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ERICA - BIRTH STORY - Planned Home Birth with a Private Midwife

While watching TV, lying on the couch on Thursday 3 rd January, 2008 I felt my waters break as a tiny trickle. I told Glenn and then texted our midwife who told me to try and sleep that night as she was working night shift and to let her know how I went in the morning. Hayesey was also going to be out of town during work the next day. She also told me to monitor my temperature every 4 hrs for infection. I had a feeling that nothing major would progress as I knew everyone would be unavailable and that psychologically I would hold off. By 11.30pm I started having first minor contractions. Only had a few that started and stopped during the night and got to 10 minutes apart. Throughout Friday contractions were irregular and stopped and started during the day, never getting closer than 10 minutes apart. They were not intense, but I practiced Pink Kit breathing techniques anyway. By the time Hayesey got home from work at 4pm I got a little frustrated as I was wary of having pre-labour go too long with waters broken due to risk of infection. I knew nothing would happen again until night-time, which is normal. Temperature remained normal.

Saturday morning at 2am I was woken by my first intense contraction that I had to breathe through. I stayed in bed until 4am when they became regular at 15 minutes apart. By the time I got up in the morning they were at 10 minutes. I texted our midwife at 7.30am and she said she’d come up in the afternoon as she’d done another night shift and would sleep until lunch time. Over breakfast, Hayesey and I decided in 2 minutes on a girls and a boys name. Only took us 9 months! I continued to leak amniotic fluid during the day and have 10 minute contractions. I usually sat on the fit ball as I could rock my pelvis around and it felt comfortable and supportive.

At about 10am Hayesey went down to Coles to stock up on food and his mother came to visit with grandson Aidan. Hayesey had closed all the curtains and luckily got back just in front of them. He told them I was sleeping so they went out the back yard. This distraction made my contractions stop for about an hour. I was not concerned about my or the baby's health and felt fine, but it was in the back of my mind that had I gone to hospital, they would have determined that I wasn't progressing and I would have been induced or they would have sped up labour. I was glad the midwife was coming soon.

The midwife arrived at about 2.30pm and established where I was in pre-labour. This continued for another few hours. I experimented with getting in the pool (cold) for about half an hour, but got out as I had to go to the toilet too often. I changed seating arrangements as the fit ball felt as if it was pushing on my pelvic floor which felt uncomfortable now. I switched to a Pink Kit position of sitting with one butt cheek on two chairs pushed close together which helped a lot as your pelvic floor rests in the gap in between them. By 5.30pm and still no further progress in labour, the midwife offered to do a VE to let me know where I was. I accepted and she determined my cervix was 80% effaced and that I was about 2cm dilated. She reassured me that things were going on and then offered to aggravate my cervix to see if it would help things along. This involved massaging it. It certainly did the trick. After an hour contractions progressed to 8 mins, then 6 mins and then 4 mins apart. I got into the pool at 7.30pm. Hayesey then had the job of getting the level of water up high enough and getting the temperature warmer. I felt in control and kept reminding myself to let go and let my body do its work and to breathe through the bell curve of the contraction and do the Cleansing Breaths in between to relax my pelvic floor. This worked really well until I hit transition. Hayesey went out to get the midwife and him some dinner which was Subway. She curled up on the couch and was happy she didn't miss watching Survivor on TV which turned into a double episode. By 10.30pm when it was finished I was into my zone and pretty much couldn't speak to anyone, but I could listen to what people were telling me and acknowledge with a nod. I kept remembering something I read that said don't think about the next contraction, just deal with the present. I also tuned into the baby who would move inside me just before a contraction started so I had that signal to prepare for the pain and focus on lengthening my breathing.

After a while of frequent, intense contractions, things began to change. I remember feeling sick very suddenly and knew that was a good sign of progression and had a small spew. Then, over about three contractions my voice changed, my body started to shudder through contractions and I realised I was in transition as my body felt the urge to start pushing. I think that made the midwife start to move and get things ready. I found hanging in a kneeling position over the edge of the pool during contractions was best. I don't know how long I was like that, but after a while I felt that the pushing wasn't making any progress. I felt like I was trying to push in preparation for a monumental poo, but there was no poo. This is where I had my only doubts that I could do it, that the baby might not fit through my pelvis. And this is where the midwife was so reassuring, saying I could do it, we were doing it and this baby would come out!

Working hard was making me sweat profusely. I couldn't speak to anyone. It was a waste of energy, but I could listen to the midwife or Hayesey speak to me and do as they suggested or whisper a Yes or No. I kept up the breathing, but it was harder to come down from them and relax or slow my breathing down in between. Later in the second stage, the midwife had to remind me to slow it down a few times. I also started to sweat profusely and Hayesey started to sponge me down occasionally and while it felt like the second stage went for at least 2 hours, they told me later it actually went for 1 hr 20 minutes. The midwife had been monitoring the baby's heartbeat occasionally during the first stage, but during the second stage it felt like they were putting the Doppler against my belly every 5 minutes. Her heartbeat never wavered the whole time, so she was not stressed which was encouraging.

