Testimonies

Struggle

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through the little hole at the end.

Eventually, the butterfly stopped making progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. The man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, but it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If nature allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. And we could never fly...

Author Unknown

Deborah!
Just wanted to say thanks again for the excellent experience we had during hypnobirthing. Although labor was really long for me and got to be a bit more painful than I wanted to handle (I did eventually get the epidural), the hypnobirthing was an invaluable tool and I could not be happier that we chose that as our birthing preparation. It really did eliminate our fears about birthing and I ended up really looking forward to the process of bringing Jack into the world. The breathing and relaxation techniques really kept me grounded and helped me breathe through all the stages of delivery--epidural or not. I had the most wonderful delivery experience and it could not have been more positive! Thanks again for all you did to help prepare us--it was perfect.

Jen

Hi yoga moms,

I wanted to share the news of the birth of little Melina Azul on Friday.
While it wasn't the birth we'd planned it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life and worked out beautifully.

We had a hypnoBirth for the first 18 or so hours (this after my water
Breaking), but my contractions were still 7-8 min apart. The good but surprising news was that I was already 8cm dilated. Even so, with the long contraction interval the doctor said without the aid of Pitocin it would likely go on for another 18+ hours. I was exhausted and excited about seeing my little one, and decided with great clarity that the best thing for us would be to start the Pitocin drip and also get an epidural. (I remembered Jen saying how it allowed her to be so present.) I flew through the remaining labor and by the time they turned the epidural down for "pushing" I was so excited to reach the finish line that the intensity of the final three hours barely phased me.

I hope you all are well and look forward to seeing you as soon as we're ready to be out and about.

Lynn

Deborah
I just wanted to write you to thank you for your guidance and teaching-- I really got a lot out of being in your class, and I've been recommending it to several others. Your teaching came in so handy, and Miss Linda, the midwife who delivered me, and several L&D nurses commented on how good my instincts with breathing & positions were, and how I was able to sustain pushing and hold a position through a whole contraction at the very end.

My labor was long (over 40 hours) and ended up not going as I had hoped (I had to have an epidural because I stalled out at 8.5cm for 10 hours with terrible back labor, and Edda's head wasn't progressing down and I still wasn't fully dilated), but initially I was progressing really well (1 cm/hr.), walking around the hospital, etc. The epidural was actually OK in the end, because it let me sleep for 3 hours and it wore off in time for me to feel contractions and push for the last 2.5 hrs. Anyway, I was so grateful to have The practice in breathing, stretching, squatting, and just the confidence that I could trust my body and we'd get through this... so thank you very very much! I'll definitely be back in your class when we have another kid, and in the meantime, I may try to come to your restorative class sometime.

Thanks again, and all the best,
Jennifer

Hi Hypnobirthers!
We welcomed our baby Lilah Celeste Wold on 11/4/2007. She was 7 lbs 13 oz and 20 inches long -- and about 10 days past her guesstimate due date. Has anyone else from our class group delivered yet?

The whole labor process was really amazing -- Thomas was a great birth companion, we read the affirmations and scripts. Labor had to be induced because of my level of amniotic fluid, but the hypnobirthing training made us feel really confident in sticking to as natural a birth plan as possible -- so we insisted on no pitocin. They gave me a prostaglandin to dilate the cervix and that ended up starting my surges -- I swear it was also the deep relaxation and visualization I did during that period that made things go so well. I really deeply visualized opening the birth passage and having the baby move down -- I also repeatedly listened to the Rainbow Relaxation on my ipod during the whole process. This really helped me tune out the medical messages and stay really anchored to the affirmations. Thomas also kept me calm, saying the blocked out the medical messages and said, "This is natural, this is happening the right way, the body knows what to do, and the baby knows what to do," and it really worked. So, I was still able to have a natural, normal, unmedicated vaginal delivery.

FYI: I used the rainbow relaxation to lower my bloodpressure a couple of different times during the labor when the medical team thought it was too high. I would just pop on my headphones and my bloodpressure would drop 20 points. Literally.

I thought you would like to know that the OB who did the delivery said, "You must have taken some great classes," and that he couldn't remember seeing a couple who had so much "control and calm." And, he also said he doesn't see women so calm at the point of pushing without an epidural!

 I thought that was like a quote out of the Hypnobirthing book, and I really wanted to share it with all of you as another affirmation -- the deep relaxation and deepening were very, very powerful for us.

I wish you all the best!

Best,
Alicia & Thomas & Lilah

Hi Deborah!

Everyone should do hypnobirthing! We've become huge advocates.

