Happy Mother’s Day…Emma’s Birth Story

Two weeks on and it’s Mother’s day. What an apt time to share the story about how Emma came into the world. Well here it is…(I’ll keep the gory details to a minimum)

As I mentioned previously it was all very fast. She was very considerate and decided to arrive on a Sunday morning. It was all very civilized – until the contractions started!
Sunday morning 7.30 am, while on the loo, a small stabbing pain – my waters broke. Quite convenient as there was no mess to clean up. Woke Mr Cinti, called our Doula, called the hospital, hospital asked us to come in for a check up.
Being my first, I thought we had plenty of time. Mr Cinti had a shower then decided it was a good time to trim his beard. Then BANG! Contraction! Big painful one, nausea = Vomiting.
Yelling at Mr Cinti to forget about the beard and get the bags ready. I struggle to have a shower as my contractions are 2 minutes apart from the get go.
Mr Cinti in ‘man’ panic mode.
Heading to the hospital at great (illegal) speed.
(Lucky for us it was a Sunday, as 24hrs latter we would have been sitting in an hours worth of gridlocked peak hour traffic on Queens rd.)
At the hospital, they were waiting for us, although not expecting a woman with 2 min contractions!
I was barely lucid, the midwife told me I was only 2cm dilated! I started to panic now, the pain was already unbearable and I potentially had hours to go. Apparently too early for major pain relief, she suggested going home and waiting as one of my options. Well, you can imagine how I reacted to that! I wonder if she thought I was just carrying on?
Luck for her she came to her senses and quickly wheeled me up to a delivery suite. The Doula was on her way in a taxi.
Upstairs, the midwife was a star! I stripped off and jumped in the shower, she hooked me up with some gas, Yay! The Doula arrived and coached me through the contractions, Mr Cinti was massaging my back, I felt relatively in control again. I can’t tell you how grateful I was to have a supportive partner and the Doula with me at that time. The Midwife was lovely but not very ‘hands on’.
I have no idea how long I was in the shower for, water restrictions were the last thing on my mind!
The contractions were getting more and more intense with no relief in between. Just more pain and slightly less pain in between. I felt I was coping ok and was happy to carry on without extra pain management.
Contractions changed and I was having the urge to push. Everyone assumed I wasn’t dilated so they were telling me not to. I did what felt right and just PUSSSHHED! I felt Emma’s head crown, what a relief. I asked the midwife to check because I thought the baby was ‘coming out’. “Too soon” she said until she saw some hair.
All of a sudden 3 midwives appeared from nowhere. A mat was rolled out on the bathroom floor, on my hands and knees, one push and out came her head, one more push and Emma was delivered. 11.18am , about 3hrs and 45min altogether.
Mr Cinti cut the cord and I felt euphoric. Emma looked beautiful and calm, she didn’t even cry.
Up onto the bed, waited to deliver placenta, a doctor with electric blue hair stitched up a small tear, and the rest is history.
Apparently I was a minor celebrity in the labour ward that morning, very unusual to have such a fast and drug free labour with no complications. The admitting midwife even came to visit to see it with her own eyes. She was looking a bit sheepish, imagine if I’d gone home, Emma might have been born in an ambulance!
Looking back I think my labour started the night before, I’d felt some minor stomach cramps through the night, I thought I’d eaten too much dinner so I just slept through them! I’m sure I was in established labour when I arrived at the hospital, 2cm dilated? I think not.
Anyway, all’s well that ends well. Now the next challenge, how to get Emma to sleep at 3am?

Happy Mother’s day
Xx Cintia & Emma