The Birth of Hendrix John Mills
Throughout pregnancy DH and i read a lot of books and attended both prenatal classes as well as a hypnobirthing course. In all of these you are constantly informed that labour is a very long process and that when the first contraction occurs you have a long way to go and to stay at home relax, sleep if its night, if its day go about your normal duties. So when on Saturday 25th June at nine o'clock i felt my first contraction i thought it would either stop or we were in for the long haul. I know everyone says how will you know its a real contraction and as everyone says you will just know. Anyway i didnt tell DH until the second one came (which was five minutes later), and he looked a little excited but did as he was trained and didnt go into a panic, expecting that this would go on all night. Thirty five minutes later having had contractions every 5 minutes i told DH i was going to call my mum and tell her i thought i might have been in labour. These contractions were strong but as long as i stopped what i was doing and practised my hypnobirthing breathing i could get through it fine.
While on the phone to mum i had a contraction and then another what i thought was five minutes apart but mum said that it had only been three minutes. At the end of the phone call i said that she wasnt to tell anyone as labour might stop or go on for a while and i didnt want well intentioned people calling. She advised that mike start timing the contractions.
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After the conversation with mum the contractions were getting stronger so i got into the shower and asked mike to call the birthing centre. As expected she said that first labours generally take a long time so just to continue and relax. She also said her shift was ending and sarah would be on and to call her when things got going.
I just remember going from silently breathing through the contractions to suddenly having to moo through them. I remember at our prenatal class practising birthing positions and making what i thought were ridiculous deep mooing type groans and thinking there is no way i am going to make those noises, well i was making them without even thinking about them and i was loud (the poor neighbours!!). An hour after our first call to the birthing centre i said to DH i want to go the hospital now. In all the literature and stuff ive read they say you just know when youve got to go. Well half of me knew i had to go and the other half was thinking you cant possibly be anywhere near needing to go you must have the lowest pain thresehold ever. I then started vomiting and shaking and DH rang the birthing centre again. The midwife sarah heard me mooing while on the phone and told us to come in if we felt that we should.
DH got of the phone and said maybe we should just go to bed - i said i have to go to the hospital but dont be angry if they tell us we have to come back home.
The worst thing was the car drive to the hospital as we had the babies seat set up in the back seat so i had to sit in the front passenger seat and through each contraction which were now about 1.5-2 minutes apart i had to kneel up on the seat facing the back of the car and growl through the contraction. DH stopped at a petrol station to buy some gatorade as i hadnt been able to keep any water down and while we were parked there some young girls dressed up to the nines going out on the town were quite worried about the state of me - i dont know what they thought i was doing.
Thankfully the car trip only took about 15 minutes and we parked in the carpark (where i vomited again) and then walked to the b/c where i had 2 more contractions on the way. I then had another in the foyer of the hospital while DH signed us in. We were shown to our suite by the midwife where she explained that she was actually delivering another baby and since it was the womens second it was happening very quickly. I stripped off my clothes and was moving around trying to get comfortable and she asked if i wanted an internal then before she went back to the other woman. I said yes but that iwas scared she would tell me i hadnt even started dilating and didnt want to go back in the car. I got up on the bed and she did the internal and said i was 8cm dilated!!!! The relief i felt at this time was huge as i really wanted a completely natural birth and at this stage thought i couldnt possibly deal with anymore pain had i not progressed. I told the midwife i wanted a water birth but she said that until she had delivered the other baby she couldnt let us get in the bath so i would have to use the shower. The hot water on my back while i lent over the bath was such a pain relief it was awesome, so through each contraction i DH would place a hot towel under my belly as well use the really hot water on my lower back.
The midwife was back and forward to check on us and was quite worried that we would feel abandoned but at no stage did i feel slightly stressed DH and i coped really well and knew she was just a buzzer away. After about half an hour this big bulge came out of my vagina and i put my hand down and thougth it was a hernia or something i paniced at this stage thinking the midwife would say i had to be rushed to surgery but she came straight away and said it was the membranes, which she tried to burst with her fingers but she said they were really tough so she got some forcepts and broke the membrane - there was a huge gush of fluids and a great relief of pressure from my back. Approx half an hour after this i had the urge to do a really big poo and i knew that this could mean the baby was coming down the birth canal. The midwife came in as she had delivered the baby (the timing was perfect) and started to run the bath which i somehow managed to get into. I told her i needed to do a poo and needed to push and she told me to push with my body. DH lent over the edge of the bath and i braced against him and pushed with each contraction and after about 6 pushes and around 15 minutes she said she could see the head, one more push she said and your babies head will be born. We then gave one more push and the body was born she lifted our baby from the water and placed him on my belly. The pushing second stage was over in 20 minutes. The first feeling was shock and then seconds later we realised we didnt even know whether we had a son or daughter. The midwife lifted our beautiful baby and we saw it was a boy. He gave a lamb bleat for a cry and then settled. The midwife lifted him while my husband lifted me and we were carried to the bed to birth the placenta. We waited for the cord to stop pulsating and then the cord was clamped and DH cut it. I was going to have a spontaneous third stage but i told the midwife i just wanted it out so i had an injection and birthed the placenta straight away. While i was birthing the placenta DH held hendrix skin to skin with his shirt off. Hendrix was then put straight to the breast where he suckled for about 20 minutes. Hendrix was then dressed and measured and weighed while i had a shower and got dressed. I was very lucky as i only got two grazes so no stitches were necessary (do perineal massage everyday it really works). We then all got into bed and slept there until morning. I didnt get much sleep approx 1.5 hours as i couldnt take my eyes off my beautiful son. We left the hospital 12 hours after the birth as we were on the early discharge program which entitled us to have a midwife visit the house for three days. So all in all our labour lasted 4 hours and 20 minutes with hendrix being born at 1:20am sunday morning. It was the most intense amazingly beautiful experience of our lives and while it was so painful i would do it again and again and again. Our labour bag which had music and aromatherapy oils, massage oil, lipbalm, rescue remedy never got opened as it was all over it seemed before it began.
DH really was involved so much with our pregnancy and read heaps and knew everything that i knew and was the most amazing birth partner. He read what i needed before i did kept my breathing on track and really supported me from the word go - it was because of his amazing support that i never even thought about having any drugs even though while in transition in the car on the way to hospital i asked for an epidural and he said no we dont want that. I suppose what i learnt is that you really cannot tell what will happen in your labour and you really have to be open minded and while i was blessed with a very short labour i always had an open mind that what i planned may not have happended. I really suggest hypnobnirthing though and truely believe that it was one of the reasons my labour was so short (it has been shown to shorten the length of labour).
Hendrix is one week old today and im truely enjoying being a mum and i really cant wait to have another baby!!
