My 1st birth - hospital birth story - lucas - 27.07.2015

Lucas Anthony Giampietro

Monday 27th July 2015

5:33pm

3.4 kgs

51 cm

THE FIRST SIGNS

I first started getting the signs of labour on Saturday 25th July when I was 39 weeks to the day. I woke up in the morning went to the toilet and discovered a blood stained mucus when I wiped. My midwife was away for the weekend (just my luck) so I called my mum instead in a slight panic due to the blood. She immediately said to me in excitement “No don’t stress, that’s great!! That’s your mucus plug. It means this baby is coming!!” I was both excited and scared because although I was ready, my midwife was due to be back on Sunday night so bub needed to hold off until then as I wanted her to be there! And thank god he did.
I told my husband and also my best friend about the mucus plug show, but didn’t let them or myself get too excited as I had heard that your mucus plug can show sometimes up to weeks before labour.  So I went about my day and weekend as usual and just kept an eye on things. The mucus plug showed again on Saturday night and Sunday morning but there were no other signs such as any contractions until I went to bed on Sunday night. 

THE FIRST CONTRACTION

At around midnight on Sunday night I had my first “contraction” which was more like period pain. I woke my husband and he told me to stop stressing and go back to sleep (RUDE) haha. It was good advice actually as there was nothing else I could do and it wasn’t that painful compared to what was to come. I ended up falling back asleep and woke at 5am to a much stronger contraction. I knew then that they were going to be coming regularly  so I got up out of bed and lied on the couch and started roughly timing for a bit. They were coming around every 20-30minutes, sometimes shorter, so I messaged my midwife letting her know and she told me to just rest up as it’s my first labour so it could take a while to really progress. I sent my husband off to work as he only works 20 minutes away and told him I’d let him know once the contractions got closer and he could come home then. I didn’t want him to waste a whole day off work unpaid if my labour wasn’t really progressed so we agreed to call my mum and get her to come over to keep me company whilst hubby was of more use at work! 
Just before mum arrived around 8am I had my first (of many to come) 5 MINUTE CONTRACTION. Yes that is one contraction that lasted 5 FRIGGIN MINUTES! I remember thinking “Mum where the f*ck are you!!!??? HELP ME!!!” along with “Omg, if this is what I’m in for all day God help me, how I am going to do this drug free?!”.  Then I had a flashback of calmbirth and remembered I needed to pull myself together, get my head in the game, snap out of my fear and anxiety, and learn to dig deep, relax and just breathe. My birthing journey had finally begun, I had been waiting so long and prepared so hard for this day so I knew I had to try and use all the tools I had learnt along the way to my best advantage right from the start. 
After Mum arrived the contractions went back to 40-60secs long, and about 15-20 minutes apart. Thank god. They stayed at this pace for a few hours. With each contraction I really tapped into my own personal space, got on my knees closed my eyes and breathed long hard and deep until the contraction ended. I kept replaying the words in my head “this too shall pass” which I found really helped me. Yes, they were painful and breathtaking but I knew they were SUPPOSED to hurt and after surviving a 5-minute contraction the 40-60 seconds one were easy to me. I knew I just had to breathe and be as calm as possible and try and conserve all my energy because I didn’t know how long this labour was going to last. 
At around lunchtime my midwife called to check in and to make sure that I was resting but also keeping myself occupied so I wasn’t stressing or getting nervous. I told her the contractions were still only 10-15 minutes apart, so she told me to hang in there, try and rest in between contractions and that she was confident that bub should be here by sometime that night.
I continued to time the contractions and over around 3 hours I had various contractions about 10-20 minutes apart and another 3 x 5 MIN contractions which again were just breathtaking. But I survived them all again by getting on my hands and knees and breathing very deep and long. I remember feeling SO much pressure in my back with each contraction so my midwife told me to get on my hands and knees to release the pressure which helped so much. Perhaps bub was posterior for a bit.

