I had an incredible, empowering water birth

I had an incredible, empowering water birth with my first baby, medication free, calm birth.28 hour labour 4 hours between arriving at hospital and birth. I live in Kalgoorlie and chose to have my baby at the King Eddies birth center in Perth so I could have a water birth.

My babies Birth 13-14/05/25

Woke up to a contraction at about 4am. I knew immediately that it was a contraction, it was completely different to a braxton hick. I could feel it start at the top of my uterus- no pain just tightening like a braxton hick and then it moved slowly down my tummy like a wave until the bottom and then it passed. From a couple of seconds in I could feel the babies head being pushed down on my cervix accompanied by mild period pain. I laid in bed for a little while observing these waves, feeling excited but also trying to remind myself it might not mean anything yet. I got up and went to the toilet to find a bloody show and got more excited again knowing I would be meeting my baby in the next day or two. We phoned our midwife after that just to let her know what was happening, my assigned midwife was on her day off so another midwife answered and told us to let her know when we were ready to come in, she also said if I was still in labour that night she’d be on shift and we’d see her then.

I got up and had a shower after that. I used the heat pack for a little bit before deciding to try on the tens. The tens was such a weird feeling at first, I hadn’t done the trial like it suggests but though we could figure it out at the time lol. The boost button during a contraction became really helpful and distracted me from the sensation. It was also a great way for me to communicate to my husband I was having a contraction so he would not touch me or talk to me. After a little bit of that at home we got dressed and went for a walk to get coffee on my request. Joe was quietly recording contraction times for me and had noted that on the walk the contractions became more regular (3 minutes apart).

On our walk a very friendly tabby cat with a collar and bell came up to me on the corner of a round about and asked to be patted. She was so friendly and happy. I felt some kind of sense that she knew my baby was coming. Further along the walk we saw a cat in a window of a house we had previously noted a cat pole in the window of. The cat was watching us and it felt again like it knew. We got the coffee, Joe ordered as I didn’t want to think about anything other than my labour and keeping my mind on the job. We walked home from the cafe stopping in place for contractions and taking breaths until they passed.

When we got home I got back into my pajamas and we shut the blinds and prepared to get more serious about this labour. Joe told me there was one more cat that wanted to see me, it was out the front of our house eating a grass bush. I had thought I had seen this cat a few days before and though it looked really skinny, I had felt guilty for not investigating and now here it was in our front garden just skin and bones. The cat was incredibly friendly, I fed it and tried to decide what to do to help the poor animal. I truely feel like these animals could smell my labouring hormones and this poor staring animal felt like it could trust me enough to ask for help. After half an hour or so I noticed my contractions slow right down in timing and intensity and I knew we had to get this animal somewhere it could be cared for that wasn’t my responsibility so I could relax and go back to labouring. Joe and I drove to the nearest cat haven and he went in to the building, the bloke at the desk was trying to get him to fill out all this paper work and he was like my wife’s literally in labour in the car I’ve got to go.

It took ages for the stress of this to leave my body and for the labour to progress again. By 11am contractions were back to every 3 minutes. I was a bit tired so had a lay down at one point trying to rest with a heat pack and the tens for about 45 minutes. Joe noticed my contractions got even slower in bed (1 in 10) and after a little while encouraged me to get up and moving. That was a bit of a refresh for me, and when we got up we played a board game lit by fairy lights with music on (~4:30pm) This was one of the highlights of the labour for me, it felt like things were picking up in timing and intensity and I felt my ability to concentrate or “think” slipping away. It was around this time I was emoting out my bowels a lot and knew this was a sign of progresses. By the end of the game (which I won) I was feeling like I needed to concentrate on the contraction and only the contraction, the intensity had gotten to moderate to bad period cramps during the contraction. I tried a few different positions during this time but standing and walking were by far the most comfortable, laying down was the most uncomfortable. Joe made us some dinner, it’s night time now so I went outside to look at the moon to remind my conscious mind it was a full moon.

I felt like I needed love, I needed Joe to touch and cuddle me for things to progress and when he took a break I noticed the intensity of contractions decrease. We spent about an hour with Joe walking me around the living space with my eyes closed listening to drum and base. He held my hands and led me around the room and stopped to cuddle me when requested. We also stopped for contractions. My feet were pretty tired and I tried standing on a blanket for a while but at this point I had been on my feet for about 17 hours. I noticed things slowing down in time and intensity around 10:45pm they were now about 5 minutes apart. I was disheartened by the slow down in progress. I could also see how tired Joe had become. He was struggling to stay on his feet too and kept sitting on the couch when I wasn’t requesting things. Joe said we can either do something to try to get things going again or we can have a rest. I laid in bed but felt so frustrated and started crying, I said I don’t know what to do. We decided to call the midwife again, because it was about 11pm now the midwife we had spoken to that morning was now back on shift and answered our call. She said we should try to rest, have a sleep if I could.

