The Labour and Birth

I thought i better post up a bit more of a detailed description of the night and morning of the labour. Earlier in the week, monday i think, the midwife told us that because of lack of progress that we should come into hospital on the Thursday at 7.30pm to be induced. We'd read the books and stuff but because Annabel was already 2cm dilated, we weren't anticipating the c-section at this time at all.

We dutifully arrived at the hospital complete with soothing brian eno cd, aromatherapy and a pc magazine for me. The midwife applied prostaglandin (i think that's how you spell it) which i lovingly refer to as simply fanny goo. I then went and purchased 2 six inch subways. A meatball and cheese one for me and a veggie delight for annabel. After that i got a little tired and with hindsight rather foolishly attempted to get some kip on the mattress thing they had provided.

Around 9pm Annabel started feeling things, and by 9.30 things were as painful as they had been over the last few weeks so we presumed something was happening. Annabel also got really nauseous and filled a large cup or two (exorcist style) of lovely puke. A fair bit of puking and back rubbing went on for next couple of hours until pain started to get pretty bad and we called in the on duty person at the womens assessment unit part of the hospital. She agreed things looked like they were progressing (it was pretty obvious to me) so an examination was carried out to determine exactly how dilated annabel had become. One annoying thing about being induced is that sometimes the early pains may not actually be labour at all and are simply pre labour pains and contractions brought about by the hormone stimulation, but without the actuall triggering of labour. Kind of annoying.

The lady confirmed dilation of around 3-4 cm and suggested Annabel have a deep bath. Water based pain relief was always on the agenda, so we were really pleased to have this option and she ran us a bath. She also asked me if i wanted to join annabel, but i politely declined. This, again in hindsight turned out to be a marvellous decision as annabel's waters broke during the bath and the previously installed inducement device also joined the party. I was happy to be back on dry land as the designated back rubber and vomit catcher for sure. Annabel had an injection of something to reduce the nausea, but she refused the pethedine on offer and also found the gas and air made her even more nauseous.

And so it continued, with more back rubbing, and more pain until the midwife arrived at about 2am. After an examination she said annabel was about 5cm dilated and we all moved through to the delivery suite, annabel in a wheel chair now. And then it all became sane... The midwife suggested that as tommy was still quite high up and the cervix was not close to fully dilated as yet, the pain was going to get much worse and she recommended a 'light eipidural'. I'm not sure if such a thing really exists, but after a shortish consultation annabel made the executive decision to remove the pain, a wise choice all round. Because of the nausea (the injection hadn't worked) made worse by a bit of dehyration by all the puking, she was hooked up to a drip as well to get some fluids in.

After the epidural had been administered (by the ever popular anaethetist person), annabel got a bit shaky for a while, but once it kicked in and she got some fluids, everyone become quite chatty, as annabel's mum and dad arrived. It was like "oh look at the chart, another contraction". The next few hours were very nervewracking all round as we waited and waited for tommy to make his move. I tried to get some kip but couldn't instead downing a couple of V energy drinks to keep myself awake. At around 5.30 i think the midwife mentioned the C-Section pending one last attempt to get him into position by dosing annabel with some pure oxytocin which i believe is the chemical/hormone that brings on the contractions in the uterus. For some reason, this had very little effect and if anything the contractions got quieter. 

By about 7 am the decision was made to get the specialist out of bed for an emergency c section as it was pretty clear tommy wasn't going to come out on his own. I think although he is a slightly above average sized baby, his head wasn't aligned correctly with a cervix that wasn't fully dilated, so it was the only sensible course of action, given the messiness and unnecessary risk of something like a forceps delivery in these circumstances. I think the surgeon guy came in around 8am and everything happened very quickly after this. Once we had decided on the c-section i felt a huge sense of relief basically because i knew that everything was coming to a close, and that the operation was very safe.

So, the whole ER thing started, mask and gown, hat and covers for feet, but when we actually got into theatre, everyone was very chilled out, such an everyday thing, with radio on in corner and people whistling. I mean this in a good way, you felt immediately at ease because you just knew people did this all the time and it was no big deal. I sat by annabel's head as the pain man rubbed ice cubes on annabel's torso just to make sure she couldn't feel it. All that was required was a top of of the epidural that was connected to annabel's back, so preparation for the operation was pretty straighforward. I also didn't realise that you can still feel a sensation of touch, pushing and pulling, but you simply cannot feel pain.

They put a curtain up and began. The pain guy was very, very good saying things like "in about 5 seconds you will hear noise X, and then Y will happen", and he was funny and made annabel and myself very relaxed. The weirdest thing about all this is i had this notion that i was a squeamish person. I believe this myth about myself grew out of feeling queasy when attempting to eat curry and watch Casualty on BBC one in the mid nineties. I have, alas, no other tangible evidence for such a weakness of character, and so was pleasantly surprised to find myself peering over the diagonally draped curtain to ponder my wife's innards. At about 8.50 the pain man said "your baby boy will be born in the next 5 minutes". My stomach dropped, i couldn't really focus properly and simply tried to continue smiling whilst trying not to crush annabel's hand. Then it happened, a silence and then, "look, look, your baby's being born" from the pain man. I saw his head get stuck and then slowly get nudged out, followed by a quick, sloppy entrace with his legs and arms flailing. He started wimpering after a few seconds and i just went completely to pieces inside.

I think the whole birthing bit took about 10 minutes once the operation started, but i can't really remember, but it was quick. About 5 minutes after he was born they ushered me over to where the baby doctor was doing some measurements. i think the best way to describe the feeling is like winning some huge lottery or finding buried treasure, something like that. I felt an instant change inside, a shedding of skin, a total overwhelming feelingn of responsbility, love and intense connectedness to my own self. So yeah, i flipped.

They sat me down and brought him over and then i held him and showed annabel (who was still getting stiched up) for about the next 10 or 15 minutes. He was awake and stared straight into my eyes. I stared back and there was nothing in between.

When annabel was all fixed up we got moved (i pushed tommy in his little capsule thingy, very slowly) to the post natal care unit for a few tests. Annabel got the chance to do the first feed which was lovely. She couldn't feel her breasts because of the numbness so this must have felt just a little weird. I went out and made calls to my mum, dad and close friends, before we were moved off to our room, picking up annabel's parents on the way.

I hung about until lunchtime after the birth when i really couldn't physically take any more experience. To round things off, i got another subway (meatball and cheese of course) before getting a taxi back to sleep and dream as if i could dream anything more wonderful than had happened to us over the last 24 hours.