My and Aurelia's birth story
This is the story of how I gave birth to my daughter, Aurelia. It's quite unusual for a couple of reasons; my water broke in a huge gush long before my contractions and my daughter was born 10 days early, probably because she decided she wanted to share her birthday with her grandmother!
Aurelia was due on the 19/9, but my waters broke on the 8/9, at about 2am. I had been sleeping for something like 20 hours pretty much non-stop because I had a bad flu, and when i woke up from this sleep i blew my nose, and my water broke! I had to pee quite badly and at the time, I thought that the noseblowing had actually made me wet myself! I tried to stop myself from "peeing" but it kept coming out - as I was sitting on my bed! I ran to the toilet and sat down and it stopped soon after. It was then that I realized that my waters had actually broken! :cryinglaugh: I was a bit freaked out so I called for my partner (as I was sitting on the loo) and told him what happened. He was most excited! We called my maternity hospital and they said to try and sleep if possible (it wasn't) and to call them back during the day with an update. Nothing was happening at all, except that i'd used up all my clean underwear because of the fluid leakage! At around 2pm, I was told to go into the hospital.
The plan was to artificially start my contractions, because they like you to deliver within 24 hours of your waters breaking. Instead, they (the obstetrician I suppose, I only dealt with the midwives) decided to wait and see if my contractions started on theur own. By about 5, I started having mild contractions, I was moving around in the ward and bouncing on the ball to get things going and it was working. My partner had a nap (he stayed up all night with me, he hadn't slept before like I had), and as the contractions became more intense, I perched myself on a seat in the shower with the hot water alternating from being aimed at my back (I had a lot of back pain all through pregnancy and in labour as well) and my stomach. I was in and out of the shower a little bit, and at one point a midwife asked if I wanted a sleeping tablet. The only way I would've been able to sleep would be if they knocked me out with a general anaesthetic or a baseball bat - i was in pain!
Around midnight, a midwife came to check on me and found me in the shower, and suggested that I go to the labour suite into the birthing pool (the plan was that I would stay on the ward until I was uncomfortable). I stayed there for a while, my contactions because very painful, very long and very close together. They were going for about a minute, and coming every two minutes. I thought wow, things must be really moving along! I asked a midwife to check me and she found that I was only ONE CENTIMETRE DILATED! :wall: At this point I completely freaked out. How long was this going to take?! How much more painful was this going to get?! I asked for pain relief, but - lol - they liked you to be at least 4cm before they give you anything. So i went back into the bath and was freaking out and crying and in pain. In all honesty, I really think that some support from the midwives on duty would've helped A LOT but I was barely spoken to. The ward wasn't busy so its not like they were doing anything. Looking back on it, my experience would've been a lot better if someone had just talked to me and helped me feel less scared. Anyway, eventually my partner convinced them that I needed something and they gave me gas, which didn't really help.
It worked once, because you have to be so precise with the timing. You have to inhale on the exact moment the contraction starts, but you don't know that its started until you feel it - so the gas just doesn't work (this is how it was for me, anyway.) I spent the next part of labour feeling drunk. I even said to my partner, "If i wasn't in agony right now, this [being high from the gas] would be fun!" He kept telling me to lay off the gas, saying that having too much gas and not enough oxygen would kill brain cells and make my contractions more painful (both of which are true - muscles ache when they're deprived of oxygen). I just replied "BUT I'M STILL IN PAIN!!!!"
So this went on for a while, until eventually the midwife checked me again and i was 4cm dilated. They called the anaesthetist, and he gave me an epidural and ooooh my god it felt amazing. My pain was gone, I felt uber-relaxed and tingly. My legs went numb and wobbly, which was a bit annoying because I practically had to be carried to the bathroom. The epidural is slightly narcotic, which is why I felt so good, aparently. So I slept for a few minutes (by the time I had the epi, it wouldn't been maybe 1 or 2am and i hadn't slept), and relaxed. A few hours went by. I had a top up when the pain started again and more time passed. At about 6am or so, I suppose, I was in pain again but they had to wait for the obstetrician before giving me anything else. Eventually when he arrived, I was given another kind of narcotic in my epidural, which got rid of my contractions. But then I started getting this feeling of pressure, which was Aurelia decending down the birth canal. I coped with it by gently pushing (I was about 8cm at this point), but the pressure became more and more extreem. Eventually, I was told to push properly to get the baby out, the midwives helped me turn onto my fours and grip the bed, the top of which was raised. I pushed like this for a long time, maybe an hour and 15 mins, until they decided that I should push on my back, sitting up a bit. Well Aurelia came very quickly as I did this. The pushing was just amazing, it felt like I was pushing so hard, my whole body was about to turn inside out! It felt like every cell in my body was pushing. I can't even describe it.
So she decended and I felt her head crowning, the midwife told me I could feel her head. It was so amazing! I could tell that she was going to have a lot of hair. So this helped me continue, the midwives had stopped instructing me a while ago, I didn't need help. It was like my primal nature took over. At some point my partner said "Stop pushing and have a break" and I said "I can't stop pushing I'm having a baby!!!" As her head crowned, I felt a burning sensation in my vagina but it wasn't painful (it might be under normal circumstances but its not during labour). As her head was being born, I kept thinking with each push, "She's almost here, one more push and she'll be here" but I was wrong! It just kept going and going and going and going and going, it was so scary! I was worried my vagina wouldn't be able to handle it!
Eventually I felt a "POP" and she was born, it wasn't like they say it is where the head is born, then a shoulder, then the baby slips out. As soon as her head popped, everything else followed. She didn't cry because she'd passed meconium as she was being born, and was hypothermic (presumably because I was so hot from the effort and from having the flu). They sucked the meconium out of her, cleaned her up a bit and then gave her to me. It was so amazing! I was expecting a little version of me but as soon as I saw her, the first moment I saw her, I realized she wasn't a little me, she was her own person in her own right. Her head was cone-shaped from the pressure of coming down the birth canal and her little nose was squashed. They put her on my chest and she held herself up for a second and looked right at me! Then her eyes just rolled around for a bit.
They then took her off to the nursery while they delivered the placenta and did my stitches (I needed three stitches for two first degree tears). This is all the obstetrician did, while I was in labour, he was sitting in a chair whistling and waiting lol. I was terrified of the stitches and everyone thought I was completely silly, being afraid of something like that when I'd just given birth.
So they gave me something to eat, because I hadn't eaten in all this time, and then let me sleep. It was amazing!
So that's my labour. I saw my mum after I gave birth as well, she wanted to be there but by the time she arrived at the hospital, i was at the pushing stage and couldn't handle the introduction of another person to what was going on. I was so dizzy and sleepy and high, i don't remember much though I do remember she was crying, it was so cute.
And that is how I brought my daughter into the world
:D
