The birth of Milla 27/8/07
The birth of Milla Elizabeth was a really positive experience us.
From about 38 weeks I was already getting quite impatient as my mum had had three kids all a little bit early, and I hoped ours would be an early one too. I am also a naturally early, on-time, never late kind of person!
Despite our best efforts to naturally induce the labour (walking, curries, nipple stimulation, raspberry leaf tea, sex sex sex...), it wasn’t until 11:30pm on the night before her official due date that our little girl decided she was almost ready to arrive. I went to bed and was reading a magazine when my membranes ruptured – it was an unmistakable gush of waters, but I jumped in the shower before more and more poured out. We called the hospital (Royal Brisbane and Womens) and were told to come in, although I hadn’t had any contractions. I had had a lot of Braxton Hicks’, but since I had had them frequently from about 5 months in to the pregnancy, I hadn’t taken much notice of them.
We got to the hospital at 12:30am, and after quite a wait to see a Doctor my contractions were timed as being 2 minutes apart, and lasting 40 seconds, but they were not causing me any pain at all, and the Doctor suggested I go home, and wait til they were “eye wateringly, toe curlingly painful and regular”. The Doctor scared me by already outlining the induction procedure for if my labour hadn’t started itself within a certain number of hours. I was so anxious to avoid that, and was quite confused as to what constituted ‘real labour’ if my regular 2 minute contractions weren’t it! I had also expected to have painful contractions every 30 minutes or so, but mine seemed to start at only 2 minutes apart. I could certainly feel them, but they weren’t painful like I thought they would be to start with. By about 3am, just as we were about to go home in a state of confusion, a nurse suggested that I stay in hospital as there was a private room free, and I could get some sleep and not have to worry about travelling back and forward. That settled, DH went home, and I went to my room.
By this stage the contractions were starting to become more painful, and as soon as I lay on the bed and tried to sleep, they stepped up a notch and I felt nauseas. I sat on the toilet for a while, vomited, and eventually decided that this was real now, and that I should be in the birth suite, with DH – not alone in a ward battling through them! A nurse confirmed the contractions were lasting 50 seconds, and were two minutes apart, and I was able to call DH and get him to come straight back in to the hospital.
By 5:00am we were both in the birth suite, and my midwife confirmed that I was 2-3cm dilated, and that my cervix was thin and fully effaced. She said I would have the baby by lunch time, and I remember thinking that she was just saying that to be encouraging, and that surely it would take longer than that! I was in the shower on a swiss ball, and trying hard to keep some cordial down after vomiting several times.
I stayed mostly in the shower, on the peanut shaped swiss ball, with DH directing the water over my belly and back. When I was getting too cold, I moved to the gym mat but stayed on the swiss ball. I found that bouncing on the ball, and bashing the palm of my hand against something in a rhythm distracted me from the pain of the contractions. I also counted the ‘bangs’ in my head, but had to start the count at a different number each time, because I was worried I would get distressed if one contraction went for seemingly longer than the previous! It must have sounded like a construction site, with me slapping my wet hand against the wall of the shower for several hours! I had read a lot of books about active birth, and also Birth Skills by Juju Sundin and Sarah Murdoch, which had suggested the distraction techniques involving moving your arms and legs throughout contractions. This really worked for me. When I got out of rhythm, or was banging too fast, DH slowed me down. I tried walking in the hallway at one stage, but standing upright was too uncomfortable, and I really felt best on the swiss ball.
At around 6:30am I asked for the Entonox gas, and despite my initial fears that it would bring back more nausea, it worked well, and definitely took a little edge off the pain. I also found it helpful to focus on the noise of the mouthpiece as I breathed. Until then, I hadn’t really taken a lot of notice of my breathing. At around 8:00am (although time was a blur!) I think I must have had a really drowsy period where all I wanted to do was sleep, and I lay on the bean bag between contractions. The contractions had lost their regularity and were further apart. The midwife thought I might need an injection of something to get them back, but wanted to wait til 9am when she examined me before deciding anything. By 8:30, the contractions were really painful – some much more so than others. I was beginning to feel the urge to push in the middle of some of the more severe contractions, but recall the Midwife saying “just wait til 9am and well see where you’re at”. I watched the clock for half an hour, just waiting til 9:00!! As I stood up to get on the bed at 9:00 I had a very long, and very painful contraction, and was groaning and grunting, and really felt like pushing. I lay on the bed, on my back, and in what was the most uncomfortable time of the whole labour, the midwife examined me, and the baby’s head was turning, and I was having a contraction, all at the same time. But at last she told me that I was in fact 10cm dilated, and that I could start pushing! DH was really proud that I had made it to 10cm so quickly, and without any drugs – he said “I was hoping for 5cm, and already you’re 10!!!” I moved off the bed on to a birthing stool, and must only have stayed there for ten minutes or so, and just remember it being too uncomfortable, and thinking that I would have a huge bruise around my bum from sitting so hard in to it! I saw the baby’s head with the mirror, and was concerned at how crumpled it looked. I moved up to the bed, and got on all fours, leaning over a bean bag, with my hands gripping the bed-head. I pushed for about half and hour in total, and remember saying several times “don’t let me tear, I don’t want to tear”... I distinctly felt the stinging burning sensation as her head crowned, and I managed to pant my way through some little pushes, thus saving my perineum! Her head came out, and I waited til the next contraction to push out her shoulders and body. This took a few pushes, and her hand was up at her shoulder, which caused a tear to my labia on one side. She started crying straight away, and they passed her up to me. DH cut the cord, and we agreed that she would be called Milla Elizabeth. She started to look for the breast straight away, and was feeding within about 15 minutes. She was really alert right from the start, and I know it was because I had not used any drugs but gas, and that made it all worthwhile.
I had lost quite a lot of blood, and needed about 10 stitches, which was very uncomfortable. I felt pretty light headed and woozy when I stood up later for a shower, and I looked as pale as a ghost, but I felt OK, and was just amazed at how this baby had finally made it out!
She was born at 9:44am, weighed in at 3.18kg, measured 53cm in length, and had a head circumference of 32.3cm. She was perfectly on time - what a good girl!!
DH and I were both surprised at how fast the labour went. It was really all over in less than 10 hours, only 4 or 5 of which were painful. We had both read so much, and knew all the stages to go through, so were quite thrown that we didn’t know when we were in transition, or even really in pre-labour! Being in pain for about 5hours was actually completely manageable, and although I was really really tired, I felt in control the whole time. My theory is that my contractions were really very efficient, and that they were not painful at the beginning because my uterus was toned from both the raspberry leaf tablets I had been taking for two months, and the Braxton Hicks contractions I had had quite frequently from about the 5th month. I think the techniques I used to distract me from the pain worked, and because DH knew exactly what I was doing, and why, he could keep me focused on banging rhythmically. I was so glad I nagged him so much to read those books, and he was really well prepared. He really got in to it, and wished he could give birth too!
I couldn’t imagine how awful it would be to go through labour flat on your back in a bed – being active and sitting upright was the only way I could get through it.
I stayed in hospital for two nights, and apart from a little bit of jaundice, Milla has been perfectly healthy. I've had a few clots and lots of bleeding, but all is grand, and we're so happy to be a new little family :)
Bring on the next one!!!
