Birth Stories

It was Monday 9th June 2008. I had been having surges (contractions) that morning for a few hours, and intermittently throughout the day, but things seemed to slow and stop early afternoon.

That evening I bathed our toddler as usual and read her story, during which I had some very intense surges, but continued to read to her until I had finished. After tucking her in she realised she had left her favourite bear “Pandy” at the childminder’s house and became quite distressed. I phoned the child minder at 19.30 to ask if my husband could pop round and fetch him, and mid-sentence my waters broke!

Luckily the childminder had agreed from the beginning to be our backup for labour, so she said "send her over". We told Kiera that Pandy was having a sleepover and she seemed keen to go and join him. My husband was dispatched to drop her off and I quickly popped onto a forum I use and sent a few texts to let people know things were beginning, and then settled on the sofa to start relaxing.

Surges came very quickly and as soon as my husband came home I told him he needed to start timing quickly - I knew I had already met the criteria of timings to let the midwife know. Andrew phoned our normal midwife to see if she was working but unfortunately she had worked 2 days straight and couldn’t come. He told her they were lasting up to 1 minute and about 3 mins apart and she phoned the on-duty midwife straight away (20.00).

I was not paying attention and was just focusing on breathing through, but found that I was not comfortable lying down.

I got into the bath and was there for a bit, not sure how long. I was listening to the rainbow relaxation on the ipod and was aware that the midwife had arrived (20.30), and I could vaguely hear her and my husband whispering at the door. Andy came and asked if she could check my blood pressure and the baby and I agreed. The midwife carried out her checks and all was good (BP 120/70, pulse 72), her notes state that surges were 1 in 2 (every 2 minutes lasting up to a minute).
I had found that sighing in an almost meditative way combined with the exhale of the 20/20 breathing was very soothing and I was also aware that it would let Andy and the midwife know how close the surges were and how long they were lasting. My husband told me afterwards that I was actually smiling through some of the surges!

I then decided to get out of the bath (20.50) and went back downstairs where I sat on the toilet and focused on my hypnobirthing breathing, mainly using sleep breathing, visualising opening and thinning the entire time and trying 20/20 when I could. I found that the tightness did not always allow me to breathe up fully to 20.

At 21.00 (according to notes) the first midwife called the 2nd midwife and noted she had no idea of the stage I was at.

Briefly felt the urge to move and I left the toilet and went in to the lounge to the beautiful surroundings my husband had set, I stayed there for about 5 minutes, leaning on big cushions on all fours, and could suddenly feel James moving down. I then had a tiny panic of not coping (transition hit) and asked for gas and air so the midwife left to set that up. I then realised I wanted to be back on the toilet (21.15).

It was then I could feel his head crowning so I told Andy and he went to find the midwife who was taking notes in the kitchen (21.17). She came to the bathroom and I told her the head was coming, she informed me (while looking shocked) to continue doing “whatever I was doing already”. During the next surge his head emerged whist I was holding it, and she asked me to stand so she could deliver his body, I then felt him rotate and come smoothly in to the world (21.19).

The 2nd midwife arrived 15 minutes after he had been born. James was placed skin to skin still attached and at 21.45 I cut the cord connecting us.

James latched on at 21.50 and fed for almost an hour while we waited for the placenta to deliver, which it did almost without notice (22.14).

Total labour from start to finish lasted 1hr 50 minutes, with a two minute second stage and then 55 minutes waiting for the placenta.

Since birth it is noticeable how much more relaxed James is than his sister was, particularly with being handled. Whilst Kiera used to keep her limbs tightly tucked and needed them prising to dress her, James is quite happy to allow us to move his limbs at will.

A fabulous experience for all of us, and I would not hesitate to recommend hypnobirthing to anyone who wishes to give birth “as it should be done!”

(It was this experience that inspired me to become a practitioner!)

The Birth of Liebe

I found out I was pregnant on 23 July 2009 and thought that was the best day ever but that all change on Monday morning 01:12 when my little princess Liebe was born.

I was convinced on having a C-Section from the day I found out I was pregnant but soon after that at about 12 weeks found out that my medical aid does not provide for a planned C-Section. The only way they would pay for it was if there was complications or an emergency. My doctor would not motivate and I thought to myself I am not going to worry about it anymore as it was still early in my pregnancy and anything could happen.

