One of my first conversations with my OB was about my past medical history and my mum’s labour. After proceeding to tell her my Mum’s labour with me lasted 3 days her face dropped a little and said ‘usually you look at your Mum’s labour and that will give you a good indication of what your labour will be like’. I’m not really one to stress over things I can’t control so I just thought whatever will be will be.
7 months later on 05th December 2017 at 3am I went into labour and it was nothing like Mum’s labour so there goes that theory. Let me start off by saying I was scared of needles. I was so scared that before I was pregnant I had 3 blood test scripts in my car that never left my glove box. The first blood test I ever had I fainted before the needle went in. The reason I say this is because I gave birth with just gas as my pain reliever. No epidural, nothing. If I can do it, you can do it.
It was actually my cousin who said to me ‘Chloe it’s bearable, it’s not that bad’ so that was the mindset I went in with. Let me tell you that she was 100% right, and if you’re about to have your baby I’m here to tell you It’s absolutely bearable, and it’s not that bad. Did it hurt? Of course it did. Was I scared? Absolutely. Did I get the best gift life could offer? I sure did. Was it worth it? I would do it 100 times over to have another one of my baby girl.
So lets start from the beginning, I was asked a lot about my labour with Cassia when she was born and I have been so busy with the business and Cassia that 1 year later I’ve finally had an hour to sit and write a blog about it.
So here we go, I lost my mucus plug about a week before I went into labour. I called the hospital and they said to just keep an eye on it and labour will be around the corner. I was expecting to go into labour the following day but nope, one week later I still hadn’t gone into labour, I started experiencing minimal movement about 3-4 days after I lost my mucus plug so I started to worry. I called my OB who had me in for monitoring for 2 days and after a bit of backwards and forwards the baby was fine however she decided that I should get induced as I was correct the bub’s movement started to decrease a little. I was booked in on 5th December to get induced however my body went into labour on it’s own at 3am that morning. I was due in at 7am to get the induction process underway.
I didnt know what to expect being a first time Mum but at 3am when I woke up with a pain that took my breath away I thought to myself ‘ok I think it’s started’. I had 3 contractions before I woke up Maurice just to make sure they were actually contractions. I timed them from the first one. 6 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes and from then on it was 3 minutes for about an hour and then 2 minutes until I was ready to push. My contractions came on hard and fast. I didnt have the long 10 minute gaps. I had one at 6 minutes which was my longest and then they almost immediately went to 3 minutes. Maurice called the hospital and they said we usually like people to stay home for at least an hour, just relax and call back in an hour. So to take my mind off of it I did a load of washing in between contractions and waited for that to finish, hung it out and then called the hospital back (every 3 minutes I was rolled up in a ball on the couch and soon as it stopped I got up again and did washing!).
After the second call to the hospital they told me to come in, we drove in by that time I had said to Maurice you tell them as soon as I get in I want an epidural. We got to the hospital at 5am and they took me to a birthing suite and said they would start the paperwork and call my doctor, she gave me gas and just kept telling me to breathe it in and it’ll help. I told the mid wife I need an epidural now! She said we need to do the paper work first and I’ve called your doctor she is on the way. She has asked me to check how dilated you are. At that stage I was ready to kill her (haha! I wanted to get that paperwork and throw it so far out of the room but I just kept trying to breathe) She checked how dilated I was and it just so happened I was 7cm. She was very impressed, she said to me ‘Chloe you’ve done most of the hard work. Your doctor is on the way, keep breathing with the gas’. The gas made me feel like I was partially conscious and partially unconscious so it did help to take the edge off the pain. What felt like 10 minutes later my doctor walked in and I just felt the weight of the world taken off my shoulders. She made me calm. She came in and said my darling, how are you? I’m pretty sure I said I was dying then we both laughed. She checked how dilated I was again and she said ok my darling it’s time to start pushing. I had a mini heart attack purely because I didnt know what to do or how to do it. I did a few ‘ab crunches’ and the midwife said ‘Chloe they wont push the baby out, you need to push like you are doing a poo’ then once I had worked out how to push I felt the movement. I don’t think I was pushing long. Maybe 20 minutes until one midwife walked out of the room and two walked back in. The 3 of them were all looking at the monitor and I started to feel a little worried and my doctor said ‘The babies heart rate is dropping too quickly get the vacuum we need to get it out now’. The mid wife came up to my head and said, ‘It’s going to be ok you need to push now because bub’s heart rate is dropping too low’. I obviously had a heart attack and pushed like I never pushed before (whilst my OB had the vacuum on the baby’s head) this resulted in my second (boarder line third) degree tears. I felt the tear it was a painful relief as weird as that sounds as that’s when she was born. They put her on my chest and said ‘It’s a girl!’ I was partially unconscious from all the gas nor did I comprehend the words ‘It’s a girl’ because I was convinced I was having a boy. I just cuddled her and it felt like my whole world was complete. Not long after they handed her to Maurice so the stitching up process could begin. That took 40 minutes, now that was painful. I felt each needle to sew me back up again, the general anaesthetics did absolutely nothing. I just wanted it over so I could hold my baby girl. After the stitching up finished I got up and just stood in the shower because Cassia was under the heat lamp due to her temperature being a bit low, I just focused on not throwing up for about 20 minutes. Water is my happy place so it helped to calm me down. Four hours post birth I finally stopped throwing up. I was given a wafer to help and I actually got to hold my baby properly, every time she was given to me before that I just missed throwing up on her so I gave up holding her.
12pm – I was taken to a room and I just sat there and held my baby girl staring at her in awe. I still couldn’t believe I had a baby girl. I couldn’t believe I was a Mum and I couldn’t believe I just gave birth with no epidural. My labour lasted 4 hours, nothing like my Mum’s labour. It was the most intense, but best four hours of my life. I finally laid eyes on my baby who I loved more than anything before she was even earth side. I was so happy in the end that I didnt have an epidural because I got up straight after it and just stood in the shower then I walked to the room, they offered me a wheel chair but I thought nope I’m going to walk this out. 5th December 2017 was the start of my life. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and Maurice and I were in love.
