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).