Lipsmacker01
03-05-2007, 03:21 PM
I had my 1st baby, a gorgeous little girl on the 29/4/07 & wanted to share my birth story with all the future mothers out there with upcoming births. Its quite detailed as I wanted to be able to recall as much as I could so that others have a better idea of what to expect!
I want to encourage first time expectant mums to try and avoid pre-labour nerves as you will only worry yourselves silly. Its tough not to be as you just don't know what to expect unless you've been through it before.
Reason why I'm saying 'don't be nervous' is because the actual birth in the birthing room went surprisingly really well for me!! You would be amazed at the state of the art facilities they have at hospitals and the words of advice that the midwives give you while you are there.
Now to turn the clock backwards a little, here’s what happened in the lead up to my baby being born.
Few weeks earlier, wasn't sure if what I was experiencing in my stomach was 'Braxton Hicks' contractions or not. Many sources describe it as tightening of the stomach muscles in preparation for the birth. Mine looked like bubs's bottom or back peeking strongly at my upper belly for a few seconds, (Just like Astroboy and his laserbut!!). Dr asked me if I was having BH contractions & I replied no but didn't realise that these were it!!
Few days leading up to birth these started coming on regularly. I also had a lot of pelvic floor activity, felt like bubs was head butting me down there!!!
2 Days before the birth I had my show! Just B4 last GP’s last 40 wk appointment. It was very brown, yes snotty and thick. Saw it on toilet paper. I started having my first contractions that same arvo. DH wrote all 22 of them down!! Best way to describe this pain is imagining baby is a huge steel magnet ball and that I have a giant magnet outside belly that is attracted to it. Imagine bringing that big magnet slowly closer to that ball in your belly, then slowly going away. These pains were in my lower abdomen. I believe this would be the best way to describe them!! As the evening progressed, they came at different intervals, eg 3.16pm 10 secs, 5.49pm 25 secs, 9.09pm 30 seconds!! By m-nite I called hospital and they said to come in when they reached a minute long and came every 5 minutes. Due to their frequency I didn’t sleep a wink. Couldn't find a comfortable position in bed at all + had to monitor the length on my mob phone stopwatch!! Essential item!! Luckily DH got a good 5 hours sleep. Contractions didn't reach 1 minute mark till following morning at 8am and were 5 mins apart.
At this stage I was emotional and started crying and asked DH to take me to hospital straight away!! Was as nervous as hell. Back was sort of achy too. Was exhausted as I had no sleep. Didn’t have b’fast so was starving too. Got to hospital, was great on the roads as it was a quiet Sunday morning. The light changes were so annoying. No cars but red lights at every intersection!
Got to hospital, the m/wife said I was doing really well. Had an internal done and was told my cervix has started to thin & I was 4cm dilated!!!!! (Thanks to all the pain I put through last night). The m/wife said we had 4 hours to kill so DH & I spent time in our birthing room. Now here’s the best advice I got for the day
******'Make sure you BREATHE OUT on every contraction that you have'******
I was told to keep my fluids up and was instructed to work with gravity. Encourage baby to keep doing what it was doing by being mobile. I climbed the hospital stairs many times, used the fit ball. DH walked me around the hospital hundreds of times. Every so often I was stopping, grabbing hand rails against walls to have a contraction! I remembered to breathe. Just breathed them away, quite slowly and blocked everything else out of my mind.
By about 1pm I was getting frustrated. I was getting constantly monitored by the midwives. Doppler machines to check babies heart rate, blood pressure checks, internals to see how far dilated I was. Water checks to see how much Id been drinking and sanitary pad checks to see the color of the constant discharge I was having.
By 6pm I was still only 4cm dilated so the MW injected Syntocinon (natural hormone to induce labour). M/wives said I had wobbly veins so took them 3 goes to insert needle. I also had to get my amniotic sac ruptured with a hook as during the internals middy noticed baby’s head was sort of blocking it. This process felt incredible! I could feel lots of hot liquid trickle down there into the sanitary bed sheet. I had two huge belts attached to my belly measuring baby’s heart rate and I was attached to a huge machine with a drip. I looked like a science experiment!! I had to walk to the toilet with all this equipment. The contractions definitely sped up. They also felt harder. I breathed through all of them. I tried an armchair against a bed with a heat pack that DH brought with us just in case, against my back. I was constantly saying push it harder or higher against my back and the m/wives kept warming it up for me which was fantastic. Most of my pain in this position was both in back and lower belly. Constantly had the urge to do # 1's and 2's!!
