On Tuesday 31st May 2005, I awoke at 8:30 am with the same cramping in
my lower belly that I had felt on and off over the past few days.
However, after cuddling in bed with Alejandro my 2 ¾ year old son for an
hour, I realised that the cramping sensations remained. “Perhaps this is
it”, I thought hopefully. Whilst I had enjoyed a physically easy
pregnancy, I had grown weary with anticipation and I was definitely
looking forward to bringing my 3rd baby (whose womb name was Tres)
earthside.
I called my Canadian birthing buddy Amy, we had shared each other’s
birth experiences in Oz in 2002 and as she was holidaying in Auckland,
she was determined to be at Tres’s birth. I insisted on waiting a couple
of hours to be 100% sure that labour had begun, before she packed up her
husband and two toddlers and journeyed down to be with us.
I readied Alejandro and myself for the day, breakfasted lightly on toast
and began calling the rest of my “support team”. This group of close
friends and family consisted of:
-
Scott – my husband whose main role was to support me physically
in birthing positions
-
Sandra – my mum who was Alejandro’s main support person
-
Tania – my sister (a maiden) who was on “heat pack duty”
-
Cristina – my mother-in-law, who was on hot water duty inc.
filling the birth pool
-
Debbie – my life long friend (a maiden) who was on “heat pack
duty” also
-
Naomi – my cousin (a maiden) who was responsible for taking
photos
-
Marina – a new friend (a mother with 3mnths to go on her 1st
pregnancy), who was responsible for filming and
-
Julie – “the midwife”, nuff said.
While this list may seem long to you, in my journey I have found
women either like the idea of others being present or ABSOLUTLEY NOT AT
ALL! I have also looked upon sharing my birth experiences with the
maiden’s I love the most as a kind of a gift to them, a unique
opportunity to see birth in a positive, normal, do-able situation,
before their own time comes.
I basically told everyone that “today may be the day and that I would be
calling by lunch to confirm and give further instructions if it was. I
then spent an hour vacuuming and preparing our spare room for Amy and
her family. Cramping remained. I called Amy back and they optimistically
“hit the road”.
I then thought “well if this is it, I want to spend some real time with
Alejandro – my last moments as mother of one”. He was quite crook with
that nasty chest flu that went around this year and so we cuddled and
cuddled and cuddled some more on the couch. About an hour into this the
cramping became contractions and I would shuffle into a better position
on the edge of the couch and concentrate on breathing and not tensing
up, all the while with Alejandro in my lap.
Around 1pm I called Scott and asked him to come home as soon as he could
and I asked everyone else to come around 5pm. I spent the next hour
pottering around preparing a few last minute “birthy” things, the need
to concentrate my mind on the contractions was gradually increasing.
When Scott arrived Alejandro really vied for his attention, I realised
that the birth space was only going to get busier as more people arrived
and I felt a real desire to be alone with Scott for part of this labour.
So mum came and took Alejandro and my father in law and mother in law
back to her place and along with my sister they filled a car boot with
additional firewood for the night ahead.
I put on Gipsy Kings and Scott and I slow danced together through every
contraction for an hour or so. In between contractions he started the
fire and moved the birth pool into place.
By 4:30 p.m. I was starting to have to concentrate entirely on each
contraction and I was really looking forward to the girls arriving and
starting the hot nappy relief. I called Julie for the first time, she
said she was just on her way home from a birth and that she would call
in see how I was doing and perhaps head home for a sleep if there was
time.
Just as I was beginning to NEED the hot nappy relief the girls arrived
and so the water started flowing, into the bucket for now and into the
birth pool for later. Julie arrived, she spoke to me, she swayed next to
me, and then she set up an armchair “nest” and had a little moi.
And so I laboured and laboured and laboured, always upright hanging onto
Scott, always with hot nappies being held on my abdomen and back and
always with a fair amount of groaning. In between contractions I swayed,
I rocked, I paced, I drank, I peed, I ate a banana, I directed others
and I swirled the rising waters of my birth pool.
