Natural Birth Story

I’ve been pondering whether to write this, and whether to post it on my blog at all…

Is it something private that I should keep to myself or should it be told to inspire & reassure people that giving birth is not something to be terrified of, or even get worried about!
I was determined to have a natural birth, many a person scoffed at this & said such things as “you’ll change your mind when you’re in there.” I didn’t think so & I was out to prove them wrong. I have nothing against other people using a little bit of help, in fact if it makes it a better experience than go for it. For me, I just felt that going natural was right for me.

Things started rolling on the 19th October 2010 when I awoke with slight pains, they were half an hour apart & very small so I didn’t think too much of it. I texted everyone & let them know that I may be going into labour & that a baby might be making it’s way in the next day or two.
Isobel was 10 days late by this stage & I had an appointment with the doctors that day to determine whether everything was still alright in there.

SIDENOTE: The day before I had had a scan & they told me she was weighing about 10pound, ummm what a way to freak out someone before they gave birth!

At the doc appt, the doctor confirmed I was 3cm dilated but still booked me in for an induction just in case. She did a stretch & sweep & then sent me on my merry way.
Contractions were getting a little more painful & were about 20mins apart. I had no idea what to expect so Gareth & I went & got Wolverine out of the DVD store to get my mind off things as I was betting on a long wait. I kept having contractions during the film but Gareth had no idea, he asked at the end “did you have any more contractions?”, well duh!

As the night progressed the contractions naturally got stronger & the time in between shorter. At about 9pm I was doubling over in pain & contractions were roughly about 5 mins apart. We decided to ring the hospital & let them know. The midwife asked if I felt ok to stay at home longer, me being the stubborn witch that I am said yes & that was that.
However, about 20 mins later they were getting pretty intense & were about 3mins apart so Gareth & my sister made me ring the hospital again. I could barely speak through a contraction so the midwife told me to get on down there. We rolled on up & leisurely made our way to the maternity ward.
We had decided to go with the community midwives at the hospital. This mean’t that the midwives on duty at the hospital would deliver our bub, not the midwife I had had for the majority of my pregnancy. I was never really fussed with having the same midwife, they all do the same job at the end of the day.
We were taken on through to our room by our midwife & a student midwife that was going to help out. This was about 10.30pm. They measured me, I was 4cm at this point. She then let me know that they would measure me again at 3am. I remember thinking that the baby better be out by then!
However, as it turns out I was in for a long one. The 4 hours until 3am dragged on as the contractions gradually got so close together I barely had time in between. I was also having two at a time which was pretty awful as I would just get through one & a bigger one would hit me almost straight away. I had pains in my lower pelvic region and lower back so it was pretty excruciating to walk around. I ended up bending over a chair for most of it. As each contraction hit I would do this weird thing on my tiptoes trying to ease the pain. It didn’t work.
I was eager to jump in the pool but for some reason I had a high temperature so they didn’t really want me to get in until it was down a bit. It was crap because they would take my temperature by poking the stick in my mouth & then a contraction would hit & I would have to try & hold the dam thing in my mouth while trying to breath. So frustating, at one point I just spat it out! I was being a pretty good patient at this point, I hadn’t lost the plot yet & was pretty much doing all the breathing techniques that the midwife was guiding me through. They both had a policy of leaving me to it & sort of hovered in the background which I liked. It just left Gareth & me to work on each contraction & watch the clock!
Poor Gareth, he didn’t realise that it was going to be so long. I think he thought that the baby would come soon after we arrived at the hospital!
Finally 3am came & I was 6cm dilated which they both said was great. I was thinking, crap I need to dilate another 4cm so that’s going to be another 4 hours! The next part was ok because I had got it through my head that it was going to be a few more hours so I stopped watching the clock so much & just focused on my breathing. Funny, because when you see it on programmes when the woman is huffing & puffing you think they’re being ridiculous, but breathing actually gets your mind off the intensity of the contractions. So for all you out there, the breathing is important!
At this point I was able to jump in the pool which was soooooo good. I would recommend the pool to anyone. The heat of the water is so soothing & just takes the edge off the contractions. And this is where I spent the next 3 hours. Gareth went to sleep for a few hours, the midwife pulled in a lazy boy for him & he got to sleep! The student midwife was awesome during this part, she knew all these pressure points & massaged my lower back for hours which couldn’t have been easy when I was in the pool.
And then all of a sudden it was daylight & still no baby.
Gareth went off to the bathroom & around 7am two different midwives arrived as the day shift had come on. It was so weird because I was pulled out of the pool to get measured again & as soon as I stood the contractions became so bad that I could barely get myself onto the bed. And I had to lie on back which was soooo horribly painful, those of you who have given birth will totally understand this. I measured in at 8cm so still had a little bit to go. It was a bit awkward because Gareth had disappeared & I had new midwives on, they were asking where my partner was & the old midwives were trying to pass over notes & say goodbye all at the same time as I bent over the bed trying to keep it together!
Gareth finally came back & announced that he had been throwing up, it was either nerves or the fact that he had drunk only coffee all night, or maybe a combination of both.
It’s funny because when I think back on this now, it seems like the period from here until Isobel was born was only minutes but in actual fact she wasn’t born for another 2 hours! I asked for a little gas at this point so technically it wasn’t a natural birth, however I only used it for a bit to get through some of the contractions. I didn’t use it while pushing because it was more a hindrance.
The midwives were taking their time, just fussing about with monitors and stuff at this point. For some reason my temp was still up so they seemed a bit worried about this, I’m not sure why, they never did tell me.
However, I was really feeling the urge to push so I just lay on my side & starting pushing whenever a contraction came on because it felt a lot better to do that, if you can feel better at this point!
After a little bit of this, the student midwife got a little concerned & ran off to get the other midwife because I was getting ready to give birth & they hadn’t even got towels yet. I think they were a little surprised because they didn’t expect me to start pushing so soon, but I was on a mission to get this baby out! From here on I just pushed as the contractions came on until eventually the little miss made her way into the world. I’m not going to lie, it freaking hurt but not enough scaring me off other children.
Isobel took in some of her meconium when she was coming out so they were a little concerned for her as that can cause problems. Her temperature was quite low in the next day but she eventually stabilised & it was all good.

I’m pretty proud of my efforts, I’ve always had a high tolerance for pain & one of the midwives that came in later was really surprised that I hadn’t had an epidural. I guess it’s pretty common these days.

I remember thinking at the time that I was NEVER going to go through that again, but as time goes on you start looking back at it fondly & I’m defintely going to go natural next time.

Hannah
hannafrancesca.blogspot.com