Reuben’s Birth Story – 20th March 2010 - Home sweet home!

01/10/2010

My due date 8^th March came and went; another week came and went and I was starting to feel that it would never happen. Joshua was two days early so I had no experience of being overdue and I hated it. I felt like a ticking time bomb! I was desperately hoping for a natural home birth and as each day came and went was left wondering if I would end up having to consider an induction in hospital.

At nine days overdue (17^th March) I received a call from delivery suite at the RUH asking me to come in the next day for induction, but I said I wanted to wait until I was 14 days overdue before considering induction and they were fine about this. So I went for acupuncture and reflexology sessions to help move things along and although they didn’t start labour off I do think they got my body and mind ready and that is why I had such a quick and manageable labour in the end.

The 19^th March was my birthday, I wondered whether I would spend my birthday in labour rather than celebrating, I wouldn’t have minded as I was so desperate for the baby to come. But he didn’t. So I put Joshua to bed and went to bed myself feeling pretty fed up again. I had been having Braxton Hicks all day, period like cramps and a bit of a show but I had been having these on and off every night for the last week so it didn’t feel much different that night to any other….Until 1.30am when I woke up to go to the toilet and felt a few gentle contractions. Julian, my husband, was asleep and they weren’t really very painful so I just got back into bed and dozed. But by about 3am I couldn’t sleep anymore as the contractions were starting to get stronger so I woke him up and told him I thought this was it at last!

He went downstairs to get things ready like lying out a few old towels, checking the pool was all OK and getting the birth ball and TENS machine out.

I was upstairs in the bedroom at this point standing over the bed leaning on a pile of pillows. Each time a contraction came I felt like I needed to dance so I was kind of jiggling around and lifting my legs up and out to the sides, which probably looked a bit daft but instinctively it was the position I felt most comfortable in. I tried to sit on the birth ball but standing was a lot more comfortable. At about 3.30am I decided that it would be the right time to call my mum who was going to be with us for the birth, as she had been when our first son Joshua was born at home. She arrived at 4am and I decided then that I would like the TENS machine on so we set this up and it was a great relief. My contractions were coming every few minutes by this stage and so my Mum and Julian thought we should call the midwives.

Julie and Elaine arrived at 4.30am. Julie did a few observations and tried to examine me but by this stage my contractions were coming so thick and fast that I couldn’t lie down for long enough without wanting to jump up on my feet, so I didn’t end up being examined which was fine by me and them.

At 5am I decided the time was right to go downstairs into the lounge, whip off the TENS and hop into the lovely heated pool I had hired from Born in Water. It was the most amazing feeling as all of a sudden the pain almost disappeared. I asked the midwives if I should get out because the pain relief was so good I thought it might slow down the labour but they said it was just the effect of the warm water relaxing me and that labour would still progress as well as it would on dry land.

I floated around in the pool for the next hour or so with my Hypnobirthing CD playing and my eyes shut. Julian who had been in the pool with me for six hours in my first labour was sat next to the pool and my mum in the corner of the room. I didn’t feel I needed anyone to help me this time and was happy to be labouring completely on my own and in my own space. The contractions were getting a lot stronger now and I asked for gas and air, which the midwives had brought with them.

At 6am I started to feel a bit pushy and was making loud mooing noises so Julie checked with a mirror in the pool and said she could see the head, I put my hand down to feel a very slippery squishy head!

It was an amazing feeling knowing our baby was almost here. I was kneeling in the water leaning on the edge of the pool. I pushed for 5 minutes and at 6.10am his head came out in the water. I found it hard to push out the rest of him and his body was a bit slow to follow so I asked if I could get out onto all fours on the carpet as it instinctively felt the right position to get into. I did this with his head between my legs (!) and once I was on all fours Julie helped guide him out. He was a little bit stuck, not classed as a shoulder dystocia though, just a very big boy weighing in at 9 pounds 13oz!

He was a bit slow to pink up and breathe but with a quick rub and a word from mummy he was screaming in no time!

He also had what’s called a true knot in his cord, literally a proper knot in it, something very rare that would have happened from him doing somersaults early on in the womb so the midwives were fascinated by that.

It all happened so much quicker than I thought it would and I couldn’t believe he was here at last after just a two and a half hour labour. Once the cord finished pulsating Julian cut it and had skin to skin whilst I squatted and waited for the placenta to be delivered naturally, which happened 10 minutes later.

The midwives stayed to help me establish breastfeeding, tidy up and have toast and tea with us. They were fantastic throughout, like having friends in your home rather than strangers.

At 6.45am Joshua woke up and came down to find his new baby brother waiting for him.

It was amazing to see them cuddled up on our sofa together watching Postman Pat just half an hour after Reuben was born! Home sweet home!