I probably just needed some energy. Joe brought in almost all the pillows we had and helped me make a bed that I could lay on my front/all 4s sort of position. I fell asleep here. at about 12ish I woke up to intense contractions. I could feel them significantly more in my back and started to worry that because things had slowed down and I could now feel them so much more in my back that the baby was posterior. I started to feel like I wasn’t going to be able to have the stamina to get through a much longer and more painful posterior labour. Contractions were about 4 minutes apart and intense. I got in the shower about 12:10. Joe started to get in with me and this really annoyed me. I asked him what he was doing and he got the message and got out, there was a real shift here between him being really important to my progress to me not needing him anymore.

At about 1am Joe noticed me making more noises, I felt like it wasn’t a choice, they were involuntary and helped a lot to get through a contraction. At about 1:15 I realised the hot water wasn’t going to last much longer and I really didn’t want to get out too the shower. All I could think about was getting to the birth center and getting into their shower which I knew wouldn’t run out. I told Joe I was thinking about going in soon. He said if you think that’s what you want to do, which wasn’t a super helpful thing to say because it made me doubt my decision and think I was further from the end than I was. He called the midwife in the bathroom with me in the shower and this really annoyed me and took me out of the zone. He then held the phone to me so she could listen to my noises and I felt like I was being observed so things slowed in intensity and I didn’t feel the need to make a noise while she was listening.

Which also made me feel like I wasn’t ready to be going in. I knew we had an hour between calling and the room being ready so I focused on that. I noticed myself changing from standing/leaning on the wall to doing a standing squat and getting slightly lower to the ground which I knew meant I was progressing but somehow didn’t want to get my hopes up and I just didn’t trust myself. The shower ran out of hot not long after we called and I no longer wanted the tens machine. I used the heat pack in the bed room until it was time. I was conscious of the fact our neighbours would be able to hear my vocalisation so tried to stay in the bedroom, Joe had drum and base quietly playing in the room, there were either no lights on or fairy lights, I had my eyes closed though. At 2:20am Joe said it was time to go, I started crying. I said to him what if I’ve made the wrong decisoin and it’s too early- I don’t want something bad to happen to us.

Joe said it was a decision and we should go in. This again made me completely doubt myself. I had a contraction just before getting into the car, I moaned on the street to this one not really caring who could hear. The drive was only 5 minutes so I sat normally in the seat and hoped I’d make the drive without a contraction. In the car the song “sailor song” played and I sung to it/hummed it the whole drive. It felt so nice to sing and was so calming. When we arrived we pulled into the women in labour bay right in front of the sign. I cried looking at it knowing that was now me and I was here to have my baby, then I had a contraction I could not get out of the car in time for. I was sort of sitting sort of on my back for it and it was by far the worst contraction of the labour. I had another at the door while waited for Naomi to answer it. I was in the standing squat when she answered it and we all waited for me to finish. We walked down the hallway to room 4 where the pool was already filled and ready. She checked a bunch of things- my blood pressure, temperature and pulse.

The new environment and all the checks stopped contractions for a minute. She then asked me to wee because she needed a sample. But I forgot to wee in the cup, she had a look at the pad I had to to check it was all just mucus plug. She offered me a vaginal check which I had not wanted to do but after the confusion with my labour progress I needed to know I was not at the birth center too early. I asked her to do the check, Joe tried telling her give us half an hour because he knew I didn’t want one but I needed to know in order to carry on. She did the check which was very uncomfortable and triggered a contraction. I asked not to know the number just if it was ok for me to stay or if I should go home She said I was all good to stay at the center and my membranes were bulging. I found out later I was 6cm. She also said the baby was facing my left side and not posterior like I had suspected. I felt much better knowing this, I felt like I had permission to continue labouring and like I was here to do buisness. From that mind set shift everything seemed to change.

