The Birth

Here is a blog about the birth of Isaac. I've written this to help my friends who are looking at having a baby so they can get an insight into how I went about having an active birth.

Tristan and I did a lot of research into the sort of birth we wanted. We talked to parents, relatives and friends to get a realistic view of what it could be like, whilst keeping in mind that every birth is different.

We also did a lot of reading. One book that I really found inspirational was 'A Labour of Love' by Gabrielle Targett. This book shares a lot of real life experiences from home birth's to emergency C-sections but all were beautiful births because the mother and birth partner played a really active role in the birth taking part in all the decisions with the medical staff along the way. So from this and all our other research Tristan and I decided that we wanted a natural drug free vaginal birth but new most of all we wanted to play an active birth. We wrote up a birth plan for what we wanted at different stages of the birth and for different circumstances.

The lead up to the birth was a bit stressful. I had higher than normal blood pressure on and off throughout the pregnancy. But when I wasn't pregnant I had highish blood pressure any way, so I wasn't too worried about it. But on my 38 week OB appointment my BP was a bit higher than all the previous readings. The OB was a bit concerned about the risk of pre-eclampsia so I had to have blood tests and go to the hospital for fetal monitoring. After an hour of monitoring in the hospital my blood pressure went down and the baby was doing well according to the fetal monitoring. So I was sent home but had to report 3 days later for more monitoring just to stay on the safe side. Apparently pre-eclampsia can come on really quickly and the OB wanted to make sure everything was fine.

I was doing everything to try and get my body ready for the birth and maybe encourage the baby to come a bit earlier just in case my blood pressure was a problem. I went to 2 acupuncture sessions for getting your body ready for birth. The acupuncture was designed to both relax me and give me more energy for the last few weeks of pregnancy as well as to soften my cervix. I was also drinking raspberry leaf tea and getting as much exercise as I could stand; mostly walks and swimming. I was also doing some visualization and relaxation exercises to get ready.

The one thing that I wasn't doing well was stopping working. I still had a bit that I wanted to sort out before the baby came. I technically started maternity leave on the Friday before the birth
(38 weeks and 3 days), but anyone who knows me knows that i have trouble actually stopping working.

Saturday morning Tristan and I went back to the hospital for more monitoring. This time wasn't so good. My BP was still high but the baby was still doing well according to the monitoring. The OB wasn't happy so I had to come in again in 3 days and if my BP was still high then I would have to be induced.

I'm not against induction, but it generally makes a much more painful birth as labour comes on a lot quicker and your body doesn't have the chance to be really ready for it. So the chances of my having a drug free vaginal birth were decreased if i had to be inducted. So Tristan and I were praying that either my BP went down or the baby decided to come on its own a bit earlier.

So on the Sunday night before the birth (38 weeks and 5 days) I started feeling a bit funny. I wasn't in pain. I was just uncomfortable. I didn't think much of it so Tristan and I headed to bed. All night I felt uncomfortable and kept getting up to go to the loo. By 5am I was so uncomfortable I could no longer lie in bed. I got up and sat on my fit ball and lent against a pillow on the side of the bed. This was much better and I think I got a bit of sleep. But by 6am i noticed that the uncomfortable feelings were getting regular and about 10 minutes apart. And then it dawned on me; I was in labour. Tristan woke and i informed him that I thought I was in labour. We got up and had some breakfast and started to properly time to contractions. But they weren't really regular jumping from 10 to 20 minutes apart. We thought in our naivety that it probably was just a false labour. Tristan got ready and left for work and I got ready for work too. I was still a bit uncomfortable but didn't think much of it. Luckily I work from home.

Mid morning I was still uncomfortable and having to take breaks every 10 minutes or so from work and calmly sit on my fit ball until the feeling passed. Usually less than a minute. By 12md I decided that it really was labour and called Tristan to get him to come home from work. I then sat in front of the TV for a bit but found the contractions getting further apart again. At this point I decided that if I was actually in labour then it wasn't going to start and then slow down like this. So I sat on my fitball in the quiet of my room, played my hypnobirthing CD and concentrated on what my body was doing. Then all of a sudden my waters broke. And Tristan wasn't home yet.

Tristan arrived home shortly later and called the hospital. They said that I was probably ready to come in. Really? So I took a hot shower while Tristan packed up the car. The contractions were getting a bit painful at this stage. We hopped in the car and started the journey. It wasn't long into the trip that we realized that my contractions were now 2 minutes a part. So for a 15 minute trip that was about 7 contractions in the confines of the seat of a car. And lucky Tristan decided to take me in the old car not the new one because not only was I leaking all the way there I also threw up. Which apparently is a good thing as it makes your body really relax.

We arrived at the hospital at about 2pm and I had a contraction on the front steps of the maternity entrance. The Midwives had a bit of a chuckle at me when they opened the door to find me on all fours breathing through the contraction on the front steps. It all went pretty quick from there. I jumped into a hot shower in the birthing ward and stayed there for almost the rest of the labour. I continued to use breathing and visualisation to get through the contractions. It helps that the contractions only last about a minute because then you can have a bit of a break before the next one.

I was about to give up and may have mumbled something about wanting to have an epidural to the midwife when she decided that she had better look how i was getting on. She did an internal exam and found that I was 9cm dilated. She did something tricky and lipped the last cm of cervix over the babies head so that I could start pushing. This was such a relief. Don't get me wrong the pushing is hard, but it is so good to know that it is close to the end.

Isaac was born naturally at 4:45pm without any drugs or intervention (apart from something to lower my blood pressure). He was placed on my stomach vernix and all and it was amazing. Well worth all of the effort and the last nine months of not eating soft cheese.

Good luck to my friends out there who are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant. Giving birth is a wonderful experience, I'm know exciting about being a parent to this little boy.