The Hypnobabies Home Birth of Lars Teodor

My second birth experience is the inspiration for my work,

one of the loves of life – supporting you. Here you have it: Part 1 of 3 of the birth of Lars Teodor.

We studied profylax

(a very popular pain management techinque in Sweden) for our first birth.

When we became pregnant the second time I knew there had to be something I had missed the first around.

I knew I could birth undisturbed.

I found and studied Hypnobabies.

Lars Teodor was born September 6th 2010, at 9.58 pm.

I use Hypnobabies terminology in this story and I refer to Hypnobabies soundtracks.

Key:

HB MW- homebirth midwife

PN MW- prenatal midwife

DDC- due date club (a forum of moms due at the same time)

Sunday September 5th we awoke to a summery morning

and decided to drive the hour into Stockholm to the aquarium, thinking ”baby won’t come if we stay around the house”. We found parking and started the rather long but beautiful walk from the car to the aquarium.

My birthing waves started immediately but did not inhibit my walking. I said to my husband that both we and Helena (HB MW) have hour drives so it will time perfectly if this is it, but that I hoped we didn’t have to pay admission just to turn around again.

The waves were mild but it felt good to sit in front of the big tank, relax and just watch the fish go by.

We ate lunch at the aquarium’s cafe overlooking Stockholm, watching boats go by. I felt so happy and peaceful, the waves stopped all together and I enjoyed a great slice of Pecan Cheesecake.

During the car ride home I listened to my Pregnancy Affirmations and had two waves that hour. They picked up once we were home and we started timing them at 6.20 pm. They were 2 to 20 minutes apart and 40 seconds to 2 minutes long. There was no pattern but this was a lot of action for me.

Our first born went down to sleep and I sent a message to my midwives to say, ”tonight is not impossible”.

An immense sadness

As I got into the shower that evening I looked at my belly and thought, ”this is it”. An immense sadness washed over me.

The beginning of my pregnancy was difficult. The ”why am I doing this?” kind of difficult, but these last three weeks – feeling good, home from work, connecting to the baby in my belly, having time for me, energy for our firstborn and my husband (despite the mood swings) – it had been luxurious and it was coming to an end.

The future was unknown. Another wave came and I thought about how saying ”good-bye” to my belly meant saying ”hello” to my baby. I quickly indulged in my right to to be sad that something nice was ending, smiled toward the future and got happily in under the calming hot water.

At about 11 pm I went to bed. I listened to the Fear Release track and then to the Birthing Affirmations. I must have fallen asleep towards the end of the affirmations.

Monday September 6th

I woke up to a wave at 1.30 am after about an hours sleep. I went downstairs at 2 am and posted at our DDC. Between 2.30 and 3 am my waves increased and after some good advice from the ladies at MDC (mothering dot com), I called Helena (my HB MW) just to let her know what was going on.

She said it sounded like things were progressing. I said, yes, but that my waves were mild, I felt good, that I was eating some cereal and was going to try to rest. She thought this sounded good and I was to keep her posted.

My husband heard me on the phone and came down to check on me. We went back to bed, I listened to Deepening and fell asleep after that. I woke up to waves a few times between 6 and 8.30, my husband called in to work and when our firstborn woke up we went down for breakfast.

To be continued in The Hypnobabies Home Birth of Lars Teodor Part 2 of 3.