After some prelabour tightenings on the Monday and Tuesday, I woke on Wednesday 13th Feb at about 5am with more regular mild contractions. I lay in bed practising breathing through them. They were anywhere between 3 and 7 minutes apart.
Will, our 2 year old son, was fantastic that morning – we had fun crawling around the floor and singing through the contractions. He thought it was all a hoot! By late morning the contractions were 4-5minutes apart.
I woke my husband, Noel, about midday, partly because it was time to start getting ready to go to the birth centre, and because his Mum turned up with fish and chips – perfect timing and went down a treat. Just after midday the contractions became very rhythmical. They were about 4 minutes apart and lasted up to a minute at a time. They had also increased in intensity. It was amazing to feel my body doing this all over again. At this point there was no more need to time contractions. We were in business and it would only be a few hours before we met our little baby girl (we didn’t know she was a girl at the time though).
We could have left a little later, but left home about 1:30pm, mainly to avoid peak hour traffic, and we also needed to drop Will off at my parents’ place on the way. I also wanted to have a few hours of labour at the birth centre, to slowly ease into it and enjoy it, instead of there being a rush job! Especially given that we were planning a water birth.
On the drive to the birth centre I had a couple of big contractions and commented to him that they were like long multiple orgasms. And yes, I was smiling. Noel thought it was hilarious.
OK, so we got to the birth centre at The Angliss in Ferntree Gully at about 3pm, met with our midwife Helen (thanks Helen for doing such a great job!). They had already run the bath for me, but I wanted to spend some time on the fitball first, to get things really moving. It felt like my body was clockwork and in sync with Bridget. There are different types of contractions, but I felt mainly two types – down low (the cervix opening), and from the top of the uterus moving down (the uterine muscles pushing bubs down). For me, it was usually two or three of the first, followed by one of the second. Using the hypno techniques and focussing on feeling what was going on rather than thinking about it, it was like I could feel everything going on inside, where the head was, I even had a sense of how far dilated I was at times – which was great considering we didn’t want any internal exams unless absolutely necessary.
Anyway, in the room I switched between walking around and sitting on the fitball. The contractions became more intense – I say intense because it didn’t really feel like pain as such, but an intense sensation in the muscles. With each contraction I focussed either on maintaining eye contact with Noel, or visualising warm light rolling down my belly, or lying in a rock pool with warm water around me. Each contraction felt so good, being closer to meeting this new angel. And as I felt the endorphins release as each contraction tapered off, I could feel the huge smile on my face. Noel reckons there were times I looked like I was high as a kite with the endorphins. My pupils were like saucers apparently…
It certainly helps when you have someone like Noel there, who encouraged the smiles and laughter, and was able to help me get through a road block. Something had been causing me to stall on getting in the bath, I didn’t feel ready. Some emotional stuff then surfaced, and I talked through it with Noel – issues that made me feel like I didn’t want to let go of the pregnancy. He helped me get it all into perspective, get the emotions out and let them go. Once I got over this bump, the contractions came with more frequency and intensity, and I felt ready to move to the bath.
After I hopped in the bath, Noel sat by my side and did a hypno with me, which helped me relax even more. He got me to imagine myself as a life raft floating on top of the water, rolling with the waves. This was great, and that’s pretty much what I did for the next couple of hours – breathed through the contractions and rolled around like a life raft!
It was really blissful in the bath. Even at the point when contractions normally roll in all together, just before the pushing stage, I didn’t feel the continuous contractions. In fact, Bridget gave me quite a few breaks, usually a break for a few minutes after every few contractions.
And then came the feeling of pushing. I knew it was coming. I remembered just before it happened during Will’s birth, I went from relaxed and tranced out, to completely focussed and grounded in a split second. This happened again – so I knew the time had come.
There is no way to really explain delivering a baby. The thing is, it didn’t feel like I was actually pushing, it felt like my body was doing. If it ever seemed like I was actively pushing, it was really just a physiological response to what is going on down there of its own accord.
At this point I felt a tiny moment of fear. I don’t know what it was, but I told Noel and Helen, and they helped me get over it almost straight away. I got into prayer position in the bath (kind of like a squatting position), and a few pushes later Bridget’s head appeared. One more push and her shoulders came out, and she slid out into the water, like a slippery dip!! 13 minutes after the first push (and I thought Will was quick with 23 minutes!) Unfortunately, it was a bit awkward for Noel to pull her up to the surface, so I did it. Once she was out we had a look and discovered we had a beautiful little girl. Looking at her, we knew immediately that she was a Bridget. No other name came close to describing this amazing angel.
Like a lot of water birth and hypno birth babies, she was actually born napping! So Helen gave her some oxygen to get her moving. I moved to the bed and lay down, happy to discover I had no tearing at all – woohoo! In fact, even getting up and walking around an hour or so later, thankfully it felt like I’d just had a marathon nookie session. Again, yay water!!
Bridget latched onto the boob straight away and fed for over an hour, no problems. She knew exactly what she was doing!
After that, I enjoyed a fantastic shower, and then our families arrived. Will came in first to meet her, whispering “baby” and giving her beautiful cuddles and kisses. Of course, he also loved the fitball and thought that was fabulous too.
Like with Will’s birth, it felt like the greatest team effort, the three of us all working together – Noel, Bridget and me. And Will too, as his patience and lack of clinginess leading up to the birth, and when we dropped him off on the way, made it even easier to relax at the birth centre. Everything happened exactly how we had hoped! I really would do it again and again, just that whole process of pregnancy and birth is so awesome.
I was buzzing so much that I couldn’t sleep till 2 or 3am that night. The next morning we decided to get moving and go home, we just wanted to go home with our baby girl and settle in.
Bridget has been doing fantastically well. She’s feeding like a machine and is already sleeping quite well for a fresh new bub. She can settle herself to sleep a lot of the time and is amazingly calm and placid. Not surprisingly, she also loves a bath (the little starfish!).
After some prelabour tightenings on the Monday and Tuesday, I woke on Wednesday 13th Feb at about 5am with more regular mild contractions. I lay in bed practising breathing through them. They were anywhere between 3 and 7 minutes apart. 
Like a lot of water birth and hypno birth babies, she was actually born napping! So Helen gave her some oxygen to get her moving. I moved to the bed and lay down, happy to discover I had no tearing at all – woohoo! In fact, even getting up and walking around an hour or so later, thankfully it felt like I’d just had a marathon nookie session. Again, yay water!!
