Birthing my Posterior Baby
I can't say I enjoyed pregnancy that much. Don't get me wrong, I loved knowing our baby was growing inside me and I couldn't get enough of those little kicks and punches each day but the morning sickness until 16 weeks and the back, groin and pelvis pain I experienced for the rest of my pregnancy made the journey pretty damn tough. I spent a lot of time at the physio and struggled to walk properly and get comfortable from the 20 week mark. Needless to say, I was very ready to get our baby out.
I was due on 14 September but I always had a feeling our little bundle would come slightly early. I had the nursery setup by 25 weeks (only becuase I was so excited and had a feeling my aches and pains would only get worse, which they did) and had my bags packed by 36 weeks. I did a LOT of nesting so the house was well and truly in order by late August.
It was Friday 4 September and I had agreed for my DH to attend a 'team building' day touring the breweries in the wine region just outside of Perth. I was angry but mainly because I was jealous. My life had changed dramatically since falling pregnant and I missed the freedom I once had. I cried and yelled as I drove him to the train station that morning but it was stupid, I had told him he could go. He agreed to take it easy and we had several plans in case I went into labour. I howled as he got out of the car and left me for his fun day of boozing.
I decided to keep myself busy by doing some cleaning and thought scrubbing the floors (I mean literally, with a scrubbing brush!) might help move our baby from its posterior position. I kept myself busy around the house to avoid any more tears. I handn't been that emotional throughout my pregnancy so I did think it was weird that I was feeling so teary that day. I spoke to my sister, who was joining us for the birth, and she told me she was having a girls night with drinks and nibbles at home that night. I was jealous of her too. My two support people were both doing things I loved. It wasn't fair!!
DH arrived home around 5pm and wasn't drunk at all. I was so impressed and so pleased to see him. I appologised for being such a fruit loop that morning and he just thanked me for being such an amazing pregnant wife. I felt good again.
I sat down and checked out Belly Belly while I sipped on RLT that night. I had been taking the tablets since 35 weeks but thought I'd give the tea ago. The box said to have several cups a day so I downed three strong mugs that night.
I struggled to get to the loo several times throughout the night due to my back, pelvis and groin pain and I slept terribly, but that was nothing new. At 5am on 5 September I heard a weird 'pop' noise and thought 'OMG, my waters!' so I ran to the loo and sat there for a while but nothing happened so I went back to bed feeling stupid. I was restless until 7.20am when I felt a trickle about to make its way into my knickers so I leaped out of bed and ran to the ensuite - my waters had broken!! I screamed out to DH in excitement and he just looked at me sleepily and said 'are you sure you didn't just pee yourself?' but then he saw that it was different and there was a fair bit of it running down my legs and all over the floor. My contractions started a few minutes later - we were on!
We phoned the hosipital and they said to come in once I'd eaten and showered. The contractions were like strong period pain and roughly 5 minutes apart. Most of them were in my tummy but a few were in my back. I suspected our baby was still posterior.
We also phoned my parents, who screamed with excitement, and my sister. I giggled at the fact that both her and DH had hit the booze the day before - great morning for a hangover! She assured me that she was fine but admitted later that day that she was a bit seedy when I phoned. It was a good thing for her she has a strong stomach!
Thankfully the hospital was only 15 minutes away and literally just up the road so I only had a few contactions in the car but boy were they painful. We met my sister at the entrance to the hossi just before 9am and my contractions had increased to about 3 minutes apart. My waters continued to break and I felt like I'd peed my pants. The pad I had on was useless!
We were taken straight into the birth suite and I was hooked up to the monitors for about 20 minutes - it was hell! The contractions were getting stronger each time and all I wanted to do was move around. Our midwife did a quick internal while I was being monitored and found I was 3cm dialated already. I was thrilled but itching to get off that bed and was so glad we I was finally 'freed'.
