Patrick’s Home Birth
2012
First birth
Lived in: Kerikeri, Bay of Islands
WHERE WAS YOUR PLANNED PLACE OF BIRTH?
Home Birth but I wasn’t too worried about going to hospital if needed.
WHERE WAS YOUR ACTUAL PLACE OF BIRTH?
Home Birth.
PATRICK'S BIRTH
I fell pregnant just a few weeks after my husband and I moved to Kerikeri from Ireland. My husband is originally from the Far North and we moved back shortly after we got married. I had a very healthy pregnancy. I tried to maintain my fitness by walking most days.
I ate as healthily as I could and for the most part enjoyed being pregnant. Thankfully I didn’t suffer any morning sickness but found that if I didn’t eat something every hour or so I would get a little queasy/hungry.
I did faint a couple of times, once at my midwives clinic and the other time when I was at the radiology clinic getting my scan. My midwife assured me this was completely normal and I didn’t worry at all about it. I was walking and swimming in the sea right up until the day before I went into labour.
Signs of early labour
My due date was March 22nd and sure enough on this morning I had a “show”. I got up to answer the phone and felt a kind of ‘gush’ and it was obvious that the mucus plug had come away. I rang my midwife and she told me that it could still take a couple of days and to ring her when I started getting contractions. I had no pains and definitely no contractions that day or the next. I kept walking and swimming in the hope it would bring things along.
12am
At around midnight on the 23rd (Friday) I awoke to a few niggling pains and I knew straight away this was it! I went to the loo and went back to sleep. I woke a few more times to go to the loo and finally at about 4am I got up. I think I may have gotten sick at this stage. At first the pain was in my tummy, just like period pains but the further along the night went my back started to ache as well. My husband got up to light the fire and my mum who had come over from Ireland to be with me got up too. I told her to go back to bed though as I knew it could be a long night/day and I didn’t want her to be exhausted. I went back to bed and dozed between contractions. They were very short and mild so it was easy to doze off.
6.30am
At about 6.30am they were getting a little more painful. I hopped in the bath and text my midwife to tell her that I was in labour and how far apart contractions were etc. She told me to call her when the pain became unbearable! I was totally ok with that and the contractions were certainly not unbearable yet. I got out of the bath and got back into bed. I actually spent quite a lot of time on the loo after that and when I started to feel like pushing at about 8am I asked my husband to give my midwife a call. I had read in Ina May Gaskins “Spiritual Midwifery” the night before about someone giving birth on the toilet and I certainly didn’t want that.
9.30am
The contractions still weren’t unbearable but I really was feeling the urge to push. B, my midwife arrived at about 9.30. She assured me that I was doing really well. She had a listen to baby’s heart beat and she was really happy with it. I asked her how far along I was. She didn’t really want to check but I really wanted to know. I was 6cm. I was a little disappointed as I had read that the last 4cm are usually the most painful and take the longest. I told her that I felt like pushing but was worried as I had read that if you push before the cervix is completely dilated you can actually bruise it and reduce the opening rather that open it up. She told me to just listen to my body at to do whatever felt natural.
So from about 10am on I just pushed whenever I felt like it. She continued to monitor baby’s heart beat and every time I saw her face light up with a “baby is doing beautifully” it was such a lovely/relieving feeling. B put on some lovely music, ocean noises I think. It was really calm and relaxed and the people who I most wanted to be with me were right there, my husband, my mum and B.
12pm
I birthed him on hands and knees, leaning against the bed on my knees and at one stage standing up. I must have been pushing for about 2 -2 ½ hours during which my husband and B took turns at messaging my back as that was where I was feeling it most.
Patrick was born at 12.06. My husband caught him and put him on my back before Bette helped to pass him to me through my legs. My husband cut the cord after it had stopped pulsing.
We just sat, cried, laughed, kissed and snuggled for a while before B suggested I pop on the bed and try to feed our bundle. We both lay down and he latched straight away. He had a good feed.
Transfer
Everything was perfect. Until B said right let's get this placenta out shall we. Well I had totally forgotten about it, I hadn’t even had a contraction after Patrick had popped out. I tried pushing it out, stomping it out. B gave me a shot of Ergometrine. I had a shower and did a lot of stomping and stamping to try to giggle it out but it wasn’t coming. So with a very heavy heart B said she would have to call the ambulance and take us to Whangarei. I had lost very little blood and was in no pain (apart from a horrible haemorrhoid) so we were very relaxed about it. It was such a shame given that everything else had gone so well and that my little boy was happy and healthy and doing so well.
B and Patrick travelled with me in the ambulance and Mum and my husband followed in the car. B was still hopeful that the placenta may come in the ambulance but no luck.
When I arrived my husband and my mum were there before me. A doctor came to check me out and before I had any idea she was doing an internal. I can honestly say it was more painful than any part of the labour. I yelled out and asked her to stop. I asked her could she kindly let me know what she was doing to me before she started again. She asked me if I need some gas for the pain. I said no, I just wanted her to let me know when she was going to be touching me and to talk me through it as opposed to just “going at me”, without explaining what she was doing.
The Dr. eventually told me I would have to have the placenta surgically removed. I was a little bit gutted but my overriding feeling was that our baby had been born safely and healthy at home as planned. We had to stay overnight but I had him in my arms for most of the night and it didn’t really matter where we were, at home or in the hospital, we were both fine.
Things you would do the same?
Everything.
Things you would do differently?
I now know that there are homeopathic remedies to encourage the placenta to come. I would have these to hand if needed but I also know that just because I had a retained placenta with Patrick it does not mean that I will have one with the next. My mum had 7 children and had a retained placenta with just one. My sister had 3 children and placenta retained with one.
What advice would you recommend to other Northland mums / families?
I didn’t really have a birth plan as such. I trusted my body enough to want to birth at home but I would have gone to the hospital straight away if I had any doubt about anything. We were open to just going with the flow and putting the babes needs first whatever they may have been. B taught me that having a plan isn’t always the way to go, if something happens that isn’t in your plan you won’t be disappointed and you can just go with whatever needs to happen.
Don’t listen to anybody else – apart from your midwife and partner of course. You always hear the bad stories, never the good ones! Don’t plan, just be open to whatever needs to happen to ensure the safe delivery of your baby. Trust your body, trust your midwife, trust your body, trust your body oh and trust your body!
