Coleman's Birth story!

Coleman’s birth story (sorry it’s a bit long…)

On Thursday June 30th at 7pm I finished up on the Internet, stood up and my waters broke. At first it was just a trickle, so I went to the bathroom to clean myself up, very excited indeed. A friend had just arrived for a visit so my husband saw him back out to his car, meanwhile I felt the rest of my water about to burst. So I dashed for the front door so as not to ruin the carpet, and made it to the deck in time to lose the lot. And I mean THE LOT. Poor Lucy was following me around looking bewildered, and got quite upset as I started yelling out to Phil down the driveway!

So we trekked on in to the hospital to confirm waters had broken. My contractions had started but were only mild, and about 7mins apart. We decided not to bother with an internal but return home. I was determined to have as little intervention as possible so we returned home to see what happened. Phil napped on the couch while my contractions got stronger and stronger (thank god for Big Brother Up-late!)

By 2am they were pretty strong and 3mins apart so I thought it was time to head back to the birthing centre so I could take advantage of the bath. We drove through really thick fog at about 40kms p/hr so the 10min drive ended up taking about 1/2hr much to the discomfort of my poor back. Bubs was presenting posterior when we had been checked out earlier, so all the pain was in my back so far.

Once we were in I got checked out just so I would know how far there was to go. I was 4cm so had awhile yet. I tried the shower but it made me too dizzy, so jumped in the bath to have a float. I stayed in there for the next 3hrs, with Phil napping on the floor and jumping up when I had a contraction to poor cups of warm water over my lower back. I stayed on all fours the whole time, every time I tried to sit or float on my back the pain was too much so my poor knees and wrists bore the brunt of my rocking around. (I have skinned toes and knees to prove it!) I had some rescue remedy with me and this helped calm me down and concentrating on breathing the baby down and relaxing all my muscles to help him out. I can remember breathing in lots of energy and saying over and over again “Let go Let go Let go” as I breathed it out, which helped me remember to let go of any muscles I had tensed up. This really worked for me cos I would let go of muscles I didn’t even realise I had tensed, and the pain would subside somewhat. I hadn’t planned this, but in labour it felt the right thing to do.

After awhile I decided the water wasn’t working anymore and was starting to feel a bit claustrophobic in there so headed back to the bed and draped myself over the raised end, again kneeling. I was 8cms now and in transition, and was starting to freak out a bit so had some gas for distraction. It didn’t really take away the pain but just the action of putting it in my mouth etc helped take my mind off the pain.

Then it was time to push so we ditched the gas so I could concentrate. I found that breathing the baby out was much less painful than forcefully pushing, so my midwives coached my through that. After 25mins Cole’s head was out, quickly followed by the rest of him. He had the cord wrapped around his neck, and again around his shoulders with one arm bent up next to his head – no wonder it bloody hurt! He had a bit of oxygen to get him going, and then was fine. Somehow I managed to not tear, just a few grazes.

Coleman Philip O’Reilly measured 52cm long, head 36.5cm and weighed in at 8lb 9.5oz (3900gms). A much larger baby than Lucy, but a much more positive birth and my body feels a lot less battered and bruised for it too. I am so glad I can remember this birth and was more active in it and made the decisions I felt right for me at the time, rather than being told what to do etc. I can’t recommend birthing centre’s enough, the midwives were fantastic! They knew from all my checkups that I didn’t want pethidine, epidural etc, so even when I was going nuts in transition and begging for everything under the sun, they just said no and reassured me I was doing a good job, which really helped. Phil was fantastic, and told me funny stories about Lucy to distract me during the really tough contractions, which was great.

Thank you to everyone for their advice and encouragement throughout this pregnancy, you’ve been great!

xxxCaz

Well done Caz, and thanks for sharing your story! It's fantastic that you got exactly the kind of birth that you were aiming for!

wow Caz, it is stories like this that just make me feel even stronger & more prepared to face the 'natural as possible' birth that I want.... Thank you so much for sharing! I really appreciate it! =D>

Wow Caz, great story!! Congratulations, it sounds like you had a really good birth experience - you did SO well!!! =D>

It brought back memories for me reading how your waters broke, cause my labour started in such a similar way to yours!

What a great story, Caz. Thanks for sharing with us and congratulations. :)

What a wonderful, positive birth story! You did really well. Congratulations. =D>

Congratulations Caz =D> Thanks for sharing your story.

Great brith story Caz, a very positive experience, so glad you felt better this time

Best wishes michelle

Thanks for sharing your story Caz, sounds like a wonderful birth - well done!

congrats Caz. =D> =D>

thanks for sharing your story

thanks for sharing your story caz. sounds like a really positive birthing experience,

Linda