I bounced on the fit ball for a bit (and threw up all of my breakfast!) before resorting to the shower. The shower was bliss but I was still very aware of the pain. My DH and my sister were brilliant though and aimed the water at my belly and massaged my back. They encouraged me through each contraction. We were doing really well as a team.
I heard a 'hello' while I was in the shower and turned to greet my OB but it wasn't him, it was his partner! I actually said 'oh s#it, what are you doing here?' What a lovely way to greet the man who would deliver my baby later that day! LOL. He replied 'Sorry to disappoint you but it's Colin's day off so I'll do my best to fill his shoes' and then he laughed at me. I managed to laugh a bit and apologise before the next contraction hit.
After about an hour or so I decided to get out of the shower but I insisted on brushing my teeth first. I still had the taste of my bananas and weetbix vomit in my mouth! Brushing my teeth between contractions was more difficult than I thought but I got there in the end.
My sister helped to dry and dress me so I could return to bouncing on the fit ball and leaning over the bed. She also put a few super sized pads in my knickers as I was still leaking a ridiculous amount of fluid. While I was bouncing away, I heard my sister and midwife laugh as they had managed to put my knickers on my inside out so they took a photo - one for the album, it's a classic. I would have laughed too if I wasn't concentrating so hard on my contractions which were getting really full on by this stage. I felt sick again and threw up some more. My teeth brushing episode was a waste of time, damn it!
About 11am my contractions were coming thick and fast and I was starting to wonder how I would cope without drugs but everyone knew my birth plan and encouraged me through each painful burst and reminded me to breathe and blow the pain away. It was helping except for the damn back pain which was becoming more constant. DH kept encouraging me and telling me what an 'aweseome' job I was doing so I finally snapped at him and said 'if you say f#cking awesome one more time I will put your head through that wall!!'. What a charming labouring woman I was! LOL.
At 11.30am I started to scream I wanted to run away. The pain in my back was now unbearable and I wanted drugs - NOW! I tried to cry but it was even too painful to do that. My midwife suggested the gas but the contractions were too frequent for me to get the hang of it and all I wanted to was something to totally block the pain. I literally screamed for an epidural. I was starting to think our little darling was defintely posterior although the midwife said it wasn't when she'd examined me earlier.
The anesthetist was phoned and I was told he would be 30 minutes. I didn't know how I would survive that long to be honest but my fabulous team kept me going. Poor DH kept offering the gas saying 'the gas is just here if you want to try it' and I eventually looked at him with evil eyes and screamed 'I know where the f#cking gas is now shut up'! I recall my sister just giggling away as she knew all too well not to interupt a woman when she was breathing through a contraction and not to keep repeating the same thing over and over! My sister just kept saying and doing all the right things (like reminding me how to breathe and rubbing my back), she was amazing. DH was too but I was so, so glad for my sister.
I felt the urge to poo just before 12 but knew that I wasn't ready to push so off I went to get it out before the epi was in. While I was on the loo, in all my glory, a strange man wandered in and said hi to me. I was certain a German backpacker had lost his way to the youth hostel! He was dressed in jeans, trainers and a hoodie and was pretty damn cute and he turned out to be my anesthetist. I was in love! I finished on the loo and stagged over to the bed for my epi.
After a hell painful contraction I managed to get up onto the bed so the anesthetist could go through the possible side effects (like I could give two hoots at that point!) and insert the worlds most marvellous drug into me. While he was doing it I had another huge contraction and noticed midway through it that blood was spurting out of my arm, like something you'd see in a horror movie. I couldn't speak due to the intensity of the contraction and everyone else was too busy watching the epi being inserted that no one noticed my arm. Finally the contraction finished and I wearily said 'why is blood spurting out of my arm?' Well did that get the 'team' moving! Turns out my drip had popped out! Classic.
The epi took effect within a minute and I was pain free. OMG, what a relief! The back pain I'd been experiencing was pure hell, I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy. I was so glad to be free of it and suprisingly not disappointed at all that I resorted to drugs in the end. I just knew that I wouldn't have made it. I have a strong pain threshold but that was something else. I was so pleased that I'd made it through 6 hours without drugs, I was ready to relax.
