Mar 31, 2022

"I felt calm and empowered with an amazing support team around me".

I woke yesterday morning at 3am when I rolled over because I felt a gush, and was pretty sure it was my waters. I thought maybe I would go back to sleep and see if anything happened but I instantly had the shakes and my body must have known something was going to happen. By 3:30 I was having tightening's 4 minutes apart but they weren’t very intense so I thought maybe they were just practice ones. Nevertheless, I woke Steve and started getting ready. We decided to go into the hospital at 4am and the tightening's were a consistent 2 minutes apart but still very mild.

I had big headphones on and was just playing the birth affirmations track and I told Steve I wasn’t really going to talk to anyone and stay in my zone. So we got settled in the room about 4:30am. I felt like everything was ramping up a lot after a little bit and the midwife wanted to check me. She said I was 3cm but totally thinned and effaced and very stretchy. That was really hard to hear because I thought I was so far in already!

That’s when I decided I wanted the epidural because if this is what 3cm felt like, I knew I couldn’t go through the rest of it! So Steve went and asked the midwife Nikki if I could have the epidural. She wanted to do another check first, and check baby’s heart rate. She couldn’t find it and there was a bit of action as people came in, and put a head monitor on him. She said then that I was 6cm but super stretchy, and they couldn’t find his heart rate because he was so far down! She asked me whether I should call Dr Gen again and I said “yes, definitely call her”. I got on the gas somewhere around them doing that internal and I think it did really help relax me.

The very next surge after having the head monitor put on I started making noises, and I thought “I think I’m pushing”. Steve was putting pressure on my hips at this point which helped soo much. I had a few more like that and then I called out “this baby’s coming out!”. Then I just breathed through every surge. Dr Gen was still on her way in so Nikki asked me to slow it down and don’t push yet but I said I couldn’t help it, I didn’t think I was pushing! Then I heard her say “this baby’s about to come out whether you push or not”.

Gen made it in just as he was crowning so it was wonderful timing! He came out at ten minutes past sunrise 6:31am - with his hand on his face which wasn’t ideal! But still I just breathed him out and there was no stitches or anything needed and I had very minimal blood loss after (which is a first for me!). It was also a first for me to break my waters first, which might be why it was so intense! My surges stayed 2 minutes apart for the whole time!

Instantly, as soon as he was out, I was completely awake and aware of everything and feeling so much better. I was so delighted to see all these happy, familiar faces in the room. The third stage happened easily and there was very little intervention unlike last time.

I’m so glad we learnt and practiced all the hypnobirthing tracks, and breathing and techniques for Steve to use. I could tell he was empowered to make the decisions for me while I could just be in the zone. He had his hand on me for pretty much the whole birth which was so important to me. I really missed it when he had to do something (and he had to sit down for a second when they couldn’t find the heartbeat!).

Thank you so much for your help and your lessons. I feel like I still carried some of the fear and trauma from last time but I didn’t let it stop me or change anything. I felt calm and empowered and while it wasn’t painless, it was very quick and I only had a brief period where I thought I couldn’t do it.

I’m so lucky we weren’t in lockdown too, and my friend Amy could come in and do photos. I’ve attached some of the preview shots she sent me here. It was so beautiful that he was born just as the sun was rising and it made some amazing photos too!

So here is baby Edward Xavier Smith, born at 6:31am on August 13 after about 2 hours of active labour and 3.5 hours after my water broke. He weighed 3.725kg and 53cm long :)