I went into labour naturally on the 11/04/12 at 41wks and 2days at 2am having regular contractions, I am a light sleeper, so it woke me and I could not sleep after this, but I enjoyed relaxing and using visualisation of the waves coming and going of each contraction. Karl went to work and I continued to do relaxing tasks including listening to the cds and taking my dog for a long walk. By the time Karl came home from work, the contractions were becoming more intense, but still not that long and were still a good distance apart. We had dinner and watch tv, but I was becoming more restless with each contraction and could no longer talk through it. The whole time I was breathing through each contraction and thinking to myself, it is just pressure.
At 12.30am, our midwife got us to come into the birth centre to see how the labour was progressing (she was delivering another baby so could not make a house call). When we arrived I was 5cm dilated, so we stayed in there, excited that this was it. We found out that the baby was posterior and fairly high up in the birth canal, I was working through the contraction by breathing and active movement. The birth did not advance once we reached 8cm, my midwife broke my waters and they found meconium in the waters, but not enough to worry about. I jumped in the bath and this did not help with the much with the contractions. At 11am we decided to get an epidural because we still had not advanced past 8cm and they wanted to bring on labour. By this stage I had been awake for 33hrs and was pretty tired, but was still breathing through contractions calmly. We went upstairs to the hospital and finally got an epidural at 2pm (still had not advance much), the attending doctors were wanting to do a c-section, but my midwife talked them into giving us a bit of time. I slept for 45mins and this was enough to give me energy to turn the baby. At 4.30pm, I was fully dilated and was able to feel the pressure of the contractions, but not the pain. I had the epidural at such a low dose that I was up on my knees so I was able to actively birth our baby. This also surprised the attending doctors who were expecting to use a vacuum or forceps. Anyway, after turning at the last minute and 2hrs later Georgina was born.
Karl was fantastic throughout the birth, he knew I was saying “it’s just pressure” to myself, so when I was looking like I was not coping he would say this and it would get me back to the right train of thought. The also said loose lips, which always made us laugh when I had to lightly blow her head through.
Thank you so much for the course Tracey, it helped us so much. I think that if we had not completed the course, we would have had a c-section and I would not have been able to cope without drugs as long as I did. Even though I really wanted a drug free labour, the epidural was the right thing to do. Afterward, I felt so amazing and empowered that we had such an amazing birth.
Georgie is now almost 6wks old, the first few weeks were harder than the birth, but we are starting to get on top of things.
Thanks again, I would definitely recommend the course to everyone.
Take care
Jenny