Thank you again for the class. Hypnobirthing and your teaching made us both feel really secure and in control and relaxed during delivery. It was really incredible. Also, after delivery everyone said I looked really fresh and relaxed -- and I had been up for the better part of 36 hours! But I had been doing deep relaxation in between each surge so it really conserved my energy.

Best regards!
Alicia & Thomas & Lilah

hello
Just wanted to give you all a heads up. Kirk and I wont be able to make this Friday's hypno class. I went into premature labor, last Friday, after our last class. We spent all night and into Saturday day in the hospital with surges 2 minutes apart for hours.

It was intense, and I must say the breathing and techniques were great! I honestly was not in pain at all, it was an unsettling feeling thinking the process was starting in my 34th week, but they said it was more dangerous to stop it than to deliver her a few weeks early. Finally the intensity of the surges stopped and I was able to come home. But I have been on bed rest since. They want me to make it to 37 weeks, so I have a week and half more of this very boring, non productive time in bed.

The doctors and nurses laughed when I casually walked into the labor and delivery room at 11:30pm. They did not believe I was having such intense surges with such consistent rhythm, and was not showing any signs of discomfort or distress. Once I was hooked up to the monitor, to. Of course, I told them about Hypno birthing classes, and how we had just left the last one only 3 hours ago. They were all very impressed. us, but he recited them from memory, and was very helpful in keeping me calm and relaxed, way into the early morning hours.

We made copies of the music CD, and I will mail them to you all this week. I have everyone address but Mimi's, since we were going to deliver her the cd in class. Mimi, please send your address along, or if you would prefer, I can mail your copy to Deborah.

Good luck! We will miss the last session of practice all together, its been fun! Take care and keep me posted as to your deliveries....I am anxious to hear them all! Hopefully I can pass along another calming update of our little girls delivery in a short while!

Take care~
Amena and Kirk

Hi All,

Thanks for sharing your stories. I just wanted to thank Deborah for the class. The relaxation excercises really helped during the labor.I also showed up at the hospital at 7 cm dilated so we were only there for about 5 hours before he was born(I labored at home for about 7 hours first and the pain was very manageable with breathing and then at the end I started doing this very long humming sound through the surges). I think I spent about 2 hours in the bathroom shower, with very little interference from the hospital staff. I was pretty calmly laboring until the end and I never felt any panic or worry. The doctor wasn't so confident about the baby's heart rate, so I was asked to push really hard to speed up the delivery. It didn't take very long before Rowan came out. He was born a hefty 9 pounds on Nov. 24th at 10:41 pm. I tore a little, but it healed pretty quickly and I didn't really feel it much during the delivery. They also used a vacuum for a few pushes. Luckily, there wasn't any noticeable effect on Rowan. I didn't use any drugs or anything, nor was I tempted at the end. I felt the effects of my body's endorphine's pretty strongly. If my labor had been longer, or the pushing had been longer, I may have had a different feeling. I was pretty lucky that it happened relatively quickly.

Overall I feel that my birth went well(thanks in no small part to Dan's support and my wonderful Doula Katrina), although it was sort of out of my control to breath the baby down once there was this pressure to speed up the delivery. I was very glad for the class because it allowed me to stay in a trance the whole time and not worry. I was sure the entire time that things would work out.

Eventhough, looking back now, I don't know if the doctor needed to speed up the delivery at the end(hospital staff are so into fetal monitors--and I am not confident that they are even accurate at predicting distress ) I am just grateful that we both ended up okay and that my body did what it needed to do...

I hope all is well with the rest of the babies. It's nice to hear from everyone.

Nadya

Hello Deborah

We would be honored if you would share our story! Again, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us and teaching me something that my mom, Grandma, and others before them did not think was possible. I feel that I have broken that cycle, and began a new light for future birthings around me.

You are totally blessed, and we are all honored to have been with you and taught by you. The impact that you have on me will last for many, many more lifetimes.

Take care...and regards to your son!
All the best to you and yours....
Lorna and Luis

It's Lorna (Lorna and Luis) from hypnoBirthing class!
And guess what?! I gave birth on the 5th of this month (June)!!! Daniel came early, and I knew it the whole time. Luis' scheduled time to start his vacation for baby was on The 6th. How convenient was that? I'd be honored to share the story with you:

Luis and I went to IHOP to get breakfast. I can Remember it now...Eggs Benedict with goodies and a Belgian waffle on the side - how gourmet is that? Heeheehee...

So when I was almost finished with my meal, I went to The bathroom and saw blood on my liner (excuse me, Tim). I sat back down and told Luis about and said, "Daniel is coming today!"

We got home and I called Kaiser just to make sure everything was okay, since I haven't had any bleeding prior to this time. They told me to call Labor and Delivery, then L & D told me to come in.

