Holly & Verity's Birth
Story Auckland, New Zealand
 I
really wanted the baby to come early, not because
I was tired of being pregnant, but because my
house was clean and Bryan had time off from work
and I wanted to make the best use of his time
home! That being said, I really didn't expect
to go early (or only a day or two if so), because
Symeon was four days late, and because I tend
to have long periods.
I'd been having a lot stronger
braxton hicks contractions than I did with Symeon,
and at 34 weeks I had steady and increasingly
stronger contractions for 10 hours, but thankfully
nothing else happened, they just suddenly stopped.
January 19th was kind of a blah
day for me. I didn't really feel 'bad' and wasn't
really having a lot of contractions, I just didn't
feel like doing anything and didn't have much
energy. I also had a hard time sleeping that night,
so when I woke up at 2:00 am, I had only gotten
about an hour and a half of sleep. I first assumed
that I woke up because I needed to go to the toilet
(which, of course, I did. I was 39 weeks pregnant!),
but then after having a contraction on the toilet
and then after getting back into bed they didn't
stop but continued, I started to get tentatively
hopeful. Bryan woke up at 3:30, so I went ahead
and told him (I hadn't planned to wake him for
a while since they weren't too bad). At this point,
the contractions were fairly strong, but I could
still talk through them. They were definitely
stronger than when I started with Symeon. I got
up shortly after this to take a little shower
(short because I wanted to make sure we had hot
water for the pool later on!).
Bryan got up around (? not sure,
and I keep forgetting to ask him) and went ahead
and got the hose ready and started filling the
birthing pool. We called the midwife at about
6:30, she arrived about 7:15, and then Bryan called
his parents at about 7:30 since they would be
looking after Symeon once he got up. Turns out
he woke up just as Bryan was about to get off
the phone, so they came right over to collect
him.
My midwife checked me at 8:30,
and I was 3 cm dilated. It was a bit discouraging
to me because I had the whole "with your
second baby the labor could be half as long as
your first" mentality, and I really didn't
think things would progress enough to have a baby
in an hour! My midwife encouraged me to walk,
and so I paced the hall. I was starting to get
really tired, so for about an hour, from 9-10,
I just kneeled at the bed and rested as much as
I could between contractions. After that it was
up and walking again. The contractions were quite
strong, and I was so ready to get into the nice
hot pool, but my midwife wanted me to wait a little
longer to make sure it wouldn't slow things back
down.
At about 10:20 I had my first
urge to push, not a strong one, but it was definitely
there, so Bryan started topping up the pool with
more hot water. At 10:30 I was allowed into the
pool (man, it felt good!!), and finally had a
show. My contractions got a little farther apart,
but they continued to be strong and were lasting
a long time, and I continued to feel the mild
urge to push. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful
it was to be in that nice hot water. I was kneeling
at the edge, and Bryan and my midwife would pour
hot water over my back. Despite the really painful
contractions, I think that this last part of labor
was the easiest for me to relax with because of
the water. I hadn't planned specifically for a
water birth, but at this point there was no way
they were going to get me out of that pool, so
a water birth it was going to be.
My midwife was encouraging me
to breathe through my contractions until I got
to the point where I couldn't help but push. At
11:40, she did another exam (and that was tricky
in the pool, and uncomfortable, let me tell you!),
and during the exam helped thin out my cervix
quite a bit. She told me that it could be another
hour or hour and a half before the baby came.
I told her that I didn't want to hear anything
about hours. :)
Her help during the exam must
have really helped Verity though, because at 11:50,
her head was visible. Now comes the difficult
part of a water birth, breathing through those
pushing contractions to let the baby come out
on it's own (since the midwife isn't right there
in the water). So every contraction would be "okay
Holly, breathe... push... breathe... push... ".
My midwife told me that I would be much less likely
to tear this way, and I told her that I didn't
really care. She smiled and told me that I would
care tomorrow, which of course I knew, but didn't
care anyway ;)
At 12:02, she was born. Not only
did she have a water birth, but she was also born
"in caul", which means that my waters
never broke, she was born with them intact. I
held her in the water with me until her cord was
cut, about 20 minutes, then she had some skin
to skin with Bryan while I delivered the placenta.
I had absolutely no tearing or grazing of any
kind, and was quite surprised that as early as
that evening to find that I didn't hurt at all
"down there". It was like I hadn't just
given birth.
You
might be interested in the Joyful Childbirth 3
hour Antenatal Class for Natural Pain Relief |
|
