Arrival of Ben Lee

[tru]

Short version: Our beautiful first baby was born 12 days early, totally naturally, on the bathroom floor of a birth suite at Ipswich Hospital on Sunday 22nd October at 6.20am. He was delivered by his daddy with the assistance of a wonderful midwife. Hypnobirth techniques and a constant hot shower also helped get us through. Entire labour was 13 hours, half of which was spent at home finally making our belly cast - just in time!

Long version (very long! I’ve titled each section for those of you only wanting to read about certain parts of the birth):

“Is this it?”…

It was about 5.30pm on Saturday afternoon when my partner and I were sitting on the back patio watching the conclusion of wonderful storm that had finally given us some much missed rain. I was 38 weeks, 2 days pregnant with our first baby. I started feeling slight period pains along with what felt similar to the Braxton Hicks contractions I’d been having for months. I said “ooh, that feels a bit different” but didn’t think it was definitely the start of labour as I’d been having pre labour signs for a week or so. I had a few more of the same feelings irregularly over the next few hours so we thought we’d better finally make our belly cast while I still had a belly. We put on our hypnobirthing CD and felt a few more contractions (surges) during the casting but nothing really painful or regular. We put the cast aside to dry, had a shower and hopped in to bed to watch a movie.

“Its time”…

I fell asleep during the movie and about fifteen minutes after it finished I was awoken by an internal “pop” at my cervix like I’d read about. I woke my partner and told him I thought my waters were breaking. I felt a little trickle and as I stood up I realised I was right. I rushed to the toilet, my undies filling with clear fluid. My partner was right behind me and watched in shock for a little while before going to get the phone. I sat on the loo and let it all come out while he dialled the number for the hospital. They said to put a pad on and come up soon. It was about 11.15pm. I shaved my legs and packed the food and drinks I’d planned to take to hospital. My partner was hurrying around getting the video camera ready and trying to get dressed at the same time. He was so funny rushing around with his shorts in his hand. I had to tell him to just stop, and put his pants on. The surges were happening more regularly now. We were keeping track of a few of them on a “surge sheet” I created. They were about 8 mins apart, and becoming a little more intense, but still not really painful. We put all our bags in the boot and took the 10 minute drive to the hospital, passing by a police car on the way and laughing about being pulled over while in labour like in the movies.

“In the birth suite”…

It was about 12.30am so we had to enter via the emergency dept and wait for someone from birth suite to come get us. We were greeted by the lovely midwife I spoke to on the phone. First we went in to an assessment room where she did a small amount of monitoring (we requested minimal monitoring in our Birth Plan) and asked if I would like a vaginal exam. I wasn’t too keen as I had heard bad stories about VE’s but I’m glad I had one now as I was dilated 5cm and baby was most likely going to be here in a couple of hours. I still had to call my parents who I wanted to be present at the birth, and they had to travel 3 hours! Our midwife took us in to the birth suite room we had requested and got us organised. She was really comforting and supportive of our birth wishes. As we went through the public hospital, we were lucky to have her with us throughout the entire labour. She got us everything we asked for – bean bag, birthing ball, floor mattress, CD player.

“Surges are good!”…

We put on our Hypnobirthing CD and I changed in to the old comfy satin robe I thought I would birth in. but as surges started feeling more intense I got completely naked and went under the hot shower. My partner changed in to his swimmers and joined me, holding the shower head so the water went on my belly and back. It was so soothing; we stayed in there the whole time. During each surge my partner kept me relaxed with the hypnobirthing techniques we’d been practicing throughout the pregnancy. In between surges I’d sit on a chair in the shower and then stand, turn around and lean on the chair during surges. I repeated positive affirmations out loud like “surges are good!” and “my cervix is opening so wide”, while picturing a lotus flower opening in my mind. This really helped me through each surge. After a while I became really tired so lay on my side on a mat on the bathroom floor, with my partner still soothing me with the shower. I almost fell asleep between surges in this position. After a couple of hours of resting in this position my surges became further apart. The midwife suggested I become more active to get things progressing so I got up on my knees, leaning forwards on to the chair, hugging a pillow. My parents arrived sometime around then, which I think helped me move things along subconsciously (knowing they had made it). I really wanted them to be there as this would be their first birthing experience (they couldn’t have children, and adopted me).