We arrived at the hospital at around 3:30-3:45PM, and they checked my bleeding, which buy this time wasn't anything. They put an external monitor on me to keep track of the baby's heartbeat, as well as my surges if there were any. The nurse asked me is I was having Contractions, and I said,” Well, um, I'm not quite sure if they're contractions. This is my first and I'm not sure how they feel." Then a surge showed up on the monitor, and she said,” There! That's a contraction. That was actually a strong one."

"Oh! Then yes. I have been feeling those." I knew at this point I was having early contractions, but they never got stronger for me. I remember feeling them in class; no pain; only split seconds of.... I can’t even describe it. It definitely wasn't painful though. Each one got me more excited that baby was coming. And you know what guys...the whole time one of things that kept on repeating in my head was the lines in the birthing affirmation that I would hear every night -"My baby is finally coming to me." Oh my gosh it was totally awesome.

The next thought and mindset that gave me great courage and strength was the one about being prepar was it! Unfortunately, while I had that strong contraction, baby's heartbeat dropped to a dangerous contractions. The nurse's reaction was alarming, bu crucial part of remaining as calm as I could for Daniel. She quickly told the doctor, they had a meeting, and best for baby to come that day. Being that it was under concerning circumstances, of course I agreed to "induce labor" with Pitocin, and I requested if they could give the lowest dose possible. They agree Dilated. and I was...3-4 centimeters! I couldn't believe it! She couldn't either...none of the doctors and nurses this entire time believed I was in "labor", being that I was so calm and not "in pain". How could I? I wasn't in pain, and I even had to look at the monitor to know that there was another surge. When I did feel them, Luis helped me breath through them. At this point I was thinking, "This is it? This is how it feels to be "in labor"? My gosh...all of these years of horrible stories that my mom, friends and relatives continue to share...piece of cake for me!" And thank God.

So at this point, we did tell the doctors and nurses about our approach, and they were great about it. The one nurse that I did find online who worked there and was familiar with HypnoBirthing unfortunately needed was right there with me; all of the tools I've learned from class, my Luis, and my baby. One of the doctors was somewhat familiar with Hypnobirthing, wanted a couple of his surgeries to pass quickly, so that he could be the one to deliver Daniel. He even encouraged Luis to go home and hurry to get the CD...which he did. I wanted that CD...heeheehee! It was one of the things that I wanted so bad to be in the room with me. I was also blessed to have many doctors and nurses attending me...they told me later on that they all kept in talking about me, and how none of them believed I was having "contractions"...Luis and I were crackin' jokes the whole time! Then the surges were 5 minutes apart, and the nurse was about to inject the medication. I asked if it was possible to wait since they were already getting closer. It was definitely not safe for the baby, as confirmed by the doctor, and she put lowest dose in. I told baby, "Okay ba He totally heard me and as soon as she put the medication in...wow. Those surges came...1 1/2 minutes apart....then came the "pushing"...I breathed down the BEST way I knew how-then I heard someone say, "If she doesn't get the baby out within the next couple of pushes, we're going to need to do an emergency C-section."

Oh NO way! And yes, I am still in the mindset that I was going to have this baby how I wanted to as MUCH as I possibly could. Then...in a couple more...Daniel came to me!!! NO emergency C-section for me, and NO epidural. Thanks to Deborah, the coolest couple Tim and Hanna, and of course my husband Luis. My Gosh....Luis then cut the cord after it was Pulsating, and while that was happening I just remember Daniel was put on my tummy...from that point...I looked at him and realized,"Oh! THAT'S why people want babies!" I felt so blessed. and felt SO much spiritual support around me the entire time. What a blessing to have taken HypnoBirthing and to have practiced it with the perfect teacher and couple. I would have never been able to have such a blessed birth. Daniel not only came to me in such a beautiful way, but we see it in EVERYTHING. He latched on right away, I was able to produce a lot of collostrum immediately, and then lots of milk! He is SO cool! : ) He's had so many visitors, and most of the time gets passed from person to person sleeping through everything! He is so calm! Luis and I took him to an appointment when he was only four days old - he gained in 4 days what babies usually take two weeks to gain! And we totally owe this to HypnoBirthing. I can go on...and on and on!!!
Thank you guys, and thank you for letting us share this whole experience with you. It has been magical.

Best of luck to all of you...PLEASE let us know how yours goes Hanna and Tim!
Much Love,

Lorna (and Luis)

I really liked the prenatal yoga at 7th Heaven with Deborah Saliby!
She is very good at making the class what everyone needs. She also knows a lot about what your body is going through and what exercises / poses are good and bad for you at this time. Half way through our class she moved to Solano Ave, so I started to go there. I only went to two of the post natal classes at 7th Heaven with her, due to schedule conflicts, but wished I could have continued! It is so fun to go there with your baby! 7th Heaven has a very calming and inviting setting and everyone there is very friendly and helpful.

