Alana's Speedy Calm Birth
**I apologise in advance that this is so long!**
I put a lot of thought, prayer and research into my upcoming labour. My ideal was to use the calm birthing techniques I used with my second labour and to have an easy, positive, drug free labour. I thanked God daily that I would have exactly that and I felt peaceful about it, just knowing that it would all be OK.
A bit of background: My first labour was long, full of fear and painful, I was left extremely traumatised for a long time. When I fell pregnant with DS2 I researched relaxation and breathing techniques to reduce pain and fear in labour. I used those techniques during his labour and they worked wonderfully, I walked into the hospital with 3 minute apart contractions and 5cm dilated without describing it as painful. Even though I was coping fine, I requested an epidural once we arrived because I wanted a positive experience that time around and I feared that it might get all too much for me in the later stages. I really wanted to avoid the trauma of my first labour. The epidural was a very much pre-thought out decision and it was the right decision for me. I had a wonderful, complication-free labour. This time around with baby number three, I had more faith in my body because my last labour went so well and I decided I wanted to aim for a natural, drug-free labour. I knew if I could do it, it would be very healing and empowering for me.
My EDD was Saturday the 22nd of August 2009, the day before my birthday! On Friday the 21st I started getting light contractions at around 1:30pm. This was how my labours started with both my boys so I wondered if things might be starting up this time too. By the evening they were 7 minutes apart, but not painful. I finished packing my hospital bags and DH & I went to bed early in case things picked up overnight. But by the morning my contractions had died down, DH & I were a bit disappointed, but I decided to remain positive and remind myself of the good work my body had done during those contractions.
On Saturday the 22nd I had a few light contractions throughout the day, but nothing regular so this time I knew not to get my hopes up. I just welcomed them and knew my body was getting ready for hopefully a quick and easy labour.
My birthday was on Sunday the 23rd, I had kind of hoped our bub wouldn't arrive that day because I wanted her to have her own special day to herself. But I also didn't mind if she decided to become my birthday present! I again had some irregular light contractions throughout the day. I made it a restful day as I felt my body needed to conserve as much energy as possible. We went to my sister and BIL's house for my birthday dinner that evening and had a lovely time. On the car ride home I felt my first "proper" contraction at around 8pm and I told DH that things were likely to start happening soon. The race was on to see if she'd arrive on my birthday!
We arrived home and got the boys ready for bed. I hadn't had another contraction yet, but as I was reading the boys a bedtime story my tummy felt really uncomfortable. Once they were in bed I felt another contraction that was manageable and I breathed deeply through it. They started coming every 10-15 minutes. I debated whether or not to call my mum (who was going to come and look after the boys while we were in hospital) to give her some pre-warning, but decided against it because I wasn't in established labour yet and thought I'd have plenty of time until we needed her. I also wanted my mum to have a restful sleep and not be lying awake waiting for "the call" LOL!
So I heated a wheat bag up to put on my tummy (bliss!), we hopped into bed and I lay there dozing between contractions. By 9:30pm they were coming regularly at about 7-8 minutes apart and I breathed deeply through each one. The deep breathing and relaxation in bed worked so well that I could easily stay lying down through each contraction. It was great to be able to rest/doze between them. I thanked God during each contraction that He was moving things along and that we would soon meet our baby girl, it was a lovely, peaceful experience :).
By around 11:30pm I noticed that the contractions were now regularly 5 minutes apart and were getting a bit more intense. At 11:45pm I had a contraction that I actually had to moan out, rather than just breathe out. I knew that it was now time to get up and start moving! DH came out too and rubbed my lower back during each contraction while I paced back and forth, we made a kind of funny looking conga line with me breathing deeply, pacing and DH following me rubbing my back LOL! But it worked so well and made the contractions bearable, we made a great team :). By 12am I called the hospital to let them know that I was in labour, but that I was coping just fine and was happy to stay at home for as long as possible. While I was still talking to the midwife the contractions quickly changed to 3 minutes apart. After hanging up I called my mum and told her what was happening and I debated whether or not I needed her yet (I had 3 minute apart contractions for quite a few hours before DS2 was born), in hindsight, it was lucky she was happy to come straight over!
We frantically tried to organise and pack last minute things between the contractions which were now 2 1/2 - 3 minutes apart. This was a difficult task because there wasn't much time between contractions! My mum arrived by 12:30am to witness our efficient conga line LOL! We were constantly thanking God that all was going well and that we would soon meet our little one. I was also repeating, "We can do this, we are doing this". I was coping really well, but the contractions were definitely intense and we decided we should head off to the hospital soon. I was hoping I'd be able to use the bath at the hospital for pain relief and even possibly have a water birth so the sooner we got there the better.
We walked outside into the cool night air to the car, I asked DH to wait for another contraction to come before getting in because I knew it wouldn't be very comfortable once I couldn't walk around! It was so nice walking around in the winter breeze during the contraction :). We then got in the car and headed for the hospital. As predicted, having a contraction in the car was far from comfortable, but I just kept breathing through it and thanking God for helping me. I had another few contractions by the time we made it to the hospital and I was glad to get out of the car!
