Sorcha’s birth 15th April 2001 by Fiona Wallace Carville
I had a very easy pregnancy with the only issue being some pain in my left hip around five months. I wasn’t scanned at all and had no tests other than routine blood and urine screening. I regularly attended Active Birth classes and had some Ecstatic Birth breathwork sessions. I also kept up my usual yoga class for most of the pregnancy.
My husband, Steve, and I had decided on a home birth right from the beginning. At first, I didn’t feel comfortable with the midwife I had so we looked at alternatives, deciding that an independent midwife was beyond our means at that time, but a doula might be a possibility. My mother wanted to be our doula, but I later decided that this wasn’t right for us. Pat Bennaceur offered to come and be with us if it was possible. As it turned out, it was just Steve, myself and the two midwives at the birth, with a brief telephone call from Pat to say she was with us in spirit.
As my relationship with my midwife developed I changed my mind about her - I grew to really like her and felt much more comfortable. As it turned out, she wasn’t present at the birth but I really appreciated her input during my pregnancy and postpartum.
The couple of weeks before the due date, we hired a birth pool for our tiny living room, and arranged for other midwives in the community team to drop in for a cup of tea so we could meet them. We met about three or four. I also started getting my herbs and homeopathic remedies prepared, stocking the house with food and all the equipment we needed for the pool. The baby was due on 16th April; her head had been down in the optimum position for a good number of weeks, she had engaged partially into the pelvis and the midwife was happy with everything, despite the fact I had not been scanned. The midwife said that the baby would fully engage once labour had started - this was not uncommon. I was quite relieved that I didn’t have the ‘football between the legs’ feeling that a lot of women have told me about!
Every midwife who had visited had told us that having sex was the best way to get things going, so we took this advice and made love three nights in a row - on the Friday night, before going to sleep, I felt a couple of light twinges. I had had a ‘show’, I think, sometime on Friday, and there was more on Saturday morning.
Saturday lunch time and afternoon I felt a couple more light twinges. Then, around ten o’clock at night, they started to come more frequently. At around 10.30 we decided to call the midwives’ office. ‘Oh it’s just pre-labour’, I was cheerily told by one of the hospital midwives, as I explained that I was only feeling the twinges under the bump. ‘You’ve got to feel them all over the bump for it to be the real thing’, she said, ‘but don’t worry - it will be doing something - preparing your cervix’.
We decided to try and get some sleep, but things were hotting up, and pre-labour or not, I decided watching television would be better, but I couldn’t even concentrate on that! So I got Steve to fill the pool whilst I made some herbal tea. Steve then marked out some acupressure points on me that we had learnt, in case they were needed later, and he gave me a back massage - which, frustratingly, was never firm enough! When the twinges came, I would either stand and lean on Steve, swaying, almost dancing, or I would get down on all fours, or squat, which really opened things up and made it so much more intense.
After this, or during, I can’t really remember, we started timing the ‘twinges’. They were three or four minutes apart over an hour, so I called the midwife back - I started another ‘contraction’ (we preferred the word ‘expansion’) as I was on the telephone, so Steve took over and the midwife said someone would be out soon to check on us.
An hour later, one of the community midwives arrived. We’d never met her before, but I immediately felt comfortable with her - the bit I had been dreading the most, the internal examination, she made really easy and I didn’t feel a thing. My waters broke then. To my absolute joy I was 9cm dilated! I still hadn’t felt a thing anywhere other than underneath, but I was ready to get into the pool, and a few minutes later, entered the pushing stage.
I spent the majority of the second stage in the pool, moving around into different positions, standing up, leaning on Steve (who was in the water with me, occasionally getting out to get me something, or reaching over for a drink for me, or reminding me to do things, keeping me in ‘the zone’). We had classical music playing softly in the background, the lights were low, and couple of candles were burning.
At one point, the midwife got me to reach up inside and feel the top of the baby’s head coming down, and tell her how far it had to come. I really appreciated that she got me to do this myself. In fact, she intruded very little, listening into the baby’s heartbeat only three or four times (it didn’t change once), always choosing the right moment. She had read my birth plan on her arrival and respected what I had written.
Things seemed to slow down slightly and I felt I wanted to get out of the water. The midwife suggested that I go and sit on the toilet for a contraction or two. I did so, and this is when the baby’s head started to crown! I came back to the pool, and crowned the head very slowly over several contractions. In the end, I got out of the water and got onto all fours, leaning over a bean bag. The baby’s head was born, and after a pause, the rest of her body. At both of these points I made some noise - it had been fairly low level up until then! Steve was behind me with the midwife and she guided his hands so he could catch the baby. She breathed and pooed immediately, giving three short cries. He then passed her under my leg and I held my baby in my arms. However, her cord was really short and I couldn’t lift her up to my breast. I had wanted to cut the cord after the placenta had been delivered, but we compromised and waited until it had stopped pulsating. The baby had breathed immediately, so it wasn’t a problem.
After having a quick suck of my finger to get her reflex going, she latched onto the breast and had a short feed. The midwife massaged my tummy and after about twenty minutes, the placenta slipped out.
All I remember afterwards is having a bath with Sorcha and then the three of us going to bed. I think Steve did some clearing up (well, he did all of it before we were up again, somehow!). The midwives (the second one had come out at some point, but I hardly knew she was there) stayed an hour or so afterwards, had a drink and discussed a few things with us. Sorcha didn’t have Vitamin K as both the midwives and ourselves didn’t think it necessary.
I hadn’t crossed my mind at any point to even ask for any pain relief during the birth - other than the water, of course.
Our beautiful daughter had arrived in just under five hours and with the most effective pre-labour known to woman! I was an incredible experience and it fills me with joy to think about it.