Sandy

I have found both the pre- and post-natal classes at 7th Heaven to be wonderful. My first yoga experience was my first prenatal yoga class with Deborah Saliby at 7th Heaven. She is fabulous. She really knows how to work within the bounds of the pregnant body, and fosters a calm and meditative state encouraging you to connect with your body and unborn child. My pregnancy was amongst the most relaxing times of my life (and I had an amazing amount of turmoil and stress going on during those 9 months--father in the hospital, PhD qualifying exams, wedding, working 120 hours a week....), and attribute that to Deborah. I also had an amazing recovery time (I was out and about within days of giving birth). In addition to the physical and emotional/mental benefits, there is a strong sense of community and togetherness amongst the mothers-to-be: my daughter is over three months old and I still attend weekly mom get-togethers with other fellow yoga moms that began when we were all still pregnant! Postnatal is also great, similar to prenatal--fabulous for the body, great community (we go to lunch after class), wonderful teacher.

happy, healthy mom.

If you do nothing else for yourself while pregnant, take Deborah Saliby's pre-natal yoga class at 7th Heaven!
When I started looking for a yoga class when I was pregnant, every studio I called said to find Deborah and take whatever classes she offers - they were so right! She is fabulous--kind, warm, friendly and interested in you, your pregnancy and your baby-to-be. She's also really good at making sure that you are correctly doing poses and that they are safe for your changing body and your baby. She has so much experience teaching prenatal yoga & with her it's obvious that it's a calling, not just a job. (She is also a HypnoBirthing instructor--visit her website at www.envisionings.com.) I went to Deborah's classes regularly for four months and credit them with helping me through a really difficult labor and delivery. Thanks to my yoga practice, I was strong, flexible and had endurance--I was able to try all sorts of birthing positions, knew how to breathe to mitigate the pain and relax. Deborah also has some pre-natal & birth-specific meditation CDs that were great to practice with at home. It's also a great place to meet other moms-to-be, about fifteen of us have started a mom's group based on meeting one another in her class that been going strong for almost eight months now. 

Laura

Hi Deborah,

Sorry for the delayed news. I had a baby girl, Olivia, at home on 6/16. It was a beautiful and fast birth. All that yoga must have helped because I dilated from 1 cm to 10 cm in about 1 1/2 hrs. Thank  you for being such an important part of my pregnancy. I look forward to seeing you soon when I begin the post natal classes.

Love,
Lauren

Hi Everyone,

Well, as many of you know; one more wake up until I'm a Mama! Sometimes we get more of a wait and see out of life; but in this case Dexter has chosen, and will be lifted (butt first!) into this world Friday morning. He's breech; and after a month of heroic (and many bizarre) efforts to turn him, Tim and I will be welcoming him into our family together in the OR at Oakland's Kaiser hospital this Friday morning (the 18th, and Dexter's due date) at 9:30am.

We are so excited for the birth of our son. I appreciate all the loving feminine support you women have given me throughout the time I've known you; but especially through this amazing experience of pregnancy, thank you each again and again. I look forward to sharing the next leg of my journey, as mother, with you. So... without further ado, light your candles at will and hold us in your hearts with loving light!

You should all look for a "birth spam" including a website that will be updated with pictures this weekend. We will update the pictures on that site as sleep deprivation allows!

much love to you all,
Hanna

Hi Deborah,

I don’t think I’ve been in touch since the birth of my son on July 22 2005. There are so many Jennifer’s that you might not remember which one is me. I attended your yoga classes at 7th Heaven during the winter and Spring of 2005. I have brown hair and am a bit older. We live in Point Richmond. Anyway, your yoga class was a tremendous help for me during his birth. Also, the individual hypobirthing session that we did at your house had a big impact. I had a natural childbirth at Kaiser Walnut Creak, start to finish eight hours. My son was 9 lbs 10 ounces at birth. Now he is a happy healthy 15 month old! Some recent photos of him are attached.

“Deborah’s yoga class was a tremendous help for me during my son’s birth, helping me to stay physically and emotionally relaxed yet strong throughout labor. The individual hypobirthing session also had a big impact, addressing my fears ahead of time so they did not hold me back. I had a natural childbirth at Kaiser Walnut Creak, start to finish eight hours. My son was 9 lbs 10 ounces at birth. I highly recommend Deborah’s prenatal and hynobirthing classes to anyone wanting to approach childbirth naturally.” -Jenny, 40 years old

Best
Jenny