Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

HypnoBirthing Session One – Recap

by Kristen in fertility, home birth, hypnobirth, the mongan method, water birth

I know my blog is primarily Raw food centered, but the raw lifestyle can reach into so many other areas of life that are natural, beautiful, eco friendly, etc. It all fits, if you ask me. I also have many women writing to me that they are glad I’m sharing my personal journey with fertility and pregnancy, the things I’m experiencing, the things I’m learning. So, with that introduction…

On Sunday, we attended our first HypnoBirthing session in preparation for our future homebirth. HypnoBirthing is a special alternative to the traditional Lamaze and Bradley classes that many folks take. HypnoBirthing might sound a little “out there” to some, but it’s been pretty amazing so far. The basic premise of HypnoBirthing, according to HypnoBirthing.com, is that it’s a unique method of relaxed, natural childbirth education enhanced by self-hypnosis techniques. Sounds good to me. :)

Even though we’ve only had one session, my take is that it’s basically getting into a meditative, relaxed state during child birth, which can help the mom to better cope with it. I saw a few videos on YouTube and most women usually look like they’re having a nice, relaxed birth. In a number of cases, you wouldn’t even know they’re experiencing child birth. That probably sounds crazy to some people. On the other hand, there are some people who went through HypnoBirthing classes only to find that they couldn’t really use the techniques when it came to birthing time. I learned that one important thing is practice, practice, practice. The more I practice the HypnoBirthing techniques, the better my chances are that HypnoBirthing will be an awesome experience for me. Ongoing, daily listening of the cds is important, as well as reading the HypnoBirthing book about 4 times, attending all classes, and practicing breathing. There is more to it but I’m not that far into the course to describe it.

I read the HypnoBirthing book before I got pregnant, and I’ve been listening to the hypnobirthing relaxation and affirmation cds for many months now. They were instrumental in helping me relax for our fertility adventure with Mini-IVF. As far as I was concerned, this wasn’t going to be just a tool for birthing, I was eager to implement these elements to my whole life.

Our session on Sunday focused on a few things.

1) Language – there is a preferred HypnoBirthing language that should be used. For example: We say “surge” instead of contraction. We say “birth companion” instead of coach (for the husband or partner). We say “birthing time/month” instead of due date. We say “birth breathing” instead of pushing. We say “pressure/sensation/tightening” instead of pain or contractions. Personally, I really like the suggested words. I feel much more relaxed saying the word “surge or pressure” instead of contraction or pain. The HypnoBirthing language relaxes me and the medicalized language tenses me. The next step will be teaching this to the grandmas who will probably attend the homebirth.

2) “Emergency Room” vs “Healing Room” – These are not actual rooms, but rather they are states of mind. In life we should strive to only be in the emergency (stressed, high alert, tense) state about 2-5% of our lives at the most, during those rare instances that legitimately require a fight or flight response such as emergencies, etc. The rest of our time should be enjoying the healing room. :) Most likely, we all spend more than 2-5% in the emergency room, but being aware of this and making a concerted effort to increase the time in the healing room is a good start. When we’re in the healing room, our breathing is deep and relaxed, our digestive system is relaxed and running efficiently, and we feel good. When we’re in the emergency room, we’re tense, on alert, breathing is more labored, digestion is put on hold, etc.

This becomes important during child birth because if a woman is in the emergency room state of mind during this time, her cervix can tighten up, thereby making birthing more difficult and increasing the chances of “special circumstances.” (That’s more HypnoBirthing language… we say “special circumstances” instead of complications. Isn’t that much nicer? I think any mom who plans a home birth and ends up having to go to the hospital will be in a much softer state of mind if she considers it due to special circumstances, rather than complications.)

3) Limp Lucy (Mom) and Gorilla (Dad) – Our HypnoBirthing instructor, Sherry Gilbert, had two little stuffed animals that she used to represent the birthing parents. Mine was Limp Lucy, which was a soft white bear that had really limp and loose arms and legs. All I could think about when I saw her was, “Ahhhhh…” Limp Lucy is totally relaxed and demonstrates the state in which I should strive for child birth, and how I should feel and look when doing my Calming Breathing. Heck, I want to be Limp Lucy all the time. The birth companion, on the other hand, is a protective gorilla. Need I say more? My husband found this image from the following article and he forwarded it to me with the following caption: Picture of me at homebirth when pizza guy comes to the door (my husband also noted that he is the gorilla on the left, pizza guy on the right – lol).

4) Surrounding myself with positive birthing stories

Our HypnoBirthing instructor gave us each one of these pins. I love it! She explained the importance of hearing positive birthing stories… and how it can do more harm than good when people share their birthing horror stories. She said that as I grow in size and my pregnancy becomes more obvious, I might be surprised how some strangers will feel compelled to share their “not so great” stories, and by wearing this pin I might be able to shield myself from that.

My HypnoBirthing homework for the week:

1) Go to the “healing room” daily

2) Listen to rainbow relaxation track on the HypnoBirthing cd once a day

3) Listen to affirmation track on the HypnoBirthing cd once a day

4) Practice my “Calming Breathing” 5X/day

5) My husband and I are to each visualize the home birth independently. Then, we need to discuss it and compare visualizations. That will be fun!

Here are some neat statistics about homebirthing experiences.

Here is a good article on WebMD, Hypnosis in the Delivery Room

And… here is a quick video showing HypnoBirthing in action. I noticed when they edited the video, they actually used the word “contraction” – oops!

Have any of you used HypnoBirthing? What did you think?

