Jo's story - Michaela

I had a fantastic pregnancy and a dream birth.  My midwife joked that our baby must have read all the books.  I suffered from the usual morning sickness which began around 7 weeks and ended at 15 weeks and was tired, especially during the last trimester but I was well and healthy and, apart from my massive bump out the front, I didn't put on any extra weight (in total I gained 10 kgs and I lost 8kg during labour).

I decided early that I wanted a natural birth if possible and chose a midwife with similar ideas but I have a medical condition called von willebrand's disease (a bleeding disorder which causes abnormal clotting) which was a worry.  My midwife was fantastic at finding out as much as she could about my condition to ensure my baby and I were kept safe.  An additional worry was discovered at my 20 week scan when I was told I may be at risk of placenta praevia and would need a scan later on to find out where the placenta was lying.  At this stage I started getting worried so I went to the library and got out every book I could find about pregnancy and labour and enrolled in antenatal classes. 

By the time of my 3rd scan the placenta had moved and all was going well for a natural birth, as long as the hospital specialists agreed. I met with an obstetrician, an aneasthetist and a heamotologist regarding my VWF in my last trimester and was finally advised (without much time to spare) that I should be ok for a natural birth but I had to be at a hospital with emergency facilities (so I couldn't use a birthing hospital), I wasn't allowed to use either of the large birthing rooms at Wellington Womens (in case of emergency it would take too long to get me to theatre) and I had to have a managed 3rd stage and a luer inserted as soon as I got to hospital to save time in case I needed a transfusion.  Writing this now I think I should have been a bit scared but my midwife and the specialists were covering all bases to make sure my baby and I were taken care of and that made me feel confident.

Because I'd had such a great pregnancy I set my last day of work for the Friday before baby was due (which was meant to be on a Wednesday after 5 days of rest).   Baby had other plans.  On my last day of work I woke with an odd sense and after a trip to the bathroom I returned to our bedroom to tell my husband "I don't want to worry you but I think something's happening". I called my midwife to let her know I had a lot of mucous discharge which she assured me was completely normal so I put on a maternity pad and got ready for work.  I saw my mum on my way to work and organised to meet her for lunch. I was fairly certain that our baby was on its way but having never done this before I had no idea whether it would be today or tomorrow so I didn't say anything to anyone and although my husband tried to convince me to 'pretend' I was in labour and go home after lunch I had no intention of leaving work unless I had to.

I didn't feel like eating at all (for a change) and at around 9:30am I started getting cramps and I was so hot I removed as many layers of clothes as I could while still being decent.  By 10am I was certain that I was experiencing contractions and I went for morning tea and joked with my colleagues I may give birth at the office (little did they know I was actually in labour) at 11am I was overheated and getting severe back paid so I decided it was time to let my boss know what was happening and although she wanted to bundle me into a taxi headed for the hospital immediately I spent the next 30 minutes trying to get hold of my mum to ask her to take me home. I also called my husband who initially thought I was play acting to get out of work.  At 11:30 I finally let my boss call me a taxi but refused to go straight to the hospital and instead went home. On the way I called my midwife to ask her to come over and my dad who promised to get hold of my mum so she could bring my car, and my husband, home from town (I'd given her a spare car key for this purpose).

I was home by midday and the first thing that struck me was how messy our house was but the pain in my back convinced me to forget about the mess and run myself a bath.  I set myself up with a pad, a pen, a watch, my mobile and my cordless phone and sunk into the hot bath water - it was glorious, suddenly the back paid evaporated and I could feel defined contractions.  They were all pretty close together but initially quite short.  As the bath water cooled and I got used to it my back pain came back so I filled my hot water bottle and used that in the bath too for some targeted relief (it worked wonders). In the meantime I also fielded phone call from my midwife, my husband, my mum and my dad.

Shortly after 1:30 my husband and my mum arrived home.  Seeing me in labour my husband finally seemed to realise it was really happening and got a bit frazzled.  He asked what he could do to help to which I replied that the midwife would be here soon and the dishes needed to be washed, the bed made, the laundry put through the washing machine and the lounge tidied.  By then I was sick of the bath and asked to be helped out.

