A Rainbow is Born

Wow Huggles, amazing birthstory!

Congrats, and enjoy every moment with your little boy!

Congrats Huggles!!! He is stunning and it sounds like you had a fantastic birth experience.

Enjoy your new little man.

Due date: 24 November 2011
Birth date: 30 October 2011 (36w3d)
Time: 01:53am
Little boy: Logan Alexander
Weight: 3.04kg
Length: 51cm
7 hour labour - drug-free natural hypnobirth


At 14 weeks pregnant, I had a McDonald suture placed as I have an incompetent cervix. I had made an appointment to have it removed on Thursday, 3 November 2011, at 37 weeks.

On Saturday, 29 October 2011, I had a busy day grocery shopping and buying various other last minute bits and bobs that I wanted to have before the birth. I had just finished work the day before, and was looking forward to the start of my maternity leave. Dh was away for the weekend, playing a two-day airsoft game. I was planning to spend the night at my parents’ house.

At approximately 6pm I went to shower (I was then going to pack my stuff and go to my parents). As I was finishing up in the shower something felt weird down below. So I felt and found loads and loads of slimy discharge. It just kept coming. I realised it was my mucous plug. Up until that moment, I hadn’t been entirely sure that I could lose my mucous plug whilst the stitch was still in place.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. I knew that if I went into labour I had to get the stitch removed asap otherwise it would tear through my cervix. But I wasn’t sure if this was the start of labour as I’d heard that a person can lose their plug a few days before labour sets in. I didn’t want to call dh back from his game if nothing was really happening yet.

So at 6:20pm I got out the shower and sat on the loo to think. I decided I would phone the maternity ward and ask their advice. But my phone was in the kitchen charging. So I got up and hurried through. As soon as I stood up though, it felt like wee running down my legs. I quickly got my phone and sat back on the loo. Phoned the ward and explained the situation. They said my gynae was the dr on call that weekend and they recommended I go in and get checked. So I phoned my mom to tell her, and then phoned dh to ask him to come back (his game was about an hour away). With every minute that passed I became more and more sure that I was in fact in the early stages of labour.

I got up to go and get my things together. More fluid ran down my legs. I realised it was most definitely my waters that had gone. My mom phoned me back to say she was going to come and fetch me and take me to the hospital (dh would meet me there). I got dressed and got my things together (thankfully my bags had been packed for a few weeks already). I remained calm, knowing that everything would be ok. I had had a scan the previous week at 35 weeks and the dr had predicted baby was already 2.9kg and had said that IF I did go into labour before 37 weeks baby would very probably be fine and I could still do natural delivery as he was such a good weight already.
So I reminded myself of all that and kept calm and thought positive thoughts and got excited at the prospect of meeting my son.

My mom arrived and we packed the car and headed for the hospital. Got there at 7pm and went straight through to maternity, where I told them who I was and why I was there. A really nice midwife took me through to a labour room, and she assessed me and confirmed that I was in fact in labour. So she went to call my gynae. She then put a monitor on to check baby’s heart rate. Everything seemed perfect.

Doctor arrived and confirmed why I was there. He then attempted to remove the cervical cerclage. But he was struggling. Contractions had already started, and my cervix was really high and paper thin. He managed to locate the knot of the suture, and he cut that and removed it. He could not, however, locate the rest of the suture. But he checked and made sure that my cervix would now be able to dilate without tearing. As soon as the stitch was cut I dilated to 3cm. Baby was still high though – only at station 2.
Dh arrived whilst the doctor was busy.

Dh and I were then left alone for me to labour in peace. I decided I wanted to try and remain upright so that baby could drop faster. But I could not get comfortable and the contractions were coming hard and fast (every 2 min). So I got onto the bed and got out my hypnobirthing CD, and lay down like I was going to sleep (that was how I had been practicing with my CD the previous couple of weeks). I was much more comfortable and the contractions became far more manageable. I went into a very deep relaxed state.

At around 10:35 the mw came in to tell me that she would come and check my cervix again at 11:30. But at 11:10 things suddenly started to feel different. The contractions became more intense and I was now feeling them in my back and hips as well. So I called her and asked her to please check me. She did, and I was 5cm dilated, but baby had dropped right down which was why the contractions felt so different.

She then monitored baby again and he was still doing well.
Every time I was lying on the bed listening to my CD, the contractions were manageable and seemed to be spaced a decent length of time apart. But every time I got up to go to the loo (which was fairly frequently), they came really hard and fast, approximately every minute, and were really intense. I spent a few extra minutes sitting on the loo each time, trying to allow gravity etc to encourage baby down. I was still in such a relaxed state though that I kept almost falling asleep whilst there.

Back in the bed and I listened to my CD again. I actually fell asleep between contractions this time. But the surges themselves were getting really intense. I continued to breathe through them, and became more and more focused.

At 00:30 the mw again came and told me she would be back to check my cervix again at 2:30.
But at 1am I suddenly started feeling pressure in my bum with each contraction. I called her back and asked her to please check me. She did so and I was 8cm dilated. As she was checking, I had another surge and went to 9cm. I was feeling a very strong urge to push. She said she would call the doctor and that if I really felt I need to push I could, but if I could manage to rather breathe through the urge then that would be better. I tried not to push, but the urge was very strong.

The doctor arrived at about 1:30am. I immediately started pushing, I just couldn’t wait anymore. My immediate reaction though was to tense up and forcibly push. But I then remembered the hypnobirthing and how to breathe the baby down. So I changed what I was doing and started breathing him down instead. The change was incredible. I felt so much more in control and the pain was much less. There was pain/discomfort, but it was totally bearable.

Then it got to the point where they could see his head. I kept thinking the head was about to come out, but then the surge would end and I couldn’t “push” anymore. They said I could just wait until the next one, so I did. As the head came out it was very sore, but it was also very empowering. I just kept reminding myself that this was a good thing and that this was what we’d been waiting so long for. And that we were about to meet our son. The head finally came out and they asked me to try and just breathe through the next contraction. I tried. Then the shoulders came out. The second shoulder came out very fast and caused me to tear slightly. But my baby was here. And he was pink and crying! I was so happy!