A Calmbirth® story.
We welcomed our baby into the world on the 9th of August, weighing just 6lbs 2oz . I went in for the balloon the night before due to gestational diabetes and was having small regular contractions while being monitored which we hoped along with the balloon would be enough to to put me in labour naturally as I really didn’t want to take any form of drugs .
Well nothing happened but a lot of cramping from the balloon, which I had been told was nothing like the pain of contractions… Next morning nothing much was happening so I had my waters broken and the dr gave me four hours to progress before inducing me with drugs, I bounced on that fit ball for hours and walked hoping for the best. I was rechecked at 1 pm and found that my waters hadn’t actually broken. So they did it again this time we knew for sure they had ruptured and I was just 3 cm dilated at this stage. I walked the stair well of the lgh two steps at a time to get the baby moving with no luck, and after an hour and a half I was given the oxytocin drip. Which bought on intense and fast contractions, after an hour or so I requested an epidural as the pain was all in the front very similar to the cramps the night before and different pain relief methods like massage, gas , breathing were not taking the edge off, and I had pretty much exhausted myself on the fit ball and the stairwell … So I got an epidural and still complained of the pain and thought It’s only going to get worse it’s only been an hour or so, so the anesthetist came back and gave me more drugs which completely stopped the pain, at this point I’m pretty sure I just chilled listened to my music with my eyes closed and breathed as I had been practicing , only 20 minutes later being told it was time to push and we needed to get the baby out ASAP as the heart rate was dropping , I had only been in stage 1 labour for two and a half hours but had dilated to 10cm in that time and at this point I regretted having the anesthetist come back as I had no feeling to push.
I was super relaxed and completely calm thankfully as I did need forceps to help get the baby out, pediatricians were called just incase but I still remained calm and told myself they were here to help and my body knows what to do, everything will be ok with the baby it’s just a precaution.
I pushed when instructed, and as I was so calm and relaxed my skin stretched like elastic allowing for baby to be born with no major tearing just a tiny graze in 19 minutes. The dr passed me our new baby girl, I burst into tears from the shock as I thought she was going to be a boy. The placenta was delivered a similar amount of time later.
Calmbirth kept me and my husband very leveled throughout the short yet intense delivery as we had been educated that the body knows what to do, we just had medical professionals there just incase which we did when she was a little stuck and her heart rate was dropping .
I feel great, not what I expected at all, I was completely back to normal when I woke up the next day, I think I thought I wasn’t going to be able to sit or go to the bathroom ect after the forceps, but as I said I was so relaxed that everything just stretched and then went back to normal even my pelvic floor is doing fantastic.
Our baby is actually rediculously chilled till feeding time thats is!
We called her Isla Rose after nearly three days as we didn’t have any girl names chosen . Thank you for teaching us about the different stages of labour, although it wasn’t what I had planned I think the program helped to keep me chilled and embrace it not fear it.