August 6, 2009
Briar Hill Midwives

After an eye-opening 11 days, we finally have the chance to inform you of the birth of our newest family member Rhys. He was born on August 6th at 2:06am. He weighed an unexpected 8 pounds, 1 ounce, and 20.5 inches long. He was born at home which was very important to me, although it was close because the midwives were so busy that day that earlier in the morning when I was still in early first stage, they told me that I may have to go to the hospital after all! Luckily, by the time I was in active labour later that night, Penny and Mary could come to my home, although Mary had to leave almost right away to go to somebody else in labour who was leaving for the hospital. Penny got here right on time too, since I was apparently already 8-9 centimeters dilated when she arrived! Another midwife from the other team only arrived a few minutes after Rhys was born.

My labour was definitely a bit stop and start at the beginning, lasting for about 24 hours from first regular contractions to the start of active first stage. It was a tad frustrating, but I had my wonderful husband, David, and my sister Alison with me as additional support. The contractions were pretty manageable, thanks to our training, and also my comfort level with my coach, and the fact that I was at home. Having your training in mind throughout really worked as something to focus on rather than the discdomfort, although I think that next time I would work more during pregnancy to learn how to relax all my muscles, rather than tense up during contractions. Transition came and went without me or David even noticing that it was transition, since the contractions were still spaced apart enough to grant me reprieve in between. It seemed to me at the time that 2nd stage went by rather quickly, but I guess I pushed over an hour, so I was in active labour for a total of about 6 hours after my day of early first stage. My water never broke through it all, Penny ruptured the bag when I was about to start pushing for the first time. Third stage was really quick, although they did decide to give me the oxytocin injection. I unfortunately did tear a bit right as the baby came out, but Penny is a master stitcher and made quick work of it. I think that’s the part I’ll remember most, right after the memory of having my little son laid on my chest 😛

The only snag in this experience was the intensity of back labour. Rhys was occiputal posterior, so although I knew that painless childbirth could exist, I have to say that I may have eaten most of the “pain pie” this time! One thing that our training really helped with though was that although I experienced extreme discomfort, I was never afraid of what was happening. I was able to stay very mentally present for most of it, except for right at the end when my boy’s rather large head was crowning! I definately forgot all proper breath holding at this point, in favour of making sounds such that my poor coach feared for me 😛

Coach’s notes: Win described above the experience (if words could ever describe such a thing.) Penny wished to commend the teacher on the couples’ training. 🙂 There is plenty of love here in the home! We are very happy that we traveled the road we did, got the training, and didn’t end up in a variety of other circumstances. Thank you very much.

It wouldn’t have been the same without your guidance, thank you,

Win, David, and Rhys