My midwife told me that I had gone from 4cm to 10cm in an hour

My birth story begins at 41 weeks gestation. I had had an amazing pregnancy with no complications and was low risk however because I had gone a week over my due date it was the hospital’s policy to still give birth in the birth centre, that I would need monitoring at 41 weeks 41+3 and 41+5. I was feeling great and not unhappy about going past my due date as I had mentally prepared to go over given this was my first pregnancy. Our 41 week appointment came and we had ctg monitoring and the baby was very happy and everything was within normal ranges. As a requirement of the monitoring I had to have an ultrasound where the obstetrician told me that I had low fluid and that they weren’t going to put off inducing me. My midwife explained that the fluid had to be within 2 to 8 and found that my level was at 2.3 so even though it was low it was still on the low end of normal. Both my partner and I new this was common at the end of pregnancy and had the confidence to look up the relevant studies and statistics as we had gone over these issues in a birth class. We declined an induction and signed a non standard management plan and would reassess at each monitoring session. I knew that the obstetrician would be even more pushy at the next appointment for an induction and my midwife who had followed me through my whole pregnancy recommended acupuncture, a stretch and sweep (if I was favourable) and a mindset that I wasn’t going to go to that appointment as I would have already had my baby. I had acupuncture at two different practitioners and went to have a stretch and sweep but the midwife found that my cervix wasn’t open enough to do the stretch and sweep, and explained I probably wouldn’t go into labour for a few more days. I was so disheartened and felt my dream birth slipping away as my 41+3 appointment was the next day.

Driving home on the freeway I started to feel mild cramps/muscle twinges in my belly but they weren’t painful at all, but were coming in a regular pattern this was about 4:30pm. I decided to time them and they were 3 minutes apart lasting a minute at a time. When I got home I told my partner that I was having regular tightenings but I thought it was probably just braxton hicks, but my partner said to just keep timing them and not focus on it too much. A few hours had passed and I noticed that the tightenings had turned more like period cramps and were still coming every 3 minutes on the dot lasting a minute at a time this was at about 8:30pm. At this stage I thought I was in early labour at the very least so I notified my midwife and tried to ignore it as long as possible, just resting and watching the cricket with my partner. By 10:30pm the tightenings had increased to the point I had to breathe through them so we put the TENS machine on, set the room up with dim lights, my exercise ball, essential oils, the hypnobirthing tracks and a foam mat.

I laboured here until 2:30am focusing on my breathing and as each surge came I let out a monotone sound that really helped with the visualisation of moving the baby down (I always thought I’d be quiet but making sound really did help). I changed positions from standing to all fours, and increased the TENS machine with the intensity of my surges. At this stage I decided to move into the shower as my partner packed the car and called the midwife. I stayed in the shower which really helped for about 30 minutes then decided it was time to begin the 35 minute drive to the hospital. I kept the TENS machine on which helped me breathe through the surges in the car which were so much more intense. When we made it to the hospital I had a vaginal examination on entry to make sure I could stay in the birth centre but I didn’t find out how dilated I was. I could tell I wasn’t very far along by the tone in my midwife’s voice but she assured me we didn’t have to go home. My midwife suggested I labour in the shower for a while and to leave the bath as my last resort of pain relief which I agreed. The surges were so intense in the shower and had gone from lasting a minute to three minutes with nearly no gap in between. After about 45 minutes in the shower I had an extremely strong surge and felt my body uncontrollably push. At this stage my partner and I panicked as I thought I was pushing against a cervix that wasn’t dilated enough. The midwife suggested a low dose of gas and air to slow things down or even to just bite on the mouthpiece to stop from pushing. Another surge came and sure enough my body was uncontrollably pushing, my midwife looked at the purple line on my bottom and suggested I move into the bath.

As it had only been an hour I thought this was just a way to take my mind off pushing but when I got into the tub and another surge came I felt the baby physically move down through my pelvis and I knew she wasn’t far away. As my surges came I uncontrollably roared my baby down, I knew I was experiencing the fetal ejection reflex I had learned about in our birth class as I had no control over pushing at all I just tried to breathe between pushes. At 5:21am Millie was born into the water. As I pulled her up she stretched her arms out and let out a healthy scream as her colour turned pink and she had her first few breaths. We had a few minutes of meeting her and skin to skin in the bath before moving onto the bed in the room.

I was in two minds as to whether I wanted a physiological third stage so I set a 30 minute time for progression then reevaluate. As I was helped out of the bath I felt a contraction as strong as the final stages of labour and didn’t want to feel those strong contractions while having skin to skin with Millie. My student midwife checked the cord to make delayed cord clamping more comfortable and said my placenta was right there so I gave a small push and my placenta was born. A completely physiological third stage. Once the cord had stopped pulsing and turned white the cord was cut and Millie had some skin to skin with her dad. Once I had my stitches, Millie returned to my chest and did the breast crawl and fed for the first time. Before we were transferred to the main ward to wait for some test results, my midwife told me that I had gone from 4cm to 10cm in an hour hence why they didn’t think I should have been pushing at that stage.
I had my dream birth, such a positive experience and the one that I had envisioned from the start of my pregnancy. We went through the public system, a Midwifery group practice (MGP) and a birth centre and this was definitely the right model of care for our first birth. By far the best investment we made was the birth education classes we did through The Birth Space with Renee. Going into pregnancy and birth I didn’t have a set plan, but being informed and educated on the true facts and statistics around birth enabled us to be confident in the care we wanted and to make better choices for our birth.