Wednesday 5 December 2012

Trial by Fire

this is the story of my first solo doula-ing effort, it's what i wrote to a friend about it but edited for the privacy of the family. there are photos but i might take a while to get them, the photographer has a lot on her plate!

i left here at 10 pm, got there and mumma was having strong but irregular contractions. way too early for hospy. then honorary grandma arrives and the next door neighbour drops by telling us to get an ambulance ......

uh, NO.

i sent mumma to bed for rest and after 20 minutes she was having 5min contractions , much better!!! some water was leaking as well 

so off to hospital. my car wouldnt start and i left my bag in my car in my panic to catch a ride with honorary grandma who was about to drive off with mumma so i didnt have my spare clothes or deodorant or food 
)

at hospy they didnt give us a room, didnt believe mumma was in labour, put her on a bed with continuous monitoring, she was uncomfortable and i kept asking if she could get up and the midwives were really not happy with me, i got "the look" so many times
then mumma's blood pressure is high and wont come down with meds so we at least get a room so she can have an epidural to get bp down, they give her syntocinon/pitocin to get the labour better established and she sleeps while she is pain free. The cranky midwives come to say goodbye to me when they go off shift :)

so mumma sleeps and i wait and after hours and hours mumma is only 3cm dilated and we have both about given up, i am pretty sure she will need a c-section but keep waiting.
Mumma has been traumatised by the epidural and is exhausted then they want to put one of those medieval screw things in bubs head (to better monitor baby's heart rate) and mumma looks at me like "do something" and i say to the midwife "look if you examine her and she isnt progressing maybe we can avoid the screw and just take her to
theatre" so they agree to that but on examination she has got to full dilation in the last hour  :). i can barely believe it, she is ready to have this baby!
she doesnt want to push but baby needs to be born soon so we tell her to sleep another 20 mins which she does and then 15mins pushing and baby was there. I held her leg up because she couldnt feel it so i was RIGHT there next to baby as she arrived. The dad was SO cute. he never wanted to be there for blood etc but he was hiding behind the curtain and watching and i said if he can watch from the curtain he can be with her so he came out and he was right there when bub came!!! a few minutes after the birth he gave me the HUGEST bear hug i'll never forget!!!

i cant remember bubs (unfamiliar sri lankan ) name,  she was 2.9 kg and perfect, latched beautifully to the breast.

so she was born at 1.40pm then i waited for liam to get the train to pick me up and we got a lift back to the car and we roll started it he drove me nearly home but he had to do something so i dropped him off but the car wouldnt start again so i had to wait for road service to come and i told the guy my story and he put a new battery in and i came home and showered and went to bed at 8pm, 37 hours after i had got up the day before!

13 comments:

  1. Tears of happiness for you. And another bear hug heading your way through the blogosphere. One down, many more to come.

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  2. thanks so much!
    it was so freaking incredible i am still crying!!!!

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  3. and very privileged!
    thanks bob :)

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  4. Hey, that's fabulous, Kylie. Your first client and it all went so well (except for the non-starting car!). And a huge bear hug from husband! It looks like you made a major contribution, they must be really appreciative. Now fingers crossed they recommend you to all their friends!

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  5. Beautiful. I have a good friend who is a midwife. I was once writing an article for a local weekly about natural birth and was invited to a home out on the beach to witness one and report on it. On my way there I came across my midwife thumbing a ride as her car had broken down. Midwife and reporter arrived in the nick of time.
    When the baby was birthed, midwife put her immediately on mama's breast. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.
    A hour later, champagne all around.

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  6. nick,
    i caught a ride back to my car with a friend of the couple who was driving a new porsche and whose son will marry next year. i see potential there :)

    mr charleston,
    i bet thats a great memory for you!
    i think a home birth is probably the most beautiful way to welcome a child but it can be beautiful in any setting if there is a bit of sensitivity.

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  7. But that was just the first part right? Now you have to go do the Douala work.

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  8. ah walking man! ever full of wisdom :)

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  9. That is beautiful! You handled yourself so well and provided the support the family needed, just when they were going to give up. You have truly found your calling and I am soooo happy for you!!!!!! XOXOXO

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  10. I didn't know you had posted once, and here I see that I missed at least two posts. Why does everyone in the world know about these things ahead of me. Could it be that I simply don't check my friends' blog often enough? No, it must be the devil throwing water in my eyes.

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  11. snow,
    you make a fundamental error here. as a confirmed atheist the devil loves you so he wouldnt do such a thing as throw water in your eyes :)

    then again, if the intention is to keep you from my writing he might choose the lesser of two evils

    except as the devil he would probably prefer the greater of two evils

    this is becoming horribly circular and confusing

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  12. Bravo! I hope that you get a lot of referrals.

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