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Pauline's 2nd Home VBA2C

9/5/2013

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Pauline has six children.  Her first was an induced vaginal birth with vacuum extraction.  Her second was a spontaneous medicated vaginal birth.  Her third baby was an emergency cesarean due to placental abruption.  Her fourth baby was a planned repeat cesarean, which resulted in a NICU stay for her baby. Her fifth baby was a planned HBA2C with a midwife.  This is the story of her sixth and final baby, her second HBA2C, which she chose to deliver unassisted.


On February 27, 2009, at 41 weeks 6 days, I started having some contractions at around 4:00.  I’d been having them on and off for days so didn’t think too much of it.  At around 6, they hadn’t stopped and I noticed that I’d also developed a leak.  I went along as usual and the contractions started to pick up.  I had my husband fill the pool in the hope that I might have the baby faster than my last or at least have some pain relief as things got more difficult.   While in the pool at around 10, I got a big gush of fluid.  I had several more gushes over the next few hours, one of which caused my oldest to stay away, he thought I peed myself!  I labored all night and through the morning until about 11:00.  


At this point, my contractions slowly tapered off and spaced to about 20 minutes apart after a couple hours.  I stalled in my last labor at around this time, so I thought it was just normal for me. After about 4 hours with no progress I did ask my husband to have a quick feel to see if I had made any progress at all and I had.  I started to wonder after about 5 hours, so I called a couple friends and got online.  After a while, I realized I wasn’t sure I wanted transition to come.  I’d had some worries about how things happened in my last labor.  I was worried about the pain as well as the lack of an urge to push.  Although I thought I’d put these feelings aside, they were still there.  I asked my friend her opinion and she was blunt and honest, her words were what got me through the hardest part of my labor.  She told me I needed to decide now if I wanted another major surgery or if I could put my fears aside and allow my body to do what it needed to do.  My contractions were back before our conversation had ended.  I knew the hospital was not the place for me but if I didn’t allow my body to continue, that is exactly where I would end up. 


My labor was back in full force by 8:30.  I labored on-with a little help from Bob Marley‘s music- without too much problem until around 9 when I got this pain.  It wasn’t like any others and didn’t come with every contraction at first.  I knew I was well into transition because this was the exact way things happened when I had my last home birth.  I was still hoping to get the urge to push so I did what I could to get through them.  Soon it became apparent that I was losing control.  I screamed, begged and prayed for this pain to stop!  It’s odd, this kind of pain for me is almost like an urge to push.  Once I literally couldn’t get through them, I knew I had to push and my baby was born in less than 15 minutes at 10:32 PM on February 28th-his brother‘s birthday.  I pushed in my bed on all fours which is new for me.  I was able to guide his head out by using small pushes with no tearing and hardly any hint of the ring of fire but my husband caught.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen him more proud of himself. 


All in all, it was a great birth and I’m so happy that my little one is here now. My oldest son (10) cut the cord. He was a little nervous and worried about hurting the baby at first, but he did a great job!  My 7 year old daughter clamped it, my husband coached her through.  My 2 year old was the best little labor partner, he kept me happy and laughing during times when I didn’t think I could. My 8 year old slept through the birth she tried so hard to see.  She’s quite the little midwife already.  She was up with me half the first night doing anything I asked from pouring water on my tummy to passing me drinks without so much as a word.  


After things settled, we got him weighed and checked his length. He weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces and was 22 inches long--my largest baby! He nursed well and was quite a demanding little guy!
1 Comment
Scotland link
2/6/2021 05:03:55 pm

Thanks forr writing

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