Brianna Shanti Marie - 4th May 2011 - Birth Story (Long)
On the 3rd of May 2011 I had an appointment with the antenatal doctor. We were to discuss Induction of Labour. I was 36 weeks and 3 days pregnant and suffering from symphisis pubis dysfunction or pelvic girdle pain.
Our doctor was happy to induce labour provided there was a spot available for me to slot in. Bub was shown by ultrasound to be plenty big enough estimating 7 pound 12 ounces – give or take 500g. Our doctor had to speak with another doctor and paediatrician to get the ok to allow induction to go ahead. We had one final scan from the portable ultrasound and checked bubs heart rate etc. Everything seemed fine and we were given the all clear to progress with induction. It was about 5pm and we were told to present to Women’s Assessment at 7:30pm to book in. We had enough time to go and get some dinner before coming back in to have our baby.
We rang our family and told them the news. We met up with some of the family and had some dinner together before heading back to the hospital. It seemed a little strange to now know that the next day we will have a baby in our arms.
DH and I got back to the hospital just before 7:30pm and booked in at Women’s Assessment. We were taken shortly afterwards to the delivery suite. I was in the wheelchair, being wheeled up to delivery by DH. We settled into the room and were given a run down on how things will go ahead. The plan was to insert gels to kick start labour.
The gels were placed at 9:30pm and I was settling in to try for a sleep during the night. I was so excited that I didn’t think I would get much sleep, and true that was too. I didn’t get much at all.
So the night progressed, DH went home at about 10:30pm to also try and get some rest. I was surprised to find that he managed to get a little sleep. I struggled to get to sleep not only from the excitement, but I was in pain from my hips/pelvis and the contractions had started coming. The contractions were not too painful, but enough to keep me awake, coming every 3 minutes on the dot, but only lasting 30 seconds. The nurse came in at some point and gave me a pethidine injection in the leg to help with the pelvic pain as the panadeine forte and oxycodone didn’t seem to help it too much by this stage. I think it was about 3:30am approximately.
I had to get up to go the toilet which made the contractions slow down to every 5 minutes or so.
I kept wondering what our little baby was going to look like and who she would look like. I tried to picture her in my mind but I found this hard to imagine her as in truth I really had no idea.
Contractions started to come back to every 3 minutes lasting about 30 seconds, enough to be in a little pain but not full blown contractions. I think it started to seem a little more painful as the morning progressed and the pethidine injection started to wear off. I sent DH a text at about 5am telling him that the contractions were starting to get a little stronger and they were about 3 minutes apart. He started to get ready to come in. I asked him for some last minute items that I had forgotten to pack in my bags.
DH got to the hospital at about 7am. I was so happy to see him back in again. The midwife came in about the same time and from then on she stayed in the room the whole time. I also had a student doctor in the room.
My midwife decided to put in an IV line to my hand so they could give me Syntocinon through the drip. This was to help get the contractions coming quicker and stronger. I asked them if this would interfere with my plans of getting in the bath, but they said I would still be able to get into the bath so I agreed to have it.
Mum came in to the hospital at about 9:30am after dropping the kids to school for us, as it was her day off from work.
For the next few hours, contractions were staying at about 3 minutes apart and lasting for about 30 seconds. The midwife decided to turn the sytocinon amount up a little to bring on the contractions a little faster.
I thought it was strange how every time I got up to go to the toilet, the contractions would ease off. I thought that getting up and moving around was meant to bring them on stronger.
I was beginning to notice that Induction of Labour means more painful labour. The contractions, while seeming like they were not as strong and frequent as they should be, they were quite painful. The midwife kept coming over and placing her hand on my belly to feel the contractions. She could then not only feel them, but she could also see them on the screen from the monitors on my belly. The monitors track the contractions and also listen to baby’s heart beat.
I was totally amazed that I had the midwife in the room with me the whole time. I thought when Jayden was delivered that it was just something that was happening because of the situation, but it turns out that this is how it works these days. It is so different to when my other three children were born. When DS was born I had a midwife and student doctor, but I hardly ever seen them.
Anyway, back to this labour story. I’m not sure exactly what time but I think it must have been a bit after midday, I decided to have a bath. We started to fill the bath for me to get in. I had been looking forward to getting into the bath during labour as I know how much it relieves all my aches and pains when I have one at home. I managed well to get into the bath with my sore hips/pelvis. DH helped me get in. He helped me the whole time during labour, he held my hand the whole way through.
