Birth Stories - A Home Water Birth

I'd been having crampy feelings on and off during the week and had been taking it easy as a result. Started having different coloured discharge starting Wednesday which made it's way to pink by Saturday. Saturday I was feeling crampy pretty much the whole day. Phoned the mid-wife mid-way through Saturday to let her know what was happening and phoned my parents to warn them that something might be happening too. Pretty much sat around and supervised Devan and Jared while they put together Connor's dresser which arrived after lunch from IKEA.

By 4:00 though I was feeling pretty good, so I showered and changed and went out for ladies dinner night. At dinner I asked Diane if I could borrow her watch. For about 40 minutes (starting around 6:00) I was having fairly mild contractions every 7 minutes or so and then they started to spread out and by 7:15 or so they had pretty much stopped. Had a lovely dinner and lots of conversation.

On the way home, the contractions started again about every 4-5 minutes. Phoned the mid-wife around 10:00, after we had put Devan to bed to let her know I was having actual contractions now (again very mild in feeling). She told me to try and get some sleep. I did fall asleep, after Jared and I had packed an overnight bag, for about an hour, an hour and a half. The contractions woke me up about 12:40 or so and had two bouts of labour diarrhea while Jared was putting Devan back to sleep (Devan was very restless - must have sensed something was up).

I phoned my parents around 1:00 or so (Dad says it was 1:15) and told them it was time and then phoned the mid-wife (her comment was the contractions were now getting my attention - "heck yeah"). I assumed the same position I did when labouring with Devan (had my Enya CD's playing in the background) - on my knees, upper body draped on the couch. However, I found that the contractions were much stronger/intense than they were with Devan and I felt I was having a hard time dealing with them (apparently I was doing okay). Even though they were so intense I did manage to somehow stay relaxed. Devan woke up again a couple of times and Jared finally let my mom go in with him. He "helped" Mom and Dad get the pool ready for me (took about 45 minutes or so).

I finally told Jared I couldn't handle much more and desperately needed to be in water so he ran and disinfected the tub and filled it right up for me. As soon as I got in I felt much much better, but that didn't last too long. The pool was brought upstairs when I got into the tub and Jared and my father started running water into pails and rushing it into the pool in the bedroom. I remember my Mom bringing Devan coming to see me to see that I was okay. After that it's pretty much a blur (Jared says I was only in the tub for about 20 minutes or so). It got to the point where I was no longer comfortable lying on either side in the tub and needed to be on my back. Beckie checked the baby's heartbeat and asked if I was feeling any pressure. I told her YES. The only relief I could get was by pressing my hands into the small of my back/tailbone area. Shortly after that I started feeling quite a bit of pressure and started pushing a little bit. Jared came and said the pool was ready, I gave a very large push in the tub, he somehow got me out, walked the 10 feet and deposited me in the pool (while Beckie was saying that it might be too hot). Jared filled two more buckets of water and put them in the pool before I yelled quite loudly for him twice and he came running.

I gave two more pushes, my water broke and Connor crowned. Another push and his head was out, Beckie had to clamp and cut the cord as it was very tight around his shoulder and part of his neck. Two more pushes and he joined us in the world. I got Jared to go and get Devan and then my parents. Connor's Apgar was 7 when he was born (he didn't cry right away - and still doesn't cry much at all) and was 9 when they did it a few minutes later. At some point we transferred to the bed. My parents went home around 4:45 am and Beckie went home shortly there after.

Connor Burke was born at 3:01 am, was 6 lbs 14 oz (he was 6 lbs 12 oz on Aug. 26th) and was 19 inches long.

We're all doing well. Connor's a very calm and quiet baby (for now). He nursing very well but I'm having similar problems with my slow left breast that I did with Devan but Connor's more persevering (although the nipple is now quite cracked and sore so that doesn't help). It's still pretty hard (milk came in two days ago) but it's getting better. The hormone fluctuations have started so I've been getting teary for next to no reason but hopefully it'll pass soon.

Heart and Hands : A Midwifes Guide to Pregnancy and Birth
by Elizabeth Davis

Amazon.com
Elizabeth Davis's Heart and Hands, though subtitled A Midwife's Guide to Pregnancy and Birth, is not just for midwives. It's an excellent and thorough resource for parents-to-be who are thinking about delivering their child with a midwife, or who are concerned about the medical establishment's over-control of birth. (Two previous editions sold more than 100,000 copies and there are nowhere near 100,000 midwives or midwifery students to buy this book, proving that parents-to-be have looked to... read more»

Revised edition (December 1997)

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		Wednesday December 18, 2024