As it is my daughters 6th birthday today, I thought I'd share her birth story - note that I wrote this 6 years ago not long after my daughter was born. For those not keen on detail, stop reading now!!
After arriving 6 weeks early, I’m still a little shell shocked in re-telling my story of the birth of our baby daughter, Anaki, but I’ll give it a go.
On Monday 30th January (my birthday), I went to the hospital after discovering a “show.”
After an internal examination it was determined that my mucus plug was breaking away but it was big enough and there was enough left for there to be no concern. The OB commented that it was good to see my cervix getting into action – although my due date was 6 weeks away.
I went to work as usual on Tuesday and just felt a bit irritable – I mean I’d been feeling pretty irritable for most of my pregnancy due to the sleepless nights and heat – but this was a different irritable. I was a bit fidgety and did go to the toilet quite a bit more than usual but I put it down to the heat. On the train on the way home from work, I felt stomach cramps and a need to go to the toilet. I tried numerous times when I got home, but nothing would happen. On the third
attempt at around 6pm, I felt like I’d done a pee but hadn’t. Very strange feeling. I called my husband and said I think my waters broke but was unsure because it wasn’t the “gush” they usually describe. I decided to ring my sister to see what she thought – having been there before.
My sister assured me it would be a “gush” if my waters had broke but she said she’d phone around her female friends to double check. While she did that, I continued eating dinner with mild stomach cramps. She phoned back after a few minutes and said that a friend of hers had had what I described and she’d gone into labour not long after, so she thought it was wise to call the hospital. I phone the hospital and described what happened. The midwife suggested I sit still for half an hour and then get up and see if I loose any more fluid. If I did to call them back. So I sat for half an hour munching on M&M’s. After half an hour I stood up and lost more fluid – this time with a pink tinge. I phoned the hospital and they said to come in.
Not thinking much of it all, I took a few essentials and the baby’s bag which I had packed a little early. I made my husband stop at the servo station to grab some things I hadn’t got around to getting and we made our way in – only 20 mins drive. On arrival I was taken to the birth suite nd
made to wait until the OB could see me. There were many births happening that night. My cramping had pretty much gone at this stage but I was still dribbling fluid. The OB checked and said my waters had ruptured and I had a hind water leak. Due to protocol and risk of infection I was required to stay in hospital. My husband had to go home (by this stage it was about 1.30am) and I was left on my own in the maternity ward to cry myself to sleep as this whole birth thing was really not going the way I thought. Being a first time, it was all getting a bit too much.
The next day, a team of OB’s and OB’s in training came to see me. They said that because baby was early I was required to have 2 injections of steroids to ensure baby’s lungs developed in case of an early delivery and they would induce me the coming Monday should nothing have developed naturally by then. The steroid injections are very much like having a tetnus needle in your leg – ouch.
Come Friday, I was pretty much sick of hospital. I had 2 ladies with baby’s rooming in – this
is an excellent idea but when you haven’t had your baby yet and you are being kept awake from 10pm-4am each night by crying babies, it can be a little tiring. So I was pretty grumpy Friday
morning and I really felt like I had PMT with cramps and the moodiness that I usually get. This continued all day. By night time when my husband and sister arrived (my support people), the cramps were having a definite pattern and they were twice as bad as the ones you get with PMT. My sister kept saying I’m in early labour but even after monitoring we could not convince the midwives as they said I was talking through the pain so it mustn’t be. I was doing more than talking through the pain. I was on hands in knees in the bed rocking around trying to breathe, getting up and walking around. Anything to ease the pain.
By the time my husband and sister had to leave as visiting hours were up, we had convinced the midwives that I was in considerable pain and they gave me sleeping tablets and some oral pain killers. The sleeping tablets kicked in but the pain killers did nothing. I was now a zombie
woman walking around trying to ease the pain. After an hour of no relief, I called the midwife and asked for pethidine – anything to allow me to sleep. I got a shot of pethidine and was moved to birth suite for more monitoring.
I was dozing on and off but still feeling every cramp – these were coming more and more often (before my sister left she’d timed them every 3 minutes – still no one believed it to be early labour). After 3 hours of laying in the birth suite (it was now around 3.30am Saturday 4th Feb.) being monitored and still suffering pain, they decided to move me back to the maternity ward. I sat up to get ready and felt a balloon pop and water gush. Ooops!! I rang for the midwife and said that I think the second layer of waters must’ve broke. She said to go to the toilet and let them know what colour it is. I got to the toilet sat down and really felt the urge to push – so I panicked. I was calling out from the toilet for someone to come and help me. The midwife came and I said I feel like pushing but thought the baby might come out. She said to get off the toilet – she had to help me because by this time the pain was awful. I kept telling them to call my husband. I was adament not to push until he got here – no way was he missing the birth.
I was moved to a proper birthing suite and propped up in bed – there went my plans of active birth as baby still needed to be monitored due to being premmie. They prodded my stomach and said they couldn’t find the baby’s head. I said that it had been down for a while but they couldn’t feel it. They could feel lots of limbs and asked if I was having one – I said I was pretty sure!!! They decided to do an internal to see what was happening. No surprise when they said they could feel the head and that I was fully dialated. Thank goodness all that pain during the day
had not been for nothing!!!
I started pushing as the urge took over and tried to remember deep breaths in between. I
can’t begin to describe the feeling. It was like I wanted to push and needed to push but would start and be frightened by the pain that I would stop. My husband turned up – and I was so relieved as I knew I could now go for it. So go for it I did. Pushing and breathing and screaming and roaring. My sister showed up a bit later – they hadn’t called her but my husband did.
So they both supported my head and shoulders as the bed shook with the effort of pushing. I was adament that this head was going to come out, therefore I wouldn’t let it slip back (something I’d pay for later). After about 6-8 pushes our baby girl, Anaki was born. I ended up with a 2 degree tear because I hadn’t let her head slip back – I really didn’t want to repeat the effort each time. She was wisked away by the pedatrition and my husband to be checked over – due to being premmie. My husband panicked a bit when she started going pink, not knowing that this was a good thing!!! She scored an 8 on the Apgar test after 1 minute and 9 after 5 so she was doing really well. Weighing in at 2.53kg and 42 cm long, she really wasn’t a small premmie.
Due to being 6 weeks early, Anaki was required to spend time in the Special Care Nursery with a drip to administer antibiotics, sleep in a humidy crib, and have her blood sugar tested. I was allowed to visit after my stitches were complete and I’d had a shower. I was feeling pretty shattered by this stage – the actual birth only lasted 40mins so it was quick and my legs
were shaky, feeling like I’d run a marathon. Anaki had a feed from me and then was put back into the crib as I was falling asleep. I was taken back to the maternity ward for breakfast – which I threw up – as I said it really had taken a lot out of me. Then I slept.
Anaki spent 4 days in Special Care – I had to take her temperature, change her and establish breast feeding. Some of the time she was fed through a tube as the breast feeding took a while to establish – being premmie this is expected. Anyway, to cut a longer story short, we both were discharged on Wednesday 8th February and are now doing really well at home. Breastfeeding
still has it’s challenges but Anaki sleeps a lot and has been going on morning walks with mum and enjoys the pram. After a tramatic entry into the world she is doing really well. I’m so much more relaxed being home rather than at the hospital where some midwives are not very supportive (another story) and others contradict each other with the advice. I’m feeding on demand rather than the “every 4 hours” they were enforcing in the hospital and I think we are really getting somewhere.
So that’s my story!!! Sorry it’s so long!!
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