On Friday 19 March I felt some sort of menstrual pain during the day or a feeling like the baby was doing big stretches in my tummy. I told my husband that I had the feeling that my body was “opening up” but I didn’t experience any contractions.
That afternoon, at 17:20, my waters broke. It was a pleasant experience – a gush of warm water slowly dripping out. I knew labour had started and was excited to tell him we would probably meet our baby within the next 24 hours. He said it would be nice to have a baby born on the due date. For our eldest daughter’s birth, I was 10 days “late” so we hadn’t expected to be so close to the expected “due date” this time either. Powerful surges started immediately after that. I sat on all fours to accommodate and breath through the surges. My husband called the Birth centre and they told us to come in for a check to see if everything was all right (as I had learned in the course). I remained calm and was able to think practically. I asked my husband to already bring my hospital bags to the car. We weren’t in a big rush as my first delivery took 36 hours of labouring.
The surges were immediately quite powerful. I breathed up and waited for the waves to go over. I wasn’t aware of the length and speed of the surges at that point. I remembered we had planned to pick up a co-sleeper that I bought online from someone the next morning. I messaged the lady at 18:02 and told her it was unlikely that we’d get to her place the next morning as my waters just broke. She was super friendly and told me that she’d keep the cot for us until Tuesday. She wished me a quick and easy birth.
By that time my husband had almost come back from the car. I decided to go to the toilet just before leaving for the hospital. I went to the bathroom and suddenly right when my husband came back, I felt this irresistible urge to push. My husband told me that he could see our baby’s head in the birth canal. He asked if I wanted to give birth at home. I didn’t answer his question as it was fairly obvious it was already happening.
By that time – this must have been around 18:10 – we moved to our bedroom. He called the birth centre again, they were busy at the moment and didn’t pick up the phone. We ended up with the triage centre on the line. They told us that if I was in active labour my husband should call the ambulance, which he did. The person on the other end of the line asked for our postcode four times whilst my husband said: “I can see the head coming out”. I even said our postcode to the person on the phone. After he got our address, he comforted my husband and talked him through what was happening. He told him to be prepared to catch the baby as the baby would be very slippery. Luckily he had two towels ready and was able to catch the baby. He then gave her in my arms. We saw she was not breathing at first. We were advised to rob her back with the towel (as you had mentioned during the course); which we did and suddenly she cried.
What a relief! The person on the other end of the phone said:
“Congratulations, your baby was born at 18:18”.
At that moment the ambulance called our doorbell and my husband opened the door. At 18:20, five men came into our bedroom. I asked them to wait a bit before cutting the cord, which they did. Birthing the placenta was a bit more challenging; I think due to the five paramedics in our room (although they were very friendly) my oxytocin level had dropped. To increase my oxytocin level, I took the baby on me and fed her. The placenta still didn’t come out. After a while we were brought with the ambulance to the birth centre. Once we arrived there a senior midwife helped me birth the placenta, which was already in the birth canal. I then got sutured and they gave the baby a vitamin K injection.
What an unbelievable adventure. Not during the surges, nor the pushing stage did I experience any “pain”. I just let my body do what it is designed to do – give birth to my baby. I wasn’t afraid as I knew this is a natural process and my body can do it, I just let nature take over. I think the amount of time spent in the course (and doing the assessment) made the difference to change my perception from “being afraid” to “not being afraid and feel confident” about giving birth.
Some side notes to this story:
(1) Our eldest daughter was in the room next to our bedroom, with her nanny, who gave her a bath that time. The nanny didn’t know that I was in labour and was very surprised when suddenly she heard a little baby cry. She thought it must have been a baby somewhere else in the building. This proves that I was so calm and silent, she didn’t hear me at all.
(2) I was wearing my Garmin watch during labour and the delivery. It shows my heart rate didn’t go up more than 122bpm the whole time.
(3) Our daughter weighed 4,06 kg / 8lb 15,21 oz at birth. Even though she weighed slightly less than our eldest daughter, I still consider her a big baby. Having “a big baby” was one of my biggest reasons of fear beforehand. I have to admit that the relaxation of the mother and the position of giving birth are the most important factors for a comfortable and calm birth, despite the size of the baby.
I want to share my empowering birth experience and KGH knowledge with many other women. I wish that they too can experience the birth of their baby in the same comfortable way as I have. I have much more confidence in my body now, it brought me even closer to my husband and we have a beautiful and calm newborn daughter.
The midwife came to see us this morning for the baby’s 10 days visit.
She said that next time we should probably opt for a planned home birth.
Thank you for the course but most of all thank you for changing our lives.
Laura, Nick and Manon