Rain's Birth Story

My husband and I were due for our first baby in January 2002. We were, for the most part, newlyweds and very excited.

During my entire pregnancy I noticed all the negative images about labor on television, in movies and from society. I was getting really sick of women telling me, "Oh, it's going to hurt so much!" or "You are getting an epidural, right? You won't survive without it!" If I was going in for major heart surgery, would others be so quick to tell me how much it's going to hurt? This really made me mad so I was bound and determined to prove everyone wrong.

I started to read about hypnobirthing, did a lot of research on it, and realized that it really made sense. Basically, the idea is to be as relaxed as possible, under self-hypnosis. The more you are relaxed, the better your body can give birth as it was meant to. I learned as much as I could on my own since I couldn't afford the classes. I got the video and audio tapes and the book and practiced until the day I gave birth.

On that day, I had 21 hours of contractions, and 19 of those hours they were all two to three minutes apart. I breathed very slowly and controlled through my nose only. I used visualization to help relax and my husband also helped me and was a integral part. I thought that the only hard part was the last half hour when I wasn't supposed to push. Other than that, I can honestly say that nothing really hurt about labor. Once they told me I could push, it felt great. I never screamed or swore at my husband. Sweat wasn't streaming down my face and there was not a panicky nerve in my body. Piano music played the entire time. Rain's birth was very surreal. The room was dim and very calm. In what seemed to be a very short time for me, Rain was born.

Without drugs or needles, pain or panic, I delivered a beautiful baby girl at 2:03 in the morning. I love telling people about my story. Next time, I'm taking the local hypnobirthing classes to get even deeper into hypnosis. I can't wait to do it all over again.