God answered all my prayers with this birth – both the inconsequential and the really important requests!
My prayer requests
I have never liked to labour in the hospital, preferring to labour at home instead. So my one desire is to be able to check myself in and birth the baby in just 1 hour. In order to have that, it meant that I would like to go in and find that I am already 8 cm dilated, not 5 cm or 6 cm. Another desire was to be able to put all the children to bed before I left for the hospital. I wanted as little disruption to our routine as possible.
And I didn’t want an episiotomy this time around! My previous doctor performs episiotomies as a matter of routine. When I brought up the possibility of not performing one, he gave me lots of scare stories and basically refused my request. I was not happy about this because I had already been cut 4 times! What if the Lord blesses us with 6 children? 8 children? Would I then be cut 8 times??? So I changed doctors.
My current doctor is very open to natural births if the patient so chooses. He promised me that he would guard the perineum for me but warned me that I may still tear because I had been cut 4 times already. My skin was no longer as elastic as it should be if I hadn’t had all those episiotomies! A scar tissue is tough, not elastic. So I prayed! No tearing, no episiotomy.
And God was merciful and gracious, granting me all I asked for.
Labour starts
Labour started at 8am, Saturday morning but I didn’t say anything though I was already 3 days past EDD. The contractions were at regular 10min intervals. This time I did not pray for my water bag to burst as I was diagnosed as GBS positive AGAIN!
At about 1 pm, I seemed to have had a show – slight bleeding when the mucous plug is passed out. But it was not repeated. So I continued packing. You see, we were moving to a new place on Monday and we still hadn’t finished packing.
It was my mother-in-law’s birthday and we were supposed to go for dinner to celebrate. Henson called to cancel. He bought back dinner for himself and the children. I had no appetite and couldn’t eat dinner> But I tried to eat something because I knew I needed the energy to push later on. I called my parents to be on standby and got ready my hospital bag. I put the children to bed and went to my room to rest. I started to feel extremely sleepy! So I lay down and slept!
Time to go in
At 9:15 pm, the contractions changed! They were still 5 minutes apart but lasting between 1.5 to 2 minutes long. Hmmm….time to go? I prayed for clarity to know when to go because I didn’t want to feel rushed at the hospital.
I told myself that if the same type of contractions happened 3 times in a row, I had better get to the hospital. And it did. The amazing thing was that in between each of those contractions, I slept! It was a deep sleep! I would then get woken up by the contractions and then fall back asleep. It was as if my body was resting as much as possible before the real “work” came. I had to force myself to get up after the 4th one in a row, call my parents to come up (they were waiting in the car) while Henson and I changed.
10:00pm – getting out of the house and into the car was a challenge. The car ride to the hospital was not fun! I felt EVERY bump of the road as dh drove speedily there. I was so tempted to tell him to drive slowly except that I couldn’t talk. Lol!
You have a Birth Plan?!
10:15pm – when I reached the hospital, it got very exciting Once the nurses find out that this is birth #5, they start to panic and rush. I had to tell them that I don’t birth quickly! One brought me to the observation suite to do a VE.
I kindly reminded them that I wanted to labour on the floor because I didn’t think I could climb onto the bed at that point in time. The midwife exclaimed surprise and asked if I was having a doula. I said no. So she asked if I had a birth plan and I said yes.
They scuttled to locate my birth plan but told me that I still needed to go onto the bed for a VE. The VE showed that I was 8cm dilated (yay!). But she said that the baby’s head was still quite high. So I was then wheeled to the delivery suite (why did they bother to move me here and there?!)
There was now no time to even change to a hospital gown. They just strapped that horrid CTG machine on me. I protested but the midwife insisted. She said need to monitor for 10 – 15 minutes!
Then I began to feel pain because I had to lie on my back. Lying on my back always hurts because of the weight of the baby on my spine. I was not a happy woman. I kept bugging the midwife in between contractions that I wanted it off. She insisted that she needed 15 minute of my contractions recorded on the graph!
Totally surreal
Thankfully my doctor walked in right at that moment and asked how I was doing. I told him “uncomfortable!” So he asked what I wanted to do and I told him that I wanted to go onto the floor. He said “ok” and the midwife quickly relieved me from the CTG contraption. What a relief to be off the bed, off the machine and on the floor!
Meanwhile I was thinking : this is really weird and surreal Everyone just staring and waiting for me to “perform”. I was so tempted to tell the doctor, “Please go away and let me labour without any pressure.” After all I was “only” 8cm dilated and who knows how long I’ll take to reach 10cm!
But I didn’t get a chance to because the contractions changed. I was bearing down and instinctively I crouched on the floor. (Oh! He offered me a birth stool to help me labour but it sure hurt when I got on it! So I got off it as soon as possible.)
Transition
Then came the transition. It felt really intense but the doctor was very encouraging, telling me to take my time and do what I felt like doing. Finally the burning sensation was felt – ah! Now I know that the bb will be out soon!
Before that. even tho the doctor, the midwives and even Henson was telling me that they can see the baby’s head, I did not believe them. But with that burning sensation I knew it was almost the end of the road. The doctor told me to lean forward the next time I wanted to push and again, instinctively, not only did I lean forward, I also went from the crouching to a full fours position & baby’s head came out breaking the water bag at the same time.
Pant, not push!
Everyone told me not to push anymore but to pant her out and she slid right out! She had passed meconium in the bag. I could see that the waters was brown but she didn’t inhale any, thank GOD! The baby was then passed from under me to hold & I got onto the bed because I badly wanted to sit down. Labour was not painful (save that few minutes lying on my back) but it IS tiring! It was 11pm. I had managed to birth within the hour that I stepped into the hospital!
I had to remind the doctor to wait for the baby’s cord to stop pulsing before letting Henson cut it and so I got to hold the baby for a little while longer. She didn’t want to nurse though – just like my 2 other unmedicated birth bbs. Very strange!
After birth contractions
Then the placenta was slowly expelled and oh my! The contraction of the uterus after that was as strong as the contractions prior to birth! There seemed to be a lot more blood coming out of me this time that the doctor looked concerned enough to recommend a symtotrine (sp?) jab to which I agreed. He then checked me and guess what? I didn’t tear!!!!
First natural, unmanaged birth
It was an awesome birth. And it was the most relaxing birth of all the 5. I got to birth the way God intended our bodies to birth – naturally and not propped up in the bed like a sick patient! I was so high after the birth that I couldn’t sleep. Too much adrenaline!
Henson left shortly after seeing that I was settled in the room. He had to go look after the other children. I was so awed that God answered this prayer request too! They didn’t even know what had happened while they slept!
May our five birth stories bless and encourage all you ladies looking to birth naturally and drug free. By God’s grace and guided by His Holy Spirit, by it is indeed very possible!