4:10am The reception area, to the birthing unit, was very dark and quiet, apart from a lit up Christmas tree. I waited in the waiting room for probably 10-20 mins before they showed me into the low-risk birthing unit.
4:30am This room had the massive double bed, and a MASSIVE bathroom, so I was stoked!
4:40am They did a CTG scan of me and bubs, which was VERY annoying, as the belly bands were really tight and cutting into my skin, and I was unable to move around. Bubsy kept moving in there, so hubby had to keep a finger on the egg thingy for aaaaaaages.
5:15am Rachel said I was 2 fifths engaged at this point. Which is how far the baby’s head is down into the pelvis.
5:25am Finally after I’d had some rather painful contractions, and felt like I needed to poo, they checked me (which really hurt) and they said I hadn’t begun dilating yet, and that my waters hadn’t actually broken based on the fact that I had “no ferns” in my fluid…(which I think is a totally inaccurate way of telling!)
about 10-20 mins later the contractions were so bad I was convulsing and shaking uncontrollably on the bed. They kept annoying me with the stupid scan, and they wanted to take my blood pressure and ll this other stuff, but I was too focused on the pain. It felt better on my right side for some reason. The main nurse said I should probably be sent home at that point, but I was sooo scared of the thought of this much pain at home, unsupervised, with NO pain relief! I couldn’t believe that THIS was the onset of labour! I just couldn’t comprehend how it was THAT painful if it was only the beginning.
5:35am They asked me to pee in a cup, so they could analyse it. But only more amniotic fluid came out
ACTIVE PUSHING A few mins later, when the nurses had gone to attend to other patients, I sat up on the bed, leant forward, and began to push violently and uncontrollably – it’s like my body took over, and with each push I could feel fluid leaking onto the bed, but I didn’t care.
5:50am Shortly after the urge to poo was so great that I ran for the toilet and sat down, and with each contraction I just had an overwhelming urge to push even though it absolutely friggin hurt! I think I was pushing on the toilet for a fair while, gradually getting more and more vocal as the pain got more intense and the contractions were closer together an longer.
The student nurse, Rachel (who was REALLY nice) came in to check on me and didn’t quite know what to do when she saw me. she was asking if I wanted pain relief, and I was hysterical, whimpering that I was very scared and didn’t know what to do, so she went to get the nurse, and suggested Gas and Air.
6.00am My “Pain Relief”
She told me to try sitting in the shower and let the hot water run down my back. When I sat on the chair, the water was amazing, but the chair was positioned in such a way that only my right side was getting wet. I would’ve moved the chair in more, but I kept contracting, and ended up bearing down on the chair!
7:00am They said I could try gas and air so I got out the shower and by the time I was on the bed my contractions were 3 in 10 mins, but the gas and air hadn’t even arrived yet!?! I suspect this is due to shift changes of nursing staff, the fact that the ward was full, and that I was in the “low” side.
If the nurse hadn’t told me that the gas and air was ready when I was, I would’ve stayed in the warm shower because it was helping a lot, but I decided if this was the “onset of labour” then I would need some real pain relief, so I got out and laid on the bed. The nurses had checked the fluid on the bed I’d pushed out and determined that although there was no ferns in my waters at any point, that this must be my waters. (But I know that it was just additional fluid.) They then decided to admit me after all, around 7.10am, which is around the point that the student midwife, Rachel left to go home at the end of her shift.
After contractions got closer and stronger together, the Gynaecologist who had just walked in, (and was the same gyne that had told us we were pregnant at the start of all this) was fussing with needles in my arm – I was severely dehydrated so they had a rough time of it. The contraction pain was too strong for me to remember what happened with the needles and blood work from this point.
My new midwifes and nurses were talking about putting a foetal scalp on baby’s head, and wanting to check dilatation again. By this point all I could do was shake in shock on my left side and scream at the painful parts when they happened.
7:20am Because I was in so much pain, they decided to check me for dilatation again.
Much to all of our surprise, when they forced me onto my back again and opened my legs to check, they yelled out that I was crowning! (approx. 7:23.00)
One member of staff went out of the room and alerted the ward that my baby was coming! Rachel, who was on her way out, came running back in, dressed in her casual clothes and handbag in disbelief. Around this point, hubby decided to get the REAL camera out.
I stupidly asked “how dilated is that?” in absolute shock. I think at this point I said “Shit, really?” (I didn’t swear at any other time in front of anyone other than hubby (which was just a whole load of “fuck fuck fuck this hurts” while convulsing in the bed)
7:24.22am I knew I wanted to avoid tearing, so I requested that they tell me when to push and when to pant, but the stupid woman said “push slowly” which I didn’t understand at all. I asked “how?” in confusion, and she just kept telling me to push, which I thought was odd since I wasn’t even contracting at this time, but I gave one push anyway and within 22 seconds of his head crowning he was fully out! ?! He came out so fast that I’d barely registered it, and hubby-tographer was only able to capture 3 pictures of him being born, and one of my push! It just felt like a large slippery mass emerging – similar to a squid. I didn’t really have much time to process that, or anything else.
Some obnoxious nurse yelled out “it’s a boy” despite it saying in my birth plan saying I wanted to see it for myself.
They put him straight up on my chest, and loosely placed a towel over him, and put on a blue and white beanie (which was made by volunteers) and Hubby was asked if he wanted to cut the cord, which he did. (And he kept some of it!!)
About 5 mins later hubby pushed the big red emergency button on request from Lynn (around 7.30.) He said “It’s about to get very crowded in here.” And then heaps of people came in and were rushing around.
My belly got pushed on really hard, and this to me hurt more than the giving birth part!!! I asked them to stop, but they refused, saying it was too important. Apparently because the birth had been so quick, I was bleeding a lot, and I had a major tear down my perineum and in 2 parts of the anus…. They said its 3rd Degree, which from what I gather is the 2nd worst kind of tear. Shortly after this people stabbed my left thigh with some injections.
I bled a load on the bed and they had to stop me from bleeding and it hurt A LOT when they pushed on my belly – even more than the giving birth part.
They took the baby away and it sounded serious, almost like I could’ve died. soon after I was told that I had lost 800ml of blood, and they found it hard to stop, so they gave me an oxytocin drip to help the uterus shrink (contract) and to stop the bleeding.
The baby was having some repertory issues unbeknownst to me, so nurses called in the paediatrician (Mark,) whom checked baby, including; oxygen levels, pulse, respiratory rate, testical descent and temperature. He wasn’t overly concerned, so he guided hubby through first nappy application and swaddling – he said he was a natural, after being surprised that Liam was our first born.
Hubby passed me my baby, which had not sunk in yet, so I hadn’t recognised what I was holding! Hubby says it seemed like I hadn’t registered that I had actually given birth, was now a mum, and that this was MY son.
8:00am I was told to try to breastfeed the baby so he didn’t cry whilst hubby held him for my (3-hour) surgery and recovery! I tried in the left but he just wanted to lick it and wouldn’t latch. Eventually we got him going on the right side AND MAN IT HURT!!!!!! I’m not sure if he actually got anything out, but it felt like he had crocodile’s teeth or something!!! They put a catheter in my urethra which REALLY FUCKING HURTS! (In hindsight I don’t think he was latched properly, as nursing g staff hadn’t helped me latch him, and the angle was completely wrong! – he was laid on top of me face down, whilst I was laying down.)
