My First Birth

Stephanie’s Birth Story

It was 2am on Thursday morning, when I felt my first contractions. I woke up like I normally did for the 3rd or 4th time during the night to go to the toilet when I felt a weird pain. It felt something like bad period pain. I went back to bed and tried to get some sleep. (This is what they tell you to do in the early stages, but who can sleep with the anxiety and excitement of giving birth and meeting your first child.

By 6am I told hubby he should probably stay home and not go to work today. I also rang my midwife; she asked me how far apart my contractions were (at this stage only 15 –20 min apart). She asked me if I had had a show (I hadn’t at this stage). She asked my to come into the hospital in the afternoon to get checked out.

The contractions continued to get increasingly worse, but not too bad yet. It still mostly felt like period pain, and my back ached a bit too.

At 1pm we went to the hospital, the midwife did internal examination. I was only to be disappointed to be barely 1cm dilated. (I had also a ‘show’ a couple of hours beforehand). She told me to go home and rest and to call her when the contractions were closer together or the pain got too bad. So I went home, did the dishes. Hubby and I took our dog over to the beach for some exercise. By late afternoon the contractions were 8-10 minutes apart, very painful, but not unbearable.

From about 3-4pm I started to use a heat pack on my front and then my back.

Hubby cooked dinner, I somehow managed to eat in between contractions, and they were 4-5 minutes apart by this stage. By now I was on all fours rocking back and forward over the footrest. It was getting more painful now and I was getting tired.

By 10.30pm the pain was so intense it brought tears to my eyes, and I could not speak during the contractions. I called the midwife (the contraction were now 3-4 minutes apart); she was going to meet us at the hospital at 11pm.

After arriving, the midwife examined me and found I was dilated 3cm. This shocked me as I had been in early labour ALL day. I couldn’t believe I was only 3cm.

Another scare came when she was unsure of the baby’s position. She might be breach. Now, this freaked me out. Her head had swollen and felt like the bottom, but we did not know this at this stage. So she got someone else to examine me and then a doctor did an ultrasound, which (thank god) showed her headfirst.

And so the contractions continued I was in the shower for about an hour then I got into the bath. Probably an hour after that I asked for the gas, which did nothing at first. Then I threw up a couple of times and did not want gas anymore.

By 2am the pain was so unbearable and I was sooo tired I asked for an epidural. I was offered pethidine first, but I refused as I had read that it could affect the baby. And at this stage I was still only 3cm…

So I got the epidural, it was heaven. Then the midwife broke my waters and I dilated another cm to 4cm. A couple of hours passed and my contractions were not increasing, nor were my dilation. I tried to get a bit of sleep around this time but only dozed, mind you hubby snored on the fold out bed.

Around 5 or 6am (it’s a bit of a blur) I was given syntocin to induce me and speed up contractions. At 10am the doctor came in and told me that if I had not progressed I would have to have a ceasar. This really frighted me, I had already had the epidural I originally did not want and after all that pain I was still going to be cut open. I was very unhappy at the prospect. Fortunately, after examining me I was fully dilated and he said he would be back in about an hour or so to deliver the baby. This was a great relief.

My midwife went home, as she had been awake longer than 24 hours and a new one took over. She joked that sometimes we pull back the sheet and the head is already there. So she pulled back the sheet and my daughter’s head was crowning. I could not believe it. I put my hand down there and could feel her soft head and a mass of hair. Within 10 min she was born, I felt the shoulders birth but not the head. They had turned the epidural down so I felt it a bit and it did hurt. She was then whisked away and checked and hubby turned to me and said it was a baby girl.

I was so happy I started to cry (I think, it’s a blur). They brought her over and put her on my belly. I have never seen anything more beautiful than my daughter. She was 3.770kg and 53cm long. Not long after I tried to breastfeed her lying down and then we had a shower together. I was in awe that I actually gave birth to this beautiful little girl!

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