MaybeMomSarah
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I've been asked to type up my birth story for a few different web sites, and I'm all too happy to oblige. Since those sites are for differing aspects of labor and delivery, homoeopathic medicine, and lesbian parenting, there may be few things in here that may make you think “why is she talking about that”, and it is very long....so bare with me (but I have always secretly loved reading the long birthing stories online and always go for the ones that apologize for being too lengthy).
The basics : my lovely son Thomas Joseph Jackson was born at 4:39am on 03 November 2010, weighing 7lbs 6oz and a length of 18.5inches long, after a drug free water birth and a total of 24 hours of labor.
The whole time I've been pregnant, dates have always been rather coincidental. We had our successful insemination on my wife's birthday after months of trial and failure, we found out I was pregnant on my mother's birthday, due date on Bonfire night, and a few other coincidences here and there. A few dates came and went where I thought I might go into labor – my brother's birthday, Halloween, and nothing came. My parents were due to fly into England on the second, and like clockwork, a matter of hours before their flight landed, I started with contractions every 8 minutes. They slowed enough to manage to meet them at the at the airport, but by 9pm that night, they started speeding up. I managed to stay at home and used a tens machine to get through the pains while using various positions on my birthing ball and back pressure from my wife. The tens machine was very helpful and would suggest that anyone with the ability to get one at least try it out.
Around midnight, they were coming hard at 4 minutes apart, when my wife Emma called Corbar Birthing Centre in Buxton to let them know that I was ready to have a midwife out to check me. Deb, my midwife for labor and delivery, arrived about half a hour later. This may surprise some folks – mostly Americans, I think – that she performed the first any only internal exam I had for the whole pregnancy and delivery. She manually measured me, and I was 4cms dilated. She also let me know that I was severely impacted in my colon, and that I should expect a harder delivery due to my baby having to work around that as well. After the exam was done, my plug came out, and the contractions sped up to less than 3 minutes apart. Deb made her way to the birthing centre, and Emma woke up my parents to tell them it was time.
A 15 minute drive to the centre involved me in the back seat grunting through contractions, and holding my mother's hand while Emma and my father sat in the front seats through the streets at 1am.
I started my labor in one of the delivery rooms but only lasted in there around 15 minutes before the birthing pool was ready for me. I was very pushy at this point, which I mentioned to Deb. She had a bit of a laugh, and told me it was due to my colon. She gave me a softener, and I layed on my side with it through a few contractions prior to getting into the pool.
I laboured in the pool until around 4am. I'll be completely honest with you, most of the memories I have of this part of my labor is hazy. My waters broke in the pool, and kept coming and coming for the next dozen or so contractions – to the point that the midwife said that she'd never seen so much liquor come out. (So much for the concern about his fluid level in the womb!) I remember asking for pethidine (aka demerol), but being told I shouldn't have any as it will effect me and the baby. I look back now and am thankful that they stuck by my initial birth plan requests for no narcotics. I know I told my mother (who was pool side with my wife during my entire delivery, with my father sat back in the corner of the room sending updates to my family back in America) not to move, since she was holding the entonox (aka laughing gas) supply that was my only form of relief. I remember being upset that no one would tell me how dilated I was since my initial check. What I later learned is that they only check dilation every 4 hours, and by the time hour 4 came around he was already crowning.
After a bit, Deb explained to me it was time to start pushing and telling me how. I don't think they realized that I was pushing the entire time – since I got into the pool. The urge to push was primal, and I couldn't not push. With the pushes came grunts, and not so much screams. I laugh at myself now for thinking I could manage a relatively quiet labor. So previously, when I was having long and drawn out pushes and getting told to make sure I was breathing correctly, I was now allowed to push and push for as long as I wanted.
And that's when he arrived – my first “real” push. Not just his head; but head, shoulders, body and legs all out in one push. My wife tells me he shot across the pool when he left my body. During my last trimester, I had been taking regularly increasing doses of Raspberry Leaf Tea capsules which is known for strengthening your uterine muscles and make a more efficient second stage of labor. I completely credit this with the speed that my son came out. The down side being that due to the fact that he was slightly sideways when I pushed him out and didn't give him the time to turn himself, I have a few tears and grazes that required 6 stitches to correct. Luckly, they are all internal.
My baby was placed on my chest while I was in the pool. I don't remember any of this so my wife and parents have filled me in. Thomas never cried after he was born until they started washing him off. He made sounds that he makes now when we walk together – chirping sounds. He came out looking around, holding his head up, with an expression that someone had said looks like he had soul that has been here before. My mother cut his cord, since my wife is rather squeemish about those type of things.
The one thing I do remember is my wife Emma crying with joy. We had joked for months about how emotional she would be, and all joking aside she was more moved than I had ever seen anyone. The midwives commented to me days later that in all their years of delivering babies, they had never seen anyone with the level of emotions that Emma had. One mentioned biological fathers barely flinching, where as this “adopted” mother was moved so much that they had concern that they would be needing to help her shortly. Maybe it's the after-birth hormones, but it gets me pretty teary myself thinking about it.
Thomas was washed and passed to her for a cuddle, while my placenta and I were attended to. After about 20 minutes of waiting and nothing moving, I had to break the only part of my birth plan – a physiological third stage. I agreed I was loosing too much blood and I needed the shot. Within 10 minutes, the placenta was delivered, and I remember looking down on it thinking it would be bigger.
At this stage, 4 days later, I'm quite surprised by how well Thomas is, and how much my body is needing to recover. Little man is latching on amazingly and feeding like clockwork, although his clock is a bit different than ours! His cord stump fell off this morning, and I completely agree this this man has been here before. Me on the other hand, am still bleeding quite a bit, with swollen bits and bobs that makes it hard to walk without routine pain meds. My milk has come in, and if I thought my breasts were heavy before, I had no idea!
