It was pure bliss

The Affirmations are from the HypnoBirthing® Institute and have been used with permission from Marie Mongan.

Here is our story…

Our family would like to share the great news that Clark Douglas Arthur arrived Thursday, March 20th at 1:45am at the time of the Spring Vernal Equinox. He was received into the hands of his mother and father. Clark weighed 7.2lbs and was 19” long at birth.

Fully expecting to carry our baby beyond 40 weeks, Todd and I were both very surprised when my membranes released at 11:45pm on the evening of March 19th.

I am prepared to calmly meet whatever turn my birthing may take…
I had found out earlier that day that I had tested positive for Group B Strep but did not have the antibiotics from my Dr. for the midwife to administer. At midnight we decided to call my midwife and let her know that my membranes had released but surges had not yet begun. Surges began while we were talking so we decided that once my sister Renee arrived we would call the midwife back and she could come and check things out. If my labour were progressing slowly we would go to the hospital for antibiotics and if things were moving along I preferred to stay home and forgo the antibiotics.

I am relaxed and happy that my baby is finally coming to me…
We were overjoyed to realize that we would be meeting our baby in a few hours (throughout my pregnancy I had focused on a labour of about 4 hours).
Todd went downstairs to begin preparing the birthing pool and I decided to relax in bed listening to the Affirmations (Hypnobirthing) while I waited for my sister to arrive.

I breathe up slowly with each surge of my body…
As I lay in bed relaxing our 3-year-old, Julia, woke up and climbed into bed with me. It felt so good to have her snuggled up to my body as I relaxed. What an amazing feeling to know that each surge was bringing her new sibling closer to us. It hardly seemed an hour had passed when my sister arrived. She found Julia and me in the bathroom.

I determine how my birth energy is experienced…
On the way from the bathroom to the bedroom I had 3 surges, yet it didn’t occur to me that things were really moving along as I was talking easily, only to pause and go within my birthing body during each surge. It felt so good to sway my hips and rock my baby through the surges as it moved the energy through my entire body. Renee and Julia went downstairs to help Todd.

I release my birthing to my baby and my body…
It was now about 1:20am and the surges were feeling stronger with more pressure. I was still very relaxed but felt it was time to get in the water. Much to my disappointment when I went downstairs I found the tub only half full. I trudged to the bathroom thinking, “Great, now I have to wait to go in the water…what will I do with myself in the meantime?” Luckily my baby and body had other plans. As I sat on the toilet I felt that amazing shift in my surges and an involuntary grunt escaped my lips. I smiled because I knew my baby must have also thought, “Why wait for the tub now?”

I am confident; I am safe; I am secure…
I returned to the family room to tell Todd that I felt the urge to breathe down was coming and that he should call the midwife. He then helped me upstairs to our bed as I told him, “Our baby is coming out now!”

I trust my baby and my body to know what to do…
In light of the realization that the midwives would not get there in time, I trusted that this was my baby’s choice and my baby must know what he was doing! I reclined on the bed in a lateral position and breathed deeply while Todd ran downstairs to get the birth supplies.

I put all fear aside as I prepare for the birth of my baby…
The final moments of the birth of our second daughter, Julia, were quite traumatic as the OB panicked and gave me a rather nasty episiotomy; this was very distressing to me as the birth of our first HypnoBirthing® daughter was so calm, gentle and my perineum remained intact. Throughout this pregnancy I focused on having an intact perineum and knew that in order to do that I had to believe in my body and allow it to gently open. The fear momentarily set in but I recalled Nancy Wainer telling me at the HypnoBirthing® Conclave to give birth in a lateral position and give lots of support to my perineum. (Thank you Nancy!)

My baby gently moves through the birth path in its journey…
I could feel the baby moving down and asked Todd to tell me what he saw during the next surge and he said “the head”. I then asked him to support my perineum and be prepared to support the baby’s head as I thought it would emerge with the next surge. I worked very hard to detach my mind from my birthing body and allow only the reflex of my body to move my baby down and out. I was in absolute awe at the strength of my birthing muscles as with the next surge I felt my baby’s head emerge when Todd applied some pressure to my perineum. Todd asked me what to do next and I asked him to continue to support the head and guide and support the shoulders, as they would come out with the next surge. As he did this I took over supporting my perineum and as he supported our baby’s head and shoulders, a sweet little bottom dropped into my hand!

I welcome my baby with happiness and joy…
This affirmation obviously really struck me, as I was so overjoyed at seeing our baby. I began to gush warm welcomes to our little boy with so much excitement I woke Olivia up! Olivia ran down the hall and Julia ran up the stairs and both jumped on the bed to meet our baby. For the first 20 minutes of Clark’s life his parents and sisters surrounded him. We all told him how happy we were he was here and how much we loved him. This was the most magical moment I have ever experienced with my family. There was no one there but us to just melt together as a family. It was pure bliss. So much so, that as my sister looked on she noticed that Clark, although only moments old appeared to be grinning as he drank in the outpouring of love being given to him.

My baby emerges; my blood vessels close to the appropriate degree…
When the midwives arrived 20 minutes later they were amazed at how calm we were. Our baby was perfect. They could not get over that his head had no molding and I told them that I allowed him to emerge on his own. They were in a bit of a hurry to get the placenta out and I was apparently being “resistant” but I did not want cord traction. I wondered what the hurry was; it was then that the back up midwife checked to find almost no bleeding. They relaxed a bit and told me I could “try” to birth the placenta on my own. I decided to get up and squat at the side of the bed to do this. The placenta birthed with only 4 drops of blood and they were both amazed…I told them about the affirmation.

After only an hour and half of surges we had the most incredible birthing experience ever! We had planned on our photographer being there to film it and take pictures for the HypnoBirthing® Institute but everything happened so fast that got missed!

I feel so lucky to have had three awesome HypnoBirths and each so different, one calm gentle hospital birth with a 6.5 hour labour, one induced hospital birth in 3.5 hours that really tested my HypnoBirthing® techniques and finally a beautiful homebirth surrounded by only those I love most in the world!

Darcy Arthur