Hanging over the side of the pool started to loose its effectiveness and I was starting to get bad cramps in my hamstrings so the midwife suggested I change position. I had another small spew at some stage with the effort of laboring. I ended up lying on my back in the pool (so, not recommended on land!) and while I felt I could push better for a while, the cramps still occurred during contractions and the position lost its effectiveness too. The midwife suggested I go sit on the toilet. This was a turning point. I asked if it was OK to sit facing the cistern and she was very happy I wanted to sit that way but I just wanted something to lean on. I finally started to crown a little on the toilet, but the midwife couldn't see and wanted me to turn around. Easier said than done. I didn't want to move at this stage. She helped me around and let me lean on her shoulders. I ended up doing a small poo, but funnily enough, didn't really care! At least I didn't do it in the pool. This position got ineffective as well, so the second midwife, who'd shown up at this stage had set up towel and the fit ball on the laundry floor. They wanted me to lean over the ball on the floor. I still didn't want to move so they helped me up. A few good pushes and the baby's head was crowning. They called Hayesey over to have a look. Unfortunately, at the end of a contraction I would rise up on my knees kneeling and the head would retreat back up the birth canal. My only verbal complaint at this stage was the question if I had to do that all again to get the head back. The midwife reassured me that it would come back easily. She suggested I try to keep her head there with my muscles in between contractions. I wondered how on earth to do this but it was actually quite easy when I tried.

The second midwife reminded everyone that I had wanted to birth the baby in the pool and asked if I wanted to get back in. I couldn't make the decision really not wanting to move at all. So they all helped me up and got me back to the pool. Once there I kept the same position as the laundry and pushed as hard as I ever could to get her head out. I remember feeling the ring of fire and hoped I wasn't tearing, but couldn't really tell. I only knew the head was out when they all started to talk at once telling me I was doing really well and here it comes, and to keep going. The head came out to the chin in that contraction. Then there was a pause. I was in the worst part of the pain as it was stretching, hurting and in that contraction pain all at once. I asked when the next contraction would come (it wasn't coming fast enough for me as I wanted to get past that head!). The midwife stuck her finger in the baby's mouth and it started to suck on her finger still underwater!). Finally, the next contraction brought the shoulders and I could actually feel each one get through and then the rest of the baby slid out rather quickly. They told me to turn over and pick up my baby. For some reason I thought they would do it, but obediently turned over and picked her up so her head was out of the water. Her eyes were open and she just looked up at me and didn't breathe for a while, but there was no hurry. Soon, she started to cry, a little gurgly, but she was fine. It was 11.19pm. Then the second midwife asked if it was a boy or girl and the midwife told me I was closest so I could find out. After a very careful examination I discovered it was a girl. Hayesey was right by my side at the edge of the pool and we met our little girl. We were a little shocked it was a girl as we were expecting a boy (without really knowing). Hayesey was pouring cups of warm water over her to keep her warm and they gave me a towel to hold her with in the water. While we didn't weigh her for about 24 hours she was 6lb, 12 oz.

Within about 15 minutes the midwife helped me to birth the placenta (it was a short cord). Then was the huge task of cleaning everybody and everything up. They got me out of the pool (baby with placenta still attached) and took us to bed for our first feed. While the midwife helped us with our first feed, the second midwife and Hayesey emptied the pool and cleaned up. The floor of our house was covered in towels and plastic sheets. After that, the midwife helped Hayesey cut the cord and gave the placenta to us to freeze (well bury it under a tree planted for her on our new block). She helped me have a shower, and then we were tucked into bed together. First the second midwife left and then the midwife left at about 2.30am. She visited us everyday for about 3 days to make sure we had feeding right and do tests and give us heaps of information.

I tore a tiny little bit that she said wasn't worth stitching, so I came away OK. I could hardly walk for two days though as my hamstrings were sore from the cramps and effort. My hips, however were the sorest, I couldn't sleep on my side for two nights. They were sore from the expansion they'd done during the labour and birth. Also my pelvic floor was tender for three days. By the third day I could walk around normally and felt heaps better.

Overall it was a very positive experience. I always wondered if Id be one of those women who swore and cursed or screamed through labour, but it wasn't like that at all. I just breathed quietly through the first stage, but I developed an involuntary moaning during the second stage. I’d describe it like the roar of a lion (at least it felt that way!) and I couldn't have stopped doing it if Id tried. I didn't choose the sound of it either, it just turned out the way it did. I didn't care if the neighbours could hear me either! Apparently our dog Roxy could hear me outside and thought it was all a bit strange, like she knew it was me, but something was really different! I didn't swear at Hayesey or push him away. I didn't find the first stage very painful, the second stage was tough, but I never felt exhausted or that I couldn't do it anymore. Knowing what was going on and what was happening inside me really helped as I could tune into my body and knew that it knew what it was doing and I should just accept it and let it happen. And most importantly that labour doesn't last forever! My labour lasted 19 hours, counting from 2am on the Saturday when the serious contractions started.