Blog
05/01/2010
Birth Partner on Boxing Day!
After a busy Christmas day with my family I spoke to Louise and she had been having contractions that afternoon. Not to worry, she said. With her last pregnancy, 10 years before, that had been the way every night for a week! I went to bed and phoned in the morning.. eventually Louise answered from a bath at the hospital.. "Hold on, I'm having a contraction" and she broke off and came back a minute later to continue the conversation!
Louise lives 2 hours away from me so I threw everything in the car, said goodbye to my 84 year old dad who was visiting and took off for Peterborough General, trying to sort of keep to the speed limit! Luckily I guessed the right hospital as I didn't know there were 2 in Peterborough until I saw the signs!
I arrived around 11.30, just in time for Louise to start pushing. Louise has a bad back which I've treated for years with massage and reflexology. She was lying on her side on an NCT mat on the floor - "too hard" was her comment and vowed to complain to the NCT. Louise is an NCT tutor and runs classes in natural childbirth in the Peterborough area! She was hoping to have a delivery just with gas and air, no pethidine and any help I could give her and that's what she got!
The best place for me was next to midwife at the lower end of the proceedings.. kneeling on the floor with Louise gripping one of my hands, resting a leg on my shoulder and using my knee as something to push against when she needed to push.
Things moved quickly and baby William gradually appeared. It was fascinating to see how his head changed shape during the contractions. It was really bumpy while he was coming through and became a perfect shape the moment he was born. Louise was able to feel his head between contractions and I could give her a commentary of how much baby was emerging on each push.
A perfect little boy was born at 11.52 and he settled down immediately on mum. I cuddled him for an hour while Louise was attended to and he was so alert, looking around all the time, not really sleeping until that night.
I was present at several births during my time as a student nurse in 1986 and decided then that I'd like to become a midwife. I was unable to because of my own hand eczema problems and later came to work with lots of pregnant ladies in my capacity as a complementary therapist. So, all in all, an ambition fulfilled!
I'm now back in Hadleigh after a week with Louise and her family, Ben and Emily who are delighted with their brother and have mastered cuddles but not nappies yet!
Louise has made a good recovery. I gave her reflexology every day to help with uterus discomfort and help to go to the toilet! We used a homeopathic birthing kit which was invaluable. I'll write about that on another post.
Louise had promised to write her account of the birth when she has time between feeds!
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