The Birth (Natalie's)

So, I have been thinking a lot about the births of Natalie and Hayley lately... (don't know what might be coming up in my life that made me think about that!) I shared Hayley's birth story around her first birthday, but I thought I'd share Natalie's. I know some people like birth stories, others don't, so feel free to read at your discretion.



Natalie: EDD 1/03/10, knew we were having a girl

• Got to the hospital at 7pm, Sunday March 7, for scheduled induction with my midwife
• Before the induction they monitor you to make sure you're not already in labour
• At some point during this process, the midwife is out of the room and Jonathan gets me laughing which looks like on a contraction on their monitor
• They must begin again and Jonathan is under strict instruction to stop making me laugh... which he largely ignores, haha!
• Anyway when they get through that and after the induction the hospital staff tell Jonathan he should go home and get a good sleep, because nothing would start 'til the morning but it would be full on when it did!
• Barely sleep and by midnight am feeling contractions so I press the call button in my room
• Midwife (not my MGP one) comes and says this is probably just the effect of the gel, but nothing serious and will fade for many hours before the real fun starts
• Midwife offers me panadol, which I feel is very condescending and wonder what she thinks panadol is going to do for this ridiculous pain
• When she leaves the room I promptly desolve in to tears because I feel so misunderstood, lol
• Contractions continue. As I thought, panadol did nothing!
• Sometime in the next 30-60 minutes, called the midwife and told her pain was continuing
• She looks at the monitor and says, "oh, you are having contractions" (really, I hadn't noticed) and possibly realises that I wasn't just whinging about a niggling pain
• By now it is Monday, March 8!
• About 5am I text Jonathan telling him I wished he were here and not to be too long
• This does not communicate the fact that I am actually in labour and he is quite surprised when he arrives a little while later, not having been able to get back to sleep anyway
• Labour is fairly standard, and I deal with it by not making a sound
• About half way through my labour I actually manage to get out of bed and walk around etc, which greatly improves on lying in bed
• At some point I say very quietly to Jonathan that I don't want to do this anymore
• The midwife and Jonathan decide that since my objection was so meek, they won't worry about pain relief at this time
• My MGP midwife makes it back to the hospital just in time to deliver Natalie, about 2:30pm

Ah, the memories. I dealt with it at the time by not really being present - no idea what went on around me during all those hours - but it is interesting to look back and think of the things I do remember.