My entire pregnancy was easy and I had no complications. I went to book my bed at 34 weeks and found out that because the hospital is so small they do not do epidurals and the sister informed me that it will be all natural. I thought to myself well okay cant be that bad and thought to myself I will deal with the birth when it comes and as it comes and just carried on normally. Last week Tuesday I was 37 weeks and I realized that I seriously need to start preparing for natural childbirth and that when I started to stress. I immediately contacted Nerfetiti who posted me the “hypno birthing book” for which I will forever be thankful for as the little that I read really helped me.

My due date was on 1 April and on Sunday afternoon at 14:00 I started to get these pains (which I thought was Braxton hicks) I didn’t get any during pregnancy so went and googled it and read that Braxton hicks is like contractions but it is not constant and goes away after a little while. Sunday night I still had the pains , coming approximately 12 minutes apart. Still not convinced it is contractions I told my DH that I am sure it is not contractions until I had one very bad one and started to cry. He then said lets go to hospital and see if everything is fine. I agreed as doctor said to me in one of our appointments rather too much that one time too late. Got to the hospital and was checked and the nurse to my surprise said well this is real contractions and I might have my baby in the morning. Shocked I just lay there and couldn’t believe what was happening. My little princess was coming a full 15 days early. The nurse did an internal (my first ever and at first it is weird but later on you just don’t care anymore)and said that I have not yet started to dilate and that I had to wait for the doctor to come and just have a look. He came and also said I can go home as I am not yet in active labour , he asked me if I had lost my mucus plug yet and I said to him I thin so as my discharged changed (sorry to TMI) and was like egg white and he confirmed that is indeed the start of the whole thing, I went home very disappointed but still had these pains (which feels like period pains x 1000) I was unable to sleep and took a hot bath and still could not sleep due to the pain. I then realized that I had a pinkish discharged now and phoned the nurse at the hospital and told her I will check it out and if the pains get worse I will come in. I woke my husband at 02:30 as the pain was very bad and told him we have to go to the hospital now…He got up and we left about 10 minutes later. When we got there the nurse did another internal and said that I was 1 cm dilated. I was very excited , she said she wanted me to stay and check in a few hours if there was any progress. My DH went home for some rest and I stayed in hospital , unable to sleep due to the contraction pains. By 05:30 I was still 1cm when the nurse checked again. She said we must now wait for the doctor who will be there after to 07:00 to see what will happen. The doctor came and did another internal ( later on you just don’t care anymore your vjayjay becomes hospital property) and said I am still 1 cm. I felt so disappointed cause I have been having these pains and no sleep and no progress. He said I can go home and should come and see him again at 16:30 as the environment at home is a lot more relaxed and it should help with the dilation. He also told me that I must walk around a lot. I spend the day moaning and growing on the couch and walking up and down our drive way every now and then Timing each and every contractions. The whole day the were 10 minutes apart , the came every 4 minutes as soon as I walked and then went back to 10min if lay down.

I tried to eat but as it goes in it came out again. Later on I was so tired I did not want any food. DH and me went to the doctor at 16:30 , I could hardly walk. He did another internal and told me I was only 2cm dilated. I started to cry as the pain was so bad during the day and the progress was so slow. Doctor tried to make me feel better by saying that by tomorrow this time I will hold my baby and he showed me how far dilated I am(I will never forget that circle he showed me) it made me feel so much better as it looks a lot bigger that it sounds.