THE TURNING POINT

The turning point in my labour then came around 4pm. I remember watching TV on the couch and after a 60 sec contraction ended I slept for 20 minutes and then woke to a whole new kind of contraction, extremely hard, fast and painful. I immediately got up on my hands and knees, screaming whilst trying to breathe deeply (which was becoming impossible). I then vividly remember feeling huge pressure down below followed by a big “POP” and my blood stained waters completely soaking my pants and even getting in my ugg boots lol EW!
I made my mum ring my midwife straight away and of course she wanted to speak to me once the contraction had passed and I had calmed down. She told me now that my waters had broken I had to get to the hospital even though the contractions had not been 3-5 minutes apart lasting a minute long for at least an hour but because I was GBS positive and posed risk of possible infection with my waters now broken. So I got my mum to call my husband straight away who was due to be leaving work anyway but she told him to HURRY home NOW. She knew things had turned pretty quick.
From here on in my contractions were practically constant, extremely hard and fast and absolutely breathtaking. I never thought I’d be a screamer and it still embarasses me to think about the noises I made (haha) but something just took over me and I could not stop screaming! Whilst waiting for my husband to get home mum called the birth photographer to meet us at the hospital and I got in the shower on my hands and knees. Every time I stood up my back was in excruciating pain and the contractions felt so much stronger. My labour was at a whole new level now. I felt like I got maybe 20 seconds in between each contraction and without even thinking about it all I could do was wail and scream and just refused to do anything but stay on my hands and knees and sway. 
I didn’t want to get out of the shower even after my husband got home. I remember them both yelling at me to
GET OUT! We need to go!” My mum kept saying “Do you need to push? I’ve never delivered a baby before!” and my reply was always “No. Stop asking me that.Just Shut up!!” haha.
After a few minutes I literally crawled out of the shower on my hands and knees, my husband threw his dressing gown on me and I crawled to the car, quickly grabbing a pair on undies on the way haha (Had to maintain some dignity right?)
Now, just my luck, it was now 4:30pm and pretty much peak hour traffic on all the roads leading to the hospital. I just remember being on my hands and knees in the back seat with no seatbelt on (oops- but there was no way I was sitting down). I had the window down (I needed fresh air and was dying of heat in the dressing gown) and I was screaming my lungs out with not a care in the world that all the people in the bumper to bumper traffic could see and most definitely hear me. 
Although by this stage everything was becoming a blur as I felt so in my own world I still remember my husband leaning over to the back praising me with encouraging positive words and helping me to remember to breathe with each contraction. When we were about 10 minutes from the hospital, my husband rang my midwife as him and my mum were concerned I was going to have this baby in the car ( Little did we know at the time but I pretty much almost could have) My midwife was on loud speaker and I remember her asking me if I needed to push. At first I just said “No”, but then I thought about it and said it “Actually I kind of do”. Mum and my my hubby were panicking but my midwife was so calm, told me to just hang in there and keep doing what I was doing. She was about 15 minutes behind us, caught in traffic too but she had notified the birthing unit that I was on my way and they were waiting for me. I remember touching down there to make sure the head wasn’t popping out haha