M/wives suggested I try standing against the bed. No chair this time. It was hard. Pain in back went but pain in stomach was more intense and lasted longer. I had my eyes closed through every contraction and just focused on slow breaths. At the end of every contraction I slowly opened my eyes and felt great, another one out of the way!! One of the placement Uni students said that I was the quietest person they had ever seen!! This is why I thought Id pass on the breathing tip to Bub Hub mums to be.
I constantly sipped on water to keep fluids up. Had strong urge to do # 2's. The midwives said that that was great and that that was a sign that baby would be here soon.
I dragged all my equipment with injection attached to my arm hooked up to a pole on castors at least 4-5 times to toilet. The worst was when I had waves of contractions when I was sitting on the toilet seat. Felt like I was going to fall through toilet seat!! M/wives were wondering what was taking me so long. More pad changing!! I had another internal done and was told I was 10cm dilated!! M/wives suggested I try standing on all fours on the bed and that on the next contraction, try to do a big 'poo'!!! At this stage I was frantic as I did have to do #2s but this was the process for delivering a child and I had to give it my best shot!! I cried many times thinking I don't want everyone seeing my poo. Id advise mums to be that they don't worry about this!! DH said I only pood once and that it was minor. I did feel a m/wife clean it up instantly.
I wasn't making any progress in the pushing. The middies had their big torch to check that region. I was pushing and grunting at the same time. They were getting a bit concerned that this was taking time. At approx 9pm I had an OB come in. He did an internal & said that baby was facing the right way but its head was looking left slightly and its back was facing slightly right. I was on the bed and everyone said push!
We tried this 3 times and bubs still wasn't showing. I was dragged to end of bed & my calves of my legs were popped onto stirrups. He said that he was going to have to use the vacuum extraction tool. Before this he inserted a catheter into my bladder, a short little implement that would keep the bladder empty so that the baby can come out easier. He had to inject a local anesthetic down there so that he could insert the vacuum attachment. Also had an episiotomy as I had started to tear already. I yelled out a a big scream when the vacuum attachment was put in there!!!! It did hurt!! Only took 3 secs though. He said that when I have my contractions that the suction will attach to the babies head. 1st contraction I had to push. This was when he attached the vacuum piece. On 2nd push a head appeared with the assistance of doc turning & using vacuum and me pushing to get head facing the right way. 3rd step there was a pause where I was told to pant and they corrected the shoulders and positioning of bubs. With the last push, my little baby girl was out!! & they placed her right on my chest!! A truly amazing moment! My baby was so slippery that I had to ask someone to help watch her with me so she didn't slip write off me! I had more local anesthetic and my episiotomy was stitched up. The placenta immediately followed. DH cut the umbilical cord. She had a full head of hair. I just couldn’t believe she was finally here. Could not help but think that she was the one kicking me all along. What a night. I was over the moon. Sarah Annelise was born finally at 9.34pm. Here I was worried about everything when I had the support of DH, midwives and the Doctor all along. The room did look a bit like a crime scene afterwards!! There was blood everywhere. (gross sorry). Following this I bled a bit when I showered but they provided heaps of sanitary pads. We eventually got transferred to another clean room. DH stayed the night. I felt great. Finally got to eat some tea!
The m/wives were very helpful and helped out with the breastfeeding and had heaps of advice to offer.
Sarah is now 3 days old and is doing so well. I get up 5x a night to feed her, change nappies, burp her, play with her. It is all so worth it. Having to wake up to do all this for her is a hell of a lot easier than the night of contractions that I experienced before her birth that’s 4 sure. I feel like an expert already. DH is helping too, rocking her to sleep at night and helps with the nappy changing. Funny when little Sarah goes for his nipples thinking they are mine though. He passes her straight back to me then!
