My Natural Birth Story

On October 1, 2013 I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep when I felt minor contractions. My husband was sound asleep so I let him sleep since I didn’t know if I was experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions or if it was the real thing. As the night progressed I was still experiencing the contractions. I decided to wake my husband up at midnight to tell him that I thought our baby boy would be arriving today, on his 29^th birthday.

The next hour we lied in bed together with the iPad recording my contractions. At 1:00 a.m. we decided to call our midwife and tell her what was happening. She wasn’t convinced that I was starting labour since I was 11 days early and my contractions were so weak and irregular. She told me to go to bed and to wait and see if anything changed. I had my 38-week appointment scheduled for that afternoon anyways. I obviously couldn’t go to bed since I knew that it was happening. My husband though went back to bed since he assumed he’d be up at 5:00 a.m. for work.

I stayed there lying in bed wide-awake wondering when my contractions would get stronger and when and if my water would break. At 4:00 a.m. I decided to wake my husband up again to tell him that the contractions were still happening. We called our midwife again and she said that she thinks that I could be in my early stages of labour and to try to get some rest so that I would have some energy if I did go into labour that evening or night. She recommended I take a warm bath to relax me and help me fall asleep. My husband got the bath ready for me, warmed me up a glass of milk and went back to bed. He now only had 1 hour left of sleep until work. I enjoyed my warm bath and felt much more relaxed.

As soon as I got out of the tub though things really started to pick up. The contractions automatically got much stronger and more frequent and I constantly needed to use the washroom as my mucus plug was slowly coming out. I quickly ran downstairs to grab my husband’s birthday gift and woke him up again. I told him he better open it up now since I didn’t know if I would be able to give it to him later. After he opened his gift he decided to call work and tell them that he wouldn’t be able to make it in today. At this point my contractions continued to get stronger and stronger to the point where it hurt to lie down. The only thing that made me feel better at this point was my exercise ball.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

At 7:00 a.m. my contractions were now unbearable. My husband called the midwife and told her that we were ready to meet her at the hospital. She told my husband to pass me the phone so that she could listen to me during my next contraction. My midwife could obviously tell that my contractions were painful but said they were still not long enough and my water still did not break so for me to wait a little bit longer. I just started balling on the phone and told her that I couldn’t take the pain at home anymore. She finally gave in and told us to meet her at the hospital at 8:00am.

As soon as I got the hospital I needed to use the washroom (again). At this time I was dipping lots of blood. The nurse escorted us to a room and gave me a gown. As soon as my midwife arrived she asked if I wanted her to break my water or if I wanted to go into the Jacuzzi. I choose the Jacuzzi since I wanted my water to break naturally. While the Jacuzzi was filling up my midwife examined me only to find out that my water had already broken (till this day I have no idea when this happened). She then checked to see how far along dilated I was and I was already 8-10 cm.  She was so surprised that I was already fully dilated that she forgot all about the Jacuzzi (it ended up overflowing). Anyways, there was no time for the Jacuzzi - it was time to push.

The second midwife arrived and I began pushing around 9:30 a.m.  I was really reluctant to push lying on my back but it was honestly the only position that I felt comfortable in. I had one midwife playing tug of war with me with a towel, one holding one leg up, and my husband holding the other. As soon as they saw my baby’s head my midwife placed a mirror in front of me for motivation. Just seeing that little head of hair gave me the strength and courage I needed to push as hard and long as I could. After about 45 minutes of pushing our precious baby boy was born at 10:19 a.m.

Our Precious Baby Boy 

I honestly could not have asked for a better labour. My husband and I were very happy with the way it turned out and can’t imagine doing it any other way.