Here is Toby’s birth story, as shared by his mum Sarah.
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My baby was a little over two weeks late but after a week of accupuncture, eating hot curries, using primrose oil, havin sex, jumping on trampolines…. finally after taking the dog for a walk as I went to step onto the bath mat and into the shower my waters broke at 4.30pm.
I excitedly rang my midwife and my hubby Pete encouraging him not to work late that night.
At around 6pm I started to get niggles which gradually progressed by the hour, after a few episodes of Family Guy, Flight of the Conchords and games of skip bo my contractions were fairly intense and all I could do was pace about. Pete had about a half hour nap till I woke him and urged him to call the midwife about 2.30am as I was feeling nauseous with pain, my midwife asked us to meet her at River Ridge in about an hour, I remember being sick a few times before hopping in the car.
Once we arrived at RR Wendy (my midwife) monitored the heartbeat and checked how dillated I was (6cms).
She then ran the bath for me, this was lovely but unfortunately it slowed everything right down and the contractions though intense seemed to be slowing right down. My midwife monitored the heartbeat every half hour to an hour it felt like and all was well but I felt disheartened when after hours of labour and pacing I was still only 6 cms! Wendy pinged my waters then as they had only broked partially and encouraged me to hop in the shower, she also let me know if things didn’t progress we might have to go to the hospital, I really wanted a natural birth with little intervention so this was not ideal in my book.
After about an hour I called on Wendy and asked for pethidene so far I’d only had the gas, Wendy said she wouldn’t give me the gas as the baby probably wasn’t far away and she didn’t want it born floppy and dopey, she suggested I hop back in the bath.
By this time I was feeling really fed up “what if I didnt progress and I had to go to hospital, how much more intense was this labour goin to get before I could push?!”
Hopping into the bath really helped and swaying on all fours with the gas was awesome, my contractions started to really kick in by this stage and they were long and hard…this was where the gas really helped as I hadn’t been inhaling it deeply enough and now I could feel it work…my midwife had to ask me wait for contractions before using it as I was enjoying it a little toooooo much =)
The midwife asked me to hop out once again to monitor me and I had to leave the gas to hop on the bed I remember trying to grab the gas once off the bed and pete trying to pull it off me mid-contraction saying “only use it for contractions” by this time I was grumpy and fed up and I recall saying to him “dont you f$#@*n push me Pete!” to which wendy replied “It’s a good sign when they get grumpy Pete, that means baby might not be too far away!”.
I hopped back in the water and kept up my movement with gas ,I started to feel really pushy though with the last contractions and was struggling to ride them out without pushing, my midwife encouraged me to push then asked me to hop back on the bed for one last check over, by the time I was on the bed I didn’t want to go anywhere.
On my back the midwife and Pete held my legs as I pushed, I found it hard not to scream or push from my throat and my midwife had to remind me to tuck my chin in and push down below.
Toby was a big boy and unfortunately we experienced shoulder distoatia which is where bubs gets stuck half way down and starts to recede back so the midwife had to hold Toby by his chin and urge me to push all the way with the next contraction as he was getting distressed.
I managed to push Toby out with the last contraction as the midwife pulled and Toby was immediately placed on my chest at 10.08am at 9 lb 7oz, I remember just being so shocked at how huge he was on me, it was such a stunning moment…the midwife had to cut the chord and take him away for oxygen as Toby was very blue and not moving much…it was awful Pete and I were bawling but Wendy reassured us he was ok.
When he was placed back on my chest he screamed for an hour. He had got a bit banged up coming down the birth canal and probably had a head ache as his head was bruised. After Toby was dressed, wrapped and had some collostrum and rescue remedy he calmed down…God he was so beautiful I still cry when remember that time and see those early photos.
I was pretty badly torn so we did need to go to hospital to get stitches, but god Toby is so worth it and in all honesty the time just flew by in labour!
I am so thankful I had a natural birth and was able to experience a naturally progressive labour and stay at River ridge in Hamilton..that place is heaven on earth! Now Toby is almost a year old and I would like to try for another but I think this is Toby’s time really, why should he share us so soon and I am just loving savouring each milestone with him.
I hope you enjoyed my story, birth stories are funny things we share them and forget them and others who havn’t been there yet find them gorey and traumatic , but I think it’s just another interesting and individual part of lifes jig saw.
Introducing Toby ~ 9 lb 7oz,
