I am going to share my labour story here. It has been a month since I gave birth and I still remember it like yesterday but when my baby is having babies I may not remember everything like I do now. This is mainly for me to be able to remember and share with my children my labours, but also why not share my experience. I asked my Mum a lot of questions about her labour while I was pregnant. I wanted to know what to expect, all the gory details, the ins and literally outs and for her to walk me through step by step each moment of all 3 of her labours. However my Mum’s pregnancies were all over 23 years ago and her memory of each birth had become little snippets here and there and some of my questions she couldn’t remember the details of. Now going through the experience myself, I understand why. It isn’t because her labours happened over 23 years ago, but because I believe when you are in labour, you are having contractions, your body is doing all these things like pushing the baby down, your dilating and then your body has this uncontrollable urge to push. You become very focus, become one with your body, not mind. It is like a part of your brain turns off and the birthing of your baby is run on pure women power. You are still able to think, maybe not so clearly, but you focus on breathing through this, trying a different position, getting your loved ones to get you a drink or rub your back or just plain screaming.

On 24th of August I woke up at 9am to something falling over in my house. I thought my husband had come home for some reason, I called out and no response and decided it was all in my head, probably something I was dreaming about. But now as I was awake, I needed to pee, cause I didn’t pee 100 times that night and every night for the last 2 months. So I got out of bed, half way to the toilet, I peed myself or so I thought. By the time I got to the toilet and sat down I realised it was my waters. Not knowing what to do next I remembered watching ‘One Born Every Minute’ and women wearing pads so the midwives could see the waters as only 1 in 10 women water’s break before going into labour, they probably just want to make sure that you actually haven’t peed yourself, cause that wouldn’t be mortifying. So that’s what I did, put on a pad and then called my husband. The adrenaline building in my system I couldn’t really think much but wondered ‘What now??’. I called the hospital and they said to come in over the next couple of hours but as contractions haven’t started don’t rush… A second after I got off the phone to the midwife, my Mum called… who with my husband was my other birthing partner. I thought my husband must have called her and told her that my waters had broke but she said she just had a feeling while squealing with excitement. Shortly after my husband arrived home, we both were excited and nervous and just sitting awkwardly around the house just waiting to see if contractions would start by themselves. So naturally we started watching ‘Gossip Girl’ to pass some time.

I was starting to feel weird, anxious and just wanted someone tell me what now. So we rocked up to the hospital around 12, I got assessed and it turns out my cheeky little baby had done a poop inside me! He wasn’t stressed, just decided it was a great time to release his first bowel movement. So instead of waiting for contractions to start the midwives said it was best to get this show on the road and induce me. It isn’t so good if your baby swallows it’s own poop. Two needles later, a really sore hand with a bruise cause the needle slipped out of my vein, and a call to my mum to tell her to come to the hospital as it is time to partner up and help her baby push a baby out, we were moved into a birthing suite around 2pm. My midwife put the drip in that would get contractions started. Mum arrived just after I got changed into a beautiful hospital gown which I didn’t know if i should keep my bra on, and undies, should I put my hair up or in a braid, all the really important things to worry about. I was than positioned on the bed with a drip in one hand and heart beat monitor around my belly to listen to my little guys heart beat and shortly after I got comfortable we went zero to one hundred in about 10 minutes. It was around 3pm when my first contraction started, it wasn’t that bad, they came every few minutes, and I could breathe through them, they were strong apparently but with my husband and mum chatting away to distract me I was able to manage through them, and it helped for those 10 minutes, and then BAM!!!! the strongest contractions that never really ended (until I was pushing the baby out), they just rolled in one after the other… I tried sitting on a medicine ball but the heart rate monitor for the baby kept moving so it didn’t last long plus it was to low to the ground and super uncomfy, we tried the shower… Ahh, it was luxury, my husband had a shower head on my back while I stood under another one and the heat of the water was lovely until we hopped out of the shower and then I lost my legs while I clung to my husband in a very strong contraction.   Once out of the shower the contractions were a lot stronger and the heart rate monitor kept losing the babies heart rate, so the midwife had to put a clip on our baby boys head which would allow me to be mobile if needs be and still be able to track our baby’s heart beat, although I would never leave the bed again after that shower. The time flew by, by 4:30pm my midwife offered me the gas to help take the edge off, it made me feel light headed and a little sick, tasted nasty but gave me something to really focus on. I tired a few positions to see which would be most comfortable for me. On my knees it was, facing the back of the bed, it just took the pressure off my back and hips. I had such a massive urge to push and the midwife kept saying to just breath through it, and I just kept thinking I can’t, I can push, it’s what I want to do. The midwife made me feel like I stilled had forever to go before I would be able to push, and with the way my contractions were going I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle another 10 hours of these contractions that never ended or gave up. So I decided that an epi would take the urge away, give me a little break and I would be able to just ride the contraction out. So I asked, my midwife told me she would have to examine me first and I was like, yep, good, I’m ready, do it. So she did what she had to do and to everyone’s surprise I was 8 cm dilated and was informed it was probably a little late for an epi. It was now just after 5:30pm  and the urge to push just continued to grow.

Hands down, My husband and Mum were the most amazing support. My mum gave me the physical support, massaging my back, fanning my neck, wet washer to brush the sweat and hair off my face, putting a heat pack on my tail bone. My husband helped with all this also in between begin the mental and emotional support I needed. In between holding my hand or rather me crushing his, he was where I pulled my strength from. They both were everything I needed, and I am more in love with my husband than ever before and closer to my mum after this incredible experience and amazing moment in all our lives that we were able to share.

It was about 20 minutes later and I was dying to push, there were things happening in my birthing suite that I had no idea about. Like the fact that my little boy decided to turn over and be back to back, the wrong way around for a baby to be born and makes it a lot more difficult to push the baby out and more painful! So I again I told the midwife I really would like to push, again she examined me not expecting me to be much further along but again to everyone’s surprise I was ready to push. Another thing that was happening and I didn’t know about it until a Doctor came in was that with every push the babies heart rate dropped. This meant that we had to remove the clip that was monitoring the babies heart and to now have a bit a of help with every push. We had to get the baby vacuumed out. So I pushed while they pulled and before I knew it the Doctor asked my to grunt through it while the head comes down. She did warn me saying that I will feel some stinging… She lied, I felt a ring of acid burning me. But before I know it, his head was out, then his shoulder, then his body was pulled out and I had a crying baby placed on my chest. And he was perfect!!! I was laughing while my husband and Mum were crying.

After I had my little baby in my arms the rest of the night was a blur and time seemed to fly past. Our baby boy started breast feeding a while after he was born. My husband cut the umbilical cord, after a couple hours our baby was weighed and all the other necessary doctor checks. My family was waiting in the waiting area and came to meet our baby boy – Tobias, after they had all gone home, we were taken up to our hospital room where my husband and I stared in wonder at the miracle of life. Life that we made, I carried and only met 2 hours again and loved soooo much. Tobias is so perfect. He is a month old now, cuddly as all hell, prefers to sleep in either my husbands or my arms, has started to smile, learning to burp by himself, does big poops especially a minute after we change him, has a strong neck and is very curious.