We asked the student doctor and mum to leave while I was in the bath. DH was very good at sticking with our plan that we had talked about for weeks amongst each other. I was in a place where I didn’t care either way who stayed, but like DH said, we made these decisions for a reason, and looking back, I am glad he stuck to it.
The bath was delightful, I love warm water to soak and float in, although I found it a little annoying trying to hold myself up with my legs and stopping myself from slipping straight under the water. The bath was a big corner spa bath type of thing. I sat in the bath for about an hour I think it was and thoroughly enjoyed it. We were talking to the midwife and enjoying the view out of the window. (We have lots of photos of the room and the view). When I had to get up to go to the toilet again, I made the decision to hop back into bed rather than back into the bath. The bath had made the contractions almost come to a complete stop, well they actually did stop for about 10 minutes. The monitors were changed to waterproof monitors which were a little annoying as they didn’t pick up everything as well as the hardwired version.
When I got back into bed, it must have been about 1:30pm, the contractions started to come stronger and by this stage I was having the gas.
The midwife done an internal at about 3pm and I was only 3cm dilated. Are you sure I asked? 3cm? How can it only be 3cm? After all this work, I am only 3cm dilated…? voicing my frustrations. Apparently the midwives found that a little funny.
We were discussing what we could do for more pain relief. I was hesitant about having another pethidine injection as the last experience I had with gas and pethidine together was not a great experience, yes I am talking about DS’s labour. I didn’t give an answer right away, I was thinking about the other drug which is similar, called fentanyl. I had made the decision before going into labour that I would request fentanyl rather than pethidine. But the fentanyl was still a trial thing at the hospital and I didn’t want to go through the trial program they had going in the hospital because it meant that I could still have ended up with pethidine anyway rather than the fentanyl.
The midwife discussed epidural with me, and with DH also recommending it, we decided an epidural it is. I’d had enough of being in pain. I have been in pain for weeks with my hips/pelvis and now I am realising that induction of labour makes the contractions a lot stronger, so I decided an epidural would make it a lot less painful and my midwife had given me her word that she would not put me anywhere near those stirrups that I had previously been so worried about.
The anaesthetist arrived soon after to discuss with me the procedure etc and started to put in the epidural. I was really scared about having an epidural – I use to be totally against epidurals and I can’t stand needles at the best of times. It was uncomfortable having the epidural put in, a bit painful when they actually put it in and difficult to try and get it in between contractions. But a short time later, the pain started to ease off, although I still needed the gas to cover the pain too.
My mum came back in after I had the epidural put in, she bought the kids in to see me. They were a little concerned seeing me hooked up to all these wires for bub to be monitored and seeing everything, but they were so excited to meet their little sister.
My midwife said to me that I need to tell her when the pain starts to get stronger again because they need to top up the epidural. Shortly after she said that, the pain started to get really bad again.
At this stage mum left with the kids, she thought things were starting to move a long quicker and we didn’t want the kids to see me in too much pain.
The pain continued to get worse and my midwife topped me up with more pain relief through the epidural, and I think it helped a little, but the contractions were still really painful.
A second anaesthetist came in. He was rude the first time he came in, and I told DH that I did not want him to come back because I did not like him. (In fewer words at the time) But he did come back and he decided to top me up with a little more pain relief through the epidural. But the pain still did not go away. The contractions were also becoming stronger, longer and more frequent. I had hardly any break between these contractions now.
About 6:00pm I had another internal. I was told I was 5cm dilated. I couldn’t believe my ears. All these big contractions I am working through and seeming to be getting nowhere. At this rate, I was going to be in labour for another 12 hours or so. I seriously thought that I would still be in labour in the morning.