ARRIVED AT THE HOSPITAL

Finally we drove into the hospital entrance around 5pm (baby still inside me lol phew) and my mum dropped my husband and I off out the front. I felt so sick standing up, but knew I had to walk to the birthing unit. Just as we walked in the front doors of the emergency I had another contraction and so I was hunched over, screaming and out poured more of my blood stained waters (along with my dignity) all over the floor. I remember saying “Omg its leaking”, everyone was staring at me and someone asked if I wanted a wheelchair. Hell no was I going to sit down so I kindly refused the wheelchair (I think?). I stumbled to the lift, and remember two kind ladies rubbing me on the back saying “you’re ok”.
I then had another two contractions, one in the lift and one in the entrance of the birthing unit (waters spilling out both times AGAIN) so I had now left a nice trail of my journey. Not only could the whole hospital have heard me but now they could have seen exactly where I went haha.
At the time I really didn’t give a shit though! Its true you really do become in your own world and don’t really know what’s going on around you and don’t really care about things you would normally care about.
I walked in to one of the birthing rooms and just gravitated to the bed still standing but hunched over leaning on the bed with my arms/hands. The midwife on duty asked my husband to take the dressing gown off me so she could put the hospital gown on. He also had to take my undies off which now makes me laugh so much because he tells me it was so disgusting as they were wet and blood stained from my waters (haha things you do for the ones you love). 
I then remember the doctor setting up the antibiotics on a drip and trying to see where to put it in my arm. Because I was GBS positive, the standard hospital policy is to administer a high dose of antibiotics to the mother in labour (preferably at least 4 hours before giving birth) so that the antibiotics have time to travel to the placenta to protect bub if the bacteria is caught on the way out. I had already discussed this with my midwife weeks earlier and had decided not to have the antibiotics which my midwife fully supported. Although it can be serious, it is however very unlikely that babies catch the bacteria and to me, giving myself and my baby unnecessary high dosage of antibiotics could do more damage. I didn’t want mine and my baby’s gut flora completely wiped if it wasn’t necessary. My midwife had told the other midwives over the phone that I may refuse the antibiotics, but obviously the message wasn’t relayed because no one even asked me they just tried shuving it my arm and I remember saying ‘Stop. I don’t want them anyway.”  
The midwife then asked me to lay down as she wanted to do an internal examination to see how far dilated I was. I remember refusing as I DID NOT want to lay down, I just felt like it would make me feel sick. So she asked me spread my legs open whilst standing which also made me feel so uncomfortable, so she insisted I lay down so she could just have a quick look. I really felt uncomfortable but did it anyway. She had a quick look and then said to me “ok, if you feel like you need to push you can.” I knew then I was fully dilated and that this was it! I stood back up leaning over the bed as I knew I DID NOT want to give birth laying down. During calmbirth we had been show a model of a female pelvis and how it is actually harder to give birth lying down. The baby is at an angle defying gravity so its much harder to push out as you have to basically push the baby “up” out of your vagina.
So without even consciously thinking I was standing over the bed and I think it was about another 5 minutes before I really felt like I needed to push. My midwife wasn’t there yet and I didn’t really trust the midwife in charge as she seemed young and frazzled so I was hesitant to push at first. My husband was now on the other side of the bed, we were face to face holding hands and he was speaking the most positive, encouraging and inspiring words in my ear. “You can do this babe, I love you, You’re amazing, We’re nearly there’ and many other phrases that instantly just made me feel so empowered. 

PUSHING STAGE

I soon started feeling the urges to push. The first few pushes I was holding my breath and it just felt like there was nothing to push out. I remember the midwife saying “Don’t push with your throat, push with your bum”. So with the next push, I kept that in mind and took a deep breath and pushed “with my bum”. I started to feel a burn so I knew something was now there. I then remember someone tapping me on the back saying “Rachel, I’m here, I’m here” which was my midwife. Immediately I felt like I had the strength to continue and really birth my baby. With the next pushes I was now squatting and felt even more of a burn. I remember saying “Ouch it hurts.” and then everyone saying “I know… It’s ok.. Just a few more pushes. Keep going, you’re doing a great job”. With another contraction came another push and an even bigger burn and then a kind of pop feeling which must have been my baby’s head crowning. The next push then came quicker and with a big deep breath I gave it my absolute all and pushed my baby out which instantly felt like I had just done a massive poo haha. My midwife had caught my son and had placed him on the floor underneath my legs on the towel.

