Guest post: Margaret's 2-hour med-free labor & delivery

by Margaret

The day before my due date I saw my midwife for a regular check up and she did a stretch and sweep. I was hot, miserable and done. It had been an absolutely brutal summer, humidity of 90+% almost every day. Temps well over 100F. No a/c. (In Canada we only need it for a few months of the year, so most people don't bother) I was done. She promised that if it didn't work she would do another one a few days later. It did nothing. So on Friday (2 days after my EDD) I went in for another one. She did it, and then did it again...lol. She kept telling me that she was trying to make me bleed. Nice :P I was about 3cm by this point.
I had lots of cramping after leaving, but wasn't hopeful for any labour starting....

Over the weekend I lost my mucus plug in huge globs. Still no bloody show though. I still wasn't convinced that anything was going to happen. The weather had cooled off FINALLY and I was actually enjoying being pregnant.

Sunday night we went to a friends house for a bonfire. While I was there I had a few contractions. They were more intense then they'd been before, but still felt way too much like braxton hicks for me to think 'this is it'. But I was suspecting that I would be in labour that night or the next day for sure.

We came back home around 9 and I decided I was just going to go to bed. Everything had stopped anyway, not a twinge of a cramp or anything.

I woke at exactly 3am (on LABOUR DAY!!) with a contraction. It was a REAL contraction. I got up, went pee, noticed some bloody show finally, and then went back to bed. By 3:30, I'd had 4 more contractions in bed. I decided to let John sleep and take my 'breathing' elsewhere. I decided to stand in the shower for awhile. Within a few minutes the contractions were VERY intense and I knew 'this was it'. I was down on my hands and knees during every contraction and only stood up in between b/c my knees were sore...lol. I thought of getting a towel to kneel on and I thought of telling John to wake up...but I just couldn't move. I was so focused on the contractions that I couldn't do anything else. I knew I was in transition and was more than a little freaked out that I would be delivering the baby by myself in the shower.

Finally around 4am, only an hour after the contractions started, I managed to get out of the shower. (the hot water was running out anyway...lol) I waddled to our room and yelled at John, "wake up, call you dad to come over, call the MW! We're going to the hospital NOW!!"

He looked confused and no wonder, it was 4am, I had just woke him up from a dead sleep by running into the room yelling at him:P I almost killed him when he asked if he had time to take a shower first. "NO! NO WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME. AND I USED UP ALL THE HOT WATER ANYWAY." He got the point.

All the noise (especially the cow-like moaning I was doing during each contraction) woke up Megan, our oldest (almost 6yrs). John managed to get her right back in bed and told her that we were going to have the baby very soon. She told John that even though she was really hoping for a sister, it would be ok if we brought her another brother:) I was happy she went right back to bed, b/c I did NOT want her to see me in labour. It was moving so fast and I was making so much noise that I was worried it would scare her...heck, it was scaring me!

I managed to call the midwife and told her we were going to the hospital right away. She called her back-up and they left to meet us there. John's dad showed up around 4:15 and we were waiting in the car already. I was hanging over the back of my seat on my hands and knees. John drove, fast. I am pretty sure he went through some red lights, but I didn't care. I told him I felt like I was going to throw up, which worried me more than it did him, b/c I did NOT want to have the baby in the car.

Since it was night time, we had to go into the hospital through the ER. The nurses there looked pretty worried that I was going to give birth in the waiting room. I was on my knees on the floor leaning over the seat of a chair moaning away. Probably the dirtiest place in the world to be.... They tried to get me into a wheel chair to take me upstairs, but I told them right away that there was no way I could sit, I needed to be able to lean over things. So they helped me walk down to the elevator and made me promise NOT to have the baby in there, b/c its too small;)

I got up to my room and my MW wasn't there yet. A few minutes later, John (who had been parking the car) came in and it was still about 15 more minutes before the MW's got there. I was having contractions every 2 minutes by this point. I knew it was going to be very soon.

I was just trying to deal with the contractions. They were so close together and so intense I could barely stand it. I was even banging my head against the wall (lightly...lol) during some of the worst ones. I could feel myself tensing up and was trying so hard to relax, but just couldn't. John was standing next to me helpless. I didn't need him for anything...there was nothing he could have done for me anyway. I went into the bathroom at one point to splash some cool water on my face, but I only could get warm water out of the tap. I still can't figure out why I couldn't get it to go cold, but I remember wanting to rip the sink off the wall and hurl it across the room.

