When I was pregnant with my first two children I did not see the need to pay separately for a service that
I felt should be provided by the NHS, so I went along with the standard antenatal care offered locally. I was seen by community midwives before the babies were born and went to hospital to give birth. I had long labours. My first was 36 hours and the second 24 hours. When I arrived at hospital my labour slowed, it slowed down when ever a new midwife team came on duty, with my first labour this led to exhaustion on my part and a nasty ventouse delivery, with my second I stayed at home a lot longer, but I still had a labour that slowed down every time I had to meet a new team.
With my third pregnancy I had seen sense! What I needed was a midwife I knew and trusted. I did not need to try and get to know someone during labour. We decided to investigate the alternatives on offer, and chose a local, private midwifery centre which offered me one to one midwifery care throughout pregnancy, labour and
postnatally.
After
a couple of weeks of niggling labour type pains I was getting really fed up
with being pregnant, and was desperate to meet my baby, not least because
Stephen was due to fly to America on 27th January! I had a phone call from my midwife, Linsi, on the Monday and
mentioned that I was sure that the baby had turned posterior.
Linsi’s advice was that I should crawl around on all fours and
wiggle my bottom in the air to disengage the baby’s head and allow it to
turn, as she thought that it was possible that being posterior the baby
wasn’t exerting enough pressure on my cervix to maintain contractions.
To the amusement of my family I spent a fair amount of time wiggling
my bottom on Monday.
That
night I kept waking up about every half hour in acute discomfort, I
couldn’t work out if this was going to be ‘it’ or if it was just the
baby moving around. In the
hustle of school runs on Tuesday everything died down again.
I was booked for a reflexology appointment in the afternoon, and for
some reason I told Stephen I wanted him at home by the time I arrived back
from that appointment – he told me that he couldn’t manage that, but as
a compromise we would meet in Guildford and watch an early film. While he was on the ‘phone I asked him to pick me up some
Caulophyllum 200c from Neal’s Yard as it is supposed to help a sluggish or
a stop/start labour.
My
reflexology appointment went well, very relaxing and as normal I could feel
my uterus contracting as she worked on the various points of my feet.
We’d been trying for some time to ‘kick start’ labour but
without success.
I
set off for Guildford at about ten past four, and at twenty past four had a
contraction as I was doing 60 mph along the Hogg’s Back!
This time there was no doubt in my mind – there was nothing
ambiguous about this. In
my mind I had plenty of time to watch a movie, go home, put a few last
minute bits and bobs in the back of the car and have a shower before setting
off for the birth centre, as my previous two labours had lasted for 38 and
24 hours. I had 2 more
contractions before I parked the car, and by the time I met Stephen outside
the cinema I was having contractions roughly every 5 minutes.
I was still adamant that we could see the film.
We managed to sit through the trailers before Stephen decided that we
should go.
Outside
the cinema we phoned the birth centre and spoke to one of the midwives – I
heard Stephen say that my contractions were lasting about 90 seconds, which
news to me, and the midwife suggested that as it was rush hour we drive
straight down to the Centre, in Southampton.
So
back into the car, but with Stephen driving this time!
The traffic was awful, and it was raining… The contractions kept
coming every 5 minutes – but were definitely getting much stronger.
I kept trying to loosen the seatbelt around my stomach, as it seemed
that it was much too tight! At
one point Linsi phoned and suggested I get into the back of the car on all
fours – but by this time we were in the fast lane of the M3 (crawling
along) and I knew that if I got out of the car nothing would make me get
back in again – so I stayed put.
We
arrived at the Birth centre at about quarter past six, and the minute I got
out of the car I just felt so relieved and relaxed to be there that the
contractions went from every five minutes to every 90 seconds – I had 3 on
the way to my room. Linsi was
there to meet us and to take my blood pressure and so on.
She said I needn’t have an internal if I didn’t want one –
which was fine by me, the last thing I wanted was to be told I was 2cm
dilated!
After
I’d dropped off my bags we went to the birthing room, as I was desperate
to get into the pool. On
arriving in the room I decided I needed a pee – so went to the loo, then I
thought my waters had gone – only to look down and see blood everywhere. My initial panic had more to do with the fact that the centre
were holding a Water Birth Workshop that evening and there would be people
wanting to use the loo rather than the fact that I had just bled rather
alarmingly!
Because
of this bleed Linsi decided that I should have an internal and I was amazed
to be told that I was already 8cms dilated!
(I think it was about 7.30pm by now - but I'm not sure as time was doing funny things). She gave me the all clear to jump into the pool so in I
clambered.
The
pool was amazing. I was able to
totally relax between contractions.
The lights were low, we had music playing in the background and
candles flickering. At one point I said out loud ‘This is bliss’ and it
really was! Stephen and Helen
(student midwife) took some photos, Linsi monitored the baby’s heart rate
using the hand held sonicaid. I
made a fatal mistake at one point of asking what time it was and after
procrastinating Stephen said that it was 8 o’clock.
This threw me into momentary despair as I felt as though I had been
in labour for ever, and only think that I had hours ahead of me.
At around this time the baby’s heart rate dropped to 109bpm, and
Linsi asked me to move, which I refused to do – so Stephen shouted at me
and I duly shifted position from lying half on one side to being on an all
fours position in the water. This
seemed to be better for the baby and the heart rate picked up again.
Soon
after this I started to ask for drugs!
Despite knowing that at least 8cm dilated there was no way I could
have anything (entonox makes me sick) and to complain that I didn’t want a
baby!! In retrospect this was probably transition, as at 8.13pm my waters
went with a pop. Linsi told me
in view of the fact that I had had 2 previous episiotomies (one third degree
and one second degree) I should resist the urge to push – but as she
finished the sentence I was realised that although I wasn’t consciously
pushing my body was pushing all on its own (and I was making a noise like a
donkey allegedly!) The baby was
born in one push at 8.14pm. I
reached down beneath me and picked it up.
Stephen had wanted to be more involved in ‘catching’ the baby –
but in the end there just wasn’t time!!
As I stood up to get out of the pool I shouted ‘Catch it, catch
it’ as I could feel the placenta coming out and was worried that if it
wasn’t caught the weight would pull my baby boy out of my arms!! This was
at 8.15pm.
Once
out of the pool I bled quite heavily, but was relieved to hear that I
wouldn’t need any stitches – despite his quick arrival I only had a tiny
skin tear. I fed Hamish
(although at that stage he had no name) pretty much as soon as he was born,
and we spent the next hour or so in the birthing room eating toast, making
phone calls and getting to know our baby.
I must admit I felt pretty dazed and shocked at this stage – I’d
never imagined he would arrive so quickly!
Stephen
at one point took the baby to meet the Water Birth Workshop attendees so
they could see the cause of all the noise in the room below their
workshop!
I
stayed at the Birth centre for the next 3 nights – relaxing away from the
‘real world’ and getting to know our new little boy.
Hamish
was the last baby to be born at the Wessex Birth Centre before it closed.
