By Zoe, USA
On Sunday night I got a call from my Midwife saying that she wasn’t comfortable going past Wednesday the 15th. Well, Brian and I did some natural induction methods that night. I started early labor with my water breaking sometime between 3:00-4:00 Monday am. I continued early labor throughout the day.
Brian called all the important people. My mom arrived early. I sent her home. I went for a walk and continued through the day. I took a nap as suggested by my Midwives. My mother and mother in law came that afternoon.
My contractions stayed at about 10 min apart and lasting about 30 sec. I slept a bit. My contractions varied from 7-5 min apart and 30-45 sec long. About 2 contractions per hour were very strong. I got up and stayed up at about 4:30 am Tuesday. I called the midwives again at 6:00 am. One showed up at about 6:30 am. She checked my dilation at around 7 am. I was 4 cm dilated.
We ate some toast. I usually have a piece with peanut butter but didn’t think I could manage it. I ate two pieces and drank a bunch of water. Then I had a strong contraction and got immediately nauseated. I said, “I feel like I am going to throw up.” The midwife said in a matter of fact way, “Why don’t you go in the bathroom and do that.” She recommended an hour walk. We left around 8 am for about an hour. I was pretty spacey at this point but I managed to walk through all of my contractions. At about the same time labor started I caught a cold, so I didn’t know if I was spacey because of the cold and I was really tired or if it was from labor. I sat down on a chair in the kitchen. I really wasn’t paying any attention to how frequently my contractions were coming but they never seemed very close. The main midwife showed up around 9a. They finished setting things up. I got in the pool at about 11a.
I started to feel some pushing urges around 11:30a. They recommended checking dilation and only found a small lip of my cervix left. Since I was not fully dilated yet, I lay on the bed to ride out some contractions. With a breech, it is very important to wait until fully dilated or longer. I had the urge to poop, so the midwife gave me the go ahead to poop and push on the toilet. I was amazed at how different pushing feels from normal contractions.
It felt good until Macey’s bum started coming out. It was now about 12 pm. I came back into the bedroom. The midwives suggested anyone who wanted to be at the birth come in the room at about 12:15. I only had Brian and Elliott come in. I labored on my knees for a while. I sat on the birth stool for the rest of the labor, which was very painful at this point. I could feel her bum coming. It seemed slow then but in retrospect I know I could have taken it a lot slower.
Once her bum came out the rest came too in ONE push!. The midwives were very surprised. They were ready to time presentation of legs and umbilicus. You only have 5 min from time the umbilicus is out until you have to get the head out. It was the fastest breech this midwife ever had. The cord was wrapped around her neck 2 times. Maybe that’s why she didn’t want to turn. Her apgars were 10/10. She was born at 12:40 pm. I lay with her on the bed and nursed her. Her feet sprung up to her mouth because this was how she positioned in the womb. I birthed the placenta after about 10 min.
The midwife checked for tear. They left us alone for a short time. The midwives came back in to with consult me about the tear. It was a second-degree tear but close to a third degree tear. Basically, they recommended a trip to the hospital and I agreed. Macey and I washed off in the birthing pool. They weighed her on Brian’s mail scale because the midwives forgot their scale. She weighed 7lb 14oz and measured 23 in but she was bent up so we don’t know how accurate the length is. Macey stayed home with Brian because if you take the baby to the hospital they will admit the baby and probably not let you leave. I had many stitches. The doctor was very humorous. He recommended a spinal, which I declined. Had I wanted to stay at the hospital I would have taken it because the local alone was quite painful. We finally got home around 5:30 – 6 pm. Traffic was very bad coming home. I ate some dinner and went to bed with my new baby and Brian put Elliott to sleep.
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