I was overdue and went to Red Tent for acupuncture induction. Five days later I had the most amazing birth experience.
My partner and I were at the beach all day walking and resting as I was experiencing the gentle beginning of contractions.
It wasn’t until the evening that the contractions became more regular. Around 11 pm my wife was a bit tired and decided to go to bed. She gave me a soft lower back massage with some essential oils (ones that are said to be good for childbirth). Soon after I started to feel more intense contractions.
I kept breathing through and relaxing in between.
I was tracking my contractions but soon it was almost impossible to monitor them – my wife did it for me and watched over me from afar. So I was just cruising along, finding the best position to handle it as the waves were getting stronger. I felt completely happy and good at home.
My wife called the hospital as the contractions were very close and it was our first baby. The midwife told me to have a shower… I knew it wasn’t shower time but time to go to hospital or I would have that baby in my lounge room! We quickly packed the bags in the car (all the bags with all the gear, camera, ambient diffuser etc.) and off we went at 4.45am in the rain to Randwick Hospital.
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We checked in, in between contractions. The midwife checked my cervix, telling me that there is no other way for her to know where I was at, and came to the conclusion that I needed a shower… again I knew it wasn’t shower time… as I was crawling on all fours at every contraction. She kindly set up a mat and air pillow on the floor for me. At this point my wife was trying to turn off the big neon lights and radio and played softer ambient music and dimmed the light.
I could feel my baby’s head in transition ready to be born and I was controlling my pushes like I learned in the Calm Birth class.
The midwife then tried to take my temperature…of course I pushed her away as I didn’t want anyone to touch me. She insisted but I was resilient and didn’t let her. She then took off saying that she had to fill in a report now about my refusal. In the meantime, my wife left to go to the toilet.
I knew it was the final push… and it was! My water broke, the baby came out and I was the only one in the room with her! She was very slippery, very pink and she was crying! My wife quickly came out of the toilets to rush out of the room and find a midwife. It was 5.33am.
Two midwives came in, pulled my placenta out (I didn’t liked that part) let my wife cut the cord that was surprisingly short and checked that the baby and I were ok.
Baby Sailor was born 2.6kg 50cm, she had a good feed straight away and we both already loved her. We were all good, I had no tearing so we were allowed to leave that same morning after some hearing tests for Sailor. By 12pm the whole family was home.
I am so happy to share this story as I feel like I had such a great birth experience, listening and letting my body do what it had to do.
My advice for all the pregnant women out there is to trust yourself and not let people tell you what you have to do!