A Labour of Love

I was fairly certain that I would go into labour naturally before being induced at 39 weeks. But it still took me a little by surprise at 3:30 on Friday morning when I woke up as my waters broke. I didn't go straight into labour, but was having random contractions, so headed in to the hospital about an hour later.

We completed all the paperwork and were admitted to the delivery suite, where a midwife spent about an hour monitoring me and the baby to make sure everything was OK. My friend (and birth attendant) Fiona arrived, and encouraged me in some exercises to try to bring on established labour. A nurse bought me some breakfast, and it wasn't until about 8:30 am that a doctor came to see me.

After an internal examination, the obstetrician declared I was 1-2 cm dilated and ready for labour. Because I've had gestational diabetes, the risk of infection after my waters breaking was higher. So he recommended putting up a drip to induce labour rather than sending me home again to wait it out.

I wasn't so keen on the drip, but fortunately it didn't last long. As soon as they put it up, contractions started coming one after the other. Less than five minutes later they decided to turn it off, as it was clear that the baby was on the way. I had to instantly adopt all my pain management strategies - eyes closed, deep breathing, banging the bed loudly with a ball, and listening to my husband count 1-2-3. He knows by now what works for me, and we got straight into it!

I don't like being in labour. It is incredibly intense and painful. I always get terribly nervous, knowing what is coming. But this time I managed it well, once again without drugs, with the help of Neil, Fiona ... and the fact that it was so short. Contractions were up to two and a half minutes long, but they were very effective, and it was only an hour before I started pushing, and only a few minutes after that that our beautiful little daughter was born.

She's definitely worth it!

When it was all over I only required two stitches, and as you can see was overjoyed at the birth of my third little girl. I'm getting good at this!