Ashley Shares Her Birth Story
This is my birth story for my daughter, who is 7 months old now. My boys are 11 and 8 so hers is just fresher in my mind
I was very insistent with my midwife that I would not get induced, I point blank told her midway through my pregnancy that I haven’t heard a nice induction story and I didn’t get induced with my boys, although I was overdue with them, and I wasn’t about to start now. So she agreed to do a stretch and sweep on me at 39 weeks.
She did this on Tuesday the 27th of August, I lost my mucus plug on the Wednesday and Thursday morning I started having very small niggles. I called work and told them I think my Labour had started so I wouldn’t be in (I was due to finish on Friday the 30th, my due date was the 31st of August). I had a walk with my mum that morning just chatting about everything, and my contractions were very irregular and very slight all day. Mum was staying with us that night so she could stay with the boys if I went through the night.
About 10.30pm on the 29th they started becoming more regular and more intense. This is when my “active labour” started. I was quite happy staying at home but my mum insisted I call my midwife.
My poor partner is a baker and he had been at work from 2.30am until 3 pm the day before so he stayed up with me until 9 pm then I told him to get some sleep because Ana was obviously going to take her time.
I text my midwife at 11.30pm and she came to my house at midnight. She performed an exam and told me I was 6 cm which was surprising because my contractions were painful but absolutely still bearable . I was guessing I would be 3 maybe 4 cm along.
Grace gave me the option to stay at home for awhile longer or head to St George’s hospital, I decided to go to the hospital because it was midnight, the boys were asleep and mum needed to sleep too so we decided to head there and I could have a bath (I didn’t want a water birth necessarily but baths and the water has always been a calming point in general for me and it helped massively with my contractions with my other children)
My partner thinks hes in for a long ride at the hospital so he gathers his headphones, his snacks and we head off. My contractions really amp up now, very intense and about 3 mins apart. And we get stopped by a bloody train…..
I think this is where I may have introduced some curse words. Maybe 😉
We get to the hospital at 12.50 am, my partner Lou grabs the baby bag and we head up.
I held the elevator for 5 mins while I had 2 contractions and contemplated having her right there.
We get to the room. I lean over the bed, my midwife starts to run the water in the birthing pool and my partner then realizes he only grabbed the baby bag, not mine so goes back to the car to get it.
After he leaves I voice to my midwife that I need to crouch on the floor and in my mind think he’s going to miss the birth of his daughter because he forgot the ****ing bag.
At this point to my shame, Ana contracts and I have absolutely no control over pooping in my pjs. That’s when I think Thank God he forgot the ****ing bag.
My midwife cleans me up very quickly and manages to get my pants off completely. Lou comes back into the room and I say to him she is coming. He sits on the other side of the room like he doesn’t understand I mean she is coning now! I think the look I give him makes my point so he moves to sit on the seat in front of me, as I start to push on all fours.
My waters break now and there is meconium in them (i half expected this as all my babies broke waters late and all of them had meconium in them)
I push her head half out (there is nothing like that burning ring of fire feeling) and then my midwife and her student continue to encourage me to breathe the bottom half of her head out slowly. I do this and then they say right her head is here, take a minute and we will start on the next contraction for her body.
About 5 seconds later during my contraction I push her body out in one big final push and the student midwife catches her between my legs at 1.06am.
They hand her through to me and then go turn off the water for the birthing pool I never got to use🤣
In a nutshell, I had 2.5 hours of active labour, she arrived 15 minutes after we got to the hospital completely naturally, no drugs or pain relief. She was 9 lb 15 oz, 55 cm long and absolutely perfect.
I had no tears, just a few internal grazes.
I have been so lucky in my birth experiences with all my children, my family always tell me I was born to have babies and I make it seem easy. My partner even says how “easy” I made it look. I can assure you and anyone else, it was far from easy. It was painful and messy and I wanted to quit at some point during all my labours. And afterwards, I c
