John-Patrick Felix McHugh was born on Monday the 23rd of February at 2.56pm at Southern General Hospital, Glasgow. I had an excellent birth – three hours at home for the first stage and three and a half hours in the birthing pool for the second – without pain relief, just the encouragement of John (my birthing partner) and our wonderful midwives, Cathy, Mairi and Kirsty.
Here is my birth story.
Stage 1 – At Home, Duration – 3 Hours
| 0815: | “That looks a bit strange. Where are my glasses?” Is that a mucas plug? Every morning I wake up in a short sighted fog, but today I am alert. I have a feeling that the little splodge in the toilet is my ‘mucus plug’ or ‘show’ so I scramble to find my glasses and call on John to check. |
| 0820: | “What am I supposed to be looking for? There is nothing wrong with your hairdryer plug!” Despite our Hypnobirthing course John is initially confused by the term plug, but does agree with me that there is definitely something strange in the toilet. |
| 0830: | I am now beginning to feel the onset of surges (the Hypnobirthing term for contractions) but suspect they might be Braxton Hicks practice contractions. “Ok, we’ll just take it easy this morning. I’m going to go back to bed, listen to the Hypnobirthing CD and see if things calm down.” |
| 0900: | The CD has put me in a good place – I feel calm, in control and prepared for anything. In getting up a slight trickle of water alerts me to my third sign – my waters have broken. “Okay, I think this might be it.” Three signs (plug, surges and waters breaking) in quick succession tell me that labour is imminent and I won’t be going to my yoga class tonight. |
| 0930: | The shower is wonderful. The warm water helps me to work through the surges. I didn’t experience any Braxton Hicks during the pregnancy so the feeling of pressure is new to me. I practice my slow breathing with each surge as I wash my hair. The surges come every five minutes. I feel a tightening of my stomach muscles. I visualise the picture of my uterine muscles surging and direct the shower spray to my stomach – it relaxes me and eases the muscles. |
| 1000: | I head to the kitchen to make my porridge as usual. My Hypnobirthing instructor, Clare always highlighted the importance of eating for energy, so I pile in the raisons and bananas for good measure. |
| 1020: | Munch, munch and pause for 15 seconds. “Can you get the TENS machine please.” It’s taking forever to eat my porridge because I have to stop every three minutes, breathe and concentrate on what my body is doing every time a surge comes on. |
| 1040: | I’ve just finished my porridge. I am not keen on conversation. John clocks the length between contractions each time I hit the boost button. Still he asks me what to put in the car! I refer him to the list I created yesterday for this purpose, lean over the dresser to ease the surges and manage to moan… “YOU need to … do the car… – I can’t … speak – have to … focus”. John chuckles but refrains from teasing me – I sound just like Thundercat’s Liono – “must go on..!” |
| 1100: | After moaning in time with my hip swivels for nearly ten minutes I make for the toilet. As John runs down our tenement steps with the birth ball I consider the pros and cons of a home birth in my bathroom. |
| 1115: | Me – “I’m staying… here”. John – “no, you’re not!” I see panic in his face as he grabs me at the end of a surge; half carries me down the stairs and gets me in the car. We put on my Hypnobirthing CD and I close my eyes to concentrate on breathing. |
Stage 2 – Labour Ward, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow. Duration - 3.5 Hours
| 1130: | A kind porter finds a wheel chair and I am taken to the labour ward. Although we had called ahead they didn’t have my notes. My blue pregnancy record is used instead. I have five copies of my birth plan inserted in my notes. John explains that we have been practicing Hypnobirthing and asks if the birth pool is empty. It is! Big smiles all round. |
| 1200: | Our midwife, Cathy, reads every single bullet points in my birth plan out loud. She stops for each surge so I can focus. This was a great distraction and gave me confidence that the midwives would do everything to help us have a natural birth with minimum intervention. |
| 1230: | “I don’t want to be disappointed” is my response to a request for a vaginal examination, “but I am curious.” Cathy asks if we want to take a guess. John guesses 6cm. I can’t speak. I was so happy when she exclaimed “10cm already!” |
| 1300: | Swivel, swivel of the hips. “My body is opening up and my baby is moving down”. I repeat this mantra over and over in my head. The words act as a trigger and I imagine the calm atmosphere of my pregnancy yoga class. I lean over the bath waiting for it to fill and step up and down, blocking out everything. I hear Cathy commenting to John, “your wife is pretty flexible. I quietly thank Sandra for all the yoga practice as I am not naturally flexible at all! |
| 1345: | In the pool now. The Hypnobirthing CD is on repeat. The water is warm; I am buoyant and free to move into various positions in my own space. Two new midwives, Mairi and Kirsty enter the room, introduce themselves and read my birth preferences. |
| 1400: | There is a very strange noise coming from my chest. My moans are very low, very loud and sound like an injured animal, cornered and under attack. I keep apologising for all the noise. John is beside me, he never leaves. He rubs my arm, repeats positive affirmations from Hypnobirthing and sprays me with water. I don’t like the water. |
| 1415: | The midwives get me out of the pool and I’m encouraged to take a walk in the corridor. Gown on, but flapping open at the back – not my best look. I take two steps out of the door, and quickly back into the room. There is a couple on a routine tour of the labour ward and I’m not facing anyone in this state. Instead I grab hold of John’s shoulders and slowly pad round our birthing room. |
| 1430: | Back in the pool. Much better. I expected the second stage to be quicker, but it feels like forever and I am anxious that it is taking too long. It occurs to me that I haven’t had any pain relief… “John, it is really quite sore now. Do you think you could ask the midwives for some air and gas…? NOW!” |
| 1435: | Mairi comes towards me, her chin leaning on the ridge of my bath and for the first time I focus and can see what she looks like. She says as kindly as she can, “I think you are past that stage now.” More moaning and Mairi tells me I am doing really well and that my Hypnobirthing teacher would be proud of me. |
| 1450: | “It’s not that. Different type… breathing… now.” The midwives laugh. John is trying to help me breathe but has his slow breathing mixed up with birth breathing. In my head I want the baby to come now. |
| 1454: | I can feel the baby coming. I feel his head. Maira asks me to turn around so I can see the baby. |
| 1456: | I bear down and the baby slips out into the water. I pick the baby up and hold him close to my chest. John whispers, “He is a boy. Hello John-Patrick.” |
Stage 3 – 40 minutes
Yes, after all that I forgot about the third stage. It’s easy to gloss over it during pregnancy reading. It took me about forty minutes to deliver the placenta and it helped have John-Patrick suckle.
Hypnobirthing & Yoga
Hypnobirthing and Pregnancy Yoga were a great help to me during my pregnancy and of course during the birth. Here are links to the Glasgow experts that helped me:
Hypnobirthing Clare Birschel Hypnobirthing with Clare Birschel
Birth Connections Pregnancy Yoga with Sandra Farmer
Has anyone else used the birth pool at the Southern General?
