At a recent birth, I found myself using a great visualization/hypno birth technique, I did not even know I knew. This woman was a health care professional and wanted a home birth because she was all to aware of what she did not want in her birth, form the system here in Spain. She came to us very open about her self and her sexual history which consisted of strong abuse issues. She had also battled anorexia and come through the other side. She was also very hones in telling us that she had never experienced orgasm before and felt that this along with her history could pose a problem to her being able to open and birth her baby.
I have to say, her self knowledge, courage and willingness to share this were awe inspiring. She took on a regime of alternative health care supports to aid her journey through her pregnancy and to ready her self for labor and birth. The work she did over the subsequent weeks of her pregnancy was amazing and though she went 6 days over 42 weeks, she was commuted to birthing well. I have to say that right up until the end, she strove to stay open and positive, even if she had to be induced, she knew in her self she had transformed many things in her life which would aid her in being the mother she wanted to be.
But after some very good acupuncture and an aromatherapy massage from myself, she began her labor. This was to be a long one for us all, 35 hours in total, but she did amazingly well. In the final 2 hours of her labor she got stuck. Exhausted and not believing she could continue, she was at 7cm dilatation and wanted to give in. She begged for sleep but was afraid to allow her body to rest, because her contractions were coming strong and at 2 to 3 min intervals. She was terrified of waking up already contracting and being unable to cope with the contraction at that point.
We, her support system, my colleague, myself, her sister and husband were also very tired. But something in me had decided that we had come this far and I really did believe she could do it if she could only disconnect and rest between contractions. Baby was coping well with labor and her body was working well, it was her mind that was giving up. My colleague told our client that when ever she wanted we would transfer to hospital so she could have pain relief and rest, but she declined. I told my colleague to get some rest and our clients sister. I made our client and her husband comfortable on the floor, where she wanted to be and for the following 2 hours I sat beside her, with her hand in mine and talked her through each contraction.
I told her she could sleep and that each time I saw she was beginning a contraction I would help her through it. I told her she was not alone and that I believed in her. I told her to imagine her self in the ocean. I said that the ocean was calm and safe and that the shore was not far, but to get there she would need to allow the huge waves to carry her there. I explained that her contractions where the waves that would open the last part of her cervix and that she only needed to let go and they would do their work, she did not have to do anything else. Her contractions would carry her to the end of her labor and birth of her baby.
She began to relax and rest and fell into a deep sleep. Then at the start of each contraction she would open her eyes, with panic, I would tell her to let go, that what she was feeling was normal and that she was safe and then I would talk to her about the wave, building and becoming more and more intense. At times the waves were massive and she would squeeze my hand and I would assure her she was safe, she would then relax and let her body go, the wave would break and the contraction would fade away. She would then fall into a deep sleep. We did this every 2 to 3 min for 2 hours and then she began pushing. Everyone woke up and my colleague did an exam to assure no cervix was left. She had dilated to full and baby was low and ready to come. She pushed for 20 min and delivered her beautiful boy. We all cried because we all knew how hard she worked to deliver this baby.
As I was leaving here home I noticed she had photos of Japanese waves next to her framed scan photos.
Crazy
The Barcelona Midwife 