OUR FIRST HELLO

I was in such a daze I hadn’t even looked down to see where the hell he was. I just remember feeling so relieved and then my midwife tapping me on the shoulder saying “Rach. Look down.” And there my beautiful boy was. Lucas Anthony Giampietro. I picked him up and immediately bought him to my chest and just cried with joy. It’s indescribable the feeling you get when you first meet your little bundle of joy.
My hospital gown was removed and my midwife guided me to lay on the bed to have our skin to skin time. I was absolutely over the moon. My husband and midwife looked at me and said “Rach you did it! You did it ALL on your own and had the birth you longed for.” I couldn’t believe it was already over and that YES OMG I had done it all completely drug free. I still to this day, can’t believe the strength I had and what my body endured. I’m so proud of myself. 
(Unfortunately my birth photographer was stuck in traffic and missed me actually giving birth. She turned up about 5 minutes afterwards and was devastated but it was ok I because I totally understood and she still managed to get some AMAZING photos of our first few hours as a new little family so I am so grateful.)

THE AFTERMATH

I had also chosen to give birth to my placenta naturally, without the syntocin drug, which is also going against hospital policy. My midwife, again, fully supported this decision and  allowed me to just soak in my skin to skin time whilst waiting for the placenta to detach and birth on its own. After about 15 minutes nothing was really happening so my midwife asked if she could do a little tug on the cord to get things moving. She then asked me to a big push which felt so weird cause I didn’t feel anything to “push” out. However out came the placenta! My midwife showed me my placenta and the sac that Lucas grew and living in for nine months and what normally would gross me out actually made me feel so proud. That placenta gave Lucas life and just made me think how amazing is the female body to be able to do that. My placenta was then put in a zip lock bag and placed in an esky for it to be picked up for placenta encapsulation. I then will never forget the pain of my midwife pushing on my belly to make sure there were no blood clots left inside. I know she had to do it but holy shit it hurt.
After I had birthed the placenta I then remember saying to my midwife “Omg my vagina is on fire. Did I tear?” She obviously said yes. So with Lucas still on my chest, I spent the next 3 hours (Yes 3 long hours) getting stitched up by the same doctor I had previously basically told to F Off with the antibiotics (hehe oops). I had a second degree tear and pretty bad labial tearing so I was given numerous needles of local anaesthetic but there’s only so much pain relief that works in such a sensitive area. I used the Gas as well to help (which really did nothing other than make me feel totally out of it). I think getting stitched was definitely worse than labour, I could feel every pull and every stitch. It was all hands on deck for everyone to support me. The birth photographer had even ditched the camera and given me a hand to squeeze (god love her). My husband was giving me water (I had a dry mouth from the gas) and speaking encouraging and inspiring words in my ear (god love him too). And my mum and midwife were also alternating hand squeezing whilst making sure the doctor was doing a good job stitching me up! I couldn’t wait for it to end, the pain was so harsh and I was breathing the shit out of that gas in and out like it was my life support. But eventually it was over and it was iced and feeling much better.

OUR FIRST FEED

The whole time I got stitched up my son had been on my chest and unfortunately he had not latched onto my nipple yet. My midwife asked if she could assist in helping him but he just didn’t suck on his own so my midwife helped me express my colostrum into a syringe. She never made me feel disappointed or worried, she simply expressed and said that tomorrow we’d try again! It turned out Lucas had a pretty significant tongue tie which was discovered the next day so I used a nipple shield to breastfeed until we got it cut and weaned him off the shield. 

GOING HOME

I ended up staying 2 nights in hospital. The first night was so that Lucas could be monitored for any signs of infection due to the fact I was GBS positive and refused antibiotics and the second night was because my tearing was still swollen and they wanted to make sure I could urinate without the catheter before I left. Ater the two nights I finally came home.

Overall, I was SO happy with my birth experience, it was challenging, breath taking, liberating, empowering and so beautifully addictive. I’d do it all over again in a heart beat.

  My only teeny-tiny regret is that my established labour went SO quick I felt a bit robbed. I just feel like everything I prepared to do and had in place just didn’t happen. But the way I’ve learnt to look at it is that they still had a role in my labour, just not the way I thought they would. I didn’t need my visualisation board during labour and I didn’t need the music I had planned to listen to or my midwife present the whole time. I had been so mentally prepared, I could do it all on my own.
I just know now for next time, to be a little bit more prepared and cautious of how quick I can dilate and how quick things can turn. I will be calling my midwife as soon as I feel the first contraction next time.