Barney’s water birth story
** After reading another positive birth story (VBAC in water) on another forum last year, I was so inspired to have a beautiful experience, which is what I got **
* PS – yes, I followed the hypnobirthing approach but I still refer to contractions and pain in this account, even though I didn’t during the birth *
On Thursday April 7, 2011 I had a Bowen massage (which is similar to acupressure – following the principles of energy flow throughout the body). My masseur and I had discussed a ‘special move’ she had, to invoke natural induction… however I decided against it as I felt mean evicting my baby from my womb. I was still comfortable and my due date was first the next day.
It turned out there was no need for the special move, as at 4am the next morning I woke at my usual time (ahhh… pregnancy insomnia) with very slight tightening across my front. Jonas and I started timing them, they were 10 mins apart however for 4 hours, I didn’t think they were anything more than Braxton hicks. Indeed when I called into the family birth centre at 7.30am, the midwife told me that these were most likely false labour and that it potentially could go on for 2 more weeks. At this stage, they were all over the place, sometimes five minutes apart, sometimes one was a doozy (like really bad period pain), sometimes I really couldn’t tell when they started and ended.
Having stood up to make the call and get brekky ready for Archie (around 7.30-8), things started progressing rather rapidly. I felt quite nauseous and I remember writing to my internet group of similarly-pregnant mummies that I didn’t know how I was going to cope with the real thing. I entered a phase of depression and feeling quite sorry for myself and decided to go lie down again, as lying down earlier had meant that these Braxton hicks were so much easier to handle.
Whilst lying down, I found the need to groan (still, no bells rang!) and I was pretty upset at this stage – how was I going to handle the real birth? After jumping into the shower, I felt the need to “stomp the sillies out” with Archie (one of my son’s favourite songs/dances) and by then I got really cranky and my body decided that we were going in to hospital. My mind countered with the thought that if I was only 1-2cm, atleast someone had seen me.
So things got quite rushed, as Jonas fussed with trying to get Archie dressed and I rang my hypnotherapist, mum and a neighbour to say we were leaving now. A sudden change from sms’ earlier that day when I had said I’d be atleast another 3 hours and nothing was likely to happen today anyway. One of the things I am really sad about is screaming at Jonas to “forget the ****ing pants and get in the ****ing car” so that people in Sydney could hear me and my son Archie looked at me startled. Luckily our neighbour Rena turned up to look after Archie and we got in the car, put on the hypnobirthing CD and as I lay back and fell into my relaxed state (interrupted occasionally to bang on the windows with such force that Jonas thought I’d punch them out – an interesting mix of “active birthing” and hypnobirthing!!), things settled down once again.
Luckily driving-like-a-maniac runs in Jonas’ family, so getting to the hospital by 9.30am was a quick affair (it’s normally a 40 minute drive but I think he got it down by half). As he parked the car I went to ER myself, found a security guard to escort me to the FBC and proceeded to lie on the couch – my favourite position. One of the midwives asked me to get up, which was really pushing the friendship, especially as I just met her. After being examined I was told that the midwife “couldn’t find the cervix” – I asked for a second opinion, and my full dilation was confirmed. This was a little bit surreal but boy, did that pregnancy tonic work on me!
Just before I had been examined I had decided that there was no way around this, and I had to go through it…. and I was only going to take 5 mins at a time. Little did I know how right I was! I waddled across the corridor to get to the bath (in retrospect, the amount of walking I did during transition/at full dilation is pretty phenomenal), got in the bath and my waters broke. I believe that they broke once my mind realised I was safe and in a secure environment. I had already needed to poo when we were at home – it could easily have been a home birth if my body hadn’t taken over and got me to hospital.
The pelvic floor exercises I had been practising in the months up to the birth came in handy as I pushed out the baby bit by bit. I lay on my back as the only bath available was a standard size long bath, not deep enough to be on all fours as I had hoped. The midwife mentioned that the baby was nearly born, which I was very sceptical of, until I felt the head, halfway out. After another push, the head was out (relief!) and the baby lay suspended under the water, like it was in a little sleeper cell… it was like an extension of the womb… so peaceful. Finally whoosh – out came the body and I noticed the unmistakeable swollen nuts of a baby boy and said “welcome Barney”. There was our little miracle, who screamed the cry of a newborn and was a purplish colour, scoring 8 on the APGAR test. We sat in the water for a little while together, writing this makes me miss him (he’s been asleep for the past 2 hours).
After debating with the midwife about why I couldn’t birth the placenta in the water (risk of infection), I stood up and out plopped the placenta…. quite unexpectedly. Luckily I had good hold of Barney!
(If there is a) next time, I will have a water birth at home… no more messing around in the car. I know I can do this and birth easily – I have grown in confidence since the last time. The hypnotherapy session and relaxation worked a charm and I didn’t know/believe I was in labour until the midwife said I was fully dilated!
Thanks to my lovely hubby (who again got bitten, trying to coax me across the hallway to the bath midway through a contraction) and the fantastic staff at the Angliss family birth centre.
This was a dream birth.
Barnaby Gustaf Ivan Blomqvist – born at 10.09am on April 8, 2011.
