Home Birth- Welcome Avalon-
Birth Story Day! This is an amazing home birth story- I love how it shows how different the outcome would have been had she been in the hospital. Birth is amazing, and where it happens makes a huge difference in the interventions received.
Enjoy-
So here is basically how it all went ♥ (be prepared… this is long! LOL)
About 5am Saturday (3rd) morning I started getting cramps every 30 minutes for about a minute which lasted all day, and were fairly light (by 10pm they were 20 minutes apart and then things really got started at 2am where they were consistently 7 minutes a part)… I just sat around watching TV with Grant during the day and by midnight I was needing to breath through them and I slept as much as I could along with checking the clock every so often and Grant slept soundly (I was surprisingly relaxed considering I thought I would be quite anxious but I felt so ready.) By 5am that Sunday, they were about 5 minutes apart so I started using the TENS. Helen, our midwife was arriving at 9am for a scheduled appointment so that was great timing…
Grant set up the pool and all in all that took about 1 hour to assemble and fill. When she arrived, she asked me whether I wanted to be checked or not to see how far I was… I ummed and ahead but decided to go for it… I was 2 cm dilated when I had seen her the previous Thursday so felt things were moving along… and what do you know?
I was 6cm dialated!! This felt so good and meant I could get in the pool…
The pool was absolute BLISS and even more effective than the TENS (for me anyway)… I would recommend it for ANYONE! After 9 months of feeling so heavy the weightlessness and warm water was amazing…
we also lit candles and listened to classical music.. Grant just sat beside the pool while I wallowed… we chatted… I ate pineapple and the midwife stayed in the dining room… writing notes and drinking coffee… I loved how hands off she was!
(On a funny note re: The Classical Music: Grant had made a compilation for the DVD which included film themes… Helen said she will always think of me when she hears the Star Wars theme from now on as in my haze, that was playing as I pushed! hahaha) I guess as the contractions got closer things get a little hazy from here… but I just breathed through them when they came…
I just counted through each contraction as a distraction when it felt a little too much… Grant was brilliant with reminding me of my breath… and that after each contraction to ‘forget about that one…’ I cannot underestimate how good it felt to be at home for me… I was so much more relaxed than I would have been in the hospital and I think this contributed to my feeling of ‘No Fear’ through out… honestly… in a different setting I do not doubt my memories in terms of pain and experience would have been so different…
I always say I am ’such a baby’ when it comes to pain and ‘things outside my control’… but this was so different ♥ Helen checked me again about midday and I was 9cm dialated!! Wahoo!!… Ironically enough…this is where I started to have my ‘I cant do this moment’… and I gave it to the Entinox… The contractions felt on top of each other though and it just gave me that little reprieve I needed. Looking back at my Labour Notes I realise I only used the gas and air for 25minutes before it was time to push! I wont lie I would love to say did without that after coming so close The second midwife from the hospital arrived at this point… ….and then I had the urge to push… At this stage my waters still had not broken… I had a lot of difficulty with pushing –I should say- I wasnt getting the hang of it… I know that I had difficulty ‘feeling’ the contraction at this point… (and we would soon discover why!) Because of this I kept changing my positions in the pool… including trying to push on the toilet for awhile… at that point Helen broke my waters and I could feel the babies head with my hand… I got back in the pool and finally she arrived at 2.15pm.. ♥
All in all I had been pushing since just before noon (over 2 hrs) so I was exhausted! I just shut my eyes and pushed and pushed… Oh the relief when her head appeared… All I kept hearing Grant say was ‘Oh my God… Oh My God!”… I wish I had looked but I was so in the zone to get her in my arms… When she slid out… Oh the sweet relief! LOL… The midwife brought her up to my chest and Grant and I just cuddled her… I think it was a good couple of minutes before we even knew if we had a boy or girl…
We discovered that when she was born she was transverse…we knew she was doing things in her own way as every time the midwives listened for the heartbeat they had to keep moving around my stomach as she kept changing her position… Helen described it as she was ‘corkscrewing’ her way down and of course, she never turned as she came through the cervix… She was born on her side with the biggest part of her head coming through, luckily I only had a very small tear and didn’t need any stitching- I think the water and massage I had been doing may have helped…
I do feel so proud of myself as Helen even said to me today ‘I don’t know how you got her out!’… she said that I would have been a definite forceps/ vontouse delivery in the hospital.. possibly even a section.. (I ♥ being Home!)
