Carmen tells about the birth story of her twins Adrian and Victoria. One came out head first, the other feet first.
At my 38-week appointment we set a date for me to be induced. I was hoping to go into labour myself this time, but my babies just don’t want to come out. I was to come in on the 24th of October 2003 at 7am. I was happy because this was the day that I had guessed they’d be born in their baby books. I rang my mother in law to tell her. She asked me if I could try to hold off giving birth to them till the 25th so they’d be born on her mum’s birthday. I laughed and said, like I’m going to deliberately try and stay in labour for over 15 hours just so they’d be born on your mums birthday. I want it over and done with as soon as possible.
About 2 hours later I got a phone call from the hospital saying that I wasn’t to come in on the 24th, but the 25th because they were too busy. I guess Royrie’s mum got her wish after all.
I arrived at the hospital at 7am to be induced. The midwife took me to the delivery room and I met Fiona, who was the midwife who would be looking after me. She did all the usual checks, strapped the CTG machine on and then asked me how I wanted things to go. I said I’d like to be able to deliver in a position that wasn’t on my back even if it were just for Adrian’s birth cause I knew Victoria’s birth would be a little complicated with her being breech. I also said I didn’t want an epidural and I’d like to try and hold off on having the gas and pethidine as long as I could. I also wanted to have a bath and shower. She said that she would talk to my OB and see what she could do.
Doctor Weerasiri came in at about 8am. Fiona told him about what we had talked about and he said no, I was to be monitored at all times and not to get off the bed. I almost cried. The only good thing was that he agreed that I didn’t have to have an epidural if I didn’t want one. He said that he didn’t think it’d matter anyway cause he didn’t think it would take long. When he wasn’t around I asked the midwife what his definition of not long was, she said she didn’t know.
Sometime between 8:30am and 9am Adrian’s waters where broken and then a monitor attached to his head. It felt so weird having half my stomach deflating and the other half still full. Doctor Weerasiri then tried to put a drip in my left hand, but it didn’t work so I then had to have it redone in my right hand. Both my hands are now blue from bruising cause I have pretty hard veins to work with. The drip was hooked up at 9am.
At 9:20am I called home to see how Chloe (my first child) was going. She was going fine, but I couldn’t finish the conversation and had to hang up cause I couldn’t talk any longer. I got a bit worried because my first contraction was very strong. 3 contractions later I was lying on the bed in so much pain I couldn’t move. From there on there was no break. There were times when there was less pain, but the pain was constantly there. It was very different from the labor I had with Chloe. With her I’d have a contraction, then I’d be pain free for a few minutes then another contraction.
I can’t remember when I started using the gas, but I know that they had it set up before I even had the drip in. With Chloe it didn’t really have any negative effects on me, but this time it made things look blurry and made me dizzy. So I spent the most of the time with my eyes shut and can only remember a few things. I remember the midwife putting heat packs on my stomach and back and looking at the clock sometimes and thinking "how am I going to handle 6 hours of this when it hasn’t even been 1."
Next thing I knew I had the urge to push. With Chloe my contractions stopped and there was an instant strong urge to push. This time it started off faintly and worked it’s way up and the pain didn’t stop. Doctor Weerasiri came in and they told me to roll onto my back. The pain was so much I didn’t want to move, so they ended up rolling me onto my back for me. I feel pretty silly now about that. Adrian’s heart rate dropped to 100 or under 100, I can just vaguely remember hearing it, so they switched the gas off and told me to breath in the oxygen. They told me to push and the next thing I knew he was lying on my stomach. I barely even felt it. I opened my eyes and said to the doctor "are you serious, he’s out". He was born at 10:20am weighing 6lbs 7oz and 46cm long. His head circumference was 33cm.
The pain finally stopped and I got a brake for a few minutes. Then the urge to push started up again and I was told to push. The doctor had me stop half way (I don’t know why) then start pushing again. Victoria’s breech birth was just as easy as Adrian’s birth, but it felt weird doing it in reverse. Victoria was born at 10:26am weighing 6lbs 3oz and 45cm long. Her head circumference was 31cm.
No rips or stitches and no pain there at all afterwards. I did spend the next 4 hours in the delivery room though cause I didn’t stop bleeding.
Written by Carmen