Sticking Up for Myself and My Birth

I went to get induced on the 12th of July 2011, I was getting regular contractions but they weren’t painful.

I was in pre-labour. They decided to insert the first lot of gel, I was fine with that and went for walks around the hospital. Then, while walking my hind waters broke, so the nurses/midwives checked to see if they were; they couldn’t get a clear result. So they stuck the 2nd lot of gel in… BIG mistake.  The doctor wasn’t careful; I cried and was very stressed. Then bub went into distress and his heart rate dropped, they were working on trying to get bubs heart rate normal. Luckily for me they turned me onto my side and bubs heart rate went back up to normal.

The next lot of gel wasn’t until 6 hours later so I had some time to rest and think. Just before the next lot of gel I decided to walk out of my induction, I no longer thought getting the induction was worth the risk of having a C-section. So I discharged myself while the doctors were trying to talk me out of it.

The next day the doctors and the midwives all had a meeting and decided it was best if I come in and finished my induction. I told them I didn’t want too; I had weighed up the risks and benefits and didn’t think the risks were worth it. The whole hospital staff were hassling me throughout the day to come in. When I said no, they stopped all treatment I was getting at home, so I wouldn’t know if something was wrong.

While all this was going on I was working on getting myself into labour my own way. I was walking up and down stairs, eating pineapple, taking evening primrose oil capsules every 2 hours, taking long walks and resting. The next day the hospital kept calling me over and over again to come in. Eventually I gave in and went up there. They ended up putting me in my own room, separated me from my mum, they gave me a BIG lecture about how what I was doing was unsafe. They also gave my mum a lecture telling her that she HAS to make me finish my induction otherwise they were going to get child services involved (I was under 18). I kept to my beliefs and I knew my bub was fine so I went home and continued to get labour induced naturally.

On the 14th of July (12 days over), I went into labour at 4pm, on my way to get acupuncture done (another way of inducing labour) on my way back I was getting terrible contractions; I could not sit still. I continued to make sure my labour didn’t stop and went for long walks up and down hills – yes while I was in labour. I had bad back pain and nothing was working, my mum and grandma were giving me great massages, and my dad kept taking me for walks. That kept on for 24 hours.

On the 15th of July I went to the hospital, I was 5cm dilated and labour was progressing slowly. They checked to see how far dilated I was every 4 hours and it would only be 0.5cm more the first time. The 2nd time I hadn’t dilated at all, bub was posterior so labour was progressing even slower than usual. They asked if I wanted my waters broken, I said no, I then had a suck of gas and threw it away, it made me feel sick.

Two hours later, they checked to see how far dilated I was; I hadn’t dilated anymore so I had my waters broken.  It was now 2am on the 16th of July, they put me in the bath tub and I was dilating fast. I went from 7cm to 9cm in 2 hours, I felt like I needed to push so I went back into my labour ward. The midwife checked to see how far dilated I was; I was 9cm dilated. They made me delay pushing for a bit, and then suddenly I felt like I didn’t have a choice I started pushing. The midwife checked again 20 minutes later and I was 10cm dilated and pushing!!

I tried all sorts of positions…standing next to the bed, sitting on a stool that looked like a toilet seat, squatting in the shower, bubs head didn’t want to come out. An hour and a half passed and I was still pushing, the doctors and midwives had decided they wanted to use a vacuum and I agreed to it. While they were getting things set up, a different midwife told me to lie on the bed and I had a mirror in front of me…that did the trick!! Seeing what I was doing helped; I was pushing so hard my whole face would turn bright red!

Thirty minutes later I finally got to meet my perfect little man! I forgot about the previous 37 hours and was amazed at just how beautiful this little baby was. I decided in my birth plan that I wanted a natural 3rd stage but I hemorrhaged, so I had to have the needle and a blood transfusion. I learnt two lessons while in labour with my son, to STICK UP FOR YOURSELF and THAT I KNOW MY BABY & BODY BEST.

This photo is the single greatest moment of my life, I was laughing, crying, saying the words “I did it.”