Birth Story #5

*** For my 6 other birth stories, go to My Birth Stories ***

 

God answered all my prayers with this birth – both the inconsequential and the really important requests!

I have never liked to labour in the hospital, preferring to labour at home instead. So my one desire s to be able to check myself in and birth the baby in just 1hr Which means I would like to go in and find that I am already 8cm dilated, not 5cm or 6cm. Another desire was to be able to put all the children to bed before I go into the hospital. I wanted as little disruption to our routine as possible.

And I didn’t want an episiotomy this time around! My previous dr performs episiotomies as a matter of routine. When I brought up the possibility of not performing one, he gave me lots of scare stories and basically refused my request. I was not happy about this coz I had already been cut 4 times! What if the Lord blesses us with 6 children? 8 children? Would I then be cut 8 times??? So I changed drs.

My current dr is very open to natural births if the patient so chooses. He promised me that he would guard the perenium for me but warned me that I may still tear because I had been cut 4 times already. My skin was no longer as elastic as it should be if I hadn’t had all those episiotomies! A scar tissue is tough, not elastic. So I prayed! No tearing, no episiotomy.

And God was merciful and gracious, granting me all I asked for.

Labour started at 8am, Saturday morning but I didn’t say anything though I was already 3 days past EDD. The contractions were at regular 10min intervals. This time I did not pray for my waterbag to burst as I was again diagnosed as GBS positive AGAIN!

At about 1pm, I seemed to have had a show – slight bleeding when the mucous plug is passed out. But it was not repeated. So I continued packing. You see, we were moving to a new place on Monday and we still hadn’t finished packing.

I couldn’t eat dinner but I tried to eat something coz I knew I needed the energy to push I called my parents to standby and got ready my bag. I put the children to bed and went to my room to rest. I started to feel extremely sleepy! So I lay down & slept!

At 9:15pm, the contractions changed! They were still 5 minutes apart but lasting between 1.5 to 2 minutes long. Hmmm….time to go? I prayed for clarity to know when to go coz I didn’t want to feel rushed at the hospital.

Told myself that if the same type of contractions happened 3 times in a row, I better get to the hospital. And it did. The amazing thing was that in between each of those contractions, I slept! It was a deep sleep! I would then get woken up by the contractions & then fell back asleep. It was as if my body was resting as much as possible before the real “work” came. I had to force myself to get up after the 4th one in a row & call my parents to come up while dh & I changed.

10:00pm – getting out of the house and into the car was a challenge. The car ride to the hospital was not fun! I felt EVERY bump of the road as dh drove speedily there. I was so tempted to tell him to drive slowly except that I couldn’t talk. Lol!

10:15pm – when I reached the hospital, it got very exciting Once the nurses find out that this is birth #5, they start to panic and rush. I had to tell them that I don’t birth quickly! One brought me to the observation suite to do a VE.

I kindly reminded them that I wanted to labour on the floor coz I didn’t think I could climb onto the bed at that point in time. The midwife exclaimed surprise and asked if I was having a doula. I said no. So she asked if I had a birth plan and I said yes.

They scuttled to locate my birthplan but told me that I still needed to go onto the bed for a VE. The VE showed that I was 8cm dilated (yay!) but she said that the baby’s head was still quite high. I was then wheeled to the delivery suite (why did they bother to move me here & there?!)

There was now no time to even change to a hospital gown. They just strapped that horrid CTG machine on me. I protested but the midwife insisted. She said need to monitor for 10 – 15 minutes!

Then I began to feel pain coz I had to lie on my back – which always hurts coz of the weight of the bb on my spine. I was not a happy woman. I kept bugging the midwife in between contractions that I wanted it off. She insisted that she needed 15 min of the graph to be recorded!

Then the dr walked in & asked how I was doing. I told him “uncomfortable!” So he asked what I wanted to do and I told him that I wanted to go onto the floor. So he said ok and the midwife quickly relieved me from the CTG contraption What a relief to be off the bed, off the machine and on the floor!

Meanwhile I was thinking : this is really weird & surreal Everyone staring and waiting for me to “perform”. I was so tempted to tell the dr, “Please go away and let me labour without any pressure.” After all I was “only” 8cm dilated & who knows how long I’ll take to reach 10cm!

But I didn’t get a chance to coz the contractions changed. I was bearing down and instinctively I crouched on the floor. (Oh! He offered me a birth stool to help me labour but it sure hurt when I got on it! So I got off it as soon as possible.)

Then came the transition. It felt really intense but the dr was very encouraging, telling me to take my time and do what I felt like doing. Finally the burning sensation was felt – ah! Now I know that the bb will be out soon!

Before that. even tho the dr, the midwives and even dh was telling me that they can see the bb’s head, I did not believe them. But with that burning sensation I knew it was almost the end of the road. The dr told me to lean forward the next time I wanted to push and again, instinctively, not only did I lean forward, I also went from the crouching to a full fours position & baby’s head came out breaking the waterbag at the same time.

Everyone told me not to push anymore but to pant her out and she slid right out! She had passed meconium in the bag tho coz I could see that the waters was brown but she didn’t inhale any, thank GOD! The bb was then passed from under me to hold & I got onto the bed coz I badly wanted to sit down. It was 11pm. I had managed to birth within the hour that I stepped into the hospital!

I had to remind the dr to wait for the bb’s cord to stop pulsing before letting dh cut it & so I got to hold the bb for a little while longer. She didn’t want to nurse tho – just like my 2 other unmedicated birth bbs. Very strange!

Then the placenta was slowly expelled & oh my! The contraction of the uterus after that was as strong as the contractions prior to birth! There seemed to be a lot more blood coming out of me this time that the dr looked concerned enough to recommend a symtotrine (sp?) jab to which I agreed. He then checked me and I didn’t tear!!!!

It was an awesome birth. And it was the most relaxing birth of all the 5. I got to birth the way God intended our bodies to birth – naturally and not propped up in the bed like a sick patient! I was so high after the birth that I couldn’t sleep!

Dh then went home to lok after the other children and they didn’t even know what had happened

May our five birth stories bless and encourage all you ladies looking to birth naturally and drug free. By God’s grace and guided by His Holy Spirit, by it is indeed very possible!