…and the birth plan goes out the window

Finally I find some time to write about the past four months with my little boy. But first things first: the delivery. When we met with our NCT group recently we were asked to tell the group how the birth went. I came last and after hearing all these horror stories of long labour, inductions etc I felt almost guilty to say that I absolutely enjoyed the birth. Mind you, I had an epidural but this was really the best decision I could have taken.

My contractions started at 8 in the evening (I was watching Casualty), they were mild menstruation type pains in the beginning but very regular and close together from the start. I couldn’t believe it but I had contractions every 2 minutes which lasted 45 seconds, I used my sailing stop watch to check!  What ever happened to the BREAKS between contractions that one is supposed to have to rest? I phoned the delivery unit and they said to stay home and take a bath, which I dutifully did. By 11 pm the contractions came every minute, lasted a minute and were much stronger. My friend and birth partner drove me to the JR where we arrived at midnight. A very busy looking lady came and took my blue notes and wasn’t seen again until 1.30 am when finally we were shown into a delivery room. By then my contractions were so strong that they stopped me from walking. I pretty much spent the next hour on my knees leaning against the bed. Sitting or lying down was so much more painful than kneeling….When the midwife arrived she checked how far I was dilated and it was only 2 cm. 2 hours later it was 5 cm and by then I could not stand the pain any longer, neither gas and air nor the injection did anything for me, hence the epidural. If I had know that it would take 1 1/2 hours to get the epidural in place and working properly and by then I would be ready to push I probably wouldn’t have needed one….but the thing is, one doesn’t know. Anyway, as soon as I was pain free it was time to push the baby out and not 20 minutes later he was born. Magic, absolutely wonderful.

I don’t know why I feel slightly guilty about having had an epidural. It’s like I was supposed to do it without pain relief. I even wrote it down in my birth plan which luckily never got printed out because my baby was born two weeks early and I didn’t get around to do it. Anyway, it took all the pain away but left me with enough sensation to feel the contractions and feel my baby move down the birth canal. He literally did all the work himself. All I had to do is to push through three contractions and I could feel his head crowning and then, without me doing anything else, his body just slipped out of me and there he was. A second later he was on my chest and I literally wept of joy. The feeling was absolute and utter joy, more than I ever could hope to feel. I wish every woman can feel this once in her life.

I want to do it all again. I even thought that the minute he was born. This was great. Give me more.

Funnily, as soon as I had the baby I completely forgot how it feels to be pregnant. Isn’t that weird?

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