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Kyle's Birth

Hi Everyone!

I was asked to write our birth story for the home birth organisation here, and thought I might put it here as well. Apologies for the length!

When Tony and I were expecting our first child, the idea of having a home birth seemed quite radical, and we knew very few people who approved. We had decided to leave the decision until we went into labour, and go with our feelings at the time. But at 32 weeks we discovered the baby was in the footling breech position, and the decision was made for us. After a failed attempt to turn the baby the previous week, we went into labour 2 1/2 weeks early. After 6 hours of labour, and not progressing past 6 cms dilation, our obstetrician decided a cesarian was advisable, and we had a gorgeous, healthy, 8 pound 3 ounce boy, Rogan. I stayed in hospital for 2 days and returned home to the care of my husband, midwife and mother-in-law, Kaye. The care supplied by everyone before, during and after the event was great.

With our second pregnancy, having experienced the hospital environment, we knew we wanted a home birth. We chose to proceed under the care of an Independent Midwife, Margaret, with one visit to an Obstetrician, and found this arrangement to be ideal.

The pregnancy was straight-forward, with few hassles aside from the usual discomfort. Due to the nature of my job I was able to work until 38 weeks. I finished work on the Friday, and that weekend Kaye, who had since moved away, was visiting. I very much wanted her to be around when the baby was born. Things seemed to be very ready, and I was quite convinced that the baby was going to wait until Kaye was away again and arrive on Monday. So I decided to try out an old wives tale and take some castor oil - everyone said that it wouldn't have any effect unless things were about to go anyway!

I took the castor oil on Saturday evening, and by 11 pm was having very mild contractions at 6 minute intervals. By 1am the tightenings were coming 3 minutes apart, and I woke Tony. He was tired, commented that the evening had been a daft time to take the castor oil (true!), and promptly got up and commenced timekeeping. I did the dishes and tidied up, telling Tony as the tightenings started and ended.

We rung Margaret, who came and examined me at 2:30 am and said I was 4 cms dilated. By now I was leaning on Tony during the contractions. I had a shower, we lit the fire and a candle, and put music on. Unfortunately Margaret had another lady in labour, I hadnąt thought to tell her about my plans to try the castor oil. Margaret went to attend to her other lady between 3:45 am and 6:45 am (she rung regularly), which was quite nice as it meant we could potter along together by ourselves. Everything was very peaceful and quiet, I love labouring at night. Our son slept through it all at this stage, Kaye had initially woken and then decided to return to bed and get up when our son woke.

When Margaret returned at 6:45 am I was 6 cms dilated, and the contractions were getting pretty bad. We had discussed the need for steady progression in labour, considering my previous cesarian, so at 7:30 am Margaret suggested she could rupture the membranes to try and help things along. She did so, and the contractions went from bad to worse, fast. I was really appreciating the gaps in between them! I was in a lot of pain, and couldn't seem to find a comfortable position to use during the contractions.

The dawn came and went, and was lovely. A beautiful sunny day arrived, we opened the windows and could hear it, and I kept thinking it was such a pity to waste such a lovely day inside. When dawn arrived it felt funny to still be in labour, somehow I thought it should have all been done in the one time span (i.e. the dark), and it seemed such a shame when Tony blew the candle out. Kaye took Rogan for a wander outside, and it was lovely to hear him laughing out there. He had taken it all in his stride when he woke and things were happening (we weren't talking to ourselves, after all, when we told him all about it!), and had come in regularly to check on me and returned to Grandma with a report (ŚBaby coming, Mummy ouch.).

Just after 8 am Margaret got the waterproof sheet etc ready, and I thought Good, can't be long now. By 9 am things just didn't seem right. I was involuntarily pushing with each contractions, and the pain was just getting worse and worse and didn't seem to be doing anything. By 9:30 am I was getting so tired that I was falling asleep between contractions, and didn't know how much more I could cope with, it was all becoming too much. At 10 am Margaret examined me again, and found that the head was still high and badly applied to the cervix, and I was still only 6 cms. She consulted with the Obstetrician, and the decision was made to transfer to hospital.

When I was told that I was still only 6 cms dilated, I was devastated, especially as that was where I had got stuck with our first child too. All that pain for those long hours, and nothing achieved. Even if we had progressed 2 cms it would have been different. The decision to transfer was glaringly obvious, but when it was made I suddenly felt that I had had enough, I had taken all that I could take, and I just wanted the pain to be gone. After all, it wasn't achieving anything anyway.

We had to rush out past our son and leap into the car and leave him. Normally that would upset him heaps, but he seemed to cope fine, he seemed to understand. Kaye later said Rogan was agitated, but not upset.

The trip to the hospital was awful, I had to sit in the car through 3 contractions. Boy, I wished we owned a van! At the hospital I had to get in through the front door past People, I hated the lack of privacy and loss of dignity that I felt came with Other People seeing me in labour. Once in our room I just wanted the pain to go, I wanted to get rid of the pain and then I was going to figure out how I was going to get the baby out!

It took a while to get an anaesthetist, and then he had difficulty getting the epidural in. The pain was just too much, I had to use the gas which I hated because it sent my mind into orbit but at least it dulled the pain. Tony stroked my hair, I needed to know he was there. By the time the epidural took effect I was dilating further, but the baby was going into distress. We didnąt realise this until afterwards. The Obstetrician arrived and explained she was going to try for a forceps delivery, and I had to be put in those awful stirrups. They used the ventouse to turn the head and bring it down on the cervix, and I immediately dilated to 10 cms. Then forceps were used to deliver our new son, Kyle. We saw his head crowning in a mirror, and helped push him out, I hadn't realised how close he was to arriving!

When he arrived he was blue and floppy and not breathing, I was terrified, all I could say was that he didn't look like Rogan had looked on arrival. They roughed him up with a towel, cut the cord fast, and whisked him off to the side of the room and sorted him out. It was such a relief when he came back breathing! We hadn't realised that he had been going into distress, everyone had seemed so calm and efficient. I was told afterwards that it very nearly ended up a cesarian. The medical care was obviously fantastic, they had done everything possible to avoid a cesarian for me and harm to the baby.

We stayed in hospital for 7 hours after the birth, during which time we held our new baby constantly. Kaye brought Rogan in to visit, and his reaction was great to see. Going home was uncomfortable to say the least, but well worth it.

We would have loved a beautiful, relaxed home birth, but it wasn't meant to be with our two sons. In fact, we are lucky that the necessary technology was available in both cases. Minutes after Kyle's delivery our Obstetrician commented that everything was stretched now, and I would have no problems next time - Third time lucky!

Tracey Cuthbertson