2 minutes interval and the doctor estimated I still needed 8 hours to dilate, I opted for the epidural. I also slept little and was mentally exhausted to manage the contractions.