Birth Stories

WOW!
What an amazing birth story!!

Congratulations Claire!!! May your beautiful little girl bring you lots of joy!!!

Awesome birth story, wish I had such a wonderful midwife when I had my 2nd one...

Indigo Gemma
EDD: 25 Nov 2011
Birth Date: 30 Nov 2011
Weight: Exactly 4 kg
Length: 56 cm
Head: 37 cm



Two days before my due date, I saw my doctor and we decided that if the baby hadn’t come by the following week we would induce. He did a stretch and sweep (which was very painful) and told me the baby was still very high. I asked him if an induction would be successful and he said maybe. Not really a reassuring answer.

My due date came and went, but no baby. Tuesday arrived and I called the dr. He booked me in for Weds and told me to be there at 1am. I was really nervous and didn’t sleep at all. I really needed to know if the induction would be successful. I was also very anxious because I had such a bad experience with my son’s birth. I was so glad when the alarm went off and I could get up and go.

We arrived at the hospital at 1:30 am. They did all the checks and gave me an enema…which I hated! At 4am the midwife inserted the gel and I asked her if she thought it would work. She was very obscure and said that it depends from person to person. I was so stressed. I could see that she didn’t think it would work. My DH went home and I tried to sleep but I was still too stressed. Eventually I got up and started walking all over the hospital. Up and down stairs. Then I asked for a birthing ball. They had one but it was so flat that it really didn’t work.

By 7:30 I still had no contractions. There was a shift change and I got a new midwife. She said she would do the next gel at 8. I said it was too soon because it had only been 4 hours and it’s supposed to be 6. She laughed and said she would wait til 9. My DH came back at around 8:30 and brought my ball with him. He could see I was stressed so he called my doc and asked what the plan was. The doc explained that if the next gel didn’t work then at 2pm they would use the pitocin drip! I really didn’t want that. I was so nervous. My last induction had worked immediately. Why wasn’t this working!? Was I going to land up having a c-sec?

The midwife came at 9:30 to insert the gel. She did an exam first and swept the membranes. She was so positive and kept telling me that I could do this! I could have kissed her! She inserted the gel and told me to lie on my side for an hour. I started getting pains and called her to ask if they were contractions. She looked at the monitor and said that they were! I was ecstatic! With each contraction I made my DH tell me the number I got up to…it was an empowering feeling.

10:30 and I was on the birthing ball – DH had brought my one from home. We were still in the maternity ward. With each contraction, I completely relaxed…I was so happy to be in labor! I visualized each contraction as a wave and me on a surf board paddling up them to the peak and soaring down the other side. I used yoga breathing with each pain. I was completely in control. We also went for a walk. The pains were coming 4 minutes apart.

At 11, the midwife came to check me. She could see how often the pains were coming so she moved us to the labor and delivery room. There she checked me and stretched me to 2 cm. I screamed and told her to warn me next time she wanted to do that! We had a really good understanding from then on. She was really fantastic and made my labor as easy as it was. I told her I wanted to get in the bath so she ran it for me and I got in. The bath was magic. I was still focusing and completely relaxing through each pain. I also listened to some music while in the bath. My DH said to me that I’m very boring in labor! I had to laugh. He was a champ! He kept feeding me and making me drink water and energade. Last time, I ran out of energy and became dehydrated.

At 1 I decided to get out the bath as I was getting too hot. I went back to the room and back to my ball. I figured out that the contractions were 2 minutes apart now and lasting for 30 seconds. So I watched the clock. As one started, I looked at the second hand and then closed my eyes and concentrated on completely relaxing and on my breathing. I would peek at the clock and then keep breathing. In between contractions, my DH had a tennis ball and was massaging my lower back. As soon as a pain started, he had to leave me alone because his touch would make me lose focus and then I would scream in pain.

At 1:30 I told him to call the midwife to check how far I was. When he was gone, I squatted during a contraction and my water broke. I was so excited! The midwife checked me and told me I was 6 cm. She emptied some of the water to help the baby move down more. I got back on the ball and now I could really feel the contractions working. The baby was still quite high but with each contraction, I could actually feel her moving down. I felt so in-tune with my body and used each pain to relax and let my body do what it needed to. The midwife started setting the room up, which surprised me because I thought there was still a long way to go. Apparently, in the meantime, the midwife called my dr. and told him to get here quickly. I was laboring much faster than they had expected. He had to leave theater to get to me.

By 2:30, the contractions were turning into bearing down urges. I called the midwife and told her I was getting urges to push. She checked me and said there was a small lip on the cervix (exactly the same thing happened with my son) She moved the baby back and told me to try to hold the next few contractions so that the lip could open. I asked her if I could go and pee and she said no she would rather help me. The head must have been very low because I couldn’t, so she emptied my bladder with a catheter.

