Our Birth Story

Hi Ashley, Care & The San Diego HypnoBirthing Team!

My husband and I took your class at the Birth Education Center this past April/May.

We wanted to send you a little update regarding the birth of our daughter this June. And also thank you! Your class was absolutely essential to our pregnancy and birth experience. We had an overwhelmingly positive unmedicated hypnobirth at Pomona Valley Hospital. We felt so prepared to navigate the hospital setting, largely due to your class.

A brief recap of my birth experience… I had three days of on and off prodromal labor starting Monday the week our daughter was born. For at least a few hours every day, my contractions would be about 10 minutes apart and then peter out. It was very frustrating, but we kept busy and tried to ignore them. Finally, on Thursday morning, my water broke at 5 a.m. It was a huge splash and really surprised us. Contractions started about an hour later and were 8 to 10 minutes apart for about 4 hours. I got into the shower around 10 a.m. and everything really sped up. I went from 8 minutes to 5 minutes and then 3 minutes apart lasting over a minute within an hour.

We labored at home for about 7 hours and decided to head to the hospital after I started throwing up (haha, not fun). When we got to the hospital I also threw up in the lobby… haha…

We really credit our good experience in the hospital to the LIMITED time we spent there. The majority of labor was spent in the comfort of our home.

At triage, they determined I was 5 centimeter dilated. I thought this meant I had a LONG time to go and was a little annoyed. At this time contractions were roughly 2 minutes apart and a minute long. By the time we got to our room our doula, Whitney had joined us (we FULLY believe everyone needs a doula! I couldn’t have done it without her).

I was pretty much trying to tap out at this point, thinking I had a long way to go I kept telling Jeff and Whitney, “I’m so sorry. I thought I could do it, but I can’t…” Whitney had moved me into the shower at this point and assured me I was going through transition but I didn’t believe her.

After being in the room for about 30 minutes our L&D nurse realized she hadn’t hooked up the monitors to check the baby’s heart rate. They had me move from the shower to the bed to get those on. Around this time, my doula asked if I felt pushy and I did…I thought I shouldn’t feel that because I was only 5 centimeters open. So they decided to check me again, I consented but totally thought it was pointless because they’d JUST checked me.

In turned out I was FULLY complete. I went from 5 centimeters to 10 in 30 minutes. Lol… It was wild.

And so… Piper was born on Thursday, June 13th (her actual due date! lol) at 4 p.m. sharp. She was born healthy, VERY alert and did not cry.

We also lucked out and happened to get an amazing L&D nurse who LOVES natural/unmedicated labor. She immediately applied pressure to my back when I got into the room.

In all, it was exactly 11 hours with about 5 hours of active labor. I was at the hospital for only three hours before she was born. They hadn’t even fully admitted me, I was signing the consent papers with Piper on my chest. Haha.

It was a seriously wonderful experience.

Thank you so so much. Your class was critical to our happy experience and we tell everyone we know to take it!!

Love, Kerri & Jeff

For more information on Hypnobirthing Classes…