The arrival of Anna, at home in Wellington
My due date was the 11th of October, 2009. By the morning of the 22nd I was over it - I'd been up most of the night, and the night before that. Contractions had been 5 mins apart for all of that time but the midwives assured me that I was not in "proper" labour yet and should just rest - great advice, but I just couldn't keep still long enough to sleep. On the morning of the 22nd I phoned the midwife again, and said something like "this baby better be born today, or I'm ditching the birth plan and going to the hospital!". Once again the midwife on duty told me I wasn't in labour yet, and kindly reminded me that if I did go to the hospital they'd tell me the same thing and send me home again. At this point I was feeling absolutely wretched but luckily my own midwife was able to pop in before her appointments started for the day. She did an internal and uttered the magic words - "you're 3-4 cms!" Once I had heard that, everything was ok again. So long as something was happening I could cope with the contractions. I ate some breakfast, then dragged myself off for a walk round the block with Mike - having buses drive past while stooped at the side of the road having a contraction was pretty awkward! |
Once we got back I was pretty keen to get in the pool so Mike started filling it up, and I got in around 11am. Once I was in the pool the contractions were a lot easier to deal with, and I'm a real water baby so I was happier there too. We checked in with our midwife a couple of times, and about 2pm she and the student midwife came round and started unloading all their gear into the room.
The afternoon passed in a bit of a blur, with all three of them reminding me to "drop your shoulders, relax your face" every time I had another contraction. Mike fed me iceblocks and held up my water bottle, and periodically offered rescue remedy or reminded me to get out and go to the toilet.
By 5pm I could feel my baby girl's head with my fingers and was about 8cm dilated. A short while later I moved into a squatting position and my waters broke in the pool. At this stage the atmosphere in the room got very busy as everyone started preparing for the imminent arrival of our girl - putting towels on to warm up and phoning the second midwife. Unfortunately Anna's arrival was not as imminent as we thought - she had managed to get herself a bit stuck and it took 3 hours of pushing before she finally arrived at 9.36pm. I got out of the pool about 7pm - for some reason I had always thought that I would labour in the pool but get out to actually give birth.
I moved between crouching on the floor, sitting on the toilet, lying on the bed, leaning over the bath, back in the pool again, but every which way I tried I just didn't seem to be able to get enough traction to get her out. By this stage both baby and I were being monitored pretty closely, and it was getting to the stage we might have to go to hospital. Fortunately baby's heartrate was ok, so the midwives decided to shut me by myself in the bathroom with the lights out for a few minutes and see if I could make some progress. I think this was probably really helpful as I did feel a bit embarrassed about all the grunting and so on, and felt like I was being really loud - although Mike assures me that I wasn't. I guess I was also just starting to feel a bit useless that I couldn't "just do it" and give birth already.
After a few minutes alone I went back to the birth room and lay down on my back, and with the help of the midwives baby "crowned" ( I remember thinking how ironic it was to be lying on my back with my legs held up after all my reading on active birth!) then got up onto my knees before pushing Anna out into Mike's waiting hands.
She had a rather large bruise on her head from being "acynclitic" (stuck against me), and was given some oxygen as there had been some meconium in the birth canal with her, but was absolutely perfect and weighed 3.74kg (8pounds 4oz).
I hadn't wanted to have a syntocinon injection but after such a prolonged second stage the midwives thought it would be best, and ditto for the Vitamin K injection, which we wouldn't have done if she hadn't been so knocked around. My placenta came out almost instantly, and a few minutes later I was very pleased to learn that I had a small tear but wouldn't need any stitches. Anna was then promptly handed over to her dad so that I could shower (and wee properly again, yay!), and our student midwife made me what seemed like the tastiest food I had ever eaten.
By 11pm we were all tucked up in bed having our first breastfeed, and my parents popped in for a few minutes to gaze at our gorgeous girl. By midnight the midwives had finished all their tidying up and paperwork and were ready to leave - this was the first time I thought being in hospital with a call button might have been quite nice!
