My birth story - James

Birth story if you care to read it. Happy birthday to my first born

This time five years ago, we made our way to hospital for the second time. I remember the car ride being the longest 15 minutes ever with contractions every 90 seconds. I really thought I would break the handle above the door with each contraction. 

Labour had started much earlier that day. 5am to be exact. The contractions woke me up and I remember thinking I had caught a UTI. I was annoyed and went back to bed. It wasn’t until they woke me up again that I realised this must be labour. I decided to time the contractions and lo and behold, they were 7 minutes apart. Remembering that early labour could take days, I waited an hour, then told Chris, and then decided to clean the house and wash and straighten my hair (reading this back I realise that was a little bit crazy but seemed normal at the time). 

We then had a big cook up for breakfast. The contractions were dull but not that uncomfortable. I used a heat pack and we watched re-runs of ‘8 out of 10 cats does countdown’ for what seemed like hours.The laughter helped with the pain and distracted me from what was to come. 

After about 10 hours, we decided to go for a walk to speed things up a bit. We walked at Merewether for a while. The contractions were about three minutes apart and I was beginning to feel anxious.  We decided to head to the hospital. I wanted to know where my dilation was at, and was disappointed when they said it was only 3 cm. Resigned to more time at home, we called mum to head up from Sydney and then went home to wait it out.

Once home, I entered active labour. The contractions were intense. I had thrown up repeatedly at hospital and they gave me a few different meds to ease the nausea. They told me to get some sleep. There was no chance of that happening. I had a fit ball and didn’t stop rocking and circling around until about 11pm. I tried a bath and it was a disaster. I couldn’t fit in the bath, was cold but then the hot water was making me so drowsy. I remember asking Chris not to leave me in case I drowned in the bath. Mum was up by that stage and it as tough for her to see me in pain. There was a lot of stress - it seemed better to head to the hospital where there were calm midwives there to help me remain calm.

Finally we made our way back to the hospital. After another check that I had requested, I was told I was 8cm dilated and that he would be arriving before the morning. Buoyed by this news, I opted to not have the epidural and instead try the gas. Over the next several hours, I bounced and circled on the ball, and used the gas to help me breathe through the contractions. Due to all the vomiting I was really dehydrated. So much so, I needed two bags of IV fluids. After two failed attempts, an anaesthetist was able to intubate my hand and after a while, I began to feel a bit more normal.

Finally, I was fully dilated and it was time to push. Never having given birth before, I didn’t really know what I was doing and tried a lot of different positions. My waters broke on the first push but two hours later, I was still baby-less. The midwife called in an obsetrtian who coached me a little bit. The only way I felt like I was doing the right thing was when I was on the birthing stool. I laboured in a squatting position for almost an hour. 

Finally, she had a bright idea to use pilates to help me push him out. Chris had to count as if I was doing the 100s and I had to push for 10 seconds and then breathe and rest for 10 seconds. It took me a few rounds but it worked. Eventually, there was a final push and the ring of fire. It was the most intense pain I had experienced to date but I knew with one more push, he would be here. A quick reframe and one more push and out he slid. They caught him and placed him straight to my chest. 

All I remember is how hot and slimy he was. His eyes darted from me to Chris and around the room. They were so dark and his skin was a shade of purple. I remember thinking he was so hairy with a fine fuzz all over his back. The three of them helped me to the bed and I birthed the placenta and had a second degree tear stitched up while completely focused on little baby James. We had skin to skin and he even did the breast crawl. It was such an amazing experience. The stitches and the graze and the tongue tie that was diagnosed were challenges for the next day but in those hours right after he was born, we were so happy to just be in our total bubble.

I love hearing birth stories. If you want to share yours please just send me an email.