Crazy hallucinations during drug-free birth... anyone?

[Birthdreams]

I've name-changed for this as I've told a few people, so it's quite outing.

10 years ago I gave birth to my first child. It was a water birth and I had no drugs whatsoever during the entire thing - not even gas and air. I did have two paracetamol, but I don't think that can explain what happened.

Although it was 10 years ago, I know this is an accurate memory as I wrote down that day what had happened and I read it again yesterday.

When I was in the pool, in the late stage of my birth, maybe the last half hour, I started falling asleep between contractions. Let's say the contraction lasted a minute or so, then I had 3-4 minutes between each time - I would put my head down and would pass out/fall asleep. Every time that happened I instantly felt I was transported somewhere else around the world. I would be in a dream, a dream in which nothing really happened - I would just be there, observing a perfectly ordinary scene somewhere else in the world. I would be there until my next contraction started, at which point I would be pulled back into wakefulness, and the birthing pool. I would do my contraction, and then the cycle would repeat.

It wasn't a long labour, so I wasn't particularly tired. I had had a good night's sleep, woken up around 5:30 a.m when my waters broke, and this was happening only about four hours later at around 10 a.m. So it can't be drugs and it can't be tiredness that caused this to happen.

I've talked to a lot of people about their birth stories, and I've never heard anyone have one like mine. I'd love to know whether any of you did? (I think a complicating factor is that I don't know that many people who had drug-free births.)

I went on to have two more children, but this never happened again -- only with my first child.

could it have been a coping mechanism perhaps to deal with the pain?

we’re all very different in how we deal with pain. I remember my (very long) first labour which ended in a c section and very time the contraction would start I would panic. I can still remember the feeling of wanting to escape the pain.

Pain dissociation

I had an amazing birthing vision - floating between the room I was in, and a forest where both my grandmothers were beside me, and other women I couldn’t see were behind them. I had a sense that they were older generations. It felt so peaceful and very, very safe, but at the same time I was still aware of where I actually was, who I was with and how much it bloody hurt.

I’d had no drugs, it was a short, intense labour but not dangerous, no blood loss or anything like that, and I wasn’t especially tired. Can’t really explain it and have never experienced anything like that.

I don’t believe in an afterlife, and in all honesty, if someone was going to visit, I’d have expected my beloved grandpa or maybe my childhood bff. So I guess it was just a lovely special effect of the brain in response to the pain.

Wow, that sounds amazing. My first thought is some kind of deep meditation between the contractions.

I do actually regularly meditate now, but 10 years ago, I think I had barely ever meditated in my entire life.

I'd love to know more about what you mean.

This sounds like a version of what happened to me, thank you for sharing it.

Could I ask, was it your first child that this happened with? And do you have others? And did it happen again?

I just wonder if your body did it naturally (maybe as a coping mechanism). I don't know if that is possible but I think, having experienced not the same thing but something strange, it might be possible.

I had no mind-altering drugs during my labour, but I did have an epidural that only worked on one side of my body. I was absolutely convinced that my leg had fallen off because I couldn’t feel it. I think labour must send you a bit loopy.

I had this too - no drugs, spent majority of labour in the bathtub and had tiny micro-sleeps between contractions and I kept seeing Donald Duck 😅 My DH confirmed I was asleep for a minute or two at a time and mumbling like I was dreaming. I told the midwife afterwards and she said it's the endorphins and oxytocin the body produces to cope with the pain. It didn't happen with my second baby - the labour was a lot faster and more intense and there were no periods of rest between contractions.

Did you do hypnobirthing? I had this and I think it's because I had trained my brain to focus on something else other than the pain. Theta waves apparently.

Haha, I love that the other examples are of a soul restlessly wandering the earth and of an individual being inducted into their family's maternity tradition, and yours is of seeing Donald Duck 😂Absolutely brilliant

I think when you're in an extreme situation your body does strange things. I had hallucinations when I was depressed and had an eating disorder. Women sometimes get hallucinations (and psychosis) in the weeks after birth due to hormonal imbalance. Hormonal imbalance, electrolyte imbalance and severe pain or a combination of them (as you probably had in childbirth) can surely cause hallucinations. I wouldn't worry if nothing ever recurred.

Yes, I did do hypnobirthing actually. (You've reminded me that what I said above about meditation wasn't actually quite correct.) Looking back on it, it was the start of what became quite a big meditation journey.

No, four home births without any medication or intervention. I felt fully present, in control and focused the whole time.

Endorphins and oxytocin. Basically, tripping on chemicals your own body produces. A friend who does ultramarathons has also described vivid hallucinations.

Exactly the same happened to me! I had read loads of hypnobirthing/mindfulness birth techniques books before labour, and practiced lots of breath work (I was planning on an epidural but wanted a back up in case it wasn't possible - which is exactly what happened).

I had a water birth, and my husband says I was almost completely silent aside from deep breathing. I only remember snippets of being 'back in the room' between contractions - the rest of the time I had very clear hallucinations/images of being on a beach in Ghana, or on a surf board looking out to sea floating on calm water. It wasn't like I was thinking about it - it was as though I was actually there.

DD is due next month and im hoping for the same experience!

I had an out of body experience when I gave birth. On reflection I feel it was my body helping me cope with the pain.

Yes, with my 2nd child but not my first. It was like I was floating above my body, watching what was happening, at the same time as planning my older DCs birthday party. No drugs.

It happened on my second.

The first labour was stressful, and I had some pain meds that made me woozy but no hallucinations.

These are so amazing, thanks so much for these stories. Yes, the way you've described it was exactly how it happened to me. Like I really, really was there. It was almost the ordinariness of it that made it seem more real. It wasn't like a dream in which something crazy happens. Nothing crazy happened. I was just there.

I was talking to a friend who is very into meditation and spirituality at the weekend about it, which is why it's brought it all up again. My friend thought it was extremely significant that all of this happened on the summer solstice. I don't know what to think.

If you were falling asleep in between contractions, it is just not a case that you were having a regular dream and you just remember it vividly because you were never going into deep sleep?

sounds lovely though!

I guess there are many ways you could describe it. "Dream" is one of those ways. That sort of 'dream' has certainly never happened to me before or since though

In moments of extreme pain or stress your body excretes hormones to help protect you physically and mentally. That's how I rationalise it. I've had it happen a few times. I had an episode of dissociation once after a very stressful experience where I feared for my life, I wasn't in physical pain but I was terrified. It was a surreal experience.

Can relate- I had dreams in between contractions, before getting any drugs.