Our Founder Teya's Positive Birth Story

So, if you’re anything like me and in the later stages of labour, you’ve probably being scrutinising every tiny niggle and googling like a mad woman.

(Googles “how do I know when I’m in labour”?)  So, what does it feel like to go in to labour and how do you tell when it’s has begun? Here is a recount of my experience of labour and birth of my first child.

 Pretty much for my entire pregnancy, I felt pelvic girdle pain. Slightly similar to a dull period pain, PGP can be felt in the lower back, lower abdomen pelvis, hips and thighs and is a result of the ligaments relaxing, stretching and allowing for joints to become more flexible. Mine was concentrated to my lower abdomen.

 So needless to say, I was pretty used to feeling some discomfort by my third trimester.

However, two weeks before my due date, I noticed that the dull ache was becoming more noticeable and more centralised to what I thought felt like my ovaries. The pain was not obvious enough to feel coming and going. But over the course of the week, I definitely noticed a stronger pattern of on/off aches which were more prominent in the evening. The best way I can describe this is like a strong period pain ache.

Because of this, I had convinced myself I was going to go early. I should also add that from about 36 weeks, my baby’s head had become engaged and found its position very low in my pelvis, which I can confirm is very very uncomfortable.

I was told I was carrying a small baby, so at my 38-week appointment my obstetrician floated the idea of an induction the following week as they did not think the baby was going to grow much more for the rest of the gestation period.

 

From all the information I had gathered during pregnancy regarding birth and interventions, I was determined not to be induced.

 (Googles “How to bring on labour”).

 This was just my personal preference and I appreciate that others may have a differing view on this, depending on their own circumstances. However, I knew for me that this was not the right option. So, I did everything I could to ‘bring on labour’.

 This included, drinking raspberry leaf tea several times a day, eating dates every day (I made them into smoothies with almond milk because they are very sweet), walking, spicy food, diffusing and bathing in Clary Sage essential oil.

 

But there was one thing in particular that really started my contractions. Sex.

 Literally within 10 minutes of doing the deed, my body had started contracting. And this feeling of pain was much much stronger than the dull achy feeling I had previously felt. It felt much more intense and was really all I could focus on in that moment. It is actually a really difficult feeling to articulate as there really is nothing that compares to the feeling of a contraction. The feeling was painful enough for me to attach my TENS machine and I had to breathe through the surges as they came and went.

 

I set myself up in the lounge room, turned on the tv and my contraction timer then sent my partner to bed thinking this could take ages.

 Then the next thing I remember was waking up on the floor of the lounge room with my TENS still running and no contractions to be felt. I had experienced what is called a false labour.

Approximately 5 days later and two days before my due date, I was having trouble sleeping and getting comfortable, so I set myself up in the spare room. I woke the next morning at approximately 3:30am with the same painful feeling.

 At first, I thought it was because I really needed to wee. But after getting up to use the toilet I quickly realised that I was experiencing surges again. So once again I popped on my TENS machine and began my breath work whilst I timed my contractions. After realising they had begun falling into a more regular pattern, I woke my partner at approximately 6am to let him know I was in labour. I was feeling calm and able to use my breath to manage the pain, so I had a shower, washed my hair and prepped our stuff to go to the hospital.

 

We rang our hospital at around 7:30am to let them know my contraction were approximately 3-4 minutes apart. I sounded pretty calm, so they said it was up to me whether or not I wanted to come in. and then they asked when the last time was, I had felt my baby move.

 I realised that this was something I had paid literally no attention to since waking up that morning, I was so focused on my breathing and monitoring contractions that I had not paid attention to baby moving at all. Plus, time seemed to move VERY quickly during the early labour hours as I was timing contractions.

 

So, we decided to come in as a precaution to monitor the baby. Our hospital was only a 10-minute drive, so we thought we’d just pop back afterwards for a while until things ramped up.

 By the time we’d got ourselves ready and arrived at hospital it was 8:30am. We headed up to the maternity ward and were ushered into a delivery room so I could have a monitor placed on me to record our baby’s heartbeat. Thankfully everything was fine. By this stage however, my contractions had really kicked into gear and the pain was getting harder and harder to just breath through, even with my TENS machine. I vividly remember my partner saying, “I don’t think were going home are we”?

 

Our midwife sent him to go get the bags out of the car and get some brekky downstairs as it was more than likely we were staying, and our baby would be born later that day.

 A little while after I went to the bathroom and noticed my mucus plug and bloody show in the bowl of the toilet. For many women this happens well before contractions start, but in my case it was one of the last signs that I was in labour.

 

After determining we were staying, my obstetrician was called in and arrived at approximately 10am. After what felt like about 5 minutes, I felt a gush of fluid and my waters had broken. Like what you’d expect to see in the movies. Which is odd because I was always told this rarely happens and certainly not how it happened with my second which was more like a constant trickle over 10 hours.

 

I was monitored again to check baby and as everything was fine, I was left to labour in peace. The pain was getting more and more unbearable. It really is an all-consuming feeling. I remember just really being so inside my on mind. Listening to my affirmations, breathing long slow breaths and just teetering on the edge of losing all control from the intensity of the pain. Labour really is such a mental game as well, You need to push yourself through mentally as much as you do physically. Kind of like intense exercise I guess. Like really really intense exercise, when you’re literally burning and shaking you just need to tell yourself;f to push through.

Every minute I contracted felt unbearably long and I was only getting a minute or so break in between each one. I really felt at this point I was so close to asking for the epidural which is not what I wanted (There absolutely nothing wrong with asking for an epidural btw, it just wasn’t in my personal plan, and I really wanted to try to birth without it so I wasn’t delivering lying on my back).

 

I then had an overwhelming feeling to ask for my obstetrician to come check me. I had in my birth plan that I did not want a vaginal examination but somehow, I just knew this is what I needed in that moment. By the time she arrived and checked me, I was 9cm. The relief I felt was indescribable.

 

This was the point that they got me in position to deliver my baby.

 

I was kneeling on the bed which was raised so that my body was upright holding on to the top of the bed. I was given some gas to help manage the pain, but I felt this really challenging to operate given the intensity of everything else that was happening. I was told I wasn’t able to push yet but after a couple of contractions I had dilated fully, and my baby had started make its way involuntarily down my pelvis.

 I was letting out what can only be described as a primal groan whilst this was happening. I was told only to push very lightly at this point which believe me is hard to do when you are in that much pain and just need it to stop.

 

But then the time came, and I was told to PUSH. Which I did and quite quickly I felt a pop and my baby’s head was out. Oh my gosh the relief I felt was like nothing else. Strangely enough it did not feel painful but more like a relief of pressure build up finally being released.

I was so close to the end. A few moments later a shoulder and then our baby’s body slid right out with such ease. Newborn babies are very slippery.

 

Then your heart skips a beat for that moment where you wait for that little cry and for everything to be ok. And your baby is placed on your chest. A little stranger, all puffy and slimy but perfect. It’s a very surreal feeling. Amazement mixed with relief, love and a touch of curiosity as you study their little face and try to determine just who they are as you begin your next journey in to matrescence.

 

A moment I hope to never forget. x