PART TWO: Welcome to the world Raine Jennifer
- Laura Jane
- Apr 19, 2018
- 5 min read
The plus side to having your baby in your own home is you don't have to rush around like a headless chook making sure you grab everything you need and call all the relevant people. Dale and I dragged the pre-inflated pool out of our spare room, placed some waterproof sheeting down under it in our little lounge room and chucked on our ‘labour playlist” of chilled tracks. While Dale headed back to bed for some much needed rest before the big show, I was still a little too excited. I decided it was time to call my midwife who lived approx 1.5hr away to fill her in. I knew I didn’t want her coming down just yet but touching base with her helped me keep my cool.
After wandering around the house for another hour, I started to feel the lack of sleep. Contractions were still about 15mins apart and not at all bothersome. So I went to bed for a lie down also at 5.30am. I dozed in and out until 6.30, and then I was ready to get up and get moving. I was so determined to stay active this time around and avoid any stalling of labour if I could. I got dressed and left the house with Tux leading the way. Port Albert is so beautiful in the early hours, and the cool morning was a nice wake up call for my tired brain. I passed a few early risers, all none the wiser. By 7.30 I decided to call Mum. Funnily enough after all my mental preparation, self work and meditation the last few weeks, I was focused, sure and confident! My Mum was a little taken back with how relaxed I was “Hey Mum, so we wont be heading to Sale today after all” I said. “Could you come and get Cohan after you’ve gone for your walk and had some brekky? No rush”. She was more nervous than I was id say!
I got back home and Dale and Cohan were up eating some brekky. My sons excited little face when I came in gave me another burst of energy. “Gosh I love him, I cant believe I will have another to love with such enormity pretty soon” Things slowed slightly whilst we got Cohan organised to go with his nanny. But whilst waiting patiently for her to arrive, I started finding myself wishing she was here already. Things were starting to change, speed up, and contractions were about 4mins a part and I had to stop and breath through them. Waving goodbye to my baby was actually a relief. I knew it was getting harder to hide the pain and he barely blinked an eyelid- a ride in nannies car was far more appealing!
Time to focus again, our midwife arrived at 10.30am, followed by our second midwife (a legal requirement in Australia when homebirthing). We had one final arrival of one more support person who Dale and I had asked to share in our journey and who we had complete faith and trust in to capture some of our most pivotal and special moments. The birth pool had already been filled before anyone else had arrived and a special cover placed on top to keep the water at the right temperature. Between 9.30 and 11.30am contractions ebbed and flowed. I made a cup of tea, ate some breakfast. At times I had to stop and breath, and others just passed by. It was strange how good I felt still compared to this time with Cohan. When asked if id like to get in the pool at 11.30 I hesitated, and looking back I should have trusted my instincts. I had always imagined I would be desperate to get in the pool, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I got in anyway; Big Mistake. Water is relaxing, its calming, it can quite often slow labour down.
I spent 2 hours in the warm water, feeling sleepy and feeling more and more drained (like imagine when you have a spa). Things really stalled. Dale was watching his watch and I could tell he was slightly concerned for me, noticing they had dropped to almost 15mins a part. I was starting to think I wouldn’t be able to do it. “What if this baby is posterior like Cohan” I had felt minor back niggles. “What if I just don’t have the energy to go another 4, 6, 8+hours?” I was so tired from the lack of sleep I didn’t think I had it in me. Dale encouraged me to hop out of the pool, and I knew he was right. I went to the bathroom and BOOM. Just standing up, moving about and emptying my bladder brought the contractions back with a vengeance. It was brutal. I wasn’t sure I could get back off the toilet or out of the bathroom. But that one passed. I had probably 3 or 4 contractions between the bathroom and going back to our lounge.
There was something in me at this point that still felt I wasn’t ready, baby wasn’t ready. I had an awareness of where babe was and she didn’t feel low enough yet, there was several occasions that I thought I could tell baby had moved from anterior to somewhere between anterior and posterior. She was moving about too much. Dale remembered me saying how we could use stairs to help a baby drop lower during contractions. He pulled out the step ladder.
Standing in the lounge with my arms around his shoulders, I attempted to climb the step ladder during each contraction. I really only made it up 1 step, and it felt like he’d half hoisted me up them. But it worked. A total of 5 or so contractions and I could feel how much lower she had dropped. I was ready to hop back in the pool.
At this point I stripped off my bottoms and clambered in. I don’t recall exactly how many contractions I had in those next 15 minutes. But that is all it took to birth my baby girl. One contraction triggered my waters to break, not that anyone else in the room noticed as I was kneeling waist deep in the water facing Dale standing outside at the edge of the pool. I had heard about the Foetal Ejection Reflex (FER) but taken little notice as I didn’t experience that with Cohan- I just knew to try to breathe and slow them down as to reduce risk of tearing. But Cohan’s labour was a synthetically stimulated one. Who knew my body could be so powerful, so forceful. When the FER kicked in it took 2 contractions. First one, Raine’s head was born- as much as I had tried to slow down they were unstoppable. Second one, her body followed and I lifted my baby girl out of the water and onto my chest.
That feeling is indescribable, and as overwhelmed with emotion as I was. I also felt numb. Wow I hadn’t anticipated the speed of that. I didn’t even get a second to register to push and my baby girl was there in my arms. “Did that really just happen?”. Raine was already trying to look around and listening to her fathers voice, following it as he walked around the pool. With my little girl in my arms, I felt a huge rush of adoration, pride and accomplishment. There is no greater feeling, no greater achievement, than giving birth to a child. And Dale and I had done it all on our own.
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