I am one of those ‘crazy people’ who actually loved giving birth. Was it painful? Absolutely. But I look back on my drug free birth with such fondness.
I was lucky enough to have a birth that I planned on. My plan, which ended up being very different from what I had imagined at the beginning of my pregnancy, had been heavily influenced by my amazing midwife (and by this course she recommended). In the U.K., you are not looked after by doctors while pregnant but rather midwives. And this is a good thing. Midwives attend a great deal of training specifically to tend to expecting mothers and, along with acquiring all of their qualifications, need to deliver, I believe, 40 babies before they can become fully qualified. My birth was also lucky enough to be led by a student. We were her eleventh birth.
The midwives I had around me truly made the experience for me and I really do not think I would’ve had as positive an experience had I not had such a team around me. From the beginning, I was paired with one amazing midwife who I saw regularly. We’d hoped she’d be the one on call that night in the hospital, but alas another midwife and a student were the ones about that night and I was immediately impressed at how comfortable they made me feel considering I’d only just met them.
On Wednesday, I woke up thinking my water had broken. Long story, short, after calling the hospital and going in to be examined, it was determined my waters were still in tact and I’d possibly just done a wee on myself.
On Thursday, I began having stronger, more regular contractions. By Friday morning, there was no doubt that I was in labour. At around noon, I, again, went into hospital to be examined and was sent home, being less than the required 4cm for admission. I was told to ‘come back when I could no longer stand it’ and 5 hours was suggested. I went home, celebrating that I was indeed in labour and tried to eat but was sick. The next 5 hours were the hardest of my labour. By myself, alone in my bedroom, I laboured. Not knowing how far along I was, how long this would last, whether any of it was normal. It was a mental game and I felt like I was losing.
Around 5pm, I asked Sam to bring me back to the hospital and asked our parents to meet us there. If you’ve never laboured while riding in a car, I wouldn’t recommend it and has thus decided I wasn’t going to be sent home again. Luckily, I was examined and it was determined I was beyond the 4cm mark and could thus be admitted.
Having declined all intervention thus far, I decided to try gas and air (a gaseous mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen inhaled through a breathing apparatus much like an inhaler). This helped and I continued with this as my only form of pain relief throughout, pleased as it meant I would be able to cope without drugs. It basically felt like I was drunk while I was inhaling yet, when I stopped, I was perfectly alert and aware again.
Once I was admitted, I was taken onto the labour ward and introduced to my midwives. They had prepared a room for me. One with twinkle lights decorating a lovely, big, round bed, relaxing music playing, and only what I needed to have a drug free, natural, dry land birth.
With both of my midwives, my husband, and my mom, I laboured for the next 5 hours. At 11pm, my midwife began to ask if I’d like to be examined. At about the same time, a pop and gush of fluid soaked the pads and I felt the urge to push. My midwife told me to listen to my body so we forwent the examination and I prepared to push.
At this point, I was being sick after eating or drinking anything and was exhausted. I pushed for 3 hours before the midwife suggested we do an episiotomy. I did NOT want this and so I pulled myself together, mustered up whatever strength I had left and pushed as hard as I could.
What happened next, while I later learned was very common, scared me in the moment. It goes without saying that it also was not at all according to plan either. I pushed baby out to see he’d had the umbilical cord wrapped twice around his neck and it was tight enough to be asphyxiating him. He was limp and purple. They cut him free, placed him on my stomach for only a few moments before whisking him away to check him over, frisk him, and try to get him to cry. He did.
As the flurry of people flooded into the room, I remember feeling disconnected. Like I was standing behind myself watching someone else give birth.
I was then told that I would be able to hold my baby for a few minutes and then he would need to be taken to the neonatal unit (the NICU) to be examined and monitored for a few hours. We took some pictures (that I hardly remember taking) and sent baby away with his dad. Thankfully I had expressed loads of colostrum prior and sent this with his dad. He was the first one to feed him.
While my baby and my husband were away, I was really thankful to have my mom in the room with me to see me through the rest of the process. I’d managed the placenta out whilst they were examining the baby and I now needed to be sewn due to internal vaginal tearing. It was at this time that I found out that I’d actually haemorrhaged but that the midwives were monitoring me and I’d be fine.
Over the next couple hours, I was stitched up, my placenta was carefully looked over, and my baby actually came back a bit earlier than expected, having passed all of his checks with flying colors. We were kept in for 24 hours after this (usually the U.K. send you home after 6 if there are no complications) but finally got to go home at 2am the next day.
I loved my birth and would absolutely love to do it again. I would hope that the next time I could have the after-birth experience I wanted but know that every birth is different and we have to be prepared for anything to happen.
If you have any questions on a natural, drug free birth, I’d love to hear them!
Keep up with my life as a mom here!