I made my way to the shower where I really wanted to be. I asked the midwife to help me decide when it was time to get in the pool, I told her I didn’t want to get in too early. She told me to get in when the shower didn’t feel like it was enough anymore, I should have picked up that I could have gotten in straight away if I wanted to. There was a plastic chair in the shower which I had my eyes on straight away. At this stage I wanted to be on the floor, on all fours and leaning over this chair. I asked for something for my knees, the midwife gave me a knee pad thing which was great and a towel. That made me more comftable. I was in there for a little while by myself while Joe unloaded the car and set up the room for me. He then came in to the room and let me know my student midwife was on her way, I’m pretty sure I asked if he’d told her. I know I wanted her there. We had drum and bass on for the rest of the labour. Joe sat on the floor and held the flimsy plastic chair stable so I didn’t knock it over. I loved being in the shower, I could tell things were progressing well there and the hot water helped a lot although the water temp seemed to be capped so I couldn’t get it as hot as I’d like.

I used the spiky balls for the later part of labour, I think I started using them when I got out of the last shower at home before we left. Pink ball in the right hand blue ball in the left, it was important I had this right and I used a breathing flow timed with the squeezing to focus on them and the colours. I also ran my fingers over them, pushed their spikes together and played with them between contractions as a way to ground myself and relax. Joe told me he’d spoken to the midwife and I had come in at the perfect time, she was really happy with where I was at. Although I didn’t know the number I felt really good to know that and didn’t think Joe was just saying that to make me feel better. I felt my student midwife arrive, I think I could smell her perfume and I was so glad to know she was there. Joe and my student sat on the bathroom floor with me in the shower. After a while, not sure how long, I asked if it was too early to get in the bath. I really didn’t want to get in too early and slow things down again. Joe and my student said I could get in when ever I was ready. I waited another couple of contractions then said it’s time and started to get up. Joe and my student both offered me help with standing and to stabilise me but I was fine and got in myself. It felt incredible to be in the water. I felt warm and held by the water and it was a relief for my knees as the bottom of the pool had a blow up layer of cushioning.

I leaned over the edge of the pool with my legs sort of child’s pose. I moved around a lot between contractions, swaying and shifting my legs but moving during a contraction didn’t feel good so I stayed still. Things are a bit blurry here, I know the midwives were checking my pulse, temperature and babies heart beat which all annoyed me, the midwife had less luck with me telling her to get off and stuff so my student did all the checks in the end and I was more patient with her. I’m not sure how much time passed between getting in the pool and things changing in intensity, I of corse went through transition there but I can’t identify when that was, I didn’t have a break or a crisis of confidence. I became aware that my cervix was no longer dilating and the baby had started to make her way down through the j.

I could feel my muscles working during a contraction but the period pain feeling wasn’t there anymore and I could feel the baby pushing down. The j part was the hardest part of labour, I felt her punching out my sacrum, like my bones were shifting and I felt so much pressure on my bum hole like it was going to explode outwards. I found a lot of comfort knowing what was happening during this process as I could feel all the details. This part was intense, I said out loud it’s too big I can’t get this out, my student calmly reminded me my baby is the perfect size for my body. It was the reassurance I needed and it refocused me to breath through it. There were a couple of contractions here where I cried during the contraction between moans, sort of frustrated and sort of because of how intense it was. I could tell the baby had gotten through the j and I felt some pressure in my vagina, I knew she was getting further down and closer to meeting me.

The insensity wasn’t as much past the j, contractions felt different- I could feel the tightening start sort of then I felt the pressure of her head pushing on my bottom then a few seconds later I could feel her head pushing down in my vagina. Around the start of this I started to think I had a little urge to push, I again was scared and doubtful of my progress, although I can look back and say I knew sensations had changed and my cervix was completely open I was scared to tell the midwives my feelings incase I was experiencing the urge too early. Instead I just ignored it. I thought if it was time the urge would get stronger so I would see how it went. I was right about that and my body started doing the fetal ejection reflex, involuntarily pushing my baby out during a contraction.

The contraction changed so it was the pressure in my bottom then the pressure down in my vagina then an involuntary push- it was uncontrollable, strongest push I could do and uncontrollable like vomiting. It felt good though like doing a poo. I told the midwives when this started and said my bodies pushing, it’s not me it’s my body. A midwife from another birth happened to be in the room at this time, she told me it wasn’t time to push and to breath away the urge. This was the most unhelpful and untrue thing she could have said and my student said to me after it was because another baby was being born then and there was not enough midwives to do 2 births at the same time. It filled me with fear of tearing, knowing they tell you not to push when things are progressing too fast for the tissue. I tried so hard to breath away the reflex but there was nothing I could do. I was getting between 1-3 push reflexes per contraction and I started crying out no no no, because I couldn’t stop it and was scared it would hurt me, It didnt though, I could feel my vagina gently stretching with each push then the feeling subsiding which I know now was her going back up. My waters still hadn’t broken at this point and were bulging out of my vagina which I thought was her head being born. Not long before her head was born the waters broke. I felt a lot of pressure relief. I heard Joe and my student quietly talk to eachother and I asked what was happening, when they told me my water had just broken. I sort of felt sad that she wasn’t going to be born in her sack but then refocused on the work.

