My positive birth story - Elodie
I felt my first surge about 9pm two days before my due date, just as we were going to bed and after a relaxing day of swimming, reflexology, yoga and a bit of colostrum harvesting. The contraction was uncomfortable, not too painful but it felt very different to a Braxton Hicks as it built and then faded. I had a couple of them, but quite far apart and was able to sleep easily. I woke a few times to go to the loo and felt a contraction each time but they weren’t keeping me up or waking me up.
In the morning I had a few more, about 10-15 minutes apart, again they were still not particularly painful but definitely felt like contractions not Braxton hicks. I was able to continue my day as normal, I continued to feel the odd tightening but they were up to 45 minutes apart and were not strong. My Mum popped over for a cup of tea and drove me to an acupuncture appointment in the afternoon.
At 5pm (and I remember the time because we were about to go into our first covid lockdown so we were diligently watching the daily 5pm briefing!) the contractions started again and they were definitely a step change to what I had been experiencing up until then. They were generally about 15 minutes apart and were increasingly painful. I was having to move into a forward leaning or all fours position for each one to make them more bearable, we got the tens machine out and I took a couple of paracetamol. The tens machine was an interesting experience when first put it on but it felt good, I also had a bath (minus TENS!) which slowed the contractions but also eased the pain a bit. I was able to eat a good dinner and tried to go to bed but I didn’t really sleep, I was able to doze for a couple of minutes in between the surges but found I needed to get up and lean over the bed every time a surge came. I did let my husband sleep, mostly…!
By 5am I was getting 3 contractions in 10 minutes so we made the decision to go into the birthing centre. I consented to a vaginal examination (VE) and was…1cm dilated! The midwife we saw was lovely, explained that my cervix was fully effaced and was very reassuring about what I was experiencing and what was to come. She suggested that we go home which we all felt was the right course of action.
Back home I did get a bit of respite from the contractions and managed to get a couple of hours of broken sleep. I stayed in bed most of the day with the contractions steadily getting stronger and closer together but I was getting quite despondent and teary by mid afternoon as we I didn’t feel like I was making any progress. The contractions would get close together for a while and then I’d have a 15-20 minute break, I’d had a night without sleep plus a long exhausting day of labouring so was feeling pretty tired already and starting to worry how I’d cope with the rest of labour if things still had a long way to go - this is the point I would have called my doula, if I’d had one.
I called my Mum came over at about 6pm and it made a huge difference having a second person to remind me to breathe, encourage me to move, to get into the best positions to cope with the pain and generally just tell me I was doing well and could handle this. I think I also appreciated having a woman there, and somebody that had experienced this. I managed to eat a bowl of pasta, taking a few bites taken in between each contraction.
At 7.30 we called the birth centre, they spoke to me through a contraction and we agreed I could go back. I consented to another VE and I was 3cm dilated, baby was 3/5 engaged. They agreed that I could stay in one of the rooms to ‘get some rest’ and progress a bit further on our own, they would check on me again in 4 hours. They’d done all the usual checks and my blood pressure and baby’s heartbeat were good but my urine was showing traces of ketones indicating that my energy levels were low so the midwife encouraged me to eat and drink something. She made me some tea and toast and I forced some of that down along with some lucozade and snacks that we’d brought with us. However I promptly threw most of this up! They offered me some oramorph and some aromatherapy oils, which I look, the oramorph did take the edge off and I was still using the tens machine (addicted to the boost button!) and had continued to paracetamol since the start.
The baby was looking towards one of my legs, rather than my back - which is the easiest position to give birth in - so I was encouraged to lie on my left side with a peanut ball between my legs. This was fine in between contractions but very unpleasant during a contraction and quite difficult to get into the forward leaning/all fours position when each came, contractions were now consistently every three minutes. Jack was doing his best to sleep which I have to admit I found quite irritating at the time as I was really struggling with the pain and tiredness myself but I knew he needed to keep his energy up too. I found this part quite tough, I was a bit despondent at having only dilated 3cm and was finding the pain of the contractions really hard, there were definitely a few ‘I can’t do this’ and ‘I need more help’ (I.e more pain relief) moments but I was never thinking of moving to the hospital for an epidural, just desperate to get into ‘established’ labour so I could have some entinox.
