Serena's Birth Story - Victoria Midwifery Group

Serena's Story

Welcoming Jackson, beautifully and easily

I had a feeling that our first child would be born into this world without much of the trauma that so many women I know had told me to expect. My entire pregnancy was so delightful, free of any of the common ailments we all hear about, and I had such a sense of peace about this little person forming inside me. I knew early on that I wanted to use a midwife's services and it didn't take me long to realize that a home water-birth would complete the experience my husband, Darren, and I envisioned. How wonderful that choosing a midwife made all of this possible!

Two weeks before the estimated Big Day, I had an internal exam and my midwife told me my cervix was really ripe and it looked as if I'd likely deliver early! Wow, I hadn't expected that! I was so excited and hurried home to tell Darren to cancel all his plans for the next few days so he could stay home with me in case "something happened". My own mom's labour was only three hours long and I thought that if I took after her then I'd want Darren close by! Of course, never having gone through this before, I was a little overly anxious.

A couple of days went by and I had another checkup to see how things were progressing. Nothing had changed but now the midwives had all talked and they still thought it really could be any day. They offered to do a cervical sweep to help stimulate things and I accepted. The thought of finally getting to meet this baby after 9 long months was so irresistible. A little voice in the back of my mind said, "You know this baby is going to come when it's ready, and not before." I probably should have listened to that more closely :-)

A week passed.... then two, and the Big Day came..... and went.

I was feeling really bummed by now, like I guess many women do when the estimated due date passes, but I had heard that it was quite common for first time moms to deliver "late" so I wasn't too worried. I must have had at least six cervical sweeps by then and was taking blue cohosh every day. The cohosh gave me strong Braxton Hicks but they never turned into anything significant. I told Darren to go ahead and do whatever he wanted as long as he carried a cell phone, and I tried to stop wondering when it was going to finally happen. I went out and got my hair done, went shopping, ran errands, potted some new plants for the balcony.

On Saturday, during the Thanksgiving weekend, eight days past the due date, I was laying in bed reading a book when I heard a loud snapping sound, like a dry twig breaking. I said, "Wow! What was that?!" Darren was downstairs - he called up, "What's going on?" "I think my water just broke!" He said, "Oh jeez, what should I do?" I said, "Nothing yet, but I'm going to slowly get up and go into the bathroom just to check." As soon as I stood up I knew this was it. He asked if I was having any contractions and I said no, not yet, but that maybe he should page the midwife and let her know that things were starting. I knew it could be a while yet, but since it was only 4pm and we weren't going to be waking anyone up, I thought it would be ok. I sat in the bathroom calling everyone on the "need to know" list, wondering what to do next. Nobody was home so everyone got these rushed messages on their machines. I can't even remember what I said, but my dad told me later I sounded exhilarated and nervous.

The midwife phoned back right away and was happy to hear that we were on our way, and said that if she didn't hear from us in a couple of hours that she'd call to check in. Right after Darren hung up the phone I had my first contraction. I had wondered if I would be able to tell the difference between a Braxton Hicks and a real contraction. Silly me.

Seventeen minutes later, I had my second contraction. Eight minutes later I had my third, and five minutes after that, the next one came. I remember thinking that maybe I was misinterpreting something - this was going pretty fast! I told Darren to call the midwife right back and tell her how fast they were and that they were already lasting a minute. She said she'd be right over!

The midwife arrived really quickly, much to my relief. I had been labouring on my hands and knees on our couch but since Darren was still filling up the birthing pool in the living room, I tried moving into the bathroom. The midwife was still bringing things up from her car when my body started to go into really strong labour and I was amazed at how my uterus started pushing down so hard all on its own. There was nothing to do but go with it since I didn't have any control over what was happening to my own body. That sounds like it might be scary for someone who hasn't given birth before, but it really was more of a relief because I wouldn't have known what to do anyway! :-)

When the midwife came back up she said the pool was ready and asked if I wanted to get in. She helped me walk to the living room and get into the warm water. Oooh, it felt so good! My contractions slowed down a little and gave me more of a break between. She went down to get the last of her supplies and when she returned I told her I had started feeling the urge to push and was wondering if it was ok. The look on her face was great! Her eyes got really big like she could hardly believe it was happening so fast. She said, "Ok!" and then she called our other midwife and told her to come over right away. At that point it had only been about two hours since my water broke.

The second midwife got to our place around 6:15 or so, I think. She had to get right to work because Jackson was on his way and coming fast! I remember the second midwife asking later if our midwife asking had marked the time when I started to push. She said it was 6:20 or so, and Jackson was born at 6:41pm. I remember thinking a lot about the things my friend Monica had told me about her birth 3 weeks before. It really helped to have somebody describe the different sensations of a baby being born, and made me feel more capable of getting through it all. I felt Jackson's head after I pushed it out - it was so round and covered with long hair waving around in the water! The best part was when his body came out - it happened so fast and easy after his head and I thought "Oh, wow, it's over already!"

As soon as his body was born, he was scooped right up out of the water and put on my chest. I had my head back with my eyes closed and when I looked down, there he was. Eyes all squinchy with little fidgety hands poking out of the towels they had wrapped around him for warmth. Darren cut the cord as soon as it stopped pulsing the midwives helped me onto the couch to deliver the placenta. I felt great! It was so good to have it over, and it happened so fast that I don't really remember any of the pain. I do remember thinking that one kid was going to be enough though. We were all giddy and silly and laughing a lot. Darren held Jackson while I got two small stitches for a tear, and then I was helped into the shower for a quick rinse.

After that we all went upstairs where Jackson got weighed and measured (8lbs 4oz & 20in.) and then the midwives left the three of us to get to know each other. Darren made us dinner and then we just sat around and marveled at our precious little boy. By 2am we were all in bed for our first night's sleep together. We are so glad we decided to have a homebirth with midwives. It was just the experience we had been dreaming about and was such a peaceful way to start our new lives together!