The Birth of Catherine Sophia - 5 Feb 2008 (warning - long!)

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The birth of our beautiful little Catherine Sophia:

After two devastating miscarriages, finally our first bub was due on 16 Feb 2008. The pregnancy had gone well despite my anxieties until my 38 week appointment on 29 Jan where I was told my BP was up and I had to have CTG monitoring straight away to check bub's heartrate. There were no other signs of pre-eclampsia and bubs was quite happy however my elevated BP was enough to worry the OB. My usual OB was on leave so I was seeing someone else who eventually admitted me to hospital for continuous BP monitoring on 1 Feb after my BP failed to go down over several days. Thankfully after 24 hours my BP was down and I was allowed home.

Fast forward to Mon, 4 Feb, the day my usual OB returned from leave. I had a feeling I would be induced early from what the other OB had said and this was mentioned again by my OB. Again my BP was a little raised but not as bad as it had been. He checked out bubs position which was engaged and ready to go. He then did an internal and a stretch and sweep. My cervix had softened and was already starting to dilate, so he said I was ready for an induction. At this stage I was thinking maybe I would be induced later in the week as he had mentioned Thurs earlier, but then he asked what I had planned for tomorrow! Before I knew it I was booked in for a 7am induction the next day!

After not sleeping a wink we were at the hospital bright and early the next morning. I had a bit of a show when we got there, so labour may not have been far away anyway. My OB started the induction by breaking my waters (that was the weirdest feeling!) and starting the synto drip. I was already 1 1/2 cm dilated. The midwife then said it could be an hour or so before labour started, but I started feeling contractions immediately! Pretty soon they were very ouchy and coming 2-3 minutes apart, talk about full on!

After a few hours I was having trouble coping with the pain because I was connected up to the drip and was having continuous monitoring as ordered by my OB (because it was induction) so I couldn't move around. The pain was getting too much for me, so the midwife agreed to let me try the shower for 10mins. This was such a great relief, but all I could think about while I was in there was how soon I had to be back on the monitors and how I would cope with the pain stuck on the bed! The midwife and DH kept encouraging me to have an epi and that it could take some time to arrange one if there wasn't an anaesthetist readily available so it was better to order one sooner rather than later. Finally, I caved in and asked for the epi. I had really wanted to feel the pain and experience labour as much as I could (although DH thought I was crazy!) but without being able to move around and use the bath/shower as pain relief, I just couldn't get through it. DH was having a hard time watching me in all that pain, so he raced straight out the door to arrange the epi! Luckily for me the anaesthetist was in the next room, so he was there in five mins.

Once the epi was put in the relief was fantastic! I felt like a cloud had lifted and I could talk again! I had a chat with the midwife and then had a nap. The only place where I got no pain relief was in my ribs on the right side where bubs had spent a lot of the pregnancy with her legs stuck there kicking me, and it was too high up for the epi to be effective.

At around 2.30pm the midwives changed shifts and I was assigned a really young midwife. She did an internal at around 4pm and told me she thought I was fully dilated. She phoned my OB to let him know and he said to start some pushing and he would be in later. Around this time I was due for an epi top-up but didn't have one as my OB said he would prefer that I didn't. At the time I was quite happy with this, as I was still getting some pain relief and thought it would be easier to push if I had some feeling, plus I thought the end would be pretty close at this stage.

The midwife then went to get the other midwife to check that I was fully dilated as she wasn't sure. I could hear them talking and the other midwife said to take me to the toilet first. After disconnecting all the monitors, we discovered that I couldn't move my left leg, so there was no way I was walking to the toilet! She then reconnected me and went out to talk to the other midwife again, who told her to do an in-out catheter. It then took her about 20 mins to do this, and then she yet again went to check what to do next with the other midwife!! The other midwife finally came in and set me up on the toilet with a birthing stool, but she then had to run off as she had her own patients to tend to. Meanwhile my middy just stood there staring at me, not telling me what on earth I was supposed to be doing and just making me feel very uncomfortable. She asked at some stage if I felt the urge to push but I wasn't sure as the epi had stopped working on my left sife where I was now getting excruciating back pain and this was all I could feel! I tried some pushing but really wasn't sure if I was doing it right (and in hindsight, I wasn't! I needed to be pushing WAY harder than that!!).

After a bit we moved back to the bed where I knealt leaning over the back which was fully raised, and tried pushing. Again the middy just stared at me and wouldn't help or offer any advice, plus, having her staring like that made me really uncomfortable which made me push less because I felt so awkward! At around 5pm, my OB burst into the room and said "Right, if you have been pushing for an hour and this baby's not out yet, we need to find out why and look at getting out the vacuum or forceps'!!

At this stage I was fed up, exhausted and felt nothing was happening, plus I had not been pushing for anything near an hour! The middy told him I hadn't been pushing for the hour and then he got things started. He was fantastic. He told me how to push, where to direct the pushes and encouraged me constantly. The intensity of the pushing was unbelievable, I felt like I was going to break in two, and by this stage I had full feeling back. It seemed to take forever for her head to start coming out and I remember yelling 'It is never going to come out!!', probably a number of times. My OB just kept encouraging me and saying I was doing a great job, and kept me pushing as much as I could during contractions. He also stretched my perineum heaps (ouch! But that is probably why I didn't tear). At this stage I started yelling "I can't do this!!' over and over again and I think DH got quite worried, but even at the time I knew I was probably in transition.

Apparently her head kept coming out and going back in again until finally it was out. The OB got me to touch her head and boy was that weird - it felt so soft I wondered if it was a head at all! The burning and stinging as the head came out was excruciating, but it didn't end once the head was out as I thought it would. It kept hurting and it was bloody hard work pushing out the body too! I thought it would just slither out, but no!

They then placed this squirmy little messy thing on me and she looked straight at my face. I don't remember anyone saying it was a girl, but I always thought she was a girl, although I checked a couple of times until I was sure! It was the most overwhelming feeling. I had thought I would cry, but there was just too much to take in, we just stared in disbelief.

I was lucky to only have a few grazes, but the OB sewed them up anyway and thankfully I have had a pretty good recovery.

We are utterly amazed by this little creature we have been blessed with. And as painful as the labour was, I feel empowered to have brought this little person into the world. We are totally in love And believe it or not, I can't wait to do it again!

Time of birth: 5.53pm
Weight: 3443g
Length: 50cm
Head circ: 33cm
Gestation: 38 + 3

Thanks for reading if you got this far!!