Our first night was a bit intimidating but also more wonderful than you can imagine. Mike looked after Anna most of the night so I could get some sleep, and I woke up on our first day as a family feeling really happy to be at home with our baby. On day 2 I woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a bus, but I guess that's pretty normal too!
I feel really happy, and proud, that we were able to have a home birth like we planned. It's probably not for everyone, but I absolutely loved that Mike never had to leave us, that we had our own things on hand, and our own yummy food, and that Anna didn't have to go out into the big bad world until we were good and ready (10 days). It also really helped that my parents were around for the first week after she was born, and took care of meals and washing etc - without them a home birth would have been much more difficult.
The afternoon passed in a bit of a blur, with all three of them reminding me to "drop your shoulders, relax your face" every time I had another contraction. Mike fed me iceblocks and held up my water bottle, and periodically offered rescue remedy or reminded me to get out and go to the toilet.
By 5pm I could feel my baby girl's head with my fingers and was about 8cm dilated. A short while later I moved into a squatting position and my waters broke in the pool. At this stage the atmosphere in the room got very busy as everyone started preparing for the imminent arrival of our girl - putting towels on to warm up and phoning the second midwife. Unfortunately Anna's arrival was not as imminent as we thought - she had managed to get herself a bit stuck and it took 3 hours of pushing before she finally arrived at 9.36pm. I got out of the pool about 7pm - for some reason I had always thought that I would labour in the pool but get out to actually give birth.
I moved between crouching on the floor, sitting on the toilet, lying on the bed, leaning over the bath, back in the pool again, but every which way I tried I just didn't seem to be able to get enough traction to get her out. By this stage both baby and I were being monitored pretty closely, and it was getting to the stage we might have to go to hospital. Fortunately baby's heartrate was ok, so the midwives decided to shut me by myself in the bathroom with the lights out for a few minutes and see if I could make some progress. I think this was probably really helpful as I did feel a bit embarrassed about all the grunting and so on, and felt like I was being really loud - although Mike assures me that I wasn't. I guess I was also just starting to feel a bit useless that I couldn't "just do it" and give birth already.
After a few minutes alone I went back to the birth room and lay down on my back, and with the help of the midwives baby "crowned" ( I remember thinking how ironic it was to be lying on my back with my legs held up after all my reading on active birth!) then got up onto my knees before pushing Anna out into Mike's waiting hands.
She had a rather large bruise on her head from being "acynclitic" (stuck against me), and was given some oxygen as there had been some meconium in the birth canal with her, but was absolutely perfect and weighed 3.74kg (8pounds 4oz).
I hadn't wanted to have a syntocinon injection but after such a prolonged second stage the midwives thought it would be best, and ditto for the Vitamin K injection, which we wouldn't have done if she hadn't been so knocked around. My placenta came out almost instantly, and a few minutes later I was very pleased to learn that I had a small tear but wouldn't need any stitches. Anna was then promptly handed over to her dad so that I could shower (and wee properly again, yay!), and our student midwife made me what seemed like the tastiest food I had ever eaten.
By 11pm we were all tucked up in bed having our first breastfeed, and my parents popped in for a few minutes to gaze at our gorgeous girl. By midnight the midwives had finished all their tidying up and paperwork and were ready to leave - this was the first time I thought being in hospital with a call button might have been quite nice!
Our first night was a bit intimidating but also more wonderful than you can imagine. Mike looked after Anna most of the night so I could get some sleep, and I woke up on our first day as a family feeling really happy to be at home with our baby. On day 2 I woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a bus, but I guess that's pretty normal too!
I feel really happy, and proud, that we were able to have a home birth like we planned. It's probably not for everyone, but I absolutely loved that Mike never had to leave us, that we had our own things on hand, and our own yummy food, and that Anna didn't have to go out into the big bad world until we were good and ready (10 days). It also really helped that my parents were around for the first week after she was born, and took care of meals and washing etc - without them a home birth would have been much more difficult.