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Well it all started at 10.30am on Tuesday 7th October – I realised I was having period pains regularly thought I’d time them to see if they were as regular as I thought. They were roughly 5 minutes apart and I thought that can’t be right as people talk about going to hospital when they are 5 minutes apart so I tried to ignore them.
I thought I’d make some lunch at around 11.45 to take my mind off it and by this point I was having to stop what I was doing when a contraction kicked in – pacing the kitchen helped though.
After lunch (couldn’t eat much) I started breathing as pain relief and it helped. DH also timed me and the contractions were about 4 minutes from the start of one to the start of another and lasted 30 to 40 seconds. We phoned the labour ward and they said have a bath so I did – it didn’t slow the contractions down.
The pains were increasing all the time so I got DH to get the tens machine out and read the instructions! We put that on and I started at the lower setting – within an hour or so I was up to maximum settings and the tens wasn’t being as affective as it had been – it was 2.30pm and I decided it was time for hospital so we set off.
I got to the hospital at 3.00pm (the pool was free so it looked good for a water birth) and was jutted to find I was only 2cm dilated! My cervix was very movable though so the MW said to keep mobile and she’d come and have a look in 3 hours. I started using Gas & Air which helped no end. She must have heard me before 3 hours as she came back after about 2 and a half hours and asked if I wanted her to check my progress – I was 5 to 6cm so I could get into the pool.
Soon after getting into the water I wanted to push – the MW checked me and said there was very little cervix left so hold off for as long as I could then go with it. According to DH I didn’t hold off for long but it felt like ages – once you get the urge to push it’s very difficult not to.
Once I started pushing I had to stop using the gas and air and so it was just the water for pain relief. According to my notes the second stage was 46 minutes but I’d have said it was longer! The pushing bit is the hard bit – you so want to get your baby out but it’s hard work, especially when you can feel the head coming and then feel it slipping back in! Then we found out that it wasn’t her head but the membrane sack – my waters hadn’t broken so the MW broke them and Imogen’s head was right behind them. Anyway – as soon as her head was out we waited for the next contraction to push her body out – that was a relief I can tell you. I could actually feel her moving when her head was out but her body was still in – weird!
The MW took Imogen from the water and put her on me so I could cuddle her – she was so perfect – loads of hair and little eye lashes – I just stared – I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. We didn’t even check to see if she was a girl or a boy – in the end the MW said she couldn’t wait any longer – the suspense was killing her! It was then 8.16pm.
I wanted to wait til the cord stopped pulsating before being cut and having the injection to get rid of the placenta and the MW said we might as well not bother with the injection – just wait but then you have to push the placenta out and I’d done enough pushing by that point so in the end I opted to have the injection anyway – it had been about 30 minutes and the cord wasn’t pulsating anymore.
Then I had to get out of the pool which was really difficult – probably funny to watch though. I delivered the placenta out of the pool – there was loads of it and my 3rd stage was 40 minutes.
Well, that’s about it. I didn’t use half the stuff in my labour bag – I couldn’t sit on my birthing ball during labour – in fact I couldn’t sit at all. I certainly didn’t have time for reading, cards or eating! The time flew by but I was only there for 5 hours before Imogen was born and 3 of those were in the water. I didn’t even use the nightie I’d bought specially!
I would say that I used disposable knickers and they were fine – I’m a good size 16 at the moment and bought the biggest size available from boots (20 – 22 I think). I also used Boots maternity towels – 2 packets but could have got away with one and always night time pads. I tried “full briefs” and they were really uncomfortable!
Better let you all get on now – thanks for reading and I hope that my experiences help someone else. All in all my experience was a good one – it hurt but it was going to – I managed with G & A, tens and water and my pain threshold is not a high one!