Reflections on Liliana's Birthday

Hello Dear Ones!!! 

In the blog before this I recounted the day that Liliana was born. I just want to offer a few reflections on birth, her birthday in particular, and the hypnobabies methodology I learned for birthing. It is probably helpful for you to read the birth story first before reading this one!!! 

http://packardjoeandem.blogspot.com/2011/08/liliana-joys-birth-story.html

FIVE things:

Firstly, the last 3 or so weeks of my pregnancy I’d visualized my birth and in it I awoke with pressure waves early in the morning so that I could labor in the quiet and dark for a while, arrived at the birth center 7 or 8 centimeters dilated, and had our baby before 8 pm. In real life, I awoke at 5:00 am with pressure waves, labored at home for ten hours, arriving at the birth center only three hours before our baby was born. I never had a single internal exam because I progressed so steadily and our baby was right there when my body started pushing. I only pushed for 45 minutes. By 8 pm I had birthed our beautiful baby and was enjoying a glass of champagne! It was simply incredible. The human mind is so beautiful and so powerfully equipped to do amazing things. I think that women need to have more confidence in their ability to achieve beautiful, peaceful births.

Secondly: I took the posterior challenge (the challenge to ensure Liliana was in a perfect position to be born) very seriously and spent weeks ensuring that our little one was anterior. Posterior babies often result in long labors and lots of back pain. This challenge meant hardly ever leaning back in a comfy chair and lots of hands and knees time but it was SO WORTH IT! I HIGHLY recommend this. Check out www.spinningbabies.com for more information :)

Thirdly, even though I didn’t use the hypnobabies tools like I’d expected I would (didn’t use the finger drop and quickly lost interest in the recordings as I started concentrating more), the biggest thing hypnobabies gave me was the mental conditioning to allow my body to do what it knew how to do and to be unafraid. Moreover, it taught me how to relax so effectively, and direct that relaxation through breathing, that I almost didn’t need to actively use the tools as it came naturally to me after so many months of practice. I fully believe that my body worked so efficiently because I knew how to take my mind out of the process and surrender control through relaxation.

Fourthly: I was waiting for the moment where I'd think that I needed pain relief or that I couldn't cope. But, it never came! I was so well equipped with other methods of relaxing, and I so thoroughly believed that my body was capable of doing what it needed to, that I never felt like I needed intervention.This is not to say that all intervention is bad, I just want to say that an intervention free birth is totally possible and need not be traumatizing!

Finally, I had the BEST birth team ever and I hope every woman is as lucky as me to be surrounded by such a team. My husband was my primary support, and he was supported by my mom and my little sister Anna. I felt cherished, treasured, and safe the entire time. I think this helped me to never panic or feel out of control. Consequently, experiencing birth was not scary for my 9 year old sister. We often offered to her the option to leave the room if it was too much. However, she never felt the need to! Society has gone away from birth and death being something that isn't scary, that is natural, and a family event. However, I don't think we need to view these things as scary, and it gives me so much joy that now my little sister has been able to witness the miracle of childbirth and the utter joy of welcoming a new baby into the world.

 I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect birthday for our sweet Liliana!!!

Oh how we love you, Liliana JOY!

PS: stay tuned, because Joe is going to write his version of Liliana's birthday soon :) 

Love from the land of Oz, XOXO