Marie wrote to tell us about her amazing journey throughout her 30+ hours of childbirth. What a strong, incredible lady!
I would like to share my birth story in the hope that others can read about the amazing way birth combines incredible pain yet gives the blessing of a child at the same time.
It was the dawn of April 3, 2017 – at 38 weeks and 6 days – when my first contraction woke me up. I didn’t mind a bit but since I couldn’t sleep with the contractions, I walked around our bedroom and timed them. I was pretty sure this was different to the Braxton Hicks I had felt around 32 weeks, but I wasn’t quite sure as my first baby was delivered via C-section, so I didn’t have much to compare the pains to.
I called the birthing unit at my hospital and discussed what I was feeling with the midwife. She told me to monitor it until I felt more intense contractions, however when I hung up the phone, I went to the toilet and saw my “bloody show”. I called the hospital again and we headed in. At around 6am, my husband and I were at the hospital and I was being checked by the midwife. The resident OB at the hospital suggested we have an ultrasound to make sure the baby’s head was engaged and down. At the ultrasound, the baby’s head was down but his chin was facing up. The OB called another midwife to do an internal examination for me. The midwife mentioned that my cervix was open at 3cm and she could feel the head. I was totally happy that it looked like I could pursue my birth plan – a VBAC in natural water birth.
We were told by the birthing unit to go home first and continue monitoring the contractions. The contractions were manageable and I could still do the house chores. By 11pm, I wanted to go to sleep but the contractions had started to get more intense. I still tried to manage myself until at 2am of April 4, I woke up my husband again and asked him to take me to the hospital as I was sure this was getting close to “time”.
April 4 – 2:15am we got back to the hospital and settled into a room. The midwife checked my cervix and I was at 5cm. Thank God! Because I had had a previous C-section, they didn’t want to induce labour at this point. I waited until 7am and then the midwife broke my waters to speed up dilation as I was still only at 6cm.
The contractions were more intense and all I could do was pray and think that this will pass. By 9am I was really wanting to push but the midwife told me that I had to hold on, it wasn’t time yet, as I was still not fully dilated. My blood pressure was beginning to get very high and the contractions were more painful than ever. I hadn’t imagined it would be this painful. Our baby’s heartbeat was still completely fine, while me, his Mum, was having the “worst painful” feeling in the world!
Again,the midwife checked my cervix and found that I was at 8cm. I felt so numb with the pain, I called all the divine saints I know, and was crying and mumbling while holding my husband. This was all happening without any pain management except for laughing gas which made me really dizzy. At 9:30am, I called the midwife crying and said “I cannot do this anymore, is there any way I can manage the pain?” Water birth was not an option anymore due to the antibiotic given to me thru the IV, so the midwife offered me an epidural. Then the OB came back and checked how long I had been into labour and looked at my records. The OB was worried and so asked me if we could proceed with emergency CS due to a possible uterine rupture if we waited for another hour. With the unbearable pain, having been in labour for almost 30hrs, the only thought I had was to get the baby out safely. I found myself crying in pain while being wheeled to the Operating theatre.
10:30am, I was given an anaesthetic and felt numb on my lower body. My husband was called inside the theatre to be with me. I gave birth at 11:30am to a bouncing baby boy at 3.820kg, with APGR 9.9 and 52cm.
It was an exhausting and painful experience, and yet I had no regrets about trying to deliver via VBAC because I got to feel how powerful we women are when braving labour and giving birth naturally.
I realized we can’t force nature on its own, sometimes we need help. 
The next day, the OB visited me and told me that has we not decided on an emergency CS when we did, it could have been dangerous, as my uterine wall was paper thin and could have ruptured at anytime!
Thank God for my life and my baby boy’s life!
I hired a Spectra breast pump after my baby was born and I loved it.
-Marie
Mum to son Raldo Manuel “Nick”