I woke up at around 3.30am on Thursday (June 2) with a pain that came and went, thinking possibly a contraction? After this pain came and went a few times, about 10mins apart, I thought ‘ok it could be happening’. At 5.30am my husbands alarm went off and I told him I think I could be in labour but also said ‘this will take a while’ and told him to go into work for the couple of hours he needed to.
I was feeling totally calm and okay with what was going on. Around 6.30-7am I got in the shower to shave and feel fresh, where my waters broke! By now my contractions are 6-7 mins apart, but for some reason I wasn’t alarmed and really thought ‘I have a LONG time ahead of me’ and just waited it out.
"I felt empowered enough to let them know what I wanted"
I called the hospital and hooked up the TENS machine and started using it to get through my contractions while I waited for my husband. By the time he got home at around 8.20am my contractions were 2-3 mins apart - yes, I probably should have been at the hospital by now haha but I was just in good headspace, not actually concerned but calm and prepared for whatever was about to happen.
He got home, flew around the house getting everything and we were out of the door by 8.40. On the way there I’m not sure what was funnier, the fact that Lewis has forgotten to put shoes on or that Lewis asked me ‘how’s the pain out of 10?’ And I said ‘I don’t know, a 4? It’s only going to get worse.’
We got to the hospital and somehow managed to still sit through a doing a RAT before getting into the birth suite at 9.15am.
The midwife advised she would hook me up to the monitors to check baby, we’d do a vagina examination and she’d call my doctor. I asked her to not mention the epidural during my labour unless I asked for it and that after this vaginal exam, I didn’t want to keep checking and hearing any negative talk of my dilation only progressing little cms after so many hours.
She totally agreed with me and was happy to do whatever made me comfortable. Nevertheless, she did the vagina exam and found that I was 10cms dilated, she could feel the baby’s head! I honestly felt like I just won a million dollars haha.
She told me continue to get through my contractions as I was and let her know if I feel the need to push. She also advised me that my doctor may not make it with such short notice, but I was okay with this. I noticed I was really okay with whatever anyone was saying and I felt empowered enough to let them know what I wanted. I continued using the TENS machine and got our speaker going with a playlist I made full of songs that bring me good memories.
I found it most comfortable to labour leaning over the bed that was risen. I used calmbirth breathing techniques throughout my whole labour, and became more vocal by this time, slowly breathing down and releasing deep vocals through contractions - it really helped me through.
Before you know it, I am feeling the urges to push. I got up onto the bed to labour on all fours, but noticed this actually wasn’t as comfortable as I thought. I laid on my side on the bed in the meantime while the midwives noticed that baby’s heart rate was dropping with my contractions.
They told me I was going to have to try deliver without the doctor and we tried pushing, but noticed the heart rate dropped even more. They ended up giving me an injection to slow down my contractions so that baby could get a rest and the doctor could hopefully make it. 20mins later my doctor arrived, baby was good and we were ready to push!
Because of the injection my contractions were coming slower but they were coming. It was weird but between each contraction I was happy to have a joke and chat about how close we were getting.
The playlist was still going in the background and we just couldn’t believe how close we were to meeting our baby. Unexpected but I was doing all of my active labour laying on my side. I rested on my back for a second and thought ‘stuff it, I’ll try push like this just once’ and I ended up having a lot of progress in this position. I was hesitant because I was all for birthing with gravity, but nevertheless we were getting somewhere and I was comfortable
I had them apply a warm compress on my perineum during pushing and approached crowning with half strength little pushes and breathing. I honestly couldn’t believe it, but within about 45 mins of pushing, our baby was here, placed on my chest, with a loud healthy cry and the smallest little body at 12.35pm.
They gave us plenty of skin to skin time, where I was so relieved to have baby latch and feed right there. She also decided to do 2 MASSIVE poos all over me while we were laying there lol.
I honestly can’t believe the positive birth experience that I had.
I’d like to think that the 6 dates a day, raspberry leaf tea here and there, exercise and walking helped, but everyone (including myself) truly believes it was my positive attitude towards the entire experience to start with that played a big part in having the labour that I did and I really can’t thank you enough for putting me in that place!
