My labor and delivery was everything that I had ever wanted.

Arthur 3.51kg
38 weeks 6 days
Natural induced

My whole pregnancy I hadn’t wanted to be induced and really wanted to go into labor naturally. I had been quite active through my whole pregnancy, and I really picked up the pace once I reached 37 weeks – walking barefoot in the sand for 6km each morning than curb walking for 3km in the afternoon. I also would do 6 squats each time I went to the bathroom, working on my pelvic floor, and ensured I was bouncing on my birth ball whenever I could. My son was measuring in the 50% percentile whole pregnancy and his head was measuring slightly larger at our 36 week appointment. My OB checked to see if I was dilated or effaced but nothing really was changing. So at my 38 week appointment, I had a stretch and sweep to try to move things along and scheduled an inducted for 6 days later, but my OB was confident that I’d go into labor as I had been having braxton hicks and lost my mucus plug.

Despite my best efforts at going into labor naturally, we arrived at the maternity ward on August 14 at 12:01am for our admission. We then went up to the birth suites, handed in my stored colostrum, and got set up on birth suite 3. My son was monitored for 20mins, then I got prostin gel put in at 1:00am and then he was monitored for 40 minutes more. By this point, my husband and I had only had 1 hour of sleep (before we came into the hospital that night), so we tried to get some more. I was having mild contractions which felt like period cramps which made it difficult to sleep and woke up at around 5:30am after a one hour sleep then got my son monitored again. My doctor came in at around 7am to do an examination and then inserted more prostin gel to help my contractions become more frequent and also did another stretch and sweep. My doctor told me that this would be the last chance I’d have to eat before my son was born, so I ate some cornflakes which felt like the only thing I could stomach.

The whole time, I kept reminding myself to breathe like I had learned through my birth classes, and my husband had put up some fairy lights and hypnobirthing affirmations which were helping me a lot. I got my IV fluids drip in at 10am and started my antibiotics for group B step. My contractions started to get more frequent and intense fast so I put the tens machine on and hopped on the birth ball to move my body in a circular motion. My son’s heart rate was dipping so I had to lay on my side and be monitored for a couple of minutes which was very difficult with my contractions. I was feeling really hot too so my husband held my handheld fan and got me a washer for my face. As my contractions got more intense, I slowly turned my tens machine up and I started on the gas. At around 12pm, my doctor came back in to check me and I was 2cm dilated. My doctor then broke my waters and started me on cyntosin to help my contractions get more frequent. My doctor and all of the nurses were very aware of my birth plan that I had printed and laminated all around the room – crazy right but it helped me feel more empowered. I had wanted to hop in the birthing bath my whole labor but because me sons heart rate kept dropping the nurses wanted to continue monitoring for as long as possible.

At around 3pm I felt the urge to need to start pushing so I hopped into the shower and I found the cold water helping to relieve some pain, but in order to go into the water, I had to take my tens machine off which was hard. At around 3:15pm my doctor came in and checked me and I was 9.5cm dilated. All that I wanted to do was lay down and push, so my doctor helped me walk to the bed and lay down. I began to push 4 times with each contraction, and I was able to feel my son’s head as it was crowning – the most surreal moment ever! I pushed for roughly 40 minutes then I was able to reach down and lift him up onto my chest at 3:52pm when he was born. My IV drip was then turned off and I had golden hour with him on my chest. We did a little breast feed and then I had a shower while my husband did skin-to-skin. My son was then weighed, measured and had his vaccinations. We then packed our stuff up and got settled into our new room at around 8pm in the downstairs the ward, room 12. My labor and delivery was everything that I had ever wanted. I am so grateful to my incredible doctor, team of nurses and my husband of course – who was a superstar motivating me, holding my fan, and giving me a drink of water whenever I asked. I can’t wait to do it all again with baby #2!