Consumers Supporting Midwifery Care

I can’t believe it. She is finally here. Nisha-Rain Mieka Pearl arrived on May 6th, 2004 at 1:45 am. Labour was something else, though mom said I made it look easy. It was hard and painful, but I did it! No drugs, in the water, and I got to catch her. It was perfect and just how I wanted it.

The midwives had it marked down as 37 weeks and one day. I had promised my midwife I would make it to this point because before then they recommend a hospital birth. That was the last thing I wanted.

My water broke on Wednesday shortly after my new bed arrived. I was half done dreading my hair, just like my brother’s girlfriend said I would be. I was starting to get a headache from pulling so much on my hair, so I decided I would eat a snack, and then try out my new bed. I was so thankful afterward we thought to put a shower curtain under the mattress cover.

I was lying down for about ten minutes when POP! I knew exactly what it was right away, rolled off my bed and crashed on the floor right on my butt!
That’s when it gushed. I yelled to my step dad “I think my water just broke.”
He came in quickly and said “Are you sure?” Of course I was sure. He went and got my midwife’s pager number and called right away. I was so stunned I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there in the bathroom completely dumbfounded, and shaking. I was still standing there when my midwife called back. I said “Um hi, my water just broke.” She was very calm and asked some questions like “What colour is the water?” These were all questions I didn’t know the answer to, because I was still standing there in shock.

She directed me with what to do, though I can’t remember much of our conversation. When I got off the phone with her, my step dad and I started preparing for labour. We brought a mattress up from downstairs and laid it on the living room floor. After we had gotten some things together, we called mom at work to let her know what had happened. We knew she would be frantic and that’s why we waited to call her.

I had planned a water birth but we didn’t have the birthing tub with us yet.
We had to track it down first, and then mom went to pick it up. I tried to nap while she was gone but I was so excited I couldn’t sleep at all. I felt so good though. I was so happy and my headache had vanished almost immediately after my water broke. I was doing awesome and just wanted to tell everyone what had happened. So I ate some supper and decided to call around to some friends and family.

After awhile I was getting to the point when I couldn’t talk through contractions. I had asked everyone present to keep track of the intervals, but not say anything to me about it. I really didn’t want to know how far apart my contractions were. I wanted labour to progress as it would naturally and just let my body do what it needed to.

My midwife and a student (whom I hadn’t yet met) came out to check where I was at in labour. I was 100% enfaced and already starting to dilate. The midwife offered to do a massage on the cervix to help it dilate quicker but I told her not to, because I wanted it to progress on its own. I figured the baby would come when she was ready.

After the midwife left, I rested on the mattress in the living room for a while. I remember trying to say something and had to stop due to a contraction. It was very intense but not so much painful. I got another contraction shortly after that and decided it was time to call the midwife again. My step dad took care of that while I sat on the toilet with my mother beside me, helping me through more contractions.

Finally I got up. I wanted to wear this nice white tank top with flowers on the bottom, but I didn’t know where it was. It was driving me nuts trying to find it because of course it would go missing right when I wanted it. I ran downstairs to check one last time between contractions, but I ended up getting another on the way back up the stairs.

Mom went and got one of her shirts while I waited by the tub. I was leaning over the kitchen counter with my head down resting on my hands. I stopped breathing briefly through this contraction because the counter smelled like pepper and I didn’t want to sneeze when I was in so much pain. Mom came out with a plain white t-shirt and I quickly stripped down to nothing and put it on. I got in the tub and the second I did I felt about 20 times better.

I got on my hands and knees through contractions and rocked back and forth.
I felt like a mother hippo birthing in the wild. My face was half in the water and as I would rock back and forth my face would create a wave to the edge of the tub. I felt like I was in a complete meditative state. Complete relaxation! I wanted to stay like that forever but the tub was really hot and when the midwife arrived with the student she asked me to get out of the water to cool down and also so she could check me.

She had checked my temperature while I was in the water and she wanted to check it again before I got back in. I went to the washroom and immediately went back out into the kitchen and got in the tub before the midwife could check me. I already knew I was cooled down enough.

I got on my hands and knees for a long time and I knew I should change positions for a bit but I loved being like that so much. Eventually the midwife suggested that I go on my side for a while. I did that and I rested my head on a water-jug so I could fall asleep between contractions. The water-jug was making me really angry when I was in transition because it would never just be how I needed it. A couple of times I breathed in some water and that made me feel pretty uncomfortable. It got to the point where it was really uncomfortable to move at all during a contraction and that was right around the time I felt like pushing.

I was still lying on my side when I started getting the urge. I was scared because I had read so many times about women who had to “wait” to push. I told my midwife right away and she told me it was okay and when I felt like pushing just push. Everything was very relaxed and it really helped me to hear her calm voice to help me through.

The midwife suggested that I go back on my hands and knees. I felt it was such a relief to hear that and immediately switched positions. I was so thankful for her to say that because if no one had said anything I probably would have just stayed how I was.

The pain was so intense now with each contraction that I couldn’t control if I was to push or not. I gave a few strong pushes and right when I wanted it all to end the midwife said she could feel the baby’s head and I could touch it if I wanted. I reached down, but I was confused I didn’t know which the head was. I finally figured out that the soft wrinkly thing was the top of the baby’s head. It totally overwhelmed me to feel this and I just couldn’t wait to see my baby’s face. I only gave about two more pushes before I felt a pop. I couldn’t believe it. Her head was out! It felt like it took forever to get to that stage.

The midwife delivered the head, then she got me to sit back and I delivered the baby’s body. I was so shocked and didn’t know what was happening. When I first caught her I started saying “my baby, my baby, my baby!” I couldn’t stop saying it. Somebody told me it was okay and to relax.

I held my new baby girl for a bit but not nearly as long as I would have liked. Because the umbilical cord was only about 15” long and I could only concentrate on one thing at a time, either keeping her head above water or not pulling the cord, we had to cut the cord.

I sat in the tub for a bit but I’m not sure for how long. It wasn’t as long as I would have liked. When I got out I handed the baby off to someone so they could take her to be cleaned, and checked over.

Nisha was cold so she had a heating pad under her. We tried nursing but I was so burnt out and had no clue what I was doing. We all gathered around and just stared at her. It was amazing. After all this time of wondering and now, here she was!