The Birth: Home Birth
This is the fun part… the beginning… the birth!
This is my version of the home birth, the version of the story from Mom’s perspective! Andrew will tell you his version in the next post (version of Dad)! It is home birth in water: Waterbirth at home!
I say fun but it wasn’t fun… I couldn’t lie down as my midwife suggested. The only way I was feeling ok was standing up… Not very cool when you are already tired from the fun day we had!
Anyway, my contractions really started at midnight. Now I knew I was in labour. I let Andrew sleep until 3 am. By 3 am I was lost in these contractions. They were all over the place. For me, they were strong but not constant. One was 10 seconds and the next one 1 minute and the next one 30 seconds. The space between each contraction was between 2 minutes and 5 or 10 minutes… so we were lost with Andrew! Which stage are we? We called the midwife and she said that I was still on the first stage. As soon as the contractions become more regular we should call her!
By 5am I said to Andrew he should prepare the tub because I have more and more pain and I will love to be in the water. That was going to be fun for him… how is he going to put a lot of water in the tub when we do not have the hose and the tub is in the middle of our living room?
The only way was with a bucket… so he started to put water in the tub one bucket at a time… I can’t tell you how many buckets he filled but it must have been a lot because the birthing tub was big! During this time, I was on my knee or on the exercise ball trying to relax and concentrate on the contractions!
By 7am, we didn’t have to call back the midwife, she came to check on me! I was happy to see her and felt reassured! And it was the midwife I really liked!!!
She suggested I go in the water now that I was in labour. Oh what a relief! The water was warm and it was relaxing. I really liked it. I was able to sleep between 2 contractions! Yes I slept between them! Hey, it is not one hour sleep you get but 2-3 minutes of sleep between each contraction. I was really in my own world now. Managing my contractions… Andrew put some scent I like to smell in the vaporizer and some relaxing music.
It started to get more and more painful but when she was checking on my cervix I was still at 5 cm. She proposed that she could break my water and told me that it will be more intense but it will accelerate the process. I didn’t answer the question as I had another contraction and fell asleep again (I am so glad she didn’t do it… you will see later why?).
Really it was perfect until….
The tub started to leak…
It wasn’t leaking water on the outside (good for the living room) but air was leaking out so the tub was deflating! What time was it? I have no idea? They asked me to go to pee in the toilet… So both Andrew and my midwife brought me to the toilet… It was difficult to move now. And the sensation was not the same at all in the water compared to out of the water! Walking was hard. All my weight was on them… I wasn’t able to walk by myself!
When I was in the toilet, Andrew stayed with me and the midwife went to see how she could repair the tub. I started to feel nauseous and I said I want to throw up. Not a long time after, sitting on the toilet, I vomited in front of me. Poor Andrew, seeing that might not be the best moment for him.
The midwife came back and said that she can not repair the tub.
I didnt care at all about what she said but all I wanted was to be in the water!!!!! Managing contractions are so much more manageable in the water… You dont feel the weight the same way.
So I said the only way I’m doing this is in my bathroom in the tub! So they put some water in my bath and I gladly went in. During the time I was in the bathroom I must have broke the water because as soon as I went in the tub I said I want to push… oh, oh I was 10cm! It went from 4 cm to 10 in less that 2 hours… It is 2pm and I have to push!
Bathtub Labor
The second midwife is not here yet… (ya, normally there are two midwives: one for the mom and one for the baby). Anyway not a big deal!
The midwife said your baby is coming! look you can touch the head! What excitement I had even through pain… I said “oh baby you are there!”
She told me that at the next contraction, I should not push and she will massage the perine as it will avoid tearing… I am like I don’t know how I can not push but ok! But then…
Surprise
I do not know what happened but suddenly the midwife looked further and noticed that it was not the babies head! She grabbed her phone and called 911… What is going on is all I was thinking? I heard “I’m J… and I am a midwife and I am delivering a baby at home. The baby is breech… this is an unexpected breech!”.
I was in such a trance and in my own world that when I heard “Breech”, I was like it will be okay! I wasn’t scared at all. I knew that everything will be fine. I wanted a baby so much that nothing could happen.
At the next contraction, I was going to not push as she said but she suddenly
said, “push push push”. Hmmm… I’m still in my own world and confused but I listened. I pushed and pushed and pushed…She is still with 911 on the phone… I heard that she got a leg and another leg…
And on each contraction, she got an arm and then a second… The head was the last… holy it was pain… By the time the emergency arrived (Andrew will tell you this part because I have no idea of his side of the story!), our baby was born!
I still didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl! Yes it was a surprise!
It’s a boy!!!
I looked and I saw a Boy! I did not know where Andrew was (he seemed to have disappeared) but I yelled Mateo! Mateo! Welcome baby!!! The midwife put Mateo on me and Andrew reappeared to cut the cord. As the paramedics were there, they wanted to take Mateo for a check up but the midwife said to them that he is fine and he will stay a little bit on his Mommy first.
The placenta still needed to go out so the midwife said that Mateo will go on his dad until the placenta is delivered.
I can tell you that I was impatient to not be with my baby and I yelled ” bye, bye the placenta… hurry!” I have no idea if I got contraction or not but the placenta went out very fast.
The midwife helped me to go to my bed and I took my little one in my arms… What a joy!
Mateo was born at 2:30 pm on Monday 2nd of May 2011. His weight was 8lbs2oz.
As he was breech, his legs were not straight and were angled up.
I started breastfeeding almost right away. It was not easy but I didn’t care! I was happy!
Andrew went to buy me some blue cheese and some sushi as I really wanted to have that as my first meal!
I will say before the end that I didn’t use painkillers and I am so thankful to Andrew. Without him and his strong support, I would not have be able to do it. He was there all the time for me and supported me in the difficult moments and encouraged me all the time.
The support is very important so Dads to be, BE Aware! You will not have the fun part and you have to be strong but your wife will always remember it and will always be thankful for it!
