Noah, born at SCUH, 31 Mar 2024

I woke up with some light cramping around 2:30 am on the 31/03, at this stage I was 41+1. I laid there with them for a while but definitely knew that today was the day! I woke Jack up at about 3-ish and told him I’d been having contractions. I got up to go to the bathroom & my waters broke on the tiles at 3:20 am (turns out later that it was actually only my hind waters). Laboured at home for a while, felt they started to get quicker (maybe about 3-5 minutes apart but the duration was inconsistent), so we called the midwives & they mentioned that because of my waters having been broken, that I’d be on a time limit for antibiotics & advised potentially coming in to confirm it was my waters.

So we decided to head in, & a midwife confirmed it was & sent us home to progress in labour. As soon as we got back home they really ramped up, closer to 2 minutes apart and very consistent, so we decided to head back to the hospital. Got to the hospital at about 9:30 am & another midwife offered to do a cervical exam which I agreed to & am thankful I did, as we found out that bub wasn’t even engaged yet & still had a bag of waters sitting in front of his head between my cervix, however I was 4 cms dilated. She mentioned she’d usually send people home at this phase of labour, but wanted me to stay just in case of cord prolapse as the bag of waters in front of his head increased this risk. Our doula Dani got us to do some rebozo while I was side lying on the bed & after about 10 minutes of this the waters broke (about 10:30am). The midwife rushed in to check me & thankfully he engaged perfectly & I didn’t experience a cord prolapse - however, they mentioned my waters showed bub pooped in the womb. This also meant unfortunately I wasn’t able to try a water birth. Turned on some calming music & continued to change positions attempting to keep active, before they really ramped up again & we resorted to the shower.

​Jack held the hot water on my lower back & this seemed to help so much! We essentially stayed here the entire rest of my labour, and changed positions a few times until I found squatting on my hands and knees the best place to be. I asked for gas & air at some point but probably only used it for 30 mins as found it didn’t seem to help. At about 2:30 pm I felt ready to push & the midwives confirmed they could see his head so I was welcome to. He was out by 3:15 pm & I only suffered a small 1st degree tear which wasn’t in need of stitches. My placenta was born easily after only 15 minutes, and everything else post birth went perfectly.
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Noah was born weighing 8lb 12oz, 55 cms long, 37 cm head circumference.

The midwives constantly offered interventions, but both Jack & I felt confident with our education & evaluating risks etc enough to decline everything & were so happy we did as my birth was completely physiological & seriously one of the best experiences of my life.

I wanted to thank you for your wealth of knowledge & the confidence it raised in both myself & Jack. I’m really not sure how different things might have been had it not been for your course!! No amount of thank you’s could ever cover how grateful I am that you have helped in creating such a beautiful first time experience for me.

Rylee xx