The urge to push was now unbearable. She kept saying don’t push and I kept asking “how???” I found I could control the beginning of a contraction but by the end my body was naturally pushing. At 2:50 the dr. arrived and asked “How are we doing?” To which I screamed “I want to push!!!” He very calmly said “then push” What a relief! My body just took over…it felt like I needed to poo so I stopped pushing and said “it feels like I need to poo!!!” He laughed and said that was what pushing felt like and I must just push. With each contraction, I grabbed my knees and just let my body take over. She was crowning and it was so painful. I begged the doc to do and episiotomy. He said “Are you sure?” I said “No, no, no…maybe later” It was so painful! I started thinking I would tear very badly. At one point, I yelled out “the baby is stuck!” He injected me with some local anesthetic and that helped. With the next push he said he might need a small cut. I screamed “cut me, cut me…let’s get it over with!” He made a small cut and with the next push her head was out! He told me to stop pushing and open my legs wider. Her shoulders were stuck! He rotated her head and started tugging (ow!!!) and told me to give a big push, the midwife was encouraging me and pushing down on my tummy. At 3 pm she finally popped out! Only 10 minutes of pushing! As she came out, my DH had to jump because there was a spray of amniotic fluid. The cord was wrapped tightly round her leg. We didn’t know the sex, so I immediately looked to see but her legs were up and all I saw was a very swollen fanny that looked like little balls. I thought it was a boy! I said “what is it? What is it?” and the dr. said “a girl!!!!” She wasn’t crying so the midwife took her to suction her. She only cried one little cry! I kept telling my DH to make sure it was a girl! I still didn’t believe it! He kept running back and forth between me and her…he was so excited! The dr. delivered the after birth and stitched me up…only 3 stitches. I tore a little but it didn’t need stitches. I had pushed out 7 giant piles. Not fun. They weighed my little girl, we were all betting on how much she weighed. I thought maybe 3.6! What a shock to hear 4 kg on the dot! I was shocked!



They finally brought her to me and she latched right away. I was on a total high and couldn’t believe how smoothly everything had gone. I started shaking and they took her to be warmed in the incubator. I asked them not to bath her; I only bathed her the next day. The midwife was so impressed with me; she kept saying that I should be a midwife! This really was an amazing birth…even though she was so big…relaxing really helped to open me up. Also, having a supportive and positive midwife made the world of difference. I felt completely in control.





We went home on the Friday and my son loves her. It’s a struggle to keep him from touching her all day!



Sorry this is soooooooo long!

Kota, born 12/11/2011 @ 21:55

On the 22nd Oct DH organised me a surprise baby shower. In the afternoon I started having very regular contractions about 7 minutes apart. They never got closer together and also they didn’t hurt but they continued the whole day. On Sunday the 23rd I still had them and on Monday they were still there, they still didn’t hurt but they got closer together so I decided to go to the doc to have them checked out. Turns out it was just Braxton Hicks and doc said that my cervix was still thick so labour was probably still a while away.

On the 30th of Oct we had ANOTHER false alarm. At about 8 the evening I started having contractions which slightly hurt but they weren’t very regular so after trying to time them until 11pm I decided to go to bed and just try to ignore them. By the morning they were gone again.

We had our next appointment with the doc on the 2nd of Nov, he checked everything and said that there was still ample amniotic fluid which usually indicates that the birth is still some time away. He also monitored the baby’s heart and said that everything was still fine with baby, the only concern he had was that baby was lying with his back to my right side, which apparently wasn’t ideal.

Nothing much happened in the next week, I still had the Braxton Hicks but they didn’t hurt or become regular. On the 9th we had another appointment with the doc. Everything was still fine, but doc was concerned because baby had turned with his back against my back and the doc said that if he didn’t turn any further it would be a very long & painful labour. He also said that if baby hasn’t arrived by the 18th (EDD) I would have to decide if I wanted an induction but that there is a big chance that it might end in a c-section. I also asked the doc about the muscles at the bottom of my tummy which hurt like after one has done too many situps, but he said its just because of the pressure baby is putting on them.

I started reading up & asking advice about turning the baby into a better position and Anina said that she would help me if baby hasn’t turned by himself when I go into labour. I also read up on natural (or non medical) methods of induction. So I started using Evening Primrose oil capsules and tried to walk as much as possible. All the while quietly talking to baby asking him to please turn into the right position for mommy and to please not make me have an induction...

