From 4cm dilated to baby being born in 10 minutes!
I concieved my daughter through IVF with anon donor sperm. It was my 4th cycle and followed 13 months of private donor insemination which had followed 2 years of searching for the right donor... so it was a very long journey to get to the pregnancy stage.
During my pregnancy I had some issues including 2 major bleeds at 7.5 weeks which resulted in the emergency department doctor telling me I had lost the baby... but luckily they were wrong... my little girl is strong.
My little girl was due on the 28th August and my parents had being getting anxious for her to be born as they had been staying with me and needed to get back home to Melbourne (2 hours driveaway). My 14yr old daughter was also getting anxious for the baby to arrive as she wanted a break from her grandparents (who had been with us for almost a week) and she knew they would be staying until the baby arrived.
I had a big show and my waters broke at 11.20pm on the 29th Aug. Called out to my mum and she suggested we ring the hospital which we did. At that stage I was having pains but they didn't feel like what I remembered contractions to feel like. The hospital told us to ring back in an hour and also to take note of if I felt the baby moving (which I couldn't).
After an hour I had still had no movements from baby and the pains were getting quite intense but still didn't feel like contractions to me (though my dad noted from my noises that they did seem to be about 6 minutes apart). We rang the hospital and they said to make our way in. It was a 25minute drive in. We got a park fairly close but by that stage I was really struggling to walk and the pains were feeling more like contractions.
I got into the labour ward around 1am so on the hospital records they have recorded that the total labour was 2 and a half hours (2 hours 10 mins for stage 1, 5 mins for stage 2 and 15 mins for stage 3 - delivering the placenta).
Anyway they hooked me up to a monitor and found the contractions were really strong and just as with my 14yr old daughter, the baby's heart rate went down with each contraction so they were a little concerned.
I was moved to a birthing room and had my student midwife (who had been doing a "follow-thru" with me) and a male midwife. I tried to stand and walk a bit but it effected the monitors so in the end I was told I would have to lie on the bed (just like with my 14yr old). Anyway the pain was getting really bad and where I had refused to consider drugs when having my 14yr old (I got talked into pethadene at the very end) I was asking for it this time... begging actually. I said to my mum "Why did I want to have another one?". The student midwife did an internal and estimated I was only 4cm dilated. Then the male midwife did one and said I was only 3cm dilated. I couldn't bare the thought of another few hours before I would even be fully dilated. I wanted to try a new drug which is self-administered via drip but they needed a doctor to do it and all the doctors had been called away so I agreed to a pethadene shot instead. Well I think pethadene must just speed up my labour because just like with my 14yr old, bub was born within 10 minutes of me having the injection.
After having the needle I asked if I could go to the toilet. They took the monitor off and let me go since I was only 4cm dilated at the most so it was like I had heaps of time still.
Anyway the student came with me but then she said "I'll leave you in peace, call out if you need anything". I was sitting on the toilet and felt like I needed to push and I remembered her telling me that I couldn't push because I was not dilated enough so I tried not to push and then suddenly I felt something starting to come out between my legs. I stood up and put my hand there and thought I could feel the top of the baby's head. I screamed for the student. She came running in and I said "What is it?" because I thought it felt like the baby but if I was only 4cm dilated then obviously it couldn't be. She had a look and said she'd need to get gloves to have a closer look so she ran out to get gloves as there were none in the bathroom. She also pressed the emergency buzzer as she left, to get more help. As soon as she was out I felt the baby basically fall out between my legs (no pushing - nothing). I somehow managed to catch her as she came out and I just screamed because I was in shock!
The student came back in time to see me literally catch her and then she took hold of her and handed her back to me so I could hold her properly and walk back to the bed. The male midwife and another nurse arrived as we started to make our way back to the bed.
They let her lie on my chest for quite a while before even checking the time or doing anything else. I think we were all in shock how fast the last bit had happened - to go from 4cm dilated to the baby being out in around 10 minutes. It was 3.18 when they checked the time and my mum reckons it was 3.11 when I first emerged from the bathroom but they recorded her birth as being 3.15.
Anyway once she was out the contractions stopped completely so I needed quite a bit of help to get the placenta out. Basically the nurse and midwife had to manually pull it out.
For my next 2 days in hospital every new nurse who looked after me said they had heard about the spectacular birth in the bathroom. I said to the student midwife it was lucky that the male midwife did an internal on me after her or everyone would have thought she had just got it wrong. She had estimated I was 4cm dilated and he had estimated 3cm (after her) and he is apparently very experienced. They think it might have been the pressure of the baby pushing on the cervix when I walked to the toilet just sped things up. Also sitting on the toilet can apparently open up the cervix more. I think it must be my body’s response to Pethadene and I’ve been told it does work to relax those muscles so maybe thats what helped me go from 4cm dilated to the baby being born in 10 minutes.
Anyway amazingly I didn't tear so didn't need any stitches, however the poor little girl came out face first instead of the back of her head first so she is very bruised.
It took me 12 days to come up with a name for her that I liked. Her name is Danicia (pronounced Da-nee-sha) Kohana (pronounced Ko-ha-nah). I made up her first name from Danica and Leticia. Kohana is Japanese for "little flower".
She's now 2 weeks old and her bruising has almost all gone away.... just a small mark above one eye.
Lori