I really hope this story has inspired some mothers to be out there and hope you enjoyed reading it. A pic of Sarah is available to view on my Zoints Profile.
I want to encourage first time expectant mums to try and avoid pre-labour nerves as you will only worry yourselves silly. Its tough not to be as you just don't know what to expect unless you've been through it before.
Reason why I'm saying 'don't be nervous' is because the actual birth in the birthing room went surprisingly really well for me!! You would be amazed at the state of the art facilities they have at hospitals and the words of advice that the midwives give you while you are there.
Now to turn the clock backwards a little, here’s what happened in the lead up to my baby being born.
Few weeks earlier, wasn't sure if what I was experiencing in my stomach was 'Braxton Hicks' contractions or not. Many sources describe it as tightening of the stomach muscles in preparation for the birth. Mine looked like bubs's bottom or back peeking strongly at my upper belly for a few seconds, (Just like Astroboy and his laserbut!!). Dr asked me if I was having BH contractions & I replied no but didn't realise that these were it!!
Few days leading up to birth these started coming on regularly. I also had a lot of pelvic floor activity, felt like bubs was head butting me down there!!!
2 Days before the birth I had my show! Just B4 last GP’s last 40 wk appointment. It was very brown, yes snotty and thick. Saw it on toilet paper. I started having my first contractions that same arvo. DH wrote all 22 of them down!! Best way to describe this pain is imagining baby is a huge steel magnet ball and that I have a giant magnet outside belly that is attracted to it. Imagine bringing that big magnet slowly closer to that ball in your belly, then slowly going away. These pains were in my lower abdomen. I believe this would be the best way to describe them!! As the evening progressed, they came at different intervals, eg 3.16pm 10 secs, 5.49pm 25 secs, 9.09pm 30 seconds!! By m-nite I called hospital and they said to come in when they reached a minute long and came every 5 minutes. Due to their frequency I didn’t sleep a wink. Couldn't find a comfortable position in bed at all + had to monitor the length on my mob phone stopwatch!! Essential item!! Luckily DH got a good 5 hours sleep. Contractions didn't reach 1 minute mark till following morning at 8am and were 5 mins apart.
At this stage I was emotional and started crying and asked DH to take me to hospital straight away!! Was as nervous as hell. Back was sort of achy too. Was exhausted as I had no sleep. Didn’t have b’fast so was starving too. Got to hospital, was great on the roads as it was a quiet Sunday morning. The light changes were so annoying. No cars but red lights at every intersection!
Got to hospital, the m/wife said I was doing really well. Had an internal done and was told my cervix has started to thin & I was 4cm dilated!!!!! (Thanks to all the pain I put through last night). The m/wife said we had 4 hours to kill so DH & I spent time in our birthing room. Now here’s the best advice I got for the day
******'Make sure you BREATHE OUT on every contraction that you have'******
I was told to keep my fluids up and was instructed to work with gravity. Encourage baby to keep doing what it was doing by being mobile. I climbed the hospital stairs many times, used the fit ball. DH walked me around the hospital hundreds of times. Every so often I was stopping, grabbing hand rails against walls to have a contraction! I remembered to breathe. Just breathed them away, quite slowly and blocked everything else out of my mind.
By about 1pm I was getting frustrated. I was getting constantly monitored by the midwives. Doppler machines to check babies heart rate, blood pressure checks, internals to see how far dilated I was. Water checks to see how much Id been drinking and sanitary pad checks to see the color of the constant discharge I was having.
By 6pm I was still only 4cm dilated so the MW injected Syntocinon (natural hormone to induce labour). M/wives said I had wobbly veins so took them 3 goes to insert needle. I also had to get my amniotic sac ruptured with a hook as during the internals middy noticed baby’s head was sort of blocking it. This process felt incredible! I could feel lots of hot liquid trickle down there into the sanitary bed sheet. I had two huge belts attached to my belly measuring baby’s heart rate and I was attached to a huge machine with a drip. I looked like a science experiment!! I had to walk to the toilet with all this equipment. The contractions definitely sped up. They also felt harder. I breathed through all of them. I tried an armchair against a bed with a heat pack that DH brought with us just in case, against my back. I was constantly saying push it harder or higher against my back and the m/wives kept warming it up for me which was fantastic. Most of my pain in this position was both in back and lower belly. Constantly had the urge to do # 1's and 2's!!