The evening of the 11th DH & I decided to walk up to his father’s house (about 3 blocks away)instead of driving like usual. Surprisingly I coped quite well with the walk and after visiting for about an hour we walked back home. I kind of hoped the walk would cause some contractions but nothing happened......

On the 12th we took Iris for her swimming lessons in the morning then came home and did some chores around the house. I felt a bit emotional and had a good cry in the bathroom... Then I sat outside a bit but felt tired so I slept for a while. At about 14:00 I had a sandwich and then lay on the couch watching tv. At 15:00 my mom arrived for a visit and we had coffee and chatted a bit. At about 16:00 I started having contractions. They kept on coming but they weren’t regular nor did they hurt so I didn’t mention them to anyone. (I mean really after 2 false alarms!!) By 18:00 I was still having them and they started feeling a little stronger even though they didn’t really hurt. I decided to have a shower and freshen up just in case. I also decided to tell DH & my mom and I packed the last odds & ends in my hospital bags.

My feet started to hurt from all the walking & standing so sometime around 19:00 I decided to lie down on the couch again. After a while it felt like the contractions started to subside and I thought “wonderful, ANOTHER false alarm!!!”. I continued lying on the couch watching ‘Secretariat’ with the rest of the family. Hubby went out to get KFC and I had a cone while the rest had some dinner... LOL

Suddenly at around 20:00 I had quite a strong surge and had to get up as lying down was too uncomfortable. These stronger surges continued and although they were still not regular I told hubby that maybe we should leave for the hospital when the movie ends at 21:15 as the surges was fairly uncomfortable and I was in my knees leaning on the coffee table now. Just before 21:00 I needed to go to the toilet and suddenly the surges became a lot more painful, they especially hurt in my lower back. I sms’ed Anina to ask until when we could attempt to turn the baby and she phoned me back and explained to hubby what to do. It involved my lying on my back on the floor, but as soon as I lay down I had a very powerful contraction and had to get up immediately, we tried another 2 times but the same happened so we decided to leave for the hospital immediately.

On the way to the hospital we tried timing the contractions again and they were between 2 & 3 minutes apart lasting almost a minute each. We arrived at the hospital at about 21:20 and went straight to the labour ward. The nurse examined me and said I was 7cm. They wanted me to lie on my back for the monitor but I refused as it was just too sore and then they said OK, I could lie on my left side. I asked for Entonox and couldn’t wait for it to start working... LOL It was now 21:30.

They had hubby fill in all kinds of forms and stuff and one of the nurses came to explain visiting times or something to me and although I nodded at her and made some noises, I didn’t really care what she was saying, I just concentrated on breathing!

At 21:40 (yes, I was watching the clock as I know from my previous birth that the Entonox makes me loose track of time) hubby came to stand next to me. I took away the gas (BIG MISTAKE) to tell him I felt the urge to push, but just then the next contraction hit me and it hurt like hell. I put the gas back and started breathing and pushing by myself, when the contraction subsided I tried to show him to call the nurse (who was leisurely moving around stuff in the room) that I wanted to push. I don’t know if he called them but I pushed again and the next moment there was 3 of them around the bed saying I must turn on my back as my water has broken and the baby was ready to come AND they took away my gas!!!! I was very disappointed because apparently what I had been pushing so hard at was a bag full of water!!!

The next contraction came and they said I needed to push out the head. My body didn’t feel fully ready and I didn’t manage to push out the whole head but the nurses kept on telling me to PUSH, don’t know where I found the strength but with the 2nd try I managed to push out LB’s head. Then they started telling me to push out the shoulders NOW, I also needed 2 pushes for the shoulders and next moment our LB was born. I really was not impressed with the way the nurses handled the whole situation and pressurised me to push so hard & fast.

Immediately after baby was out I looked at the watch and it was 21:50 although the nurses say LB was born at 21:55, weighing 3.04kgs, length 52cm, and head 33cm. His agpar was 8 & 9 and he cried immediately after he came out

After I delivered the placenta and while waiting for the doc to come stitch up the little tears I had I started feeling needles & pins all over and I also started having shivers. When the doc arrived I asked him if it was normal and he said it’s because I delivered the baby so fast... He said I had 2 tears where the 1 needed two stitches and the other 1 just one stitch. He also said that I tore because I pushed too hard too fast.

While I was being cleaned up, they took hubby to give baby his first bath. Then they took me to my room and brought hubby & baby there too. I started feeding LB and he immediately latched and drank very nicely. Hubby stayed with me until about 23:30 and then left for so I could get some rest. Funny enough Kota slept like a dream that 1st night only waking every 3 hours for a feed, BUT I couldn’t sleep at all

Hi Michelle

Glad baby was ok,

Congrats Deja,your little man is handsome and I love the way the sister is fussing already