Fertility Adventure Update – Monkey Is Back!

by Kristen in fresh embryo, hypnobirth, new hope fertility center

We had a successful transfer yesterday morning – how EXCITING!!! I’m on Cloud 9 now that I have my Monkey back. Some details of the procedure…

Of course, as usual with the staff at New Hope Fertility, they were amazing. The two nurses’ care I was under (Ann and Juany) were great. They took the time to answer my questions and I felt like I had my own cheerleading team. They were calm, professional, and thorough. I was shown a picture of our embryo (shown to the left) before the procedure and Ann said that our embryo was beautiful… and perfect (Yay!!! Having a great embryo is important). That meant a lot to me hearing an expert’s opinion. She even hugged the photo – how sweet.

While waiting in the pre-op waiting room with other ladies, I practiced my visualization techniques. I visualized Merlin (my imaginary friend who is helping to make my uterus nice and healthy) getting ready to greet our embryo and taking good care of Monkey, once Monkey arrived. I imagined my uterus nice and fluffy and a little sticky (so Monkey stays put) – kind of like cotton candy is. I practiced my calming deep breathing. And, I also used the time to work on hypnobirthing relaxation techniques I learned last month to enhance relaxation. It was great.

Then, they called me to the procedure room where they double checked my wrist band (name and medical record number) twice. They had me confirm my name on the petri dish. And, then the doctor came in to do the job. Legs in comfy stirrups, I laid back and relaxed, while he transfered Monkey into my uterus. Voila. That’s it. I had a 5 day old (6 days now) healthy growing embryo inside of me.

My instructions:

No sex :(

No baths :(

No hot tubs

No pools

Resume life as usual, but no heavy lifting :)

Get blood work done (pregnancy test) in one week! Only 1 week this time!

Next up for our plans… we’re driving home. It was suggested that flying might not be the best so we’re gearing up for a long trip home. My instructions are to stop every 2 hours to walk around, stretch my legs, etc. And, in general, don’t spend too much time in the car. Therefore, we’re making it a fun road trip that starts in Washington D.C. on Tuesday. Then, we’ll head to Charleston, South Carolina for a night. Then, to some place in Georgia for the night (don’t know how the flooding will affect where we stay yet). Then, we’ll visit my father-in-law in Pensacola, Florida for a couple of days. This is where we’ll get the blood test. Then, we’ll head to New Orleans. Then, off to Texas where I’ll stop for a visit outside of Beaumont to see my friend with horses, dogs, and monkeys. :) After that, I’m not sure of our route.

If anyone has any tips for foodie places along the way (organic? vegan friendly? raw?) please let us know.

Fertility Update – Hypnobirthing & My Imaginary Helper

by Kristen in fertility, hypnobirth, juicing, merlin, wizard

My good news to report is that for the first time in weeks, I feel really good and pretty much back to normal. My body is telling me that it’s on track and everything is healing. My miscarriage symptoms ceased yesterday (it was about a week long), the extra weight and toxins I was carrying around are going away, and overall, I just feel really good!

I know that I owe this in part to my organic diet (with plenty of fresh juice – see today’s pic), my plan of relaxation, husband-giving-massage, healing under the sun by day and under the moon by night, etc. But, I also owe this in part to hypnobirthing. Let me explain…

For those of you not up to date, here is my Fertility Adventure (The Full Story), My Update (when it started going downhill), My Response (Setbacks & Silver Linings), My Juicing Frenzy (healing, detoxing, restoring from fertility drugs and experiences).

So, here I am today… feeling wonderful. I did as promised and I wrote my birth plan (it’s at least down on paper and I can make minor changes as the months go by) and I’m belly deep in reading about vaccines (currently reading Dr. Sears’ book, The Vaccine Book).

One of the other things I had on my to-do list before getting pregnant, and for during the early weeks of pregnancy, was to start hypnobirthing classes (details on hypnobirthing here). My midwife and doula referred me to a lady named Sherry. I contacted her and she agreed that starting sooner than later was a great idea because I would learn useful visualization and meditation techniques that will help me right now… as I attempt another pregnancy with Mini-IVF. While we’re waiting for a class to start, she is working with us in a private situation and we had our first session on Sunday. It was glorious and I’m sure it’s one of the reasons I’m feeling wonderful.

Sherry taught me some proper breathing techniques of breathing through my nose for both inhaling and exhaling and the relaxed state of body that accompanies it. She gave me some pointers for visualizations… taking advantage of visualizing my healthy womb any chance I can get whether it’s waiting for the microwave to heat up my water or waiting in line at the post office. Taking time, even if it’s only 45 seconds to conjure up a delightfully lovely vision of having a pregnant belly or a calm home birth is very beneficial.

When I told her I was concerned that I’d have a hard time meditating intentionally, she suggested that I create a way to think about how my body is healing, if the healing itself is hard to imagine for me. For example, when I simply think of a healthy uterus, the vision is quick to come and go. I needed help in sustaining the picture in my mind. She offered that having an “imaginary” helper can facilitate this process. So, here it goes… don’t think I’m nuts – LOL – on the contrary, I’m having so much FUN with it! I’ve enlisted the help of Merlin. He’s a wizard and wears one of those wizard hats. Currently, he resides in my uterus and has been there since Sunday cleaning it up with his broom and magic wand. As I imagine him doing this, it helps me keep the vision in my mind and I have fun at the same time. Who knew that as an adult I could have an imaginary friend? Once he finishes tidying up my uterus, he’ll go to work on my blood, brain and all that good stuff in helping me prep my body for pregnancy. So… meet Merlin. (I bought a copy of this print so that I can hang him up in my office and always be reminded of my imaginary helper. I think he’s pretty bad-ass if I do say so myself.)