A birth story shared….
Two days before my due date I saw an OBGYN who gave me a stretch and sweep and said I was already 3cm and she thought I would go into labour that week.
That night I had a lot of discharge with blood and was so excited that something was happening. I went to bed that night without any trouble and woke up at 5am with very slight niggles. I got up and went and watched TV.
I was still tired but couldn’t really sleep as the niggles were enough to keep me awake. I realised that they were coming every 8 minutes so I got really excited and went and woke my husband up and told him I was in labour. I realised that I was only in early labour as it wasn’t painful yet. We had planned for me to labour at my brother in laws house as it was closer to the hospital.
We packed up and went to my brother’s house even though my contractions weren’t getting any worse – I was a first time mum so I didn’t know what to expect. Once we were in town I got into the bath and when I got out my contractions had stopped. I decided to get walking to help gets things going again. After walking for about an hour I had a big bloody show and my contractions were back and getting a little bit stronger but nothing very sore. I was so excited I asked my midwife to come see me.
When the midwife turned up she checked me and said I was 2 1/2 cm I almost cried as I couldn’t understand how I could have gone backwards. My midwife was lovely but explained that I wasn’t even in active labour yet. The midwife left and I started walking and walking and walking. Buy 5pm I was starting to really feel the contractions and I felt as though I was getting somewhere. I had a TENS machine which was helpful but all I wanted was my husband to push down hard on my back when I had a contraction. At 6pm I said I wanted to go to the hospital so my midwife said she would meet us there.
Once I was settled my midwife broke my waters and said I was only 3cm and she was going to give me ocytocin to make my contractions more intense, she also said she wanted to give me pethadine as I still had a long way to go and she wanted me to have a rest. I really wanted a natural birth so was a bit upset but I knew I was already struggling so I decided to take the drugs.
My midwife went home to have dinner and left me with my husband and brother in law in the delivery room, I was feeling good but the pain was getting worse and I didn’t want to sit still so I started walking around the room. At 9pm I was starting to get overwhelmed with the pain and the pethadine had just made me really dozey but I couldn’t sleep because the pain was so bad. I asked the hospital midwife to take me to the bath and on the way down the hallway I saw my midwife and collapsed to the floor and told her I wasn’t coping. She was amazing she gave me a hug and said everything was going to be ok.
I got in the bath and my midwife sent my husband to get something to eat. Once I was in the bath I felt totally bombed out from the pethadine and couldn’t cope with the contractions. I felt like it was all too much for me to process. My midwife checked me and I was only 4cm. She looked me in the eye and said I needed to get an epidural. This made me cry because I didn’t want that, but my midwife was great at making me feel like I wasn’t a failure. I had to go back to my room to wait for the epidural. While I was waiting they gave me the gas. For some reason I wanted to be on the floor so that’s where I was. My husband came back and lay with me on the floor and shared the gas.
I remember counting from 1-10 over and over trying to deal with the pain. I got the epidural at 12.00am and it was AMAZING I went from feeling like I couldn’t cope to being on cloud nine. I had a bit of a nap and even though the epidural wore off on one side so I could feel pain in my left leg it didn’t bother me. At 2am the midwife checked me and I was 9cm. I couldn’t believe it.
The midwife decided to wait another hour to see if I would get the urge to push. We rang my parents and they decided they wanted to be at the birth so they drove to the hospital.
At 3.30am my parents, husband and brother in law were in the room with me. I didn’t get the urge to push but I could feel the contractions in my leg so this let me know when to push. After 30 minutes my husband could see our little ones head starting to crown. I was getting real close but then I starting vomiting. This caused bubbas heart rate to drop so the midwife called the OBGYN.
It all went really fast and the doctor came in with forceps and said we had to get her out now or I would need a C-SECTION. This scared me so I pushed with everything I had and almost ripped myself in half. I heard the midwife yell to my husband not to look as they gave me an episiotomy and I felt my baby just slide out. She cried straight away and they put her on my belly.Absolutely the BEST moment in the world.
Alexis was here weighing 7.12oz and 50cm long
