After feeling like I was going into labour at least 10 times since 32 weeks, we wound up being induced post-dates, with an expected big baby. Being my 3rd I was hopeful we could get labour started just by breaking my water, so we started there.
At 2:30pm on 3rd of December the TENS went on and I had my water broken at the main hospital, and contractions started almost right away but weren't really painful.
We walked around the hospital checking back every 30 minutes for intermittent doppler monitoring.
Contractions would be coming somewhat consistently and getting slightly more painful when walking, but when sitting, bouncing on the ball or side lying with the peanut ball they would completely stall out. We also tried sitting on the dilation station (toilet) and hand expressing to move the contractions along, but saw no change.
At 7:30pm we agreed to start the drip, we just started it very low to begin with.
I'd asked if we could bring the birth pool into the room as I'd planned to birth in it at the Family Birth Centre before moving to the main hospital, so that was all being set up as I stood and swayed and paced around the room trying to move things along.
The next 2 hours were full of very mild contractions, about 1-3 minutes apart, and 30 - 60 seconds long but not really painful. I could talk through them and still felt energised in the breaks.
Around 9:30 they started to get more painful, I liked the quiet during them and my partner was helping to distract me with a shoulder massage.
But they were still quite mild, I was able to just breathe through it and felt fine. My student midwife came at this point and I felt there was about a 45 minute period where I could happily hold a conversation in the breaks.
Around 10:15pm they ramped up a lot, this is when they classed me as being in active labour. They became far more painful, had more noticeable peaks and troughs - I no longer questioned if one was starting or not, I knew.
Between 10:15 - 10:45, they quickly got more painful, and I found I was absolutely exhausted in the breaks and didn't even want to look at anyone. It was around here when I noticed how helpful it was to squeeze the spiky massage ball, and my TENS machine was up very high! At this point I didn't realise but I was in transition.
At about 10:45 I got an urge to push but convinced myself it'd all moved too quickly, and I must be wrong, I figured I was coping too well, and it must still get worse from here.
But 15 minutes later at 11pm the urge and pressure was too strong and I started thinking maybe I could push.
I hopped in the pool and omg, it was bliss. I didn't get a contraction for about 5 minutes and then when they did come back they didn't hurt.
I was still a little worried I wasn't ready to push and not being able to feel my contractions I worried I wouldn't know when to push, I second guessed what my body was doing and it created a lot of fear and stress.
But, I couldn't help but push so we were still on. I couldn't feel my contractions, so I just pushed more every time my body was involuntarily pushing.
This part is a blur and my adrenaline must have spiked because I was worried about everything and thought something was wrong.
I wasn't trusting my body to know it was doing okay, and the midwives couldn't see her either.
Finally, someone saw the top of her head and my 'it's too soon to push' worry, switched to 'she's stuck' worry.
I flipped over onto my back and now we could see her and I started to worry less.
I remember someone telling me I was doing an amazing job, and replying "I'm really actually not" 😅
After one more push, we saw Evie's head, then one more big push and she was on my chest at 11:13pm!
The main difference from my previous 2 land births was the lack of a ring of fire, or really any pain at all, instead there was just a super intense pressure and then a release, it was incredible!
She took a minute to cry, but she was perfect.
Reflecting on my birth has been amazing, I felt so in control (until the pushing stage), but even then, I had an amazing support team to reassure me and made it all an incredible experience.