The MW's were rushing around getting things set up and told me that anytime I wanted they could check to see how far I was. I waited for a contraction to end (it was around 5am at this point) and quickly hopped onto the bed. The MW still had to get her gloves on, and it was just taking too long for my liking, so I hopped back off the bed as another contraction started. After that one ended, my MW said she could check me as I was standing, so she did. She said "Great! You're complete!" I thought, as another contraction started, "There is no way! If I were 10cm, I'd be holding my baby by now. I've never had to push my other babies out. I hit 10cm and out they fly. What is wrong??" As soon as it ended I hopped up on the bed for her to check me again, b/c I was still doubtful of being 10cm. and sure enough she said "yes, it is harder to check when you're standing...you're 7cm."

I was MAD! Pi$$ed!!!! ONLY 7cm???? AAARRRGGGHHH! She offered to break my water and I knew the baby would be there instantly, but I was still nervous about it. I'm not sure exactly what was holding me back, but I was scared to give birth again. I just wasn't embracing it like I had with my previous births. I kept tensing up and was not looking forward to what I knew was coming.

A few minutes later I could feel surges sort of rippling down my belly and I knew the baby was moving down and going to be there in a few minutes. I finally said "Ok, fine. Break my water." So I hopped back on the bed. (when I say 'hopped'...I mean hopped. I can only imagine what it looked like to see a half-naked MAD woman hopping up and down) She checked me first and I was 9cm now. She got the hook out and started to put it in, but I screamed at her to "Get out!" because I was having another contraction. I rolled on my side to try to ease the pain, but during that contraction I felt the baby on its way. She didn't need to break my water after all.

I was scared to push. I knew I had to, but I was holding back, which made the pain unbearable. I couldn't stop my body from pushing though...even though I tried. I screamed out "OH NO THE HEMORRHOIDS!" as I gave the first push. Not my finest moment...but I didn't care. I had horrible hemmorhoids with other births...and as I said before, I've never had to push any of them. It was very unfair:P
The other MW grabbed a warm compress to hold on my rear-end as I gave a push. It was more of a scream, but it did the job, the head was out.

At this point I screamed at the MW to "Just pull it out!!!" To which they laughed and said "We can't, you have to push!!" Yeah, again not something I'm proud of..hehe. They helped hold my legs way back to make more room for baby's shoulders and I gave one more big push and out popped my baby at 5:16am, just over 2 hours after the first contraction!!

I've never made so much noise in labour before. But I've never experienced something so intense or fast as that. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the clock and saw the time. Days later, I'm still sitting here in shock....I joke with people that I 'think I had a baby...I'm pretty sure I was there, but I don't really remember'.

It was absolute euphoria. I had my baby on my belly and lifted up a leg to see what we had. It was a GIRL! I was so excited I didn't believe it. I looked again and again, just to be sure. Yup, no penis there! lol.

I kept saying to John "It's a girl!! It's really a girl!!"... I was over the moon! I'd been hoping for a girl the whole time, but was pretty convinced near the end of my pregnancy that I was having a boy. He told me later that he saw she was a girl as she was being born, but didn't want to ruin the surprise for me so he didn't say anything until I had looked. We now had 2 girls and 2 boys:)

I birth the placenta within about 10 minutes. My MW's marveled over the length of the cord! They said they'd never seen such a long one. Everything was well and my bleeding was very minimal. I felt great. I got up and took a shower within the hour and really didn't even feel like I'd had a baby.

We left the hospital at about 8 am, only a few hours after arriving! Surprised my father-in-law who was just getting the older kids their breakfast when we walked in the door. He couldn't believe that we were home already!

Madelyn Faith was 7lbs 8oz and 20.5" long. I thought for sure that she would have been much closer to 9lbs b/c I'd never been so far past my EDD (she was 40w 5d).

She is absolutely beautiful and so content. I can't stop staring at her. Even in the middle of the night when I know I should be sleeping, I just sit and stare at her. God has given me a very mellow, easy baby, something I needed as having 4 kids under 6 years is a bit crazy to say the least.

I had intended to get John to take pictures during the labour and birth, but it was all so fast, I just didn't think of it.

People have said "Wow you're so lucky that it was so fast!"...I'm not sure what I prefer, fast and intense or longer and not so crazy.
All I know is that I have PRECIPITOUS LABOUR written in really big letters across the top of my records...as warning for next time. (Did I just say 'next time'???)