When my midwife arrived at 2pm my contractions were relatively strong and lasting about 45 secs each.  I was 3cm dilated and 50% effaced.  My midwife offered to cancel her afternoon appointments and stay with us but we were managing well and agreed that we'd call her if anything changed.

Mum, Ian and I settled down to play board games and I kept a wheat pack on my back for pain relief and stood bent over for comfort during my contractions. My husband had bought 2 wheat packs for the labour and so as soon as one cooled it was replaced with a freshley heated one. He'd also picked up some lucozade for me and I had rasberry leaf tea and water with rescue remedy in it.

At 4pm the contractions were getting too difficult to manage with a wheat pack so I decided to try the bath again and we started discussing whether we should go to hospital early or wait for the midwife.  45 minutes later (just before friday night evening peak traffic) I decided it was time to go to hospital.  My husband called our midwife then called ahead to the hospital and we got in the car with my husband and I in the back and my mum driving.  Being restricted in a car during contractions was extremely unpleasant (slight understatement there) but my husband was fabulous support.  I had a folded towel on my seat which was just as well as my waters broke about 5 mins before we got to the hospital at 5:45pm.

My mum dropped us off outside the maternity ward and my husband buzzed to get the doors open.  As they opened some bloke on a mobile phone strolled right in ignoring us even though I was doubled over about 2 metres away from the door and my husband yelled at him to try and get him to keep it open while he came and got me, luckily a nurse heard him and came to help.

I was lead to one of the birthing rooms and hooked up to a machine because the nurse found meconium in my waters.  I also had a luer inserted in my left hand.  My mum and my midwife arrived shortly afterwards.  I remember saying in the car on the way over that after all this time and effort I would be so upset if I was only 6 cms, when my midwife checked me at 6pm I was 4cm dilated.   I was devastated, the last few hours had been so difficult, and I had so much further to go plus I was now hooked up to a machine so not as free to find a comfortable position.  My mum reassured my husband and I that the first part of labour was not just about dilating, my cervix needed to soften and stretch and that's what all the hard work was for.

I was so lucky to have my husband as my birthing partner and my mum as his support person.  My midwife had to initially pop out to make sure the hospital had my blood type on hand just in case, and she was also busy with notes etc and essentially doing her job and my mum made sure I had water and hot wheat packs in the meantime my husband stuck with me and gave me support and encouragement during the entire labour.

I was completely drug free until 7:00pm when I transitioned, at that stage my midwife suggested I try gas and although it did not take the pain away or even ease it I found if I suck on it until I was just about unconcious it served as a distraction. 15 minutes later I started feeling like I couldn't hold the baby in any longer, I mentioned this to my midwife who assured me I had to, if I started pushing now it would only make things harder. 5 minutes later I repeated that I had to push and my midwife agreed to check how far dilated I was if I tried to go to the toilet first (I hadn't been in several hours). My husband dutifully accompanied me to the bathroom and held me while I had contractions in there but there was no other action to speak of and since I started getting worried our baby would be born into a toilet we decided to move back to the birth room. Before climbing back on the bed I had another contraction, by then I was on my tippee toes and clenching everything to try and keep from pushing but my body had taken over and I remember exclaiming "I have to push, I can't not push" in the mean time my midwife had moved to my side of the bed and bent over to look up between my legs, she responded "Jo, you can't push, I need you to get on the bed, you babies coming and it's brunette".

34 minutes later, after the most indescribable pain of my life our beautiful 3kg baby girl was born. It was 8:04pm, I was tired and in shock and handed the most precious little being I have ever met. My first thought was "shit,what do I do now". The answer of course is, deliver the placenta - that came 9 minutes later becuase of the managed 3rd stage and my husband happily held our daughter while I pushed out what had up until now been her life force.

Although the contractions started about 10 hours before our daughter was born my active labour is considered to have been 4 hours and 8 minutes long and everything before then was a walk in the park.  Unless you've been through birth I don't think you can understand how painful it actually is, how can you comprehend something you've never experienced before, but I would gladly do it all over again exactly the same (except going into labour on my last day of work, I now have a toddler to enjoy so I'm taking off as much time as I can before the next one arrives).