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It was shortly past midnight
when I woke up because of regular contractions. I knew immediately that
that this was the day for our first child to be born. Having waited for
almost 42 weeks for him to arrive, I was so excited that I couldn’t get
back to sleep anymore. I knew it would be sensible to save my energy for
the actual labour and birth. Still, I got out of bed, listened to my
Hypnobirthing relaxation cds, and regularly checked the time that
elapsed between surges. Having heard from a friend of mine that she had
just given birth to her first child after only four hours of labour, I
felt a bit nervous about how fast things would progress in my case. At
3am my contractions were about 6-8 minutes apart, and I thought I'd
better inform Linda, my doula. While speaking to her on the phone, I
became aware again that things usually don't happen that fast. So I went
back to my relaxation exercises, slowly breathing through every surge,
and at some point got up to prepare some snacks to take to the hospital.
I called Linda again at 6 o'clock, and she came to our place to see how
I was doing. Two hours later the surges had become more intense, and I
felt that we should go to the hospital.
My
husband, Linda and I arrived at the hospital (Thomson Medical Center)
shortly past 8 o'clock. I settled myself in
the bathtub as soon as it had filled up, not knowing then that I was to
spend more than 5 hours in the water. While in the tub, I was breathing
through my surges and relaxing in between. We had brought along some
soothing music that was playing in the background. I felt very calm and
focused on what was going on within my body. I didn't
feel any pain, but experienced the surges as tension in my pelvis and
later in my lower back. I was most comfortable kneeling in the tub,
because my tailbone would start aching as soon as I tried to sit. The
only sensation of pain that I felt during labour resulted from cramps in
my legs. My body was just not used to kneeling in a bathtub for a long
time. During the last couple hours of labour I felt the urge to bear
down. When it was time for birthing, I found myself in a rather strange
position for a water birth. Because of my sore tailbone I was not able
to sit or lean against my lower back, at the same time I was trying to
avoid another cramp in my leg. Thus I supported myself on my arms, hips
raised up almost horizontally and legs braced against the side of the
bathtub. Sensing that I could stay neither in this position nor in the
tub much longer, I pushed rather hard for the baby to emerge. Finally,
he was born, and my doctor (Dr. Paul Tseng) passed him to me.
Looking back to that day, I’m still amazed at all the little
wonders that life holds for women when giving birth. It is amazing how a
woman’s body opens up naturally to let a baby pass out into the world.
When giving birth I found it very easy to go deep within my body,
forgetting about time and people around me. I'm glad that with the
antenatal Hypnobirthing course that I took, I had learned to focus on
the positive aspects of birth, expecting a naturally easy, calm and safe
birth without pains. My husband, Linda, and my doctor all helped me to
create exactly this experience, for which I’m very grateful.
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