DH grabbed the labour bag out of the car, but left the other bags behind in case we were told to go home. For some reason I still thought I wouldn't be that far along LOL! By now the contractions seemed to be coming almost non-stop. DH started talking to me about the car park on the walk to the hospital doors and I asked him to please stop talking, I suddenly couldn't handle listening to him talk while having a contraction. When the contraction passed I apologised for being so rude LOL! He told me I had every right to say what I wanted at this point in time!!
At 1:30am I waddled my way to the midwives station and as soon as they saw me breathing through a contraction they whisked me straight into a delivery suite. They told DH to go and get the rest of the bags so they could warm the baby's clothes and blankets up. I wondered what the rush was LOL! I was asked to give a urine sample and then one of the midwives asked me to hop up onto the bed for an exam. I asked if she could wait until my contraction was over - by now there was almost no break between them - and she agreed. I started to kick my shoes off when I felt a "pop" and a warm gush of fluid. Eeek! "I'm so sorry" I said, "my waters usually only break at the end of my labours!" The midwives just looked knowingly at each other LOL! DH came back in as I was about to be examined and I told him that my waters had broken, he was as shocked as I was! It was lucky they didn't break in his new car, he only got it a few days earlier!!
The exam showed that I was 7cm dilated, the midwife said I'd be fully dilated within 15 minutes and I could start pushing as soon as I felt the urge. "What?!" I exclaimed! My two previous labours were quite lengthy, she must be wrong! I asked her if I could get off the bed so I could walk through the contractions, but she refused saying she didn't want to have to try and catch my baby before it fell on the floor :o. I was NOT happy! She said "You can lie on your back or you can go on all fours on the bed", she was very militant and no-nonsense, I knew she always got her way. I decided I'd go on all fours because my chiropractor told me that flat on my back was not a good position for pushing.
It felt strange once on all fours because I didn't think I was anywhere near ready to push. But all of a sudden my next contraction was different, it was so intense and I couldn't just breathe through it, I needed to groan deeply. This is when I thought "Ooooh man...this is getting hard". I guess that was transition! I was asked if I'd like gas, but I declined because I'd come so far already and I felt like I was coping. During this time one of the midwives asked if I minded if a male student doctor could come and watch the birth. "Ummmm...I guess?" What sort of question is that to ask someone in transition? LOL! I didn't really have the time to weigh up the pros and cons! The student doctor was actually very lovely, but at the time I could have cared less.
Another contraction came and all of a sudden I could feel pressure. I wondered if I'd actually get the urge to push or if I'd just be told when to push. Well the next contraction came and I wanted to push! So I pushed and it was so intense and so uncomfortable, I have to say that this was the worst part of the entire labour. I was being told "Move your leg this way, now move it that way" while I was pushing, very frustrating! The midwife was also trying to manipulate things a bit and I just wanted to scream "Get your hands off me!!!", but I figured she knew what she was doing and I should keep quiet LOL!
The pushing contractions made me really groan/scream loudly, not a nice sound to those around me I'm sure! I could feel our baby moving down the birth canal quite rapidly with each push. Between contractions I said to the midwife, "Please tell me there aren't too many more of these contractions left!" She told me that if I followed her instructions there wouldn't. I made sure I didn't let negative thinking come in at this tough stage, I refused to say or think "I can't do this". Within 10 minutes of pushing, at 2am on the 24th of August, Alana Jade was born :D. It felt SO good once she was out! DH announced, "It's definitely a girl!" which was a relief because we both had a tiny fear that the ultrasound technicians were wrong and that she was really a he LOL! The midwife passed her to me through my legs and I picked up our warm, slippery little girl. She was so perfect and beautiful and my first words to her were "Hello Pretty!".
I asked that the umbilical cord stop pulsating first and when it did, DH got to cut it just like he did with both of our boys. I loved having him as part of the journey :).
I was given an injection in my thigh to help expel the placenta because I had a PPH after DS1. I wasn't keen, but didn't argue too loudly because I also wanted to avoid such a bad bleed again. The placenta was out within 10 minutes. While they were working on getting the placenta out I had lovely skin-on-skin cuddles with Alana who was by now crying. I put her to my breast and she latched on instantly and had her first feed, she was a real natural! We were amazed at how instinctual it was for her. The student doctor was kind enough to take photos of us with our camera and he congratulated us, in the end I was glad I was able to help him witness another birth.
Alana was eventually taken off to be weighed and measured. The midwives had commented that she was big, but I was still shocked to find out that she weighed 4.21kg (9lb 5oz)! She was 52cm long with a head circumference of 36cm. She is my biggest bub yet! We were so surprised because I had quite a small bump and I had put on less weight in my pregnancy than I did with my boys.
The midwives and later the obstetrician were all impressed that I'd had Alana within 30 minutes of walking through the door LOL! It was definitely a surprise, DH and I could not believe that she was here so quickly. I'd been expecting to labour for much longer and for it to get much more painful than it did. I credit God for helping me to feel relaxed and safe, I also credit the deep breathing, walking and DH's awesome back rubs for such a great experience. It was everything I hoped and prayed it could be and more :).
