Sarah's Birth

MY BOXING DAY BABY

We had just returned home from Christmas dinner and festivities. I crawled into bed and fell asleep instantly I think. Meanwhile my husband was putting our oldest child to bed. Quite unexpectedly, at 11:30pm my membranes released. I was not having any surges at that point, just suddenly swimming in amniotic fluid. Baby's guess date wasn't for another 2 weeks, so needless to say, we were not quite ready. My husband ran around gathering clothes and items to take to the hospital with us. I hopped into the shower and warmed up and washed up. We called my sister to stay with my older boy, and my parents to say we were on the way to the hospital.

At the hospital we had to pass through a triage area, and essentially prove that it was in fact my membranes released, and not just that I had wet myself. The resident on duty had to test the liquid pooling around me to make sure I wasn't faking labour. This seemed most bizarre to me, but humorous at the same time. They also hooked my up to a fetal monitor and according to the monitor I was in fact having surges, they just weren't strong enough for me to feel. At that point they also checked my dilation. I was about 3cm open. I couldn't be officially admitted until 5cm. So we paced the halls, my husband slept, I listened to some of the affirmations. Finally, about 2 hours later I was admitted and we moved to our birthing room. Because I was strep b positive, I had to have a course of IV antibiotics. Once that was hooked up, I immediately asked for a tub soak and enjoyed relaxing in the warm water for almost an hour. At this point, I could feel the surges, and moved into my slow surge breathing. As with my first child, I really felt the need to move. I couldn't just sit on the bed and breathe. I sat on the birthing ball, walked, stood, squatted, moved freely around the ward, slow breathing the whole time. Labour was moving along quickly; surges getting more intense.

The nurses changed shift, and we could hear them discussing me out in the hallway. The departing nurse couldn't believe that we were that far along and hadn't done anything but breathe. That was a memorable moment for my husband.

I remember standing against the wall, J breathing through a surge and saying, "this baby is coming out, I want to push it out. Get this baby out." Apparently the nurse could tell I was truly at the point of baby coming out, she ran for resident on duty. My doctor wasn't on rotation that night, and the doctor in her rotation hadn't yet arrived. They had to work to get me back to the bed. My surges were coming really fast, and lasting really long. It honestly felt like I was going to have the baby standing up against the wall. The resident was there, ready to catch baby. The actual doctor had arrived, but not had time to change his clothes or put on gloves/gowns so he just stood there watching and instructing the resident when necessary. I can't say that it was a textbook hypnobirthing ending. I was so sleepy and tired, I was actually nodding off in between surges and I remember saying "I just want this baby out. Why is it taking so long to get out. Get it out." Finally, after a few pushes my baby girl was out, and they laid her on my stomach. My husband actually got to cut the umbilical cord, and we were left alone to cuddle and get to know our new baby girl. When it felt right, we started breastfeeding and she latched on right away. We were off and running.

Even though I had already had a natural child birth, this experience was completely unique. The hypnobirthing knowledge helped me to have another positive and intuitive childbirth which enhanced the confidence and trust I have for my own body. It really is a miracle how it all works, my own little nearly Christmas miracle, Sarah Peters.

Written by Melanie Gerhardt Peters, April 2008