Thank you for taking your time to read my birth story. I'm more than willing to answer any questions that anyone has for me.
The basics : my lovely son Thomas Joseph Jackson was born at 4:39am on 03 November 2010, weighing 7lbs 6oz and a length of 18.5inches long, after a drug free water birth and a total of 24 hours of labor.
The whole time I've been pregnant, dates have always been rather coincidental. We had our successful insemination on my wife's birthday after months of trial and failure, we found out I was pregnant on my mother's birthday, due date on Bonfire night, and a few other coincidences here and there. A few dates came and went where I thought I might go into labor – my brother's birthday, Halloween, and nothing came. My parents were due to fly into England on the second, and like clockwork, a matter of hours before their flight landed, I started with contractions every 8 minutes. They slowed enough to manage to meet them at the at the airport, but by 9pm that night, they started speeding up. I managed to stay at home and used a tens machine to get through the pains while using various positions on my birthing ball and back pressure from my wife. The tens machine was very helpful and would suggest that anyone with the ability to get one at least try it out.
Around midnight, they were coming hard at 4 minutes apart, when my wife Emma called Corbar Birthing Centre in Buxton to let them know that I was ready to have a midwife out to check me. Deb, my midwife for labor and delivery, arrived about half a hour later. This may surprise some folks – mostly Americans, I think – that she performed the first any only internal exam I had for the whole pregnancy and delivery. She manually measured me, and I was 4cms dilated. She also let me know that I was severely impacted in my colon, and that I should expect a harder delivery due to my baby having to work around that as well. After the exam was done, my plug came out, and the contractions sped up to less than 3 minutes apart. Deb made her way to the birthing centre, and Emma woke up my parents to tell them it was time.
A 15 minute drive to the centre involved me in the back seat grunting through contractions, and holding my mother's hand while Emma and my father sat in the front seats through the streets at 1am.
I started my labor in one of the delivery rooms but only lasted in there around 15 minutes before the birthing pool was ready for me. I was very pushy at this point, which I mentioned to Deb. She had a bit of a laugh, and told me it was due to my colon. She gave me a softener, and I layed on my side with it through a few contractions prior to getting into the pool.
I laboured in the pool until around 4am. I'll be completely honest with you, most of the memories I have of this part of my labor is hazy. My waters broke in the pool, and kept coming and coming for the next dozen or so contractions – to the point that the midwife said that she'd never seen so much liquor come out. (So much for the concern about his fluid level in the womb!) I remember asking for pethidine (aka demerol), but being told I shouldn't have any as it will effect me and the baby. I look back now and am thankful that they stuck by my initial birth plan requests for no narcotics. I know I told my mother (who was pool side with my wife during my entire delivery, with my father sat back in the corner of the room sending updates to my family back in America) not to move, since she was holding the entonox (aka laughing gas) supply that was my only form of relief. I remember being upset that no one would tell me how dilated I was since my initial check. What I later learned is that they only check dilation every 4 hours, and by the time hour 4 came around he was already crowning.
After a bit, Deb explained to me it was time to start pushing and telling me how. I don't think they realized that I was pushing the entire time – since I got into the pool. The urge to push was primal, and I couldn't not push. With the pushes came grunts, and not so much screams. I laugh at myself now for thinking I could manage a relatively quiet labor. So previously, when I was having long and drawn out pushes and getting told to make sure I was breathing correctly, I was now allowed to push and push for as long as I wanted.
And that's when he arrived – my first “real” push. Not just his head; but head, shoulders, body and legs all out in one push. My wife tells me he shot across the pool when he left my body. During my last trimester, I had been taking regularly increasing doses of Raspberry Leaf Tea capsules which is known for strengthening your uterine muscles and make a more efficient second stage of labor. I completely credit this with the speed that my son came out. The down side being that due to the fact that he was slightly sideways when I pushed him out and didn't give him the time to turn himself, I have a few tears and grazes that required 6 stitches to correct. Luckly, they are all internal.
My baby was placed on my chest while I was in the pool. I don't remember any of this so my wife and parents have filled me in. Thomas never cried after he was born until they started washing him off. He made sounds that he makes now when we walk together – chirping sounds. He came out looking around, holding his head up, with an expression that someone had said looks like he had soul that has been here before. My mother cut his cord, since my wife is rather squeemish about those type of things.
The one thing I do remember is my wife Emma crying with joy. We had joked for months about how emotional she would be, and all joking aside she was more moved than I had ever seen anyone. The midwives commented to me days later that in all their years of delivering babies, they had never seen anyone with the level of emotions that Emma had. One mentioned biological fathers barely flinching, where as this “adopted” mother was moved so much that they had concern that they would be needing to help her shortly. Maybe it's the after-birth hormones, but it gets me pretty teary myself thinking about it.
Thomas was washed and passed to her for a cuddle, while my placenta and I were attended to. After about 20 minutes of waiting and nothing moving, I had to break the only part of my birth plan – a physiological third stage. I agreed I was loosing too much blood and I needed the shot. Within 10 minutes, the placenta was delivered, and I remember looking down on it thinking it would be bigger.
At this stage, 4 days later, I'm quite surprised by how well Thomas is, and how much my body is needing to recover. Little man is latching on amazingly and feeding like clockwork, although his clock is a bit different than ours! His cord stump fell off this morning, and I completely agree this this man has been here before. Me on the other hand, am still bleeding quite a bit, with swollen bits and bobs that makes it hard to walk without routine pain meds. My milk has come in, and if I thought my breasts were heavy before, I had no idea!
Thank you for taking your time to read my birth story. I'm more than willing to answer any questions that anyone has for me.
x
