The beauty of birth is that it is unique for each woman in both vision and actuality. My intentions were to have a natural childbirth. To support this in manifesting, I saw Nancy Friedrich during my pregnancy, a mid-wife of almost 20 years, who practices therapeutic imagery and hypnotherapy for support. We worked on visualizing my ideal birth and healing any of my personal blockages that may get in the way during labor. I am grateful I had that preparation, as one week before I was due, the doctors said I had preeclampsia (a life threatening disorder that can occur in the late stages of pregnancy) and that I must go immediately to the hospital to be induced!
We were stunned, my husband Alan and I found ourselves blindly following directions. After a series of tests were run I was sent home for 24 hours of bed rest. We returned to the doctor on Friday (11:00am). I was hoping that the holistic remedies I had implemented would calm my high blood pressure and balance the protein in my urine (all signs of the preeclampsia), but they had not. Again, I was ordered to the hospital.
In complete denial and shock, I knew there was no way I would agree to be induced with drugs before my baby was ready to come into the world. First, I went home to retrieve my things for the hospital, meet my husband and do some research on preeclampsia. On the 30-minute drive from the doctor’s office to our home, I had time to digest the news. After crying, screaming and swearing, a calm settled over me. I dialogued with my unborn child and asked a really big favor: “Are you willing to come onto this planet a few days early? Because if we can work together, we can still do this our way…naturally.” Something stirred inside of me and I knew that everything would be okay.
We arrived at the hospital armed with herbs (recommended by the amazing Aunty Tina), my essential oils, Alan’s acupuncture needles and one powerful intention: We would have the natural birth we had envisioned for 9 months. The hospital staff, while skeptical, were very accommodating in allowing us to do Acupuncture in the hospital. While we had cleared this beforehand with the hospital (thinking my husband would be administering it for pain relief), it was met with a raised eyebrow and a firm warning that it would not do anything to progress my labor. After our first Acupuncture treatment they administered Cervidil (8:00pm), a hormone that softens the cervix. Routinely they leave it in for twelve hours and told me not to expect to become more than one centimeter dilated by the morning. My husband and I exchanged looks and said nothing…we knew there was a possibility they were wrong, they did not know what we knew.
Earlier that Friday morning while at the doctor’s office I was not effaced, dilated or having any contractions. By the time I reached the hospital (6:00pm) I registered as having contractions. This was before any herbal remedy or acupuncture. My intention was the only thing that had been activated at this point.
