Claire
and Dylan's Birth Story Auckland,
New Zealand
  I
am really thrilled to share my birth story with
any pending new mum-to-be, as I was what you could
probably call a “scaredie cat” about
the pending birth - yet in the end it was a wonderful
experience and basically I surprised myself!!
As the months progressed I found
the experience an emotional roller coaster, I
had faith in all the obstetrician visits that
my baby was tracking along perfectly, but I had
a lot of doubt and apprehension as to whether
or not I was going to be able to “do this”,
a natural pain-free birth. As a result I really
prepared for my sons arrival with lots of research
into birthing techniques, so I really knew and
understood what the options might be at the time,
but more importantly I focused a lot on the power
of positive thinking. I even went as far as putting
together about 6 pages of accumulated positive
mantra's that I found during my research, such
things as “I will cooperate with my body”,
“my body is made to give birth”, “I
know my baby feels my calmness and confidence”,
“I am prepared and ready for birth”
and so on. I was also lucky enough to stop work
about 6 weeks prior to my sons arrival, so I really
made an effort to relax, just pottered around
the house decorating his room, reading books,
watching movies, going for walks (although it
was mid winter so I ended up borrowing a treadmill
so I could do a daily walk of a couple of km's).
In the last week each morning I would wake up
thinking “if this is the day, then I am
ready”.
My due date was the 28th August
2009 and as a result I had an obstetrician appointment
on the 26th and during that visit I had an internal
exam and I was about 2cm dilated; I found this
news really exciting, in fact I surprised myself
as I imagined that is when the fear would set
in, but I obviously had started to get my head
around the experience and was now just bursting
with excitement to meet my little guy. That night
we had friends over for dinner, I ate a large
plate of lasagne and even dessert, which was weird
as I had been eating smaller meals in the last
few weeks because of the heartburn....and of course
great friends meant great laughs and I literally
fell into bed that night still laughing from some
of the stories we had been sharing....plus my
mom had come up from Wellington and was sleeping
on an airbed in the dining room, so I really felt
like all my support buddies were in the house,
my baby was healthy, and I felt on top of the
world.
I think the combination of all
of the above must have helped my son, Dylan, think
the time had arrived to make his entrance, as
my waters broke about 3:30am. Naturally I woke
up my husband and then the “boredom”
began as I couldn't go back to sleep, but I knew
I couldn't do anything but try and rest and let
nature take its course! By about 7am I just couldn't
wait to go and tell my mom and get the hospital
bag topped up with those last minute additions.
As the boredom continued I started to BAKE, I
made muesli slices and chocolate brownies which
totally took my mind off the occasional “period
cramp” feelings, I guess that nesting instinct
went into overdrive! Soon 10:30 rolled around
and I was off for a specialist pregnancy massage.
I had booked the massage the day before so I just
checked with my obstetrician that I could have
the massage; so with hospital bag, husband and
my mother on board I was off to the massage. I
had been warned that this relaxing massage could
have a positive effect on bringing on contractions
(this was a positive as I wanted the process to
continue naturally and limit any need for medical
intervention!). The massage was totally relaxing
and while I was lying there I had 4 contractions
that were 8 about minutes apart, labour was progressing.
Post the massage I had a craving
for some lunch, so headed home and about 2pm the
contractions increased and my obstetrician just
wanted me to come into hospital for a check up
as I felt things weren't really progressing very
fast; given my waters broke 11hours prior. Oddly
enough it was on the journey to the hospital for
my check up that the contractions really started
to increase in frequency and length of time of
each contraction – hence I was pleased to
be heading to hospital after all. As I had rented
the TENS machine we had put it on at home just
before we had left for the hospital and so I feel
like this helped me in the car as I felt I was
starting to control my pain so to say, but by
about 3:30pm the contractions were really starting
to increase, I was perspiring a lot and of course
the sweat meant the TENS machine wouldn't stay
on and I seamlessly continued to manage my thoughts
around the pain, even with no TENS machine. I
do feel like the TENS machine may have helped
somewhat in those early stage contractions as
on arriving at the hospital I had an internal
exam that revealed I was almost 8cm dilated! I
must admit I think finding out I was so far along
gave me a fright as now we were using terminology
like “full labour”, “soon you
will be able to push” etc and the nerves
started to surface.
Thanks to my very supportive
husband and mother they reminded me about the
positive mantras and that's all I needed to get
back on track. Although truth be told, even though
I retained them in my brain, in the heat of the
moment the minute my Mom and Husband tried to
reinforce them to me vocally, the hand went up,
and I told them not to go there! I can laugh about
it now, but I just needed to quietly same them
to myself, not necessarily have someone speak
them to me. I had expected to labour in water,
but as I arrived to the hospital so far along
(almost 8cm), it wasn't an option. I couldn't
sit or lie still and spent the next hour just
walking around the labour room, leaning on benches
and chairs when a wave of a contraction would
come on, and then just walk again. I also had
all the curtains closed and had all the lights
turned off so it was just a calm and more intimate
setting and the medical layout of the room was
no longer the key feature. I also surprisingly
asked my mom to leave the room as once I was in
full contraction mode I found it really distracting
having many people around me, so in the end it
was just my husband, midwife and obstetrician
in the darkened room. I only met my midwife about
2 hours before Dylan arrived, it was fine as she
was really calming and supportive and became my
#1 buddy for the remaining hours as she had such
a soothing effect on me.
From the time my waters broke
in the wee hours of the morning it was 14 hours
until I met my little boy and most of that time
was spent at home relaxing, spending time with
my husband and mother, and of course a massage
and the baking...and the end result my gorgeous
little boy.
Overall I feel like we (my son
and I) laboured really well together, I did all
my positive thinking and I remember in my mind
talking to my wee boy trying to “will”
him down the birth canal. We managed to deliver
with no drugs and no apparatus, so for our circumstances
he had the perfect entrance into the world, made
even more special by the fact that I got to catch
him due to the position that I birthed in and
then my husband cut the umbilical cord. Exactly
as we had dreamed for the birth to be.
We immediately got to cuddle,
as my son rested on my chest, he relaxed into
a strong breathing pattern and after about 15min
we started to breastfeed which was daunting at
first but then amazing at how quickly he knew
what to do and started to drink. He was weighed
and measured, and so forth, all after he had spent
time quietly bonding with myself and my husband.
To any future mum to be, enjoy
the experience and embrace the strength that you
do have, you may be like me and truly surprise
yourself! But at the end of the day you make decisions
for your health and that of your unborn baby,
so my only piece of advice is to truly understand
the pro's and con's to the possible birthing methods
and then you can go about the birth with your
head in the right place and you can control the
experience and not lose confidence while you are
labouring!
Overall, even though I had been
scared about the pain, and I cannot deny there
was pain, but when you are delivering it is different
to pain at any other time, as I understood why
I was there and what the pain was related to,
my son moving himself into this world!
You
might be interested in the Joyful Childbirth 3
hour Antenatal Class for Natural Pain Relief |
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