Two very different homebirth stories! Elly and Leila xox
ELLY WENDY 29th JANUARY 2010
During Elly's pregnancy, my husband was working in Melbourne, about 4 hours away from where we lived. I'd been forced onto maternity leave since 7 ½ months pregnant, so work wasn't an issue for me going into labour. My midwives all lived an hour away from me, and I had no friends or relatives who lived close by either. I started with period pains about 7am on a Thursday morning, my husband's birthday. My midwife (forgetting I live so far out of town) suggested I waste some time over the next few hours until we were sure this wasn't a false alarm, by having a shower, going to the supermarket, etc. So I did both. The hot water ran out, more on that later, and contractions really started to ramp up whilst I was still at the supermarket, and I had to drive 25km home from there! Contractions became very fast and furious once I got home, and all the ingredients I had bought for my husband's birthday cake were still all over the place when my midwives came about 7pm. Husband had still not arrived, turning up about 9pm, just before daylight disappeared. He then had to work on filling the pool with saucepans, stockpots, kettle, everything, using both the stovetop and the bbq to boil the water. Finally, contractions had the better of me, and I asked for an internal just to prove to myself this wasn't all for nothing, as neither my plug nor my waters had shown yet. About 10pm I was 5cm with waters bulging. About 11pm the pool was finally ready, at last!!!!! Until this stage, probably due to the long wait for the midwives and the husband, I had been very tense and fighting the contractions every step of the way. I could not dance my way through them, and my vocalisations were more high-pitched screams than they were gutteral vocalisations working their way through the pain. I think adrenaline from all those hours on my own had well and truly taken over. The water was suuuuuch a relief. But I did overheat pretty quickly, and had to get out and into the shower for some cold water, which brought on a really painful contraction and my plug arrived. Then it was back to the bath, with Elly not far away at all! Elly arrived at 12:38am Friday morning, after only about 10 mins of pushing which were the clearest part of my labour, all of a sudden all the pain and fighting stopped, and suddenly my body took over and I was calm and relaxed and my body just eased her out like it had been doing this all my life, it was amazing! She was born in her caul (her amniotic sac) which popped when her body came, and then she floated up into my arms, all calm and perfect! It was wonderful! My placenta did not want to come for an hour and a half, and we were finally giving up on delivering it in the pool, and I was standing up to climb out, and suddenly it came! The cord was left to pulse out and once it was cut I was in the shower, amazingly the hot water had come back just in time! All up, labour was 17 ¾ hours, Elly was 6 pound 10, 46cm long, and 32cm head.
LEILA SAM 8th SEPTEMBER 2012
Leila's birth was very different. Period pains started at 3:12am, and became contractions very quickly, being regular 5 minutes apart and by 2 hours later were already 4 mins apart and 1 minute long. My friend arrived about 6am to help with Elly and my midwives arrived about 7am. Even though this time I had not wasted water in a shower, the hot water service did not cope and the pool never got filled, the now-ex husband never bothered to show up, so my back up midwife did everything she could with stockpots and an urn, but my labour was too quick, so I missed out on a waterbirth this time. But those hours of early labour were wonderful, I was relaxed and dancing to Bon Jovi in my loungeroom, the fire was burning beautifully, and my daughter was sleeping. Even later hearing the kids play while I laboured was awesome, and even more wonderful was when Elly would come and rub my back while I was in contractions, not so good when she'd jump on the bed during them however! My plug came after a really nasty contraction about 6:30am and this time I actually got to see what it looked like, whereas last time I was too close to transition so never focused on it. About 9am my midwives decided that I'd be better off in the bathroom using the toilet to help the baby move down, as being on all fours was not seeming to get me anywhere, and I couldn't stand or kneel, my pelvis was falling apart and my legs just could not hold me up without giving out after a few seconds. So to the bathroom, but while the pushing urges were stronger there, I was still not getting the full push with each contraction. My waters broke whilst on the toilet, and there was a slight green tinge of meconium. My midwife was starting to get concerned that the shoulder might be stuck, due to the lack of being able to push the entire contraction, despite how hard I was trying. And she was right! She tried inserting her hand up beside Leila's head once she'd crowned, and could not dislodge the shoulder, so they tried to support me standing for a contraction, which didn't work either, so I was moved back to the floor, almost on my back, for the MacRobert's manouevere (legs pulled right up to my shoulders) and the backup midwife applied suprapubic pressure (firm push on the shoulder from above my pubic bone) during my next push, and the combination of these two manoueveres got the shoulder free, but then I had to push her body out, oh my god! This girl was a big one compared to Elly that was for sure! The cord was compressed during all the “stuck” time, so Leila came out with only a 60 beat heart rate, and not breathing, so oxygen was applied and within a minute her heart was back up to 120 bpm and she was breathing. Her cord was cut really quickly unfortunately, and she was slightly jaundiced over her first week, which I'm sure is a result of not receiving that much needed blood after being deprived of it during her way out and in her first few minutes. Placenta was delivered about 10 minutes later sitting on the toilet, and was a strange shape, like those broken heart best friend necklace charms. Ambulance was called while we were attempting to get the shoulder free as a precaution, and so we had to go to hospital after it was all over for a few hours observations and to check out Leila's shoulders, but all was ok. All up labour only went for 7 hours, Leila was 53cm long, 36cm head, and 8 pound 11 ½!!! (The ex husband never bothered to turn up till the next afternoon, he'd been visiting his family and taking his father to routine hospital appts, and his other family members couldn't let him leave to go to his child's birth apparently. His loss, he missed his child's birth, and he'll NEVER get a chance to do it again.)
Elly's labour was long and hard, and lonely, but her birth was WONDERFUL!
Leila's labour was LOVELY and MAGICAL, but her birth was traumatic but safe in the hands of my trusted and experienced midwives.
I'd never freebirth, but I'm glad I wasn't at the hospital too, as some have suggested I might have been better off in the hospital, but I'm very glad I was at home. Hospital would have been terrifying in this circumstance, and yet the midwives never took my baby out of my sight or reach, I was rubbing her while they were applying the oxygen, and they even explained every manouevere while they did it, I was never left in the dark wondering what was going on.
Very sad to say this will probably be my last, as the marriage is over. Packing up the unused pool was a very teary time. Pregnancy is hard for my body (liver condition) but birth is amazing and wonderful, and I'd love to do it again and again and again, even after experiencing the shoulder dystocia. And I'll always be sad that I never had a boy either. But I have two wonderful girls, one cheeky little bot Elly, and one fatty boombah Leila, and fingers crossed she's a good sleeper and doesn't put me through 2 ½ years of insomniac hell! Very proud of my girls, and very proud of my births!
Two very different homebirth stories! Elly and Leila xox