My OB returned to check on me a few minutes later and I had a massive show. It seems like I was moving into transition when I screamed out for the epi. My OB did an internal and discovered I was 9cms!! I almost made it on my own :wall: I was so annoyed at first but got over that pretty quickly and was just proud that I got that far without drugs. Now I just had to wait for the epi to wear off so I could feel the sensation to push. This took 2 hours, a lot longer than we expected, so we just talked and DH and my sister ate a bit of lunch while I snacked on lollies. Bubs was monitored and her heart rate was dropping a bit here and there but was mostly stable so all was good. We laughed at how quickly the circumstances changed - screaming out in pain one second and laying on the bed laughing about it, pain free, the next. Bizarre. We also decided on the names. If it was a boy it would be Oliver Ash and a girl would be Isobel Elsie. I couldn't stop looking at the little plastic bassinet in the corner and smiling knowing that our beautiful, long awaited baby would be snuggled up in there soon.
At roughly 2pm I had enough feeling (PAIN!) to start pushing. My middy and my sister held a leg each while DH held cool washes on my forehead and I pushed and pushed. I had always been worried about pooing in labour but I found at that 1. you don't even really know it's happening and 2. it apparently means you have a good pushing technique, as my middy informed us. As she wiped my bum (how glamourous for my sister who was helping at the business end!) she congratulated me on my technique and said bubs would arrive in no time at all.
My midwife kept telling me I was doing so well but she couldn't work out why we weren't getting anywhere as 45 minutes later there was still no baby. Suddenly a massive contraction hit me in the back again and I screamed in agony. I have never, ever felt pain like that. I screamed out for help and they quickly flipped me over onto all fours. It helped a bit but the pain was still out of this world. I seriously thought I was going to die. My middy decided to check if there was any head on show but she couldn't find a mirror. I found out later that my sister grabbed my compact from my makeup bag and they used that! PMSL!! Anyway, there was no head on show so it was time to call in the OB. Something just wasn't right.
I can't remember him doing it but the OB had a quick look and feel around and confirmed that bubs was posterior. I knew it! It looks like the massive amounts of fluid I had kept bubs moving around as the backpain wasn't constant until a lot later in my labour.
My OB explained that the baby was getting distressed and we had to get it out. He said he would turn the baby then use the vacuum and together we would get it out in no time. I was ready to meet our baby so was more than happy with his plan. He explained that as our baby had been stuck, it would have a cone head and the vacuum would make it a double cone head so he said it wouldn't be pretty but assured us it would disappear in no time. Boy am I glad he warned us as it was horrendous! Anyway, my epi was topped up and I was pain free again so I had to be instructed when to push. My OB turned our baby with his hands and the vacuum. I was glad I didn't feel any pain as the sensation was uncomfortable enough. DH informed me that 'every tool in the shed was up there' at that point. What a pretty picture he painted for me! PMSL.
After the baby was turned, I had three more contractions, with a pause in between while bubs crowned, and I felt a huge relief as our baby slithered out! Our little bundle (with one seriously deformed head!) was placed in my arms and the umbilical cord was moved to reveal the we had a gorgeous daughter!! DH, my sister and I cried. Everyone had been hoping it was a girl (my sister has two boys) and we couldn't quite believe we now had a little princess in the family. It was the most surreal moment, I will never forget it.
Birthing a posterior baby sure was hard but I'm so happy with how I coped and so were both my OB's. They actually said my body was made for birthing (I didn't even tear although I did develop a nasty hemorrhoid) and next time should be a lot easier, even if it's another posterior baby. Heaven forbid!
Stats -
Isobel Elsie born 5 September 2009 at 3.10pm (due date was 14 September)
labour: 9 hours including 1 hour of pushing (9cms dialated in 6 hours)
weight: 6lb 8oz
length: 49cm
HC: 34cm
Apgar scores: 9 and 10
