In the afternoon I had my 2nd acupuncture
appointment. This seemed to temporarily make the back pain worse however by the
time I went to bed everything was back to normal again. I woke up at 12am feeling uncomfortable. I got up and went to the toilet and felt
better. I returned to bed only to wake
again at 1am in similar pain. This time
after going to the loo I stayed up to monitor and assess the pain I was
in. Could I be in the early stages of
labour? It was too soon to tell.
I sat on my birthing ball and bounced up and down for a
bit. Once I had decided these pains were
definitely coming and going regularly, I started to time them…. 7-10 mins apart and each lasting
approximately 2 minutes. I walked
upstairs and put my head round the study door.
By now it was 2am but hubby was still up working. I warned him that this might be “it” before
returning downstairs to my ball.
At 3am, hubby came downstairs to check on me. We decided that I should phone the local
Midwife Led Unit to check they were open and so I was on their radar as being a
possible admission for later. Unfortunately
the MLU was closed. I was therefore left
with 2 options, to go to the main Labour Ward at the hospital where I gave
birth to C, or go to a Midwife Let Unit further afield. By this time I was pretty sure my waters had
broken therefore I was informed I needed to be assessed somewhere within the
hour. I suddenly felt under immense
pressure to make an on the spot decision that I was not sure about. I was desperate for my water birth but the
nearest open MLU was not attached to a maternity hospital and therefore in my
opinion carried additional risk. I asked
them to give me 10 minutes to discuss with hubby and said I would ring them
back.
I decided the next sensible option was to ring my parents
who needed to come over and look after C as it would take them half an hour to
get to me. With them then on their way,
I was able to discuss birthing options with hubby. He was keen to go to the other MLU as he knew
how desperate I was for a water birth and what a hard time I had had on the
Labour Ward with C. I on the other hand
couldn’t shake the safety fears from my mind, plus there was a strong
possibility the local MLU would reopen at 8am once the day shift staff arrived. Eventually I put my foot down. We would go to the Labour Ward and hope the
MLU would open at the 8am shift change.
Hubby was not happy.
My parents arrived and we set off. The 20 minute ride to the hospital at 3:45
was lovely!
On arrival at the hospital I
was shown straight to a birthing suite to be assessed. Because they knew I wanted a low intervention birth they
tried to keep it the low key as possible.
I put on my hypnobirthing CD and they dimmed the lighting in the
room. They did however need to assess
whether my waters had broken and whether blue bump was under any distress. A quick internal assessment showed that my
waters had broken but that my cervix was still closed. I was informed I had 48 hours to go into
active labour before they would intervene.
I was put on a monitor for 20 minutes for assessment. This is exactly where I did not want to be…
strapped to the bed like I was with my labour with C. Hopefully though, this would just be
temporary. At the end of the 20 minutes
they were unhappy with blue bump’s activity.
I was given a glass of cold water and was told I would need to be
assessed for a further 20 mins. 40
minutes later, at 5:30, they were finally happy with blue bump and I was
allowed off the monitor and I was given a birthing ball to bounce on. The contractions were coming thick and fast
now. At this point the Midwives were
pretty convinced the MLU would open at 7:30/8am. Just 2 more hours to get through!
Hubby sat behind me on the ball and massaged my stomach
through each contraction. I have never
seen this technique written anywhere but honestly it worked wonders!!! He said
he could feel exactly where the “knots” were which helped him know where to
massage.
At 7am I was offered some toast which I initially declined
but after being lectured by the Midwife on keeping my strength up, I
reluctantly agreed. When it actually
arrived I discovered I was hungrier than I thought and wolfed down a couple of
slices.
At 7:30 they came to get me armed with a wheelchair. I was so grateful as I was not sure I was
going to be able to manage the walk downstairs to the MLU at this point.
On arriving downstairs, I hoped to be able to climb straight
into the pool but the Midwives seemed reluctant. To be allowed into the pool I needed to be at
least 5cm dilated. As I was not dilated
at all 5:00am, they were concerned they were re-examining me too early. I was tired, frustrated and by now in agony. After a quick trip to the loo to provide a
urine sample I started using the gas and air, and hubby continued to massage my
stomach.
I am not quite sure what happened next. The midwife obviously saw something and
everything changed gear very quickly. I
became aware of running water and hubby was stripping my clothes off. I was guided into the pool and helped to the
far side. The warm water was amazingly
soothing. At the next contraction I felt
the urge the push. This appeared to be a
surprise only to me. After 2 or 3 pushes the head
was out. I was then informed not to push
and to let gravity take effect. Slowly
but surely blue bump was born, no burning sensation, nothing.
I was turned onto my back and handed my baby boy. Holding his body under the water to keep him
warm, we waited for the cord to stop pulsating and hubby was able to cut it.
Benjamin Thomas Aiden was born at 8:55am on 3rd
December. I was so shocked the end had
been so quick and easy! Here I was
cradling my new baby, only 8 hours after waking up with stomach pains.
They wanted me to deliver the placenta out the water so
Benjamin was passed to hubby and I was helped out of the pool. The following half an hour or so was
frustrating. The Midwives wanted me to
pass the placenta naturally however it seemed in no hurry to make an
appearance. All I wanted to do was
cuddle my new baby but instead I was being made to try various undignified
positions to encourage the placenta to make an appearance. Eventually they bought in a horseshoe shaped
seat which I was told to squat on. This
did the trick!
We were then left alone for a couple of hours to bond as a
family. I think the fact hubby got those
initial early precious minutes alone with Benjamin did wonders for their
bonding. The Midwives then returned to
weigh Benjamin. Their initial guess from
looking at him was that he would weigh around 8lb 8oz. I guessed 8lb 10oz. None of us were prepared for the 4.37kg
reading on the scales…. 9lb 10oz!!!
I was then examined for signs of any tearing. There was nothing! I had delivered a 9lb 10oz
baby with no tearing at all! I was flabbergasted!
After a shower and further bonding time we left the MLU
early that evening and were home in time to put C to bed.
Reflections
When I compare my second labour and birth to my first, the
experiences could not have been more different. I know many of you probably thought I was
making too big a deal out of what I wanted this time around but having a
difficult experience previously really does help to focus your objectives. I knew that being in the water and being able
to birth on all fours would help give me the birth I wanted and I was fortunate
enough that things worked out so I could put these into practice. I understand now why some women call
childbirth of empowering experience as this time around it really did feel like
it was! Along with the soothing effects of the water, there is no
doubt that the shortened length of this second labour did help as I was less
exhausted when it came to the end. I
also think the Midwife played a huge part, particularly in helping to ensure I
did not tear. I have recovered remarkably quickly and am so pleased how things turned out.
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