The Birth of Sage Malia
My waters broke on Friday night which I hadn't anticipated since only 1 out of 10 women actually have this happen to them before contractions have begun. As this was new to me I went to the hospital to have everything checked out. If I didn't go into labour naturally they would induce me Sunday morning to reduce the risk of infection. Fortunately, at 1130 on Saturday morning I started to have contractions and this is also when we decided it would be best if Marilyn took Cyril and Hobson back to her house. The beauty about my waters breaking was that it gave us the opportunity to prepare. We did the laundry, mowed the lawn, made sure the nursery was ready, I took a shower and blow dried my hair and then we set off for the grocery store to get a few supplies and a bottle of champagne to have after the birth. It was a gorgeous Cumbrian day so we decided to stop at our local pub for a drink. I had half a pint and then told josh I wanted to go for a little walk to try to move the contractions along. We decided on the river walk in Dalston and stumbled upon a little oasis next to a waterfall. It was absolutely perfect and very meditative, minus my falling off the Rock and bruising my knee! When the contractions were coming every 5-8 minutes we decided it was best to make our way home.
Josh prayed she'd hold out until after the Manchester United match and his prayers were answered. When we got home I had just enough time for an hour nap before the match began. While I slept josh grilled and then right as the match was kicking off the contractions started to get more intense. At half time I phoned Sarah and told her she should probably join us. Sarah arrived and 5 minutes after Rashford kicked the winning goal to end the match it was go time.
We arrived at the hospital at 8:15pm and I'm not lying when I say it felt like I was climbing up Everest to go the 300 yards from the truck to the delivery suite. It was the longest walk of my life and it must have taken us 30 minutes to get upstairs. People were cheering us on and offering wheelchairs but I insisted on walking. The contractions were right on top of each other at this point so I knew I was at least 4cm dilated. However, when they didn't examine me upon entering our room I assumed I was further along then I thought. I managed to get the only room that has a birth pool but by the time the pool was full and ready for me to get in I was nearly 10 cm dilated, I guess all the gravity from my walk moved things along quickly. Since my waters had broken before labour started they had to put a tracker on the baby to monitor her heart rate initially which meant I had to lay down on the bed.
In the end, lying down on my side was the perfect position as I was able to hold Josh's hand, control the gas and air intake with my other hand and Sarah could easily rub my lower back which helped tremendously with the contraction pain.
My birth playlist wasn't right for this stage of labour but the Snateum Kaeur album I downloaded on Spotify the day before was spot on. It sent me into a meditative state and I felt like I was floating above everything. I felt every contraction but used my breathing techniques to guide me through them and I just listened and focused completely on what my body was doing. I tuned out the midwife and doctor and focused solely on breathing, the music, Sarah's massage and Josh's constant recitation of the mantras and encouragement to get me through. I remember thinking how proud I felt to be doing all this work with no drugs or intervention.
After about an hour the midwife thought she could see the head so she encouraged me to push. Unfortunately I had about 2mm left to go which she hadn't noticed so the 30 minutes or so of pushing really wore me down and probably stalled things slightly. They also noticed that Sage's head was flexed rather then tucked in so she wouldn't be able to crown until she moved her head into the correct position. I went back to lying on my side and it was at this point that I started demanding everything. Josh said I even asked for a c-section! I think this must have been the transitional stage that Katherine talked about in daisy birthing. She said during transition women get a surge of adrenaline and this is when they usually start shouting at their partners or making odd requests, obviously requesting a section when I was moments away from pushing Sage out was rather odd and not going to happen no matter how much I demanded it. Just as I was making the request the doctor arrived to check on Sage's position, right as she bent down to look she announced, "The baby is here, time to push." I felt so relieved and happy at this point. I think it took all of 5 contractions to get her out and I remember being shocked when they told me she was born at 11:06 pm. When we left our house I told Josh how nice it would be if she was born on Grammy's birthday but added that it was unlikely to happen since we only had 4 hours until midnight and here she was in my arms an hour before the 27th of August came to a close.
I had hoped for a natural third stage, where the placenta is delivered without an injection, but after about a minute of delayed cord clamping they were concerned with the amount of blood I was losing. Since I have a blood disorder and have been on blood thinners the midwife and doctor advised I take the injection to decrease the risk of haemorrhage. I was absolutely fine with this decision because it was something I knew could happen and I had done the proper research in advance. Also the decision was still in my hands so I felt the control I so desperately longed for with this birth.
We had skin to skin contact and Sage found her way to the breast and started feeding on her own while they stitched up my second degree tear. All in all the most intense part of labour lasted only 3 hours, after my 35 hour labour with Cyril I was completely shocked at how quickly things progressed.
We were ecstatic, Josh kept saying how proud he was of me for seeing through my birth plan and we both felt an instant bond with Sage. It was one of the proudest and happiest moments of my life. Bloody hard work, but I guess they don't call it labour for nothing!
Had I not gone to Daisy Birthing and learned several valuable skills, including different breathing techniques at each stage, and hired a doula my birth experience could have been a very different one.
Please look out for a future blog post on how Daisy birthing helped me have the natural birth I always wanted, the things I forgot to pack in my hospital bag that I wished I had as well as the items I didn't need and an updated birth playlist.
As always thank you for reading my blog and for all your kind words.
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