The Bub Hub: Pregnancy Baby Parenting Website

faery · #1 23-03-2006, 09:24 AM

my due date passed without a feeling......getting impatient for little ones arrival but still feeling okay. The next visit to the doctor, had us hearing about inductions and hospitals and everything a million miles away from the water birth i had my fingers crossed for. So went for accupuncture and had this feeling inside that my little one would show on the full moon.

Wednesday morning....have a little show. try not to get to excited cause i know it can still be a while, but it is the first sign of anything and i am ecstatic! we decide to make a chocolate cake in anticipation of a celebration. yummmmm. later that night, just as we're sitting down to dinner, my waters break. My mum who has been visiting from canada, is gettting nervous, my partner is chilled cause he thinks we might still have hours to wait.

I call the midwives at mullum, and they say i should try and get some rest. but as soon as I lay down i start to feel contractions. they are still quite gentle but regular 5-7 minutes. we decide to leave as it's a 3 hour trip and the chance of giving birth at a servo is not very appealing!!

make it to mullum in record time. It is the dead of night and the moon is full and shining overhead. I go and lay down to try and rest, maybe even sleep, before things really get happening. sleep doesn't come, but a trance like state does. I am not aware of the time passing. kate, my other support goddess arrives and things beging to intensify.

I should probably get upright and walk or move, but all i can do is be on the floor, kate rubbing my back and going internal. too soon for the bath. stu comes back from his sleep and it's massage on my knees in the shower. contractions are coming fast now. it almost seems like there is no space between them but I know there is. The morning midwife (who is with me until the end) checks me out and it is bath time.

BLISS!! the hot water is fantastic and there are floating pillows to rest on. but nothing is stopping these contractions, more and more and more. and the more they get the louder i get. the midwife talking me through groaning deep and grounding the energy, my support people, in the bath and chanting with me. I think I may have kept the entire hospital awake with my voice! but it helped. and it was incredible the difference deep low chanting made, rather than me saying "i can't do this"!!

Time was moving on (not that i noticed!) and from somewhere i pulled out the ability to keep going. then suddenly it just switched, and i had to push. i've been told that we had a really long second stage. It was so hard to push him out, it wasn't until i could see his head that i realized i had to get him out. still, he was crowning for ages before i got him out.

The final push (where the energy came from i have no idea as I was ready to drop) had him almost swimming. This little blue creature had the cord wrapped around his neck and the amniotic sac still over his face. then finally we got to hold him. my little blue conehead! but he was still blue and not very responsive. the midwife got out the oxygen and gave him a couple of puffs. nothing. little eyes start to roll back. it must have only been seconds but it felt like ages. the cord was clamped and he was taken away.

My partner saw the next bit, thankfully i didn't. he was put on the emergency cart and the red light starts flashing, bringing the doctor and other midwives running. meanwhile 2 new midwives get me to deliver the placenta in seconds and wheel me off to the baby. half of me is calm, knowing that he is fine and going to be okay, the other half of me is thinking and feeling a panic begin to set in that all may not be well. calm half wins otherwise I will just collapse from exhaustion and panic. I am scared, but hold it together.

laying on the table, under the heat and getting more oxygen, only his little hands and feet are blue now. they all assure me that he's okay, it's not serious, he just needed some help at the beginning. and finally I get to hold him properly. in bed, little one in arms, covered in hot blankets. bliss.
So i got my waterbirth......not exactly what i though it would be like!!
the midwives we're absolute ledgends. so calm and helpful and understanding of what i needed withoug me having to say anything. and how could i ever thenk my support people?? how do you say thank you for being a part of the most intense experience of my life?

My little (not really that little!!) 8.5 pound baby boy, made it after 20 hours, at 2:16 in the afternoon on 16/03/06, on a full moon, a little piscean, so loved, and so blessed.

raffee · #2 23-03-2006, 10:11 AM

Wow what an inspirational birth story! You should be so proud of yourself

Congratulations to you and your family on the birth of little Jarrah...

moonblossom · #3 23-03-2006, 10:19 AM

gosh I'm not a sook, but your story brought tears to my eyes...bringing back wonderful memories of my childrens births and the joy and elation it brought. Makes me so look forward to Alexander's birth.

Thank you for sharing...sniff sniff