Settling In at the Birth Center or Hospital

You will make your trip to the hospital when your body tells you that your surges are getting closer, and you can sense that your cervix is opening nicely. You should tune in to your body as it will tell you when the time is right. If you are birthing at home, you will also need to tune in so that you can know when to call your midwife.

Prior to being admitted, you may first be seen in a triage room where your labor is assessed. In addition to taking your vital signs, the nurse will examine you to determine how your labor is progressing. Many factors are considered in triage: the length of time since membranes released, the degree to which your cervix is thinned, the number of centimeters your cervix has opened, the pattern of your surges and the overall conditions surrounding your labor.

If your membranes have released, you may want to consider not having a vaginal exam. If your membranes have not released, you may want to consider not having a vaginal exam that could cause the membranes to release early. Many mothers do not want to know the degree to which their cervix has opened, and they count on their body to tell them where they are in labor. You may ask that vaginal exams be kept to a minimum and that the degree of opening not be reported to you.

A mandatory twenty-minute strip will be obtained from the Electronic Fetal Monitor (EFM) while you are in triage. The EFM shows the Fetal Heart Rate (FHR) and the length, intensity and distance between your surges, and establishes a baseline for monitoring your baby’s heart rate. Unless there is indication of special circumstances, you won’t want to limit your mobility by being belted to the monitor continually. Intermittent monitoring, every half hour or so for a surge or two, can easily be done using the same monitors, and you will be free to move around. You will want to indicate this on your Birth Preference Sheets.

Once you are admitted and preliminary procedures are out of the way, your birthing companion may request additional pillows and set up the tape or CD player with your birthing music. Plan to take extra pillows from home in the event that the birthing center is fully occupied. Be sure to use pillowcases that can be clearly identified as yours so that you don’t leave them behind when you are discharged or moved.

Your Attending Nurse Companion

Unless your doctor or midwife is in the hospital for some reason, it is likely that the person attending you medically will be your labor and birthing nurse. The nurse’s visits to your room, and the monitoring of your baby’s heart rate and your vital signs, are an important part of your birthing care, not an intrusion upon it.

Request a nurse who is partial to natural birth, as the nurse who attends you will become an integral part of your birthing experience and, in effect, also acts as a birth companion. The warmth, care, support and encouragement that the companion nurse extends is one of the vivid recollections that a new mother carries with her as she leaves the hospital. These kindnesses remain a birth memory.

If you are birthing at home, your midwife will monitor your labor. Her assessments and your own sense of what is happening within your body will reveal to you the progress of your labor.

Once it appears that the initial hospital admitting procedure is complete, request that your nurse spend a couple of minutes with you to go over your Birth Preference Sheets. Your birth companion can attach the door sign, a welcome acknowledgment to the staff.

There is no need for you to relinquish your clothing for the flimsy, unattractive johnnies that are standard hospital issue unless you want to. These johnnies, in addition to causing you to look like a medically needy patient, also restrict your ability to move around and to wander or walk around the hospital, or even on the grounds.

Perinatal Bonding Through Labor

Throughout labor and birthing, you, your birth companion and your baby will be engaged in a closeness and bonding so evident that health caregivers are almost hesitant to carry out necessary monitoring for fear of intruding on the serenity of the moment. Hospital staff is in awe as they observe you, fully calm and peaceful, responding to the touch and the voice of the birth companion as he or she sits at your side and guides you through each uterine wave. There is no doubt on the part of anyone who witnesses HypnoBirthing that the birth companion is an integral part of this wonderful experience. It is he or she who will be the person to take the lead in assuring that the atmosphere of the birthing room is dim, calm and serene. Your companion will be the advocate and spokesperson for your family, ensuring that you experience the safe, satisfying birthing that you expect.

Your companion will provide any number of supportive and comforting tasks. Most helpful are the soft, whispered prompts he gives as you and the baby move through each surge and wave of labor. The birth companion will also keep you informed about labor hallmarks. It is a form of bonding and love that may surface as it never has before.

If you have a labor companion with you, many of the tasks that are comforting during labor will be quietly handled by her in the background. Your partner is free to devote his or her time entirely to you, and you will be aware only of how the three of you—mother, baby and birth companion—are bonding and experiencing birth together.

One of the hallmarks of a progressing labor is that your body heat begins to rise sometime during the thinning and opening phase of labor. Your birth companion will be there to gently wipe your forehead, neck and shoulders with a cool and refreshing moist cloth that has been surreptitiously provided by the labor companion, if you have one. The birth companion will see that you are comfortable, with an adequate number of pillows beneath your head, back or legs. Looking after your needs for drinks or snacks, turning the birthing music tape, seeing that there are no unnecessary bright lights in the room, reminding you to change position from time to time and to get up and go to the bathroom are things that the birth companion, in the absence of a labor companion, will do.

High on the list of the kindnesses that the companion brings to the birthing room is the gift of touch. The soft application of Light Touch Massage, simulating the flow of gentle energy from the hand and arm through Glove Relaxation, all the while expressing love and encouragement are among the welcome ways in which the partner participates. The companion is most valuable in just “being there” with you and for you, sharing in this once-in-a-lifetime event.

The mood of the birthing room will depend mostly on your mood and your wishes. Your birth companion will be sensitive to your needs and follow your lead. If you prefer to be fully conversant between surges, less attention will need to be paid to keeping birthing-room activities subdued. The birth companion should be sure that trivial conversation is avoided unless you initiate it.

If you use Sleep Breathing and stay in relaxation between surges, your companion will request that others keep voices soft, and connect or disconnect apparatus quietly and with a minimum of flurry. As the hospital staff develops a sense of your birthing style, you will find them more than helpful. You may even find that staff members are in awe and pleased for the opportunity to be a part of your birthing.