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Jennifer's amazing birth story

Fiona Stanley Birthing Centre, Perth

Baby George

38 weeks + 6 days

The birth went really well and we birthed at the Family Birth Centre at Fiona Stanley with our private midwife as planned. I was convinced that I was going to go past my guess date so I was a bit shocked when I went into labour at 38+5. I had a show on the morning of the 22nd when I woke up and then mild cramping most of that day but didn't think labour was close at all. In the afternoon when James got home from work I noticed that the cramping was coming and going so we timed it and they seemed to range from 8 mins to 5 mins apart. I was still in complete denial that this was very early labour and thought that we still had weeks to go.  

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I decided to put the TENS machine on to try it out as we hadn't unboxed it yet and was noting the times in between the cramps and they were getting closer together. That night I told James to go to bed and get some rest just in case this was the start of labour so that he would have some energy for when things got more intense.

​​As the night went on, things did get more intense but I decided that I would try to manage on my own until the sun came up at about 5am. I got to 4am and it was all getting a bit too much so I woke James up and got him to call our midwife. I wanted her to come over and check me to see if I was actually in labour and if so, how far along I was (I was still in a bit of denial at that point).  

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Our midwife arrived at 5am and checked me then confirmed that I was in labour and that I was 3-4cm dilated. I was really happy to hear that and I finally accepted that I was actually in labour! At this stage I took the TENS off and got into the shower which really helped. The plan was for my midwife to come back at 11am to check my progress, but by 7am I wanted to go to the birth centre as things were getting more intense, so we met my midwife there at 8am.​

I went into the shower there while she got the bath ready for me and once that was full I jumped in and started using the gas and air which was really effective and I continued to use that for several hours. By about lunchtime I was 8cm and then just after 3pm I was 10cm and ready to push. George was born in the water after only 33 minutes of pushing. I birthed the placenta about one hour later when I stood up to get out of the bath. We were able to go home after about 5 hours which was great and I had invited my mum to stay with us for the first week so she was here cooking for us and looking after us which was amazing. We are loving every minute of being parents and George is a pretty chilled out baby so I think we are very lucky there.

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Thank you so much for our Hypnobirthing course. I listened to the tracks regularly in the lead up to labour and while I didn't use them in labour, I do feel that they prepared me well mentally and I was able to stay calm and in the zone. The course really helped James to understand the stages of labour and the videos helped him know what to expect. Early in the pregnancy James said that he didn't want to watch the baby coming out but on the day he watched the whole thing and loved it which I think is all down to the fact that he saw so many beautiful births on video in the class.  

Topics:        TENS machine          birth pool                 gas

                     water birth               support after birth

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