The second anaesthetist decided to take the first epidural out and do a second one. I had to wriggle forward on the bed and turn and face DH. It was hard enough to do this in between contractions let alone trying to get through it with hips/pelvis like mine. The anaesthetist wanted me to bring my legs up onto the bed and fold them in front of me. I rolled my eyes at his request and tried to bring my legs up, but as I did this, I felt a contraction coming again. I squeezed DH’s hand (this had become my forewarning of the contractions). He told the anaesthetist that another contraction was coming and they had to wait. The contractions were too frequent and trying to bring my legs up was causing them to come again even quicker. The midwife made the anaesthetist aware again about the fact that my pelvis is unstable and so he decided to leave my legs down. I was leaning on DH, my forehead pushed up against his and holding his hands squeezing them tight. I don’t know how he managed to hold me up. I was having so many contractions that I didn’t know how this epidural was going to get in. The contractions were full on in strength, length and I don’t remember there being any relief between them at this point. I was listening to the anaesthetist talking through what he was doing. This was extremely important to me at this point in time. It was as though by listening to him, I could work through it. I could hear what he was doing and I could communicate when the contractions were coming by squeezing DH’s hand. Finally the second epidural had been put in and this anaesthetist that I thought so very little of initially, was now highly regarded in my book. He had handled himself a lot differently than the first time he walked into my room. He got the job done as quickly as possible.
As I wriggled my way back up the bed breathing hard on the gas. I went to lean back. I stopped for a moment and looked at DH and said, baby is coming. DH looked at me, glanced toward the business end briefly, then looked back at me and with a smile on his face he said “nah not yet”, thinking I was saying that because I was high on the gas.
Our midwife looked down and said, “she is right, the head is crowning”. I looked at DH and waited for his confirmation. He looked back at me with a bigger smile on his face as he grabbed my hand with both of his, nodded and said, “yep, she is coming”. The epidural had only just been put in, the anaesthetist turned to me and said, well it’s all done, it will kick-in in about 15-20 minutes but you will most likely have a baby by then. He wished us all the best and said goodbye.
Now for the task of pushing, I thought.
I told myself, this part won’t take long, after all it hadn’t before. The contractions were crazy at this point and I found myself keeping the gas in my mouth and gripping it with my teeth. DH took it off me at one point thinking that I was only breathing in the gas only. I squeezed his hand harder for doing that to help him realise how much more painful it can be without the gas.
Pushing was starting to take a bit longer than I thought. I could feel baby slipping back at times which was a little frustrating but also concerning for me as I had not experienced that before. I was told that if I don’t push her out soon, they would make a cut. I decided right, time to concentrate real hard now. I pushed as well as I could with the contractions. The epidural was slowly starting to kick in, which was starting to help take the edge off a tiny bit, but it was still so painful. It took about 20-30 minutes I think to push baby’s head through and a few more minutes to push her body through, which also confused me because previous labours, the body has come through really easily without any effort at all.
Baby was through, without any cuts made!
Baby was put onto my belly and DH cut the cord. Baby was then taken for a quick check and bought back relatively quickly and placed on my chest. I was so happy that finally she was here and the pain could now go away. The epidural was taking away the pains and I didn’t notice the placenta coming through. I wanted to see the placenta but I didn’t bring in my long birth plan, only the one in the back of my notes which is very brief. So I missed out on seeing the placenta, but more importantly I now had my baby on my chest whom I could now see for the very first time. This took my mind from anything else. I lay on the bed with baby on my chest facing towards DH. I could see her body and the top of her head covered in white as she was born early. I couldn’t see her face. I was looking at DH, studying his face expression to try to get any clue as to how she looks. I’m not even sure when I first got to look at her properly but she is the most gorgeous little thing I have ever seen. Her eyes amaze me.
Brianna Shanti Marie
Born on 04-05-2011 @ 19:11
Weighing 7 pound 2 ounces – 3.2 kg
Length 48cm, Head Circumference 35.5cm
Brianna was taken to SCBU after about 45 minutes, for what was meant to be a few hours, turned into 5 days, but that’s another story in itself. I was to be roomed in with another mum whom had her baby with her, and DH was to be sent home (Dads are not allowed to stay the night on the ward). This really upset me, I was upset that DH had to leave so soon after birth, I was upset about being in this room with an uncomfortable bed, and it broke my heart to hear the other baby cry when I could not be with my baby. I requested to be discharged from hospital after 10 hours. We had stayed in SCBU for most of the night so we could be together and be with our daughter. DH got to hold her for the first time at about 2am and we took loads of photos. I went home with DH at 5am. I expressed any colostrum that I could as I still had not put Bree to the breast. I got about 2 hours sleep before heading back into the hospital at 9am to start caring for my baby. This was the way it was for the next 5 days.
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