M/wives suggested I try standing against the bed. No chair this time. It was hard. Pain in back went but pain in stomach was more intense and lasted longer. I had my eyes closed through every contraction and just focused on slow breaths. At the end of every contraction I slowly opened my eyes and felt great, another one out of the way!! One of the placement Uni students said that I was the quietest person they had ever seen!! This is why I thought Id pass on the breathing tip to Bub Hub mums to be.
I constantly sipped on water to keep fluids up. Had strong urge to do # 2's. The midwives said that that was great and that that was a sign that baby would be here soon.
I dragged all my equipment with injection attached to my arm hooked up to a pole on castors at least 4-5 times to toilet. The worst was when I had waves of contractions when I was sitting on the toilet seat. Felt like I was going to fall through toilet seat!! M/wives were wondering what was taking me so long. More pad changing!! I had another internal done and was told I was 10cm dilated!! M/wives suggested I try standing on all fours on the bed and that on the next contraction, try to do a big 'poo'!!! At this stage I was frantic as I did have to do #2s but this was the process for delivering a child and I had to give it my best shot!! I cried many times thinking I don't want everyone seeing my poo. Id advise mums to be that they don't worry about this!! DH said I only pood once and that it was minor. I did feel a m/wife clean it up instantly.
I wasn't making any progress in the pushing. The middies had their big torch to check that region. I was pushing and grunting at the same time. They were getting a bit concerned that this was taking time. At approx 9pm I had an OB come in. He did an internal & said that baby was facing the right way but its head was looking left slightly and its back was facing slightly right. I was on the bed and everyone said push!
We tried this 3 times and bubs still wasn't showing. I was dragged to end of bed & my calves of my legs were popped onto stirrups. He said that he was going to have to use the vacuum extraction tool. Before this he inserted a catheter into my bladder, a short little implement that would keep the bladder empty so that the baby can come out easier. He had to inject a local anesthetic down there so that he could insert the vacuum attachment. Also had an episiotomy as I had started to tear already. I yelled out a a big scream when the vacuum attachment was put in there!!!! It did hurt!! Only took 3 secs though. He said that when I have my contractions that the suction will attach to the babies head. 1st contraction I had to push. This was when he attached the vacuum piece. On 2nd push a head appeared with the assistance of doc turning & using vacuum and me pushing to get head facing the right way. 3rd step there was a pause where I was told to pant and they corrected the shoulders and positioning of bubs. With the last push, my little baby girl was out!! & they placed her right on my chest!! A truly amazing moment! My baby was so slippery that I had to ask someone to help watch her with me so she didn't slip write off me! I had more local anesthetic and my episiotomy was stitched up. The placenta immediately followed. DH cut the umbilical cord. She had a full head of hair. I just couldn’t believe she was finally here. Could not help but think that she was the one kicking me all along. What a night. I was over the moon. Sarah Annelise was born finally at 9.34pm. Here I was worried about everything when I had the support of DH, midwives and the Doctor all along. The room did look a bit like a crime scene afterwards!! There was blood everywhere. (gross sorry). Following this I bled a bit when I showered but they provided heaps of sanitary pads. We eventually got transferred to another clean room. DH stayed the night. I felt great. Finally got to eat some tea!
The m/wives were very helpful and helped out with the breastfeeding and had heaps of advice to offer.
Sarah is now 3 days old and is doing so well. I get up 5x a night to feed her, change nappies, burp her, play with her. It is all so worth it. Having to wake up to do all this for her is a hell of a lot easier than the night of contractions that I experienced before her birth that’s 4 sure. I feel like an expert already. DH is helping too, rocking her to sleep at night and helps with the nappy changing. Funny when little Sarah goes for his nipples thinking they are mine though. He passes her straight back to me then!
I really hope this story has inspired some mothers to be out there and hope you enjoyed reading it. A pic of Sarah is available to view on my Zoints Profile.