Around 7:30pm I began to get disheartened. During one contraction I
began groaning “no, no, no” I realised and quickly recovered with a
“yes, yes, YES”. I had already had enough and it had only been 3hrs of
active labour. The first time I birthed it took 12 hrs of active labour,
the second time 6hrs. It never occurred to me that 3hrs was time enough
for my “seasoned” body to reach transition, I thought I still had HOURS
to go and that I would come up short on energy and resolve.
The pool was ready. Scott – a devout cold water bather – slinked in
first, taking his time to get used to the piping hot water. I laboured
using Julie for physical support – I was struck by the different
sensation. Scott’s muscular frame had been a pillar to work against
during the some of the “gruntiest” moments, but now that my will was
crumbling it was bliss to melt into Julie’s curvy softness and be
supported in a nurturing way.
I clambered into the pool and set about finding a comfortable position.
I didn’t have a pushing urge as such, I think I began pushing just to
reach the end sooner. I preferred to remain upright and so Scott and I
knelt facing each other. I began to get pins and needles in my feet.
This progressed to thigh cramps and sciatica. Julie would reach into the
pool and massage me in between contractions. At times I tried to rupture
the membranes to speed things up. I became more disheartened. I said, “I
don’t know if I can do this any more”. Julie said, “what do you want to
do”, “birth this baby” I replied, “good girl” she said and recommend
that I stand up again so that gravity would help the process.
It was close to 8pm when all of the girls formed a semi circle around me
at the edge of the pool. Whilst it felt comforting I wasn’t sure why
they were doing it, that is until I caught sight of Amy ushering her
family up the hall. WOOHOO! She’d made it. It was both reassuring and
uplifting to look upon the face of my soul sister that I hadn’t seen for
two years.
My energy bolstered I once again turned my mind to the task at hand.
With each contraction I would bear down with all of my might, each time
squatting as deep as I could, with Scott helping me up again. There was
not much the others could physically do to support me and so the room
became still and quite. The only real movement and noise was coming from
me.
A short time later my membranes literally “popped”. I knew I was in the
home straight and as I hoped to birth Tres into the water, I kept my
waist submerged. I began to feel the familiar (once you’ve experienced
it you never forget) pressure, and soon enough I began to feel Tres’s
head. My contractions slowed and it took quite a few to ease Tres’s
whole head out. I also had to move around a bit and stretch back to get
the necessary angle for Tres’s face and chin to come out. “Ring of fire”
is what some women refer to crowning as, but I quite like the sensation,
probably because I know my baby is almost earthside. I supported Tres’s
head with my hand during this process and once out Scott had a feel of
his baby as well.
My contractions slowed further. The next couple did not expel Tres’s
body. Tres began to move around. I felt this sensation within me and
also in Tres’s head. “That feels a bit funky Tres”’ I kept saying over
and over. Tres was obviously trying to rotate in order to get each
shoulder out.
Julie said “next contraction we want to get Tres out”. Next contraction
came and went – no baby. Tres’s head must have been out and under water
for close to 5mins now. “If you were going to help baby, you would push
the head back underneath you”, Julie said. Next contraction I
half-heartedly tried with no result. Next contraction Julie assisted. I
let out a high pitched yelp as I felt Tres’s shoulders leave my body.
The rest of Tres’s body followed easily and as I reclined back into
Scott I raised our son up and out of the waters of the birth pool and
onto my chest.
Miguel Kea Correa was born at 8:25pm. He weighed in at 10 ½ lbs.
He spluttered a bit and then cried momentarily. Scott and I were
drinking him in with our eyes as we cupped warm water over his back. He
quietened down and began the gradual process of unfolding to the earth.
I delivered his placenta within a quarter of an hour or so and Miguel
detached from it two and a half days later.
I dried myself off, jumped into some Jamie's and then we all went to bed
– The Correa’s- now a family of four.
