Well we had our little boy! He was born 02.01.2023 at 12:04pm, GA 40+1. A nice solid 4kg on the dot!
I could not have asked for a better labour and delivery. Everything went so smoothly and I felt incredibly empowered the whole time
I woke up at 1 am with ‘sensations’, so I just rested for a while and ignored them until about 3 am when I woke up my husband.
I could tell they were pretty frequent and building in intensity. We did 1 hour of timing them, and they were 4-6 mins apart, but moving along quickly. We called the hospital, and they said to come on down.
We got there around 4.30 am, and I was 3cm dilated but had a very soft cervix. I popped on the TENS machine and got moving! Lunges, squats, yogi pose, cat-cow, exercise ball, walking up and down the room – you name it.
By 9 am, I was 6cm dilated and opted for some gas and jumped in the bath. When I was in the bath, my waters broke, and everything progressed VERY quickly and built in intensity an incredible amount.
I was 9cm by 10 am, and my body started pushing on its own in the bath. They checked me, but he wasn’t ready to come yet. I couldn’t stop the pushing reflex, and I could feel myself losing control of my breathing.
So, I opted for the epidural at that stage because I knew I needed to calm myself down and not do unnecessary damage with the pushing.
The anaesthetist was there within 5 minutes, quick and painless procedure. I finally settled down and my husband did some breath work with me, and after just a bit over an hour he was ready to come out!
We started pushing at 11.30 am, I think the first 15-20 were me getting the hang out of it and finding a position that worked for me (I had a light epi and could still move my legs freely).
Out he came at 12.04 pm!
We did the golden hour, and he breast crawled and latched successfully straight away. It was honestly amazing. Minimal tearing! 11 hours start to finish.
I was so proud of myself for my spontaneous labour, getting myself to 9cm and accepting when I needed a bit of extra help to get through that last hour of transition (wow was that tough. I was ROARING haha).
Thank you so much for the class. Throughout the whole labour, my mind was so focused on everything we learnt in that class – breathwork, visualisations, positions, understanding what was happening at each step physiologically, and being informed in making my own decisions!
So in love with my little bundle.
Warm regards
Phoebe and Dan