Story by Micah Holton
“My contractions felt stronger during and after my appointment so I went home and did everything I learnt in the Calmbirth course to encourage them. (Bouncing on the ball, clary sage, curb walking, acupressure, staying hydrated and keeping positive.) I was having contractions every 3-4 minutes lasting for a minute.”
Levi joined Jordan and I earth-side on the 13th of October after 30 hours of labour.
I was in prodromal labour for five days before my waters broke. Each night I would have contractions but they would fizzle out by the morning. I had been seeing my acupuncturist Sarah George each week from 36 weeks onwards. She offered an extra appointment that day to encourage the contractions I was already experiencing. My contractions felt stronger during and after my appointment so I went home and did everything I learnt in the Calmbirth course to encourage them. (Bouncing on the ball, clary sage, curb walking, acupressure, staying hydrated and keeping positive.) I was having contractions every 3-4 minutes lasting for a minute.
My waters broke while I was on the ball at 6pm. They were a bright mustard colour and I knew immediately it was meconium.
My midwife told us to come straight to the hospital. My options were I could go straight into a delivery room but only if I went on Pitocin or stay on ward so they could monitor me but Jordan wouldn’t be allowed to stay as it was after visiting hours. I thought because my contractions were so strong already the Pitocin would just speed things up a little. So I agreed to the Pitocin.
Sadly I was wrong. My body didn’t like the Pitocin and I had back to back contractions. During this time I used my tens machine (lifesaver), kept moving, and had my AirPods in with white noise to keep me in the zone and help with pain. Jordan kept reminding me to hydrate, to change positions and applying acupressure all which he learnt in the Calmbirth course.
I asked to be checked after 10 hours and was told I was a massive 0 centimetres dilated. This was so disheartening to hear and I struggled to get back into my zone after this. I asked for the epidural and Jord knowing that having the epidural was completely opposite to my birth plan asked if that was really what I wanted. I decided to keep going and asked to be checked again 2 hours later and still hadn’t made any progress. I was so exhausted from the back to back contractions and knew I wouldn’t be able to relax and allow my body to dilate so I asked for the epidural again and had it two hours later.
The epidural worked perfectly, I couldn’t feel any pain but still had feeling and movement in my entire body. It was another 15 hours before I was fully dilated and ready to push. During this time I rested, kept hydrated and changed positions as much as possible.
It was now that my epidural stopped working and I felt the most intense pressure. My midwives encouraged me to breathe him down which I did for an hour. This was the hardest part of my whole labour, feeling the need to push but not pushing was so challenging. I then pushed on my back the position I surprisingly felt the strongest and Levi arrived in 54 minutes at 11:59pm, Weighing 4.36kg and measuring 52cm.