When it comes to giving birth...
That moment has finally arrived. You are on your way to the delivery suite. You know it won't be long until you see your baby for the first time. You may already have a birth plan in mind or you may be like I was and not have a clue what you will do when you get there.
This is how my labour started:
I was 8 days overdue and I went to see the midwife for a membrane sweep. This involved her inserting a gloved hand up into the cervix and “sweeping” around the membrane that surrounds your baby. This sounds a painful experience but it was in fact only really a strange and slightly uncomfortable feeling at worst. The midwife then informed me she could feel the babies head and that my cervix was soft and everything was ready to go. How exciting!
The following day I had a “show” This is a mucous/bloody discharge (sorry for the gore folks but you gotta tell it as it is!) This continued from then on until the following morning when I woke up early and felt like I had mild period cramps. I said to my husband that I thought I might be in labour but wasn't sure. As I didn't know, he went off to work anyway. I don't think I would have let him go if I hadn't known my parents were coming over a few hours later!
Once my parents arrived my mum started to time my contractions. (She had informed me that this was in fact the start of labour) They went from 3 minutes apart, to 5 minutes, to 7 minutes, to 5 minutes and so on. So they were by no means regular. As the day went on they became stronger. My husband had come home from work by this time and at 8pm in the evening I decided they were getting a bit too painful to manage on my own. (I am a bit of a wimp) So we all trekked to the hospital, which is fortunately a 3 minute drive away. I had always lived in fear of getting there and being told I was only 1 cm dilated, which is why I had left it so long to go. Little did I know It wasn't nearly long enough. When the midwife did assess me I was indeed... 1cm dilated! Great!
I decided I would go home and they said to come back in a couple of hours. When I returned 3 hours later I was 2 to 3 cm dilated. The midwife was excellent and she told me to help ease the pain by relaxing and using breathing techniques. This did help but it's very difficult to do when you are in pain so I advise anyone to practice before labour. Off we went home again. By this time it was about midnight so everyone went to bed to sleep…except me. When 4am came I decided to get in the bath. As soon as I got out and sat on the bed I had an extremely strange sensation, almost as if something had “cracked” inside me. That was when the pain started to get really intense. My husband took one look at me and said he thought we had better get back to the hospital.
Once back there, they assessed me again and this time I was 4 to 5 cm's dilated which meant I was in active labour and they would take me in and give me pain relief, which is all I could think about! Hurrah!
There are a lot of women these days insisting on a natural birth with no pain relief or intervention. I say each to their own but I can't understand how anyone can make that decision when they don't know what to expect and they certainly haven't done it before. But whether you have decided to opt for a pain relief free birth or you want everything going I have just one bit of advice: Gas and Air are Wonderful Things!
I went through my pregnancy and into the delivery suite convinced I would end up having an epidural and that I wasn't going to be made to feel guilty for it by all these so called “earth mothers” no offence if you are one! The closer I got to the birth though, the more I had heard and read about epidurals and I must admit I was a little worried about the after-effects. Never the less I thought if I needed one I would have one. I had also had a few friends telling me gas and air was useless and it made them feel sick.
