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My birth
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| My Birth StoryMy name is Jaspar. I was born on 17th June, 2007 at home after a quick and relatively painless labour for my Mum. I weighed 7lbs. My full name is Jaspar Ishmael Wigham Hussain. My Mum's maiden name was Wigham, as there were lots of girls in the Wigham family Mum and Dad decided that it would be nice for that side of the family name to carry on with me as a middle name. Throughout my time as a bump Mum had an independent midwife look her so she could avoid the repeat of my big brothers long and painful failed forceps c/section birth. Here is my birth story that my mum wrote the very next day....
At 2am on the 17th June, 2007 I woke up, I immediately had a contraction, although not especially strong, I got up to go to the bathroom and feel a leaking feeling. I thought part of my waters may have broken; I went back to bed and checked the time when I had a contraction, they were either 3, 4 or 5 minutes apart, with no set pattern. I didn’t think this was labour starting as I still had 7 days to go until baby was due. I sat in the bathroom until 3am reading a couple of pregnancy and birth books just to see if I could work out if my waters had broken or if these contractions I was having were indeed the real thing. At 3am I woke Zelf and asked him to hold my hand to help me relax and remember the time of the previous contraction so we could gauge how far apart and long they were. I also sent my midwifes a text message just to let them know I was having a few fairly painless contractions but more importantly that part of my waters may have broken. My main midwife was away for the weekend so my back up midwife was my main point of contact. She sent me a text back to say contact her if they became 5 minutes apart – we were timing about 6 minutes on average, so Zelf put on the Tens machine and I tried to get some sleep (we decided even if I just wasted as set of batteries on braxton hicks (the painless practice contractions) that would stop eventually it would be better to try and sleep) I was mainly using relaxation and breathing through the contractions at this point I couldn’t get back to sleep though and found myself increasing the intensity on the Tens machine, at 4.50am I went back to the bathroom only to experience a harder contraction that made me realise this was probably labour starting! I started a text to the midwife but as the contraction were approx 3 minutes apart I couldn’t get it written so I called instead, I had to pass the phone to Zelf though as another contraction started and I could not talk through it. She decided it was time to come and see us and left home. Zelf held my hand and got me to focus on something (the screw on the side of my bedside cabinet!!) and got me to breathe and relax – I was really struggling to relax though as I just wanted to curl up in a ball, yet I knew to ensure that the contractions were effective in helping me dilate I really needed to relax. I even had Zelf call the midwife again to see how far away she was as I was getting a bit frantic The midwife arrived around 5.40am (it was such a relief when she came in the door – Zelf was doing a great job but I felt so relieved to see her) and decided to check me – I told her that if I was only 3cm’s dilated she needed to lie! (my biggest fear was that when the contractions did hit a strong level that it would take me ages to be ready to push and that I would therefore be unable to cope with the pain) in actual fact she told me that I was fully dilated and ready to push Basically the stronger contractions that I thought were labour starting were pushing ones and I was fighting the pushing urge!…After being ready to hear 4cm or less I certainly didn’t believe that I was ready to push! My midwife was concerned that if we set off to the hospital now that I could even deliver in the car or on the stairs so we opted to stay at home and not transfer to the hospital (in fact there was even a birthing pool set up in the corner of the room that in the end we never filled or got to use!) My main midwife had decided to leave her camping weekend at 4am and was able to come over. I was so happy to see her I could have cried I had so wanted to have this baby with her there to support me. This meant that I now had both midwifes support and was able to start pushing – with this being my first normal delivery then this was going to be a longer stage for me (as if it were a first baby). We kept mobile where possible and pushed through the contractions which were strong and regular, using the boost button on the Tens machine. The best position for me though was on our bed slightly on my side. By now it was 7.30am and Danyal woke up! Zelf settled him in front of the television with his breakfast I still had difficulty believing that I would not need to go to hospital in case baby was stuck and needed assistance, so when I got to see the top of the head with a mirror I was well and truly convinced! At 9.20am Danyal knocked on the door asking if he could come and see me!! He waited out side whilst I pushed and breathed on the midwife’s advice and when baby was born at 9.37am we tucked him in a towel covered me up and Danyal was able to come in and meet his baby brother Jaspar. Zelf was able to cut the cord and the placenta was delivered naturally 15 minutes later, I had no tears and did not need any stitches To summarise I would say the whole birth was a very wonderful experience, the ‘pain’ I had anticipated did not materialise and the speed of the whole labour was very unexpected. Being able to deliver at home in the comfort of our bedroom was an amazing, exhilarating and natural experience and something I never really believed would be possible after Danyal’s 27 hour failed forceps and emergency caesarean delivery. I have so much to be thankful for to my midwives and Zelf
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