At 12.45am the midwife came to check on us, and I consented to a third examination (knowing what I now know about VE’s I would not have agreed to this one, but I was happy to have it at the time). I was 6cm so allowed to move into the bigger birthing room, where they had a pool filled and ready for me Getting into the pool was amazing, I immediately felt more relaxed, the pain was more bearable and it was easier to move around to get into the best positions to manage the contractions. I just got completely naked, not even a pretence of modesty, at that point I really did not care! I was also allowed onto the gas and air which again was great at taking the edge off the pain. Jack got some music and aromatherapy going although I’ll admit I barely noticed it until after the birth.
I laboured in the pool for a couple of hours, the contractions got stronger and closer together but I was coping pretty well. Jack was force feeding me lucazade and water, although my latest urine sample was clear of ketones. There were still a few ‘I can’t do this’ but overall I was coping and managing the pain - making a huge amount of noise, loving the gas & air and possibly nearly breaking Jacks hand at times!
At about 2.45am I realised that I was pushing with the contractions, the midwife looked with the mirror and said she could see the forewaters in front of babies head, my waters hadn’t broken yet. I started to embrace the pushing, these contractions felt slightly different, they were lower in my pelvis and almost hurt less. It took me a while to get the hang of pushing, it is like you are trying to do a poo which took me a while to get my head round, and to stop being worried about pooing myself! A second midwife to come in at this point, which reassured me as it suggested to me that the baby was nearly here. They were measuring the babies heartbeat via handheld Doppler every 5 minutes now.
After about 45 minutes of pushing there wasn’t any obvious progress and my midwife could still see the forewaters in the mirror so offered to break my waters. This felt like a good decision to me, and I was able to stay in the pool. She used what looked like a long knitting needle, it was uncomfortable as I had to stay still and I was worried that if I moved she might spike the babies head!
I continued pushing for another 10 minutes or so and the midwife said she could now see the babies head. This was quite exciting but I was again feeling quite despondent as I’d now been pushing for nearly an hour (although had no concept of time at this point, just felt like a long time!), was getting tired and didn’t feel like I was making any progress. With every contraction I pushed with all I could and I could feel the babies head moving down but then they would slip back. The midwives were very good at reassuring me and explaining that it is normal, two steps forward one step back, that they could see the baby slowly moving downwards and going ‘round the bend’ of my pelvis. I was making a lot of noise at this point, I was really surprised at the effort required in pushing. After another 10 minutes or so (3.55am) the midwives suggested I get out of the pool, I was a bit reluctant as I knew that meant I wouldn’t be giving birth in the pool as I’d hoped but by that point I was so desperate to get the baby out I was willing to do whatever they suggested might help.
Out of the pool and onto a birthing stool/Jacks lap. By this point I was feeling the ‘ring of fire’ burn which again I found quite exciting as I knew that meant the baby was crowning. I found the squatting position quite tough as I was having to put a lot of my weight through my arms, and by this point I just did not have enough energy to do this so I moved into an all fours position on a mat, another couple of big pushes and I felt the head come out. This is the only time that I felt remotely panicked and out of control, it just felt incredibly surreal to have birthed the head but have the body still inside, and the feeling of the head having come out was very very strange. Plus when I looked down I could see a lot of blood, in hind side this was blood mixed with my waters so quite dilute, but a little bit of blood does go a long was when poured onto the floor so it looked a lot worse than it did. Three minutes later with another contraction and big push and the body came out, It was 4.15am.
The midwives must have grabbed her and I collapsed back onto Jack, they passed her through my legs and onto my chest. I was in complete shock, she was covered in blood and vernex but alert, crying a bit but not screaming. I held her for a minute or two as she looked around then she made her way to my breast for a first feed.
I was in complete shock and not really able to take everything in. After a few minutes they cut the cord and suggested I have the injection to bring about the placenta delivery. The next contraction came about pretty quickly, and it was a proper contraction (I thought I was done with the pain!) I got up onto my knees and pushed, quite surprised at the amount I had to push but it came away in one contraction. They then left us alone for a while, I was still in shock so don’t think anything was really sinking in, but we just stared at her, watched her trying to feed, which I think she was doing successfully, and just tried to get our heads around it all.
She is here, we have a daughter and I managed to birth her at the birthing centre with minimal intervention. I was feeling a mixture of relief and wonderment, and it was all very surreal.
