The Birth I Always Wanted - Baby Jensen
We heard about independent midwifery when i was six months gone with my first son Raiden. We found that Caroline and Chrissy shared our views on a natural birth and felt at ease with them both.
I also hate hospitals and felt if i were in one, my labour would slow down. They didn't treat you like a medical object, they treated you like a friend. I felt at ease straight away. When i went into labour at 1:20 on Wed 21th March i felt wonderful and strong. I also thought that it wasn't so bad as i imagined.
I managed to only use the tens machine and the water pool. After a grueling labour my waters broke and i thought to my self i am going to see my boy soon. But as labour progressed i was exhausted and we realized that his head was stuck and for an hour i tried to push to no avail.
So i was taken into the hospital which i was told to use gas and air. They gave me a spinal block and Raiden was whipped out by ventouse. I was soon relieved to hear him cry. But horror struck when about one hour after he was born he stopped breathing and Caroline was the one who realized he had and helped revive him. We were in hospital for a week for tests and they couldn't find what caused it.
We were then discharged and went home to be new parents. Raiden never did have another episode like that again. He will be two March 2009. But Raiden's birth experience scarred me. I thought i would have the exact same experience again. I also was petrified that my next baby would suffer from a breathing apnea. Just like my first. So later when i discovered i was pregnant again i felt over the moon, but deep inside i was scared.
My husband and i didn't want to find out the gender as we wanted it to be a suprise. The pregnancy was over so fast. During Christmas i felt twinges and it went on until the 4th (which was my due date) i hadn't felt the baby move. So Caroline took me to the hospital for a routine check just to make sure everything was alright. She hooked me up to both of the monitors and saw everything was alright. Plus she noticed that i was having contractions. She couldn't believe how calm i was through the contractions. She advised us both about a membrane sweep and if we wanted to speed it up. We both agreed on it. That was around 4pm.
We went to my mother inlaw's to pick up Raiden but as we were getting there my contractions started to get a little bit stronger. So we decided to leave Raiden at the inlaws. We went home and set the pool up. I found walking around the pool kept me calm and stopping now and then to breath through contractions. I remember thinking these are not that bad, it must be ages yet.
I said to Caroline not to come yet as i feel it would be a while yet. At 8:15 Caroline arrived as we called earlier to say that the contractions were getting stronger and faster. At 9.30pm Carline measured me at 4cm dilated. She said she never seen a woman walk around the pool like that and being so calm. I entered the pool at 10.00pm and the instant i entered it i felt so comfortable. I started conversation up about Christmas, New Year and our new house that we have just bought. My contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting 40 seconds. During my contractions i just breathed through them without making a sound. Then Caroline started to tell Alan, my husband, that it may be a while. That you may want to take a break. But i started to feel pressure of the head and my waters broke. They broke for a very long time. Caroline decided to call Chrissy and say that you may want to pop over. But to take your time.
I was leaning over the pool holding my husbands hand and looking into his eyes and thought this really isn't that bad. But at the height of the pain Caroline thought i should have the gas and air. As she was setting it up i felt my baby's head coming. She quickly came to see how i was doing and i had my second big contraction and the head popped out. Alan was so over whelmed and got up to see. But i held him back, as i felt another big contraction. Caroline told me to lean back and push. My baby's body slide out of me and i brought him up for air. When i heard a scream and felt utter relief that the baby was okay.
So as i checked the ten fingers and toes. We found out that my baby was a boy. We decided to call him Jensen. He was born on the 5th January 2009 at 1:20am, weighing a healthy 7lb 8oz, 52cm long. The placenta came at 1:50am. As the first cry of my new baby boy, Chrissy came in through the door and was very pleased that she arrived at the right time. She saw the look of utter shock in my face and thought she had invaded. But i quickly reassured her that it wasn't her.
It was in fact the overwhelming love i felt for him as i thought i didn't have enough love for another (don't worry every mother has those feelings and feelings that you are not going to cope) and how quickly he came. As i laid on the sofa peering into my sons eyes i thought to my self this is just the perfect birth i always wanted. It couldn't get any better than this. We sorted out our son and placed him in his new bed and stared at him until we both fell asleep. Later in the day our first born Raiden came back from his nana's around 2pm. We were worried how he would take to him. But he took to him right away.
Now Jensen is 6 weeks old and his big brother calls him Jay Jay and gives him hugs and kisses. My perfect birth fooled Caroline as i was lucid throughout labour, chatting away. As she has written in my notes she called a 'spontaneous vertex delivery underwater of male infant'. He was definitely spontaneous. My total length of labour was 4 hours and 30 minutes. But the 2nd stage was only 20 minutes.
I just want to say to say to all of the mothers out there. Every birth is different and if you had a traumatic birth one time, doesn't particularly mean you are going to have the same experience again. All i needed was another mother to have been through what i had been through and came the other side having the most beautiful birth story n the end. That was all i needed to calm myself down and take a step back. So i share my birth experience to help mothers like me. Lets just hope you will. But either way you will have a beautiful baby at the end of it.
Tara and Alan Parsons
plus baby Jensen and Raiden