So I guess if you do not count the day of cramping, I was in labour for 12 hours (that is the official record)… Because of the tear there was a lot of blood in the pool and unfortunately we needed to see what was happening so I was given the injection to get the placenta out ASAP… then waited for the chord to stop pulsating and Grant cut the chord … and The Placenta has pride of place in our freezer… hmmm…. not sure what to do with it… but I didnt want to throw it away… I am sure there will be some future tree in our future garden with its name on it Grant held Avalon and had a cuddle while the midwives had a look at what was happening with me… I am so glad that I didnt need stitches either (and am healing well.) I was pretty dazed… maybe a little from losing the blood and the lack of food over the past 24 hours but I think I went into a bit of shock… I was shivering quite a bit and when I was feeding her (Oh I love it!) I was getting quite blurry vision… so I had lots of sugar (sweet tea and honey on toast) and the midwife also decided to return later that night to check all was ok …
And then there were 3 of us ♥ … I chilled out with Avalon… making calls to family and Grant had the fun task of emptying the pool Cheers
Enjoy-
So here is basically how it all went ♥ (be prepared… this is long! LOL)
About 5am Saturday (3rd) morning I started getting cramps every 30 minutes for about a minute which lasted all day, and were fairly light (by 10pm they were 20 minutes apart and then things really got started at 2am where they were consistently 7 minutes a part)… I just sat around watching TV with Grant during the day and by midnight I was needing to breath through them and I slept as much as I could along with checking the clock every so often and Grant slept soundly (I was surprisingly relaxed considering I thought I would be quite anxious but I felt so ready.) By 5am that Sunday, they were about 5 minutes apart so I started using the TENS. Helen, our midwife was arriving at 9am for a scheduled appointment so that was great timing…
Grant set up the pool and all in all that took about 1 hour to assemble and fill. When she arrived, she asked me whether I wanted to be checked or not to see how far I was… I ummed and ahead but decided to go for it… I was 2 cm dilated when I had seen her the previous Thursday so felt things were moving along… and what do you know?
I was 6cm dialated!! This felt so good and meant I could get in the pool…
The pool was absolute BLISS and even more effective than the TENS (for me anyway)… I would recommend it for ANYONE! After 9 months of feeling so heavy the weightlessness and warm water was amazing…
we also lit candles and listened to classical music.. Grant just sat beside the pool while I wallowed… we chatted… I ate pineapple and the midwife stayed in the dining room… writing notes and drinking coffee… I loved how hands off she was!
(On a funny note re: The Classical Music: Grant had made a compilation for the DVD which included film themes… Helen said she will always think of me when she hears the Star Wars theme from now on as in my haze, that was playing as I pushed! hahaha) I guess as the contractions got closer things get a little hazy from here… but I just breathed through them when they came…
I just counted through each contraction as a distraction when it felt a little too much… Grant was brilliant with reminding me of my breath… and that after each contraction to ‘forget about that one…’ I cannot underestimate how good it felt to be at home for me… I was so much more relaxed than I would have been in the hospital and I think this contributed to my feeling of ‘No Fear’ through out… honestly… in a different setting I do not doubt my memories in terms of pain and experience would have been so different…
I always say I am ’such a baby’ when it comes to pain and ‘things outside my control’… but this was so different ♥ Helen checked me again about midday and I was 9cm dialated!! Wahoo!!… Ironically enough…this is where I started to have my ‘I cant do this moment’… and I gave it to the Entinox… The contractions felt on top of each other though and it just gave me that little reprieve I needed. Looking back at my Labour Notes I realise I only used the gas and air for 25minutes before it was time to push! I wont lie I would love to say did without that after coming so close
The second midwife from the hospital arrived at this point… ….and then I had the urge to push… At this stage my waters still had not broken… I had a lot of difficulty with pushing –I should say- I wasnt getting the hang of it… I know that I had difficulty ‘feeling’ the contraction at this point… (and we would soon discover why!) Because of this I kept changing my positions in the pool… including trying to push on the toilet for awhile… at that point Helen broke my waters and I could feel the babies head with my hand… I got back in the pool and finally she arrived at 2.15pm.. ♥
All in all I had been pushing since just before noon (over 2 hrs) so I was exhausted! I just shut my eyes and pushed and pushed… Oh the relief when her head appeared… All I kept hearing Grant say was ‘Oh my God… Oh My God!”… I wish I had looked but I was so in the zone to get her in my arms… When she slid out… Oh the sweet relief! LOL… The midwife brought her up to my chest and Grant and I just cuddled her… I think it was a good couple of minutes before we even knew if we had a boy or girl…
We discovered that when she was born she was transverse…we knew she was doing things in her own way as every time the midwives listened for the heartbeat they had to keep moving around my stomach as she kept changing her position… Helen described it as she was ‘corkscrewing’ her way down and of course, she never turned as she came through the cervix… She was born on her side with the biggest part of her head coming through, luckily I only had a very small tear and didn’t need any stitching- I think the water and massage I had been doing may have helped…
I do feel so proud of myself as Helen even said to me today ‘I don’t know how you got her out!’… she said that I would have been a definite forceps/ vontouse delivery in the hospital.. possibly even a section.. (I ♥ being Home!)
So I guess if you do not count the day of cramping, I was in labour for 12 hours (that is the official record)… Because of the tear there was a lot of blood in the pool and unfortunately we needed to see what was happening so I was given the injection to get the placenta out ASAP… then waited for the chord to stop pulsating and Grant cut the chord
… and The Placenta has pride of place in our freezer… hmmm…. not sure what to do with it… but I didnt want to throw it away… I am sure there will be some future tree in our future garden with its name on it Grant held Avalon and had a cuddle while the midwives had a look at what was happening with me… I am so glad that I didnt need stitches either (and am healing well.) I was pretty dazed… maybe a little from losing the blood and the lack of food over the past 24 hours but I think I went into a bit of shock… I was shivering quite a bit and when I was feeding her (Oh I love it!) I was getting quite blurry vision… so I had lots of sugar (sweet tea and honey on toast) and the midwife also decided to return later that night to check all was ok …
And then there were 3 of us ♥ … I chilled out with Avalon… making calls to family and Grant had the fun task of emptying the pool
Cheers
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Kate.