So excited to share my birth story with you (again) 🤍
I had just hopped into bed and was getting comfortable at 9:40pm when I felt like I’d weed a little bit, so I rolled out of bed knowing straightaway what was happening. As soon as I stood up, more fluid came gushing out which is when I had my first surge. I then put a pad on, rang my midwife to let her know and we (my mum who had been staying with us, my partner Trey and myself) all got back into bed thinking that we’d be in for a long night. 10 minutes later I had another surge, followed by a few more approx 10 minutes apart. Because they were coming quite regularly (and intensely - already) I decided to put my TENS machine on thinking it was far too early but starting to really need a distraction from the sensations I was feeling. They were getting stronger and I was growing more and more uncomfortable, so by this point I had been out of bed for a while and was walking around and kneeling against the couch as I was most comfortable being upright. So much for sleeping!
After almost 4 hours of labouring I was at the point where I wasn’t coping as well anymore and was hardly feeling any relief between surges. This was when I rang my midwife again at 1:15am to say I was going to come in and I wanted to be assessed so I knew what my cervix was doing. I was a bit hesitant to leave because I felt like I was only going to be sent home as it was so early in the process (or so I thought). She lives an hour away from the hospital but was already on her way (thankfully) so we were expected to arrive around roughly the same time. The pressure I was feeling kept me from even sitting on my birth ball at home so the car ride into town was really uncomfortable. I sat in the backseat to utilise as much room as possible which was helpful. We got to the hospital and it took a few minutes for me to be able to get out of the car as the surges were almost back to back by now. We went through emergency to be taken up to the ward and I opted to walk up rather than be wheeled as I couldn’t bare to sit down. On the way up I had quite a few surges so we stopped a number of times for me to be able to breathe through them and rest against the wall and my partner, still using my TENS machine.
My midwife actually met us in the hallway of the birthing ward and she wanted to take me through to another ward to assess me. My surges were so strong by this point and so close together I was becoming quite vocal and struggling to breathe through which my midwife noticed, and decided to keep me in the birthing ward to do an examination there. Once we got into a suite I got on the bed on my hands and knees and had a couple more surges. I kept telling her I felt so much pressure and was beginning to involuntarily push, and the pain kept me from getting on my back for the VE. I was asked if I wanted pain relief and I said I would try the gas, which I took maybe 3 puffs of before finally having a VE done. Laying on my back even for that short amount of time was awful but as my midwife was doing the VE she said, “no wonder you feel a lot of pressure. There’s no cervix left, her head is right there.” She asked me where I wanted to birth my baby and I said the shower. We removed my TENS machine and I hobbled over to the shower with the help of my partner while my midwife started running it. Standing under the water was absolutely heavenly and provided instant relief. I got on my hands and knees and practiced the KICO method (search The Naked Doula if you haven’t heard of her - she has amazing birthing tips) and I wasn’t resisting the urge to push now. Following my body’s lead I ended up in a standing position and it took roughly 10 minutes to push my beautiful baby girl out into the world at 2:47am. Birthing my daughter with my partner and mum supporting me was by far the most amazing experience of my life and I would do it 1000 times over. I cannot wait for my next birth!
Thankyou again Ariel for your hiring service of the TENS machine. Hands down the only reason I got through my labour and birth drug free. Incredible 🤍