The Birth of Briley Jean Harvey
My pregnancy had been pretty good. I did have bad morning sickness in the first four months then the usual ailments like heartburn, back pain and high blood pressure towards the end. My due date May 30 came and went to my disappointment and at my 40 week visit I was booked in for an induction on the 9 June.
On the 4th I was getting some, of what I thought were, pretty painful Braxton hicks which came and went so I though nothing of it. We had dinner with some friends that night but made an early night of it. I woke at about 4am for the usual toilet visit. As I lent forward to clean myself I felt a bubble of air rise into my stomach then heard a “pop” followed by a gush. At the time I wasn’t sure wether is was my waters or more pee coming out!!! I rang the birthing suite and explained my situation and was asked to come in but to take my time and they were very busy. I called mum and arranged to meet her at the hospital. Almost immediately my contractions started, along with the vomiting. I had a hot shower and we left.
We arrived at the hospital at 5.30am and I was put on the CTG to monitor bubs heart beat and my contractions. Contractions were lasting 30 seconds to 1 minute and were about 2-3 minutes apart. I was examined at 7.30 and found to be 2-3cm. I was then left to labour with my Brent and my mum by my side. The contractions were then around 30 seconds apart but still very erratic. Because of this the Dr wanted give me drugs to increase the intensity of the contractions as they didn’t believe they were lasting long enough for me to be dilating enough. By this time I was having a little trouble with the pain and asked for some pethidine. I later tried the gas but hated the feeling it gave me. It scared me. The pethidine made me very drowsy but I am glad that I had it as I really rested between contractions. The only time I moved from the bed was to go to the toilet and when I tried the shower.
The Dr and midwife later returned for another examination and to place a trace on the baby’s as they were having trouble keeping track of her heart beat while I was on the CTG. My blood pressure was also on the rise. It reached 145/110. During that examination I was told I was 6cm and that the baby was in the posterior position. This examination was extremely painful as the contraction were then so close together. I got pretty cranky with the Dr for this as I was asking him to stop but he kept going. It really hurt. Not long after this I started to notice that my body was pushing during contractions. I then realised it was time for me to push. It was 12.10pm
At first I wasn’t pushing correctly and would only push for as long as the contraction lasted, but worked it out after a while. The midwife was really good. Her name was Mandy. After a few of these she wanted me too push up too four times during one contaction which was hard cause they were still only lasting around 30 seconds. They must have been long enough though because her head was starting to emerge. When her head was coming down into the birth canal it was the most amazing feeling. Pushing was hard because my bum was sore from pushing down into it. I really had to convince myself to go back and do it again. As the head was crowning the pain was UN-BELIEVE-ABLE!!! I felt like I was going to tear up into my labia. Next push and the head was out. The baby had lots of hair and as I was on all fours I couldn’t see. Everyone was then guessing wether it was a boy or a girl. Brent guessed a boy and mum a girl. When the time came to push again I pushed once and had stop as her shoulder were in an awkward position. After they adjusted them I pushed once more and after 8 hours of labour and 1 hour pushing out she came with eyes wide open at 1.21pm. I still couldn’t see her because of the position I was in, but was told it was a girl. I couldn’t believe she was a girl. I really expected a boy. Afer the cord was cut I then was allowed to turn around and lay on the bed. She was then passed to me. After nursing her for a while I delivered the placenta. I was then checked for any tears but only had a few grazes.
Briley Jean was then weighed and measured. She was 8 pound 3 ounces and 51cm long. She had a head circumfrence of 31cm. She also received apgar scores of 9 and 10.
Overall I am extremely happy with the labour and delivery that I had. I am very proud that I did it without an epidural as this is something I had wanted to do without. The scary thing is I can't to go back and do it all over again!!!
