Our Birth Story - Megan and Georgia
Like most first-time mums I thought surely this baby is going to come early, but I was wrong, I hit my due date and I was furious. Everyday after your due date feels like a lifetime! I went in for my routine past-date check-up and my Obstetrician offered a stretch and sweep, I thought sure, can’t hurt. That was fine and I went home and then... nothing. The next day I started to get very mild, very manageable cramping – Yes! It’s on I thought. These cramps came and went for most of the day. Night-time came and BAM! they were gone.
Another day rolled around, same thing happened, and I started to get annoyed. I thought why isn’t my body working? When I reflect back now, I realise my body was actually doing a great job of getting me ready for labour. It was just my impatient mind that had different ideas. So, we went down to Williamstown Beach, drove over the speed humps, went for a big walk, ate some curry and went to bed. Again, nothing happened over night. The next morning when I woke up the same thing happened, although this time they were closer together and a bit more regular. But by now I was convinced I was never going to have this baby.
I had an appointment for the baby to be monitored because I was now five days passed my due date. I put my TENS machine on and headed into hospital. When I got there, she said I was 3 cm dilated and in the early stages of labour. Ripper! Let’s go! I headed upstairs to the birthing suit and laboured there awhile. Again, in hindsight I probably should have just gone home.
But it was my first time and I was excited, I just went with it. I was doing really well breathing, listening to my hypnobirthing birthing tracks and swaying my hips. I felt very conscious and aware of my surroundings, I definitely wasn’t in labour land. My husband was talking about the road works that were being set up on the street outside our window. Not very helpful.
About five hours later my Obstetrician came in and did a cervical check. Still 3cm, arrhhh! She suggested rupturing my membrane, and I agreed (by this time I was pretty exhausted). Nothing really changed and I continued to labour. Then Tim kicked into gear and was a great support - I had my hands on his shoulders, face-to-face, and he was encouraging me to breathe. Although at one point he did hand me my toothbrush and said I needed to brush my teeth, thanks mate! So, I brushed my teeth and on I went. Four hours later my doctor came in again to check me and guess what, nothing, zilch, zero movement. I was still only three bloody centimetres dilated. Of course, I broke down. I felt like my body had failed me and I lost control. My doctors changed shifts and the advice from my next Obstetrician was that perhaps I needed an epidural to encourage my body to dilate. I was so shocked because I felt like I was coping so well. Surely, I couldn’t be needing an epidural already. I remember asking my Obstetrician why I wasn’t dilating? I’ll remember this moment for the rest of my life, she said in the kindest way, “sometimes with first time mums, you can be a bit tense and not relaxed enough to let your body dilate.” My jaw dropped. It’s my fault I’m not relaxing enough? Well, with guidance from my midwife I asked for some more time, which my doctor was totally okay with, and said she would come back in a few hours. My midwife helped me so much in those next moments, she ran me a bath, set up essential oils and told me to forget everything and get in the water.
I pulled myself together and climbed in. I sat in the bath, leaning against the tub with my knees apart, my arms resting by my side. I relaxed my entire body and let the contractions rise up and take over me. I remember saying to myself to not do anything, just let the waves come and go. That worked for the first contraction and then the second but by the time the third contraction came, I jumped onto my hands and knees, opened my eyes wide and grabbed hold of the bath. This contraction was by far the most intense, an overwhelmingly powerful thing I had every experience before and it scared me. I started freaking out and looking around for someone to help me. I remember looking into my husband eyes and trying to tell him to help me, but I’d lost my words. My midwife offered me the gas, but I couldn’t get myself together to even hold it. My overwhelming feeling at that point was to run, get out of there and get away from this ridiculous intensity. I was spiralling and it was scary. I finally got my words back and told my midwife I needed that epidural. She told me she would have to check me first and then we could get the epidural. I didn’t want to be checked again because I was afraid that I would still be 3 cm. This whole time I was in the bath I was holding a face washer to my perineum. I’m not sure why, it was just an instinct, and in that moment, I looked down and saw blood on the face washer. Thinking the worst, I looked up at my midwife and she had an enormous smile on her face. I somehow climbed out of the bath and up onto the bed, had a check and she said “Megan, you are ready to have this baby”. I couldn’t believe it. I was 3cm for 9 hours then dilated fully in 20 minutes. No wonder it was so intense. I contribute this completely to surrendering to those contraction in the bath and allowing my body to do it’s thing.
Those early days.
Tim introducing Georgia to the Cricket. She’s about 10 hours old.
My midwife said I had a cervical lip, so she wanted me not to push for a few contractions. She gave me the gas and I had my husband apply pressure to my perineum with the face washer. The urge was so overwhelming I kept telling him to push harder against me to reduce my urge to push. 10-15 minutes later I was ready to go. Pushing was very hard work, but it wasn’t that painful. Her head was born and I looked down to see her eyes wide open but she was blue. The cord was around her neck but my Obstetrician quickly unwrapped it and then told me to reach down and grab my baby. So I did. I put both my hands underneath her arm pits and pulled her out and up onto my chest. It was a surreal moment. I wasn’t really thinking about anything else, just her. It was incredible.
I held her on my chest, and thought I was the luckiest person in the world. I was also very glad it was over! She lay on my chest while we did delayed cord clamping and then Tim cut the cord and announced we had a girl. Not long after that they took her and gave her oxygen and suction as she was in shock after her speedy exit. I basically cried the whole time until she was back with me again. That night she slept well but we were so in love with her that we put our alarms on for very 45 minutes so we would wake up, stare at her, then go back to sleep. We did that all night. How ridiculous haha. Looking back it was a huge mistake because the next day I was soooo exhausted and she fed almost hourly for the next 6 weeks of her life. That was followed by a somewhat challenging postpartum journey, but that’s a story for another day.
It took me a while to process the birth. An experience that was so much more intense than I ever could have imagined. The panic and loss of control in that last 30 minutes really scared me and to be honest I think I was in shock for a long time afterwards. It did take me a while to realise that surrender is the key. Probably my first real lesson in motherhood actually. That day, four years ago my little girl was born. She is incredible and I am still finding my feet. I thank my lucky stars that I get to be her mum.