My contractions started around midnight and were at varying intervals until they settled into a 5 minute rhythm around 9am in the morning. That was when I started using the labour TENS and shortly after we set out for the hospital. The contractions got stronger and stronger as the day went on and I kept turning up the strength of the labour TENS.
At around 4pm, the obstetrician said my cervix was still only 2cm dilated, so we decided to break my waters to try to move things along a little faster. The contractions intensified and I used the labour TENS boost button to get through each one. It was great! It held off the use of other pain relief until around 5pm when I started using the gas in conjunction with the labour TENS. This combination helped me through another 2 hours of labour.
At around 8pm I was feeling ready to push as the baby was sitting very low, but another examination revealed that my cervix was still only 4cm dilated. As I was both physically and mentally tired from so many hours of labour and from not sleeping the night before, we decided that an epidural was the best option for us. I had the epidural at around 9pm and it seemed to relax everything and move things along. The downside was that, after the epidural, my body went into a bit of shock and our baby’s heart rate dropped dramatically, which was stressful for me and my husband. Our obstetrician was considering delivery by caesarean because our baby was in distress, but his heart rate stabilised before they could organise a theatre and my cervix dilated very quickly to 8cm. At this stage, we made the decision to do an episiotomy and use the vacuum. A short time later, and after a lot of pushing, our gorgeous baby boy was born at 10.22pm on 13/12/12.
The labour was the most amazing and most difficult thing I have ever been through, but holding my precious baby boy in my arms made me forget the previous 22 hours of labour in an instant. He was definitely worth it!
I would highly recommend the labour TENS as it helped me get through many hours of my labour without the use of drugs. Even though I eventually used the gas and had an epidural, I couldn’t have made it that far without the labour TENS. Thank you Sweet beats!