Somewhere close to the end I had a vivid aware moment where I reached down and touched my belly. She was so low that where her little bottom and legs had been in my belly was now empty, I could just feel one little foot and extended leg at the top of my belly. I held her little foot and between contractions I kept making these little moaning noises, kind of like the noises she makes outside now. It felt like primal woman was talking to her with these noises and I felt like I was telling her I was going to miss her, it felt like she was telling me that too and I held her little foot and told her see you on the outside soon, then I felt back to my spiky ball and carried on labouring. I can’t think about that moment without crying, it felt so special. At the end there the noises I made during a contraction became a song, I kind of felt like I was singing to the people in the room, singing to announce her arrival but also singing to her. It was like yoga ohm noises but in a pattern of 4 notes and it took all my breath at the top of my lungs. I felt my throat struggling to keep up. With every contraction I felt her getting lower and close to the exit, the stretching was sort of intense but I didn’t feel like my skin couldn’t handle it, only the fear that lady had given me. I had a contraction with 3 pushes and her head came out. It was a bit of a relief and the rest of her felt smaller, I immediately felt her start turning it was the strangest feeling and made me say woah woah woah. and straight away on the next contraction with one push she was born. My student passed her through my legs to me and helped me pick her up out of the water. She came out of the water and on to my chest, I heard her take a breath and she opened her eyes and looked at my face. I said hi baby, I’m your mummy. I saw her beautiful red hair and told her she looked like me.

Then my student and Joe helped me sit back against the pool, covered her in blankets and helped me keep her under the water. Another midwife had just missed the birth and came in to the room as I was picking her up out of the water. After a little while of us sitting in the pool she asked if we had found out what we’d had, we hadn’t looked yet as it didn’t seem important. I lifted her up and saw she was a girl, expecting to see a little willy. I cried and announced she was a girl, I said you’re a girl just like my dreams! I’ve waited my whole life for you. In between all this magic the midwives checked her breathing and heart rate, she still didn’t cry. They strapped on a monitor to her arm which ended up being really annoying because it didn’t work half the time and we had to keep it on longer than expected because her resting heart rate was in the 90’s. The midwife asked if I was having the injection for the placenta, my student was straight onto advocating for me and telling her I was having a natural third stage. My baby was interested in feeding pretty quickly after being born and started trying to do the breast crawl, it was too slippery between the 2 of us so I asked to get out.

I was incredibly shaky and didn’t think I’d be able to safely carry her by myself out of the pool. The midwives assured me I could do it and supported me and baby out and onto the bed. The midwives dried off my chest and the baby a bit and she continued with the breast crawl, successfully landing on my left boob. Things started getting chaotic pretty much immediately after the birth, while I’m trying to concentrate on my new baby trying to breast feed the midwife was telling me all this irrelevant information about reporting bad care and stuff, it was annoying and overwhelming. In what seemed like minutes after she had come out the midwife told us we were approaching the hour mark and I needed to consider the injection for the placenta or to go to theatre. My student jumped in and said let’s try sitting on the toilet.

We walked with a puppy pad to the toilet and as soon as I sat down I got the fetal ejection reflex again and pushed out the placenta. It was a strange feeling, like a giant jelly thing. I asked to keep the baby attached for a little bit longer so the midwives helped get the placenta out of the toilet tray and carry it over to the bed with us. So much blood came out after the placenta was delivered, I worried it was too much but the midwives said it was a normal amount. The baby was still trying to breast feed through all this chaos. We got to have some photos with the placenta attached to her and the midwife showed us the organ that had been growing our little girl all this time.

She held up the sack so we could see what her home had looked like and the hole where the waters had eventually burst. The midwife then had to do the fundal massage which was so uncomfortable, she asked if I wanted the gas but I told her no I really didn’t want it. My student gave me one of my spiky balls and then they checked my vagina for tears, there was a graze on my right labia but my perenium was intact. That exam hurt a lot, more than I had expected. And far more than anything I had experienced in labour. Overall I would not use the word pain to describe any sensation I experienced in labour, I’ve definitely had more severe period pain than any sensation I experienced in labour.

It was the most incredible birth I could have asked for, although I didn’t use the audio tracks during labour the skills my husband and I learnt in the Hypnobirthing classes were so helpful particularly for setting the rooms mood and for my husbands familiarity with labour and birth so he felt confident in what to do to help me and really contributed to the beautiful outcomes of our little girls birth.