He said I can go to hospital if I want to immediately or I can go home and book myself in later that evening. I decided to go home , DH suggested we get a DVD , I agreed but only watched 10 minutes and then decided I am going to take a hot bath to help with the pains. I spend the next hour soaking and lying in the bath. The contractions just got worse , I got out of the bath and was unable to dry myself. I just threw the towel on the bed and lay there. I took me about an hour to get myself dressed. We left for the hospital at 20:30 as I could not bear the pain anymore. When we got to the hospital I could hardly walk.The lady at the reception called the nurse and I swear this is the nicest lady I have ever met , she took my hand and helped me to the maternity ward. She showed me how to breath and what to do when I have a contraction and said to me everything will be okay . She did an internal and said I was 4cm dilated and that I am now in active birth. I was so happy to know that there was progress , I felt so sick , I threw up again. The did the enima and then she said I can go and take a hot shower , which helped cause I felt really refreshed afterwards. I went back to the labour room and a few minutes later I got sick again. She then said that they are going to put me on a drip to help with the nausea and also gave me a pethidine injection to calm me down. This was 21:30 , for the next few hours I would dose off in between contractions until 23:30 when my water broke. This was the coolest feeling ever , I could never imagine it being such a huge gush of luke warm water. I really though it was cool and even laughed afterward. I then dosed of again for the next hour and half doing the breathing (which become really hard to do when you are in so much pain), when suddenly I felt severe pain , worse than the previous contractions and also very different. The nurse did another internal and said I was 8 cm , the all of a sudden I was fully dilated and she said to me I must only push with contractions as I will hurt my cervix and the babies head.I screamed like a crazy person and gave the first push and the head came out immediately , I did the breathing thing again and the came the next contraction , this was most probably the hardest as the nurse told me to hold in as the cord is around babies neck, for some reason a calmness came over me and I held it in (with everything I got) in seconds she snipped the cord and that’s when the next contraction came , with one big push , me making noises like a lioness little Liebe came into the word on a wave of water at 01:12 on 16/03/2010 at 38 weeks. I will never ever forget how beautiful she looked and how proud my husband was of me and how many times he said what a wonderful job we did.

Liebe breastfed about half an hour after birth.When DH and nurse took her for a bath. I was really tired as I did not sleep from the Saturday night and dosed off. I remember them putting me in a wheelchair and pushing me to the maternity ward.

I woke up the next morning and could not wait to see my little girl , I spend the rest of the day staring at her.

My life changed forever and I would never have wanted it in any other way. I have never felt this proud and happy , the day I became a mother…..

Pinky

www.moomie.co.za/forum/11-mommies-by-mon...mit=25&start=25#7350

Here is my birth story:

I started getting contractions (very far apart) at 19:00 on Tuesday evening (just after some nice KFC... hubby treated me a bit...)
I didn't know if they were real or just very bad braxton hicks, so I sort of ignored them and just relaxed in front of the tv.

By around 11 pm I told hubby that I really think this is it and that our little one is going to come soon... we started timing the contractions, but they were very irregular, some 10 min apart and others 5 min and even some 20 minutes... very weird..

I went for a bath before we decided to go to bed, but it was quite painful and I couldn't sleep for longer than 10 minutes!

at about 2 pm I woke hubby up and told him, that this must be it, because they were about 5 minutes apart, although not that regular, again some were even 2,5 minutes apart...

He phoned the hospital and they said that I must come in, but we don't need to rush. We got all the stuff together, ready to go and then the contractions got further apart from each other... 10 minutes or so. Hubby phoned the hospital again and told them maybe it is a false alarm, they said to rather come in and make sure, you never know what may happen!!

We got to the hospital at about 4:50 am and the midwife put the fetal heart rate monitor on me and said that it may be very early labour. She did an internal and said that I was 2 cm dilated and that she will phone the doctor to come and have a look... this was at about 6:30. Doctor came at 8 O'clock and did an internal again (by now I was starting to be in a lot of pain), he found that I was already 4 - 5 cm dilated and said that I will probably deliver the baby by lunchtime. I was relieved and VERY excited.... although in a lot of pain...
Doctor told me that my cervix was still a bit hard and he put in some tablets to make it softer.

I told the midwife that they must arrange for an epidural because the contractions became unbearable... At 12 o'clock they gave me the epidural and it was AMAZING... no pain anymore... yeah!!! The midwife took another internal and said that I was still not that far dilated, and the heart rate of the baby is getting really weird, she will phone doctor to come and take a look. The baby turned from the one side to the other side and that was why the heart rate was so weird!

Doctor came and had a look at about 1:30 pm and said that I was 8 - 9 cm dilated but that my cervix was still a bit hard and not as soft as he would like it to be. He also said that the baby has got a big head and that my pelvis is quite small.