“Transition”…

I can’t really say that I knew when I was going through transition, all I remember is having stronger surges that started turning into a feeling like the baby was moving down my birth canal at the end of each surge. At some point I remember asking the midwife if I was through transition and she said yes, which I was relieved about as I had heard that was the hardest part.

“To push, or not to push”…

I felt a lot of pressure in my lower back/bottom. My partner said he could see the head, which excited me as I knew the end was near. My fore waters broken around then (only my hind waters broke at home). During pregnancy we learned about “bearing down” instead of pushing and I thought that the baby would naturally just make its way out. So I became confused when I got the feeling to push. I thought about ignoring it but it felt like the right thing to do, and the midwife was gently encouraging me to push too so I just went with it. After about 5 or 6 really big pushes, I felt the “ring of fire” with the baby’s head almost out. Once his head was completely out (which was such a weird and wonderful feeling), the midwife checked that the cord wasn’t around his neck and told my partner what to do next. My partner pulled out baby’s left shoulder and then the rest of him just followed. There was no tearing, just a small graze.

“Welcome to the world…”

As soon as our baby was completely out I turned around to face him and we held him together against my belly, still on the floor. He was so wet and felt beautifully soft and velvety. It was truly overwhelming. It was pretty cold in the wet bathroom and he cried for a little while so we wrapped him in a blanket and he quickly settled down. The lights were dimmed but we could still see every part of him, and confirmed that he was in fact a boy (the ultrasound man predicted 70% chance he was a boy).

“The third stage…”

We were all still on the bathroom floor and the baby took to my breast for a little while. My partner cut the cord a few minutes after it ceased pulsating and I delivered the placenta naturally about half an hour later, with a small push. The midwife went over it with me and I thanked it for keeping our baby healthy.

“What shall we name him?...”

We had been discussing (debating) names for months and had a list of possible names almost 100 long, but none of those felt exactly right. “How about Ben?” suggested my partner. “Hmmm… I don’t know” I thought the perfect, unique name would just come to me after baby was born. But it didn’t. Ben wasn’t one of the names on the list and after a little while I thought it was a pretty good choice. Perhaps a name wasn’t going to come to me, but it had to my partner, and I recognised that as something special. We both liked Lee as a middle name so that was easy.

Conclusion

I could go on forever with every little detail but want to get this story out there to share with you. So I will finish by saying we were so happy and lucky to have the natural birth we hoped for, with no complications whatsoever. I believe Hypnobirthing definitely contributed to a relaxed birth (I never contemplated taking drugs during the labour) and I highly recommend it to anyone. I also took raspberry leaf tablets from 32 weeks, upping the dose at 35 weeks as suggested by my midwife. Our stay at Ipswich Hospital was fabulous. All the staff were lovely and the entire experience was positive. Hope you enjoyed reading about my birthing experience

Tru

[froggie]

Tru - Thank you for sharing your wonderful journey.

xoxo Amanda

[lizlea]

lovely story - and a great name! I have a Ben too!

[Bejamumma]

I've got a Ben/jamin too.
Awesome that you had the birth you worked so hard for. Lovely to see your partner woking so well with you to bring your precious little one into the world.

[evesmum]

Tru, what a great birth story and how wonderful that your partner was able to help Ben out.

[gentleness]

What a beautiful birth story! You sounded so calm and relaxed throughout. Lovely to hear you had such wonderful support too.

[BeeDoo]

What a beautiful story Tru, thank you for sharing it!

[Jasper]

Oh that is just so reassuring as I am due to have my 2nd there in December. I am lucky to also have a great midwife, but was having concerns about how natural they were going to let me be without being pushey for their procedures.
Excellent, now I can tell them that I know someone who did it, so I can too!
Beautiful story, beautiful name.

[harlow]

Congratulations......are you a fan of the musician Ben Lee by any chance? (he's a fave of mine)

Beautiful birth story
xx

[mummyslittlemunchkin]

What a great birth story. Sounds like you had a wonderful experience, congratulations.