I had an amazing pregnancy with Theo, it was low risk and so enjoyable! We went through the midwifery group practice at Bunbury Regional Hospital which I will absolutely do again. I gave birth to our little boy Theodore on 19th March at 40+3 weeks, the day before everything started to get locked down with corona virus.
Up until the day before I went into labour I’d not had any practice contractions! On the Wednesday afternoon i has some period-like cramps so I went for a ‘just in case’ nap in the afternoon, and at 4pm I woke up to much more intense contractions that didn’t go away, the contractions weren’t regular at all. We had dinner and I rocked on my yoga ball, my contractions were all over the place for hours so Jon decided to get some sleep while I moved around trying to progress things. At about midnight I called my midwife in tears as I was having strong 1m30s contractions every 3-4 minutes. The TENS wasn’t providing much relief and it was irritating. My midwife said to jump back in the shower and see if that made things progress and to call her back when I was ready to go to hospital. My partner was sleeping as I got back in the shower and set it all up with water, soft lighting, my speaker and music. Things progressed pretty quickly and I woke him up to start timing my contractions. At 2am we called my midwife telling her we were ready to head in to the hospital.
We got to the hospital at about 3am and I went straight into the shower with the yoga ball which was amazing. My partner stood and sprayed hot water down my back with the shower head.
My midwife examined me to see how dilated I was and I chose not to be told and to just keep going as I was because I was in a really good headspace (as it turns out I was 4cm dilated). The contractions got stronger as time went on, and eventually I was getting to the point where I wanted ‘something more’ to help with the pain and to get in the pool that we hired from Harlee. I decided to have the gas once I was in the pool. The water felt amazing on my back and hips and the weightlessness of my legs was amazing. I remember trying to keep my legs relaxed and float around in the water when I was sitting in the pool as I had a contraction, and my student midwife kept reminding me to relax my face too which really helped me focus on my breathing. I remember I wanted the clock taken off the wall as I kept looking at it and it was frustrating me as I knew exactly how long I had been there for. The gas was great at the time, it made me feel all warm, light and fuzzy. But it seemed to make time go in slow motion and I don’t think it made it any less painful in hindsight, if anything it made me lose control over my breathing and feeling where Theo was. My partner was pouring water on my back while I was on my knees in the pool which felt amazing. I was noticing the change in my voice as my contractions progressed, as Theo made his way down. Eventually i had an overwhelming sense to push, and that phase seemed to go forever! My membranes hadn’t ruptured and my midwife was getting ready to rupture them, but as she was about to I pushed and they ruptured themselves! Theo’s head crowned and then went back in, at this point I was pretty exhausted and out of it and had made my way through the gas cylinder and they had to get another one. After a few big consistent pushes on my knees and holding him there between the contractions, Theo was born in one big push into the water and we found out he was a boy.
~Amanda~
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