Welcome Angus

The lead up

I spent my last week of being child-free feeling pretty good. I was still enjoying swimming laps, doing Pilates and yoga. I was getting some Braxton hicks each evening and  would get up, grab a wheat bag and wonder if this would be the night.

Tristan and I had done the Calmbirth Course together and had a long list of ideas, positions and techniques to try for stage one of labour. Calmbirth was really important for us as a couple. With me having studied pregnancy and breastfeeding and spending lots of my days treating  pregnant women, I devoured books on the topic while pregnant. Unsurprisingly, Rhea Dempsey, Ina Mae Gaskin and Juju Sundin weren’t high on my husband’s reading list so Calmbirth gave us the opportunity to learn together, discuss what was important to us, and for him to learn what I thought might work for me when in labour.We were hoping to avoid any unnecessary medical intervention and knew that one of the best things we could do was to labour at home for as long as as possible and to arrive at hospital in well established labour.

Labour

On Wednesday evening (39+2) I did Prenatal Pilates at the clinic with our Physio Jacqui and felt normal going to bed. I woke up at 1am with strong contractions. I got the heat pack but quickly realised that this wouldn’t cut it. I felt the urge to sit on the toilet and passed the mucous plug. At 2am I decided to get in the bath and play my Calmbirth relaxation tracks. Tristan was timing the contractions and we were both surprised to find that they were 3 minutes apart and quite strong. 

Around 3am I wanted a different position and got out of the bath to put the TENs machine on. Around 5am I started to wonder how difficult the car trip to the hospital might be and Tristan rang the hospital again to say we might head in. In the back of my mind I was a little concerned that I’d only been in labour for 4 hours and it might be a bit disheartening to get there too early but I also couldn’t speak or stand during the contractions and was dreading the car trip. 

We arrived at the hospital at 6am. 

I had a contraction just as the lift arrived at the maternity ward and collapsed onto the floor. I went straight into a birth suite and continued to labour on the toilet, making use of the bars fixed to the wall to hold on to as the contractions got stronger.

Our midwife said she would do some paperwork while I settled in. I remember thinking “if she isn’t stressed then I don’t need to be.” In hindsight she could clearly see that my contractions were quite strong and just let me continue to do my thing. She checked the heartbeat a few time but otherwise gave us space and kept out of the way. 

At 7am our midwife mentioned that she would like to check my progress, but that the next midwife would start her shift at 7:30, and that if we were happy to wait until then it would be more accurate for any further checks as the baby would likely be born on the next shift. I was happy with this. I had hoped to avoid too many checks; was conscious that it might negatively affect my state of mind if I learnt I wasn’t very far along; and the idea of a 30minute timeframe helped break things into a smaller goal to work towards. I agreed and continued labouring for another half hour, attempting to pull the bars off the wall in the toilet. I was trying not to use my brain but in the back of my mind wondering whether I would have 1 or 10 hours to go, and what strategies we would try next if it was the latter scenario. I was still mentally preparing myself for the long haul. 

At 7:30 the midwife asked me to hop on the bed so that she could check me. I was hesitant as I really wanted to continue to use gravity and active birth positions however she suggested that I kneel facing the raised bed head, using the bed to support my arms. When she examined me she reported that I was fully dilated, she could feel a head, and I was welcome to push whenever it felt right. This was the moment that I thought I could do it.. I continued to use the TENS machine (by this stage Tristan was holding the controls for me as well as a water bottle), and pushed in an upright kneeling position. 

After a while of pushing, I was starting to fatigue and question myself. I wasn’t sure if I could do it anymore and told Tristan this. He encouraged me and kept me focused but then noticed the midwife pick up a pair of scissors, and, as the wonderful advocate he was,  he asked what they were for. The midwife indicated that she thought I might need a bit of help to get the baby’s head out. After catching the drift of what was being discussed, a spurt of energy and a change of position, out came Angus at 8:40am. A healthy 3.8kg (8lb4) looking fully cooked with barely any vernix. He went straight onto my chest where he proceeded to pass meconium all over me. I wanted a physiological third stage if possible, so we patiently waited for the placenta to come. It didn’t seem to be coming on its own so the midwife suggested I hop up into my high kneeling position again. I then felt a contraction and delivered the placenta.

Thoughts

I would describe Angus’ birth as everything that we had hoped for. I feel very lucky about this as many women have complications during pregnancy that mean they don’t get this opportunity, but I also know that Australia has some of the highest rates of intervention in the world and we worked hard to create some of that luck.

During pregnancy people tend to share horror stories, and many indicated that when things got tough, the TENS/bath/calmbirth track etc would all go out the window. Towards the end of pregnancy I tried to focus on the people around me who had positive birth stories and started only listening to positive episodes of Australian Birth Stories. 

Thanks to Calmbirth I knew what my body and brain liked to do when in pain (same as when training for a marathon funnily enough); Tristan knew what his role was and how to help; we learnt together what we would need to do to give ourselves the best chance of avoiding a cascade of interventions; I trusted that he would advocate for me. This allowed me to  turn my brain off and let my body do its thing. I’ll never know whether this feeling of safety and ability to relax contributed to things going quickly or whether we just got lucky! Either way, we were over the moon.