I flipping love a birth story and one thing I have personally learnt is that you forget the details over time so I would always encourage people to write down their experiences. A year ago today my littlest baby girl decided it was finally time to be born.
I was somehow expecting this baby to be early or on time but not late and so as the days ticked by I felt like I was loosing the mental battle of patience but none the less I wasn’t interested in any kind of intervention.
She did cause me some stress as she remained breech until 37+ weeks, but with a combination of spinning babies moves, massage and moxibustion and by the time we went for the booked ECV she had turned which was a massive relief!
Eventually one night (40+11) I woke about 3:30am with some regular tightenings which came and went very regularly albeit not intensely for an hour and a half. Unfortunately they eased off and I went to sleep again, when we got up for the morning I had the odd one but while getting the 3 big kids ready for school I didn’t expect much to happen.
I was hopeful that once they had left things would ramp but nothing much changed, Jared and I went for a few walks, alternating with resting up to hopefully encourage things along. During this time tightenings occasionally came along but nothing too exciting, I was beginning to get anxious as the school day was passing by and I knew labour would more likely develop without big kids around. Things did slowly start to intensify, and although not too regular or challenging things felt like they were going in the right direction. My mum brought the kids home, however Oliver did not want to be present so he went off with her, I had my first more intense tightening while seeing Oliver off and I knew that this was a good sign to have a contraction while balancing being a mum and waving off my big boy.
By the time Jared was cooking I began to find things more intense and needed to lean forwards on something with each tightening. Things continued and I spent my time on my bed either on all 4s during a contraction or sitting upright otherwise. I think the movement between these positions helped labour to progress and baby move down. I didn’t have a plan for where or how to labour, I knew the basics of positions, keeping mobile, resting, eating and drinking. And intended to just follow my body’s lead and do what felt instinctive at the time.
When putting my older daughter to bed I had only 1 mild contraction and even though I know it’s a thing I’m amazed at how my body knew when was time to contract and when was time to ease off for me to be able to be mum still to my bigger kids.
After this we came downstairs and contractions came along regularly, our wonderful doula arrived and I continued on the pattern of getting onto all 4s for contractions. I was still able to talk comfortably and remain in my head between contractions. Our doula decided to busy herself in the kitchen so as to allow me space to allow things to continue to develop naturally alongside my husband. I had been keeping in contact with my bestie through what’s app and knew it was time to remove my phone as it wouldn’t help labour to develop.
My husband asked the doula when to call the midwife and she suggested in a while when I was appearing less comfortable, less able to talk and further into labour so we continued as we were. Throughout my husband used gentle pressure and massage on my lower back to help through the contractions and feeling of his body close to mine felt a great comfort.
Quickly things began to change and I remember thinking this is hard, I thought this was meant to feel amazing but I don’t know if I can do this.
The contractions came thick and fast and my doula applied the tens machine and my husband called the midwife. However the noises from me changed and I felt the need to remove my trousers as I knew I was bearing down with the contractions, this wasn’t easy but we did it and towels were placed around and under me (which wasn’t easy as I was in the way!) I then felt I was pushing her head out and instinctively felt her head with my hand to touch my baby. With a few pushes I birthed my baby, making some interesting noises and biting the sofa! She was caught as planned by her daddy at 10pm and very quickly after my placenta was delivered and I turned around to sit on the floor and hold my slippery, warm, squishy newborn.
The midwife arrived around 40 minutes later so we enjoyed some calm peaceful cuddles on the living room floor and marvelled at our new baby girl.
Taken by surprise she was born at home in the living room before the midwife arrived, safely, quickly and beautifully with the support of my husband and doula. They were both calm and reassuring which offered me the space to relax and trust in them, my body and the process of birth. A very simple birth, with 2 sleeping children upstairs and unfortunately leaving me with a feeling of wanting to do it again and again!
