This was my first child so I had a clear plan of what I hoped to do come birth day. I wanted to labour and birth in the water vaginally at a birthing unit surrounded by loved ones and with many things that would help calm the energy in the room. I had read books on hypnobirthing and practiced meditations and breathing techniques twice a day. My mind was in a good place.
I hit the 40 week mark and no sign of labour starting, we were in level 3 of the Covid-19 alert level system which meant I could only have one support person with me on d-day. It also meant at the time we could not have any family come by our home as the borders were shut internationally and into Auckland, unfortunately we do not have any family that live in Auckland with us.
My midwife asked me to think about being induced. She offered to do a stretch and sweep which I agreed to in hopes of not having to be induced and then went through with booking an induction for 42+1. My scans were showing that baby was going to be 9 pounds which made me "at risk". This meant I could no longer birth at a birthing centre and would have to birth in hospital (also takes out any chance of labour and birth in the water). It seemed like nothing was going to plan and I had constant issues that would hinder my idea of birth, I started to get anxious.
It came to 41+4, I woke up feeling a weird pain like sensation, got up went toilet and went back to bed. Little did I know that would be the last good sleep I'd have in the next 48 hours. I woke up in the morning and started having contractions that were 10 or so minutes apart, nothing to worry about. The further into the day we got, the stronger and closer the contractions got, nothing unbearable. I gathered all my things ready for whenever we needed to get out of the door. 17 hours had passed since that first contraction and I had just started to feel stronger waves of pain, contractions are now 5 minutes apart.
24 hours in- I am tired, I can't sleep and we are still having 5 minute apart contractions. A few more hours passed and the pain is starting to feel unbearable, my partner rings the midwife asking if we could go in to the hospital now, I needed the Entonox asap! We got to the hospital, waited around for my midwife to take us into a birthing room. Cold, was all I could think of it. I lay on the bed and started to use the gas through my contractions, better. My midwife checked my dilation – 3 centimeters. A bit defeated as I hoped to be further along by now. Just after she finished her check, my water broke. WOW, the pain became ten times worse and the gas was doing absolutely nothing for it. An hour passed of this madness and I felt ready to push. My hypnobirthing practices went out the window and I was making noise. I didn't want to birth on my back but there was no way my body was moving anywhere else.
So here we are, I'm on my back and I am starting to puuuush. We're 31 hours in from the first contraction with about 5 hours total sleep within that time. I'm doing it but now there are about 5 nurses in the room, one of them is very stern, strict and aggressive. I was getting angry at them. They wouldn't let my partner deliver the baby and instead baby just slid right out and fell on to the bed, they wanted to cut the cord straight away which we had specifically asked to be delayed. They disregarded that and went ahead anyway. I finally got to hold my baby boy in my arms. It felt less then a minute before they took him away, he was stunned and needed to be resuscitated. I was worried and still in pain, my placenta got pulled out of me and I had what felt like 10 examinations down there. I had a slight tear on my labia that needed stitching up but also had a postpartum Hemorrhage. There was a lot of blood. I could see my tiny little human bare on some scales having all his measurements taken, he was breathing and letting out some screams and cries.
It felt so long before I was able to hold him again myself. I put him to my breast and he latched. I felt so proud of myself in that moment and regardless of all the drama I had just gone through and the mixed emotions, I felt nothing but love, our son was here and he is healthy.