At 3 pm they pushed me into the labour room for everything to start taking place... I was so nervous and reality hit me on the head and I just started crying....
After a while in the labour room before doctor was there, the baby's heart rate got really stressed and the midwife said that it feels like the baby is struggling to get her head through... Doctor came and had a look and said that he would have to do an emergency c-section... Oh then I started crying, I was so disappointed, but knew it was better for our little one...

I was very anxious and nervous... struggled breathing because of the spinal, but at 17:04 pm they lifted my head and I saw how they took Karla out of my tummy... WOW, what an experience... crying, crying, crying... she is perfect, weighed 3,68 kg's, 52,5 cm and her head circumference is 37 cm.

Mommy21

www.moomie.co.za/forum/11-mommies-by-mon...mit=25&start=25#8161

My birth story:


Had a lazy day Saturday(17 April) watching TV and eating I had given up trying to convince baby to come so kinda conditioned myself to accept that I will be induced as she was showing no signs of coming! I had no Brixton Hicks, no pains, no show NOTHING...Just a very active baby! The only difference I felt was that I had alot of energy and couldnt fall asleep. I eventually fell asleep @ 1am Sunday(18 April) and at about 5 woke up to go to the loo, when I got back into bed I just felt this warm liquid go down my legs and I thought I had lost control of my bladder or maybe I didnt empty it out I got up and put the lights on and this liquid just kept coming out, but still it hadn't clicked in my mind that my waters had broken I think after about 2 mins I realised what was going on and shouted for my mom to come see what was going on and she told me to go take a bath and put a sanitary towel on we going to the hospital. Took my bath and we left for the hospital. I still had no pain, no contractions nothing!

We got to the hospital @ about 6 and the nurse asked to see the colour of my water and she just looked @ me and said this does not look good @ all we prepping you up for a C Section the cord is around baby's body! She called my Dr while I changed into a gown and put on a monitor. My baby's heart was beating so fast the nurse went and called my doc again and told him to hurry as the baby was in distress!!! I went and took a bath while I waited to calm myself down as I was in tears and very scared. The day shift nurses came in and were told about my condition and then my dr finally arrived at about 08:30 he did and internal I was only 2 cm dialated and no contractions, no pain. My baby's heart had calmed down and dr asked the nurse to give me drugs to make my contractions come and to increase it every 30 mins and to keep an eye on the baby. The dr told me we could try for natural birth but if the baby's heart rate goes up again I will go for a C section.

@ 9 the drugs were put in my IV and the nurse told me if they get bad and I want an epidural I must tell her so that she can monitor the baby also. The pains started @ 10 and they just kept getting worse but baby was still ok and the dr and nurses were happy! @ 11 I told my mother to tell the nurse to call the dr I couldnt take the pains anymore and I was still only 3 cm therefore I was not progressing, the nurse asked if I want an epidural as it could help me progress and I said I wanted Pethidine instead as I was scared of the needle in my back...She gave me pethidine and it worked almost immediately. It didn't really take the pains away but made me sleepy! I fell asleep and woke up @ about 14:30 and told my mom(my birth partner) I needed to go to the toilet(did not get an enema)she called the nurse and she did an internal and I was 9 cm dialated. I walked to the delivery room she quickly prepped me up and put mylegs on stirrups and my dr came in said he could see the baby's head. The pethidine had weared off and was in pain again but all I wanted to do was push, the nurse told me to push and i took one big push and baby's head was out and then another push and the body was out.

Was waiting to hear a cry and didnt nurse quickly suctioned baby and gave her oxygen as she was blue and not breathing. The dr went to see what was going on and he was clam and I was in tears and suddenly I heard a little cry my baby was alive

Her initial APGAR score was 6\10 then 9\10. My LG was born 18 April 2010 @ 14:45 and weighs 2.87KG, her length is 49cm and her head circumference is 38cm. She is small but perfect for me

Share your birth stories here. This thread is spotlighted, so that you can always find it.

Just a few ground rules here girls - please keep this thread just for birth stories, for questions and comments please go to the individual month of the mommy who gave birth.

When replying to this thread, please insert in your subject line whether its a natural birth, induction, c-sec or both (induction ending in c-sec)

For now all other posts will be deleted to keep it clean. Thanks for understanding!

Our first moomie mommy to give birth was (starting from April):
Pinky (14 April)
Mommy21 (18 April)