Overall I feel pretty happy now when I think about my birth story but there are still elements that make me a bit sad and conflicted.
I am the type of person who is super cautious and researches everything in general so when it came to birth and pregnancy, I wanted everything to go according to plan and of course with birth it never goes that way.
What happened to me was my water broke over 2 weeks before my due date, but I didn’t actually realize it had broken until I saw my doctor three days later at my regular check-in appointment! Throughout my pregnancy I had always been running to my doctor and this time I figured I just had a bit of extra discharge (my waters hadn’t fully broke). So lo and behold when I went to my doctors, she told me that my water had broke! I was completely gobsmacked because I was still carrying quite high and was always told that first babies are late. So when my doctor told me “this baby needs to come out today”, I responded with tears! I just wasn’t ready! Yes, I had all the baby gear but there were small projects that I still hadn’t got to.
I immediately had to go to the hospital from my doctor’s office, didn’t even have my labour bag with me but luckily my husband left work and me at the hospital. They quickly induced me because I was GBS positive and they were concerned that my water had been broken for quite some time. So they started me on Pitocin and started to monitor me and I was hooked up to many cables (IV, antibiotics for the GBS, cables monitoring baby, etc.). All the nurses kept asking me if I was feeling any contractions yet… I wasn’t! For hours, I just watched Netflix and chilled with my hubby! I thought labour was pretty easy! Then my doctor finally came to check on me and realized that my waters hadn’t fully broken which is why nothing was happening. Well when she broke my water fully, pretty quickly things went to 11! No more Netflix, the contractions were very powerful suddenly.
I had arrived at the hospital in the afternoon but my water wasn’t broken until the evening… so I got to labour overnight. I used a TENS machine for a couple hours which I absolutely loved-it gave me a sense of control and it definitely helped numb the pain! Eventually I ended up getting the epidural because the contractions came on so suddenly. It wasn’t part of my plan but looking back I am happy I did it.
The pushing part was so physical (my husband said I was turning purple) and the epidural allowed me to take a breather and I think it helped build up my strength. My daughter was born at 7am and luckily I only had a very minor tear that only needed one stitch!
The feeling of relief when she arrived was incredible. They immediately put her on top of me and I was in awe but also quickly checked to ensure she had 5 fingers, 5 toes, 2 eyes etc. We felt so blessed and she continues to amaze us everyday.
By Kate