During contractions the room was silent, I was silent, I was calm, tens machine was in full swing, I was completely focused on listening to the music and my breathing. My husband was so good at reading my cues of needing a heat back, massaging my shoulder and/or working my pressure points. Every 10mins he was offering water; he truly was my saviour!
After 3 stretch and sweeps and 4 false labours and 6 acupuncture sessions baby was not ready to come. Induction was booked at exactly 40 weeks
Morning of induction, the midwife called at 6:00am to say that induction would be pushed back to 9:00am due to no bed being available. The midwife called at 8:00am and I was told to make my way to the hospital, we arrived at 8:40am to be told there was no longer a bed available. My husband and I proceeded to sit in a consult room until 12 noon.
During the waiting period our midwife advised that she would like to commence with the oxytocin right away after breaking my waters to progress labour due to loss of time, although this wasn’t initially in our birthing plan, we did agree due to the loss of time and also being mindful we wanted my husband to get home to our daughter.
12noon we were moved into the birthing suite.
12:15pm the midwife confirmed that I was 3cms dilated and she broke my waters, this was something you would see in the movies, the full gush… and it didn’t stop for about 15minutes, every slight movement I made, another gush would come. When things settled down, I got up and cleaned myself up ready for labour to begin.
My husband hooked up the TENS machine, we started playing our birth playlist and by 1pm my contractions had started, they were 3 mins apart, very strong but very short!
1:30pm came and the midwife increased the oxytocin in the hope that it would encourage contractions to go for the full minute… and they did. very quickly.
Contractions were intense, coming on every 1-3minutes lasting 60-90seconds at a time.
During contractions the room was silent, I was silent, I was calm, tens machine was in full swing, I was completely focused on listening to the music and my breathing. My husband was so good at reading my cues of needing a heat back, massaging my shoulder and/or working my pressure points. Every 10mins he was offering water; he truly was my saviour!
2:15pm came and I looked desperately at my midwife and told her I didn’t know how much more I could take. I asked her when she was going to check my dilation and she said 4pm. At this point I felt like I was losing my way, I was getting exhausted and just started thinking about the time I had left and couldn’t help but feel like I wouldn’t be able to maintain my energy for stage 2 (pushing).
The midwife urged me to hold off on the epidural and encouraged me to get in the shower. I was adamant I didn’t want to shower as I knew that I wouldn’t be able to handle the contractions without the tens machine.
3pm arrived and I was strongly requesting the epidural. The midwife checked my dilation and at that stage I was 5cms. I was in disbelief, my contractions where intense, frequent and were lasting a good amount of time, I couldn’t believe at that point that I wasn’t more dilated.
I looked at my husband and told him I couldn’t do it anymore. He tried to encourage me and remind me that I could do it, I was doing so great. But I was done…
I demanded the midwife order the epidural, once again she pushed back! The more she and my husband resisted my request the more I wanted it.
We made a deal that I would get in the shower for 10mins before she ordered it. I was in the shower, tens machine off for the first time and I was feeling every contraction. I couldn’t get comfortable, standing at this point was unbearable. I gave my husband the look and the epidural was ordered.
By 3:30pm I was getting prepped for the epidural, first needle went in, it missed! Second attempt was a success. Once the needle was in and secured the midwife turned me onto the bed so the pain relief could be administered.
Once my feet hit the bed, I had an immediate urge to bear down and push. I couldn’t help it and couldn’t stop it. I freaked out apologising to the midwife.
With no pain relief I was in full stage 2 active labour (pushing). It took me by complete surprise, I was scared, scared that I had hours of pushing ahead and I wouldn’t be able to do it.
The pain was intense, the ring of fire. gosh what a feeling! I had to work really hard to calm myself down and work on my breathing. My husband was calm, patting my head, allowing me to squeeze his hand. 5 big pushes, 7 mins later our boy was finally here.
Elyon was born at 3:47pm, placed on my chest taking his first breaths.
I did it, I couldn’t believe it! I actually did it with no pain relief. I handled labour like an absolute boss, and I truly owe it to you as everything you taught us in your Calmbirth class was everything that worked.
– Breathing techniques – Birthing positions – Mindfulness – Birthing playlist – Use of tens machines – Pressure points
These are all the things I learnt and took from the course that I could not labour without. and I mean that as I didn’t do any of these things in my first labour and had a very different experience.
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