Birth story: “Sophie had a hand next to her head, yet I managed to give birth at home on my own!“

My water broke spontaneously on Monday, July 29, 2013

I had just been to the toilet and when I lay back down on the bed, I felt some dripping. I thought it was urine and that I hadn't emptied my bladder properly. Just after I had been to the toilet, my dad called. “So? Has the labor started?”, he asked. I was due in a week, so it could happen at any moment. While chatting, I felt moisture dripping again. I mentioned this to dad. Dad said that I should call the midwife to ask if it could also be leaking in drips. He didn't know much about this. We hung up and I didn't feel the need to call the midwife. Just imagine, it's not amniotic fluid at all, but just urine. I would look like a fool!

Olov, my husband, came home at 5:15 PM

and jokingly asked if it had already started. He wasn't very keen on going to work tomorrow. When I told him that I thought my water had broken, he too said that I should call the midwife. “Even if it's just to be sure, honey,” he said. So I called the midwife. I got Sanne on the phone who had just returned from vacation and had to pick up some things from the office. She indicated that your waters could indeed break drop by drop, but then you should constantly feel drops leaking. I didn't have that. I occasionally felt a few drops and thought that my bladder wasn't completely empty. “See,” I thought, “nothing to worry about.” With this information, Olov and I just went to the supermarket. I felt like having a cookie and we didn't have anything tasty at home. As I walked through the supermarket, I kept feeling that I was losing fluid. Once at the cookie aisle, I told Olov that it felt as if I was peeing. So quickly to the checkout, pay, and head home. Once we were home, I was 100% sure that my waters had broken. I was now losing more than a few drops and it also smelled sweetish, something I had picked up during the birthing class.

I called the midwife again and she came by at 6:00 PM

She also stated that the labor had started. She advised me to take a short walk to induce the contractions. "Not too far though!", she warned, "then go get some sleep, because you'll still need the rest before the action starts". The weather was lovely, so Olov and I went for a walk around the block. Nothing happened at all. I wanted to sleep, but I couldn't. I found it all too exciting. After all, it was my first baby that could be in my arms at any moment. I figured I might as well watch some series in bed calmly. Olov went to take a shower and by 7:30 PM we were nestled in bed. Around 9:00 PM I became tired and fell asleep, but I immediately woke up to a sharp sting. Of course, that's when the contractions started. They were somewhat painful, but I was able to breathe through them and sway them away.

At 01:30 AM, Olov called the midwife

My contractions were now coming every five minutes. Annet arrived quite quickly and after an internal examination, it turned out that I was almost fully effaced and already had 2 centimeters of dilation. Annet would come back at 05:30 AM to see how things were going. I kept calmly breathing through the contractions and took a nice shower with the hot water on my belly and back to lessen the pain. At 04:30 AM, the contractions started to become so intense that I almost collapsed. That's when Olov called the midwife again. Annet was at the hospital at another birth at that time, but she would send someone. Sanne arrived not much later. The contractions became increasingly violent and came more quickly one after the other. After an internal examination, I was still only at 2 centimeters. Unbearable! I found it all quite overwhelming. No one had told me it would hurt this much.

Because I wanted a water birth

Olov had already started filling the birthing pool and at 06:30 AM I was able to get in. I let out a sigh of relief which made Sanne laugh. But after about half an hour, I felt pressure and at 07:00 AM Sanne allowed me to start pushing. In that half hour, I had dilated from 2 centimeters to full dilation! The contractions were more painful than ever. It felt like my back was splitting open, but the warm water alleviated a lot of the pain. After an hour of pushing, my contractions stopped and Sanne started to worry. I had to get out of the bath and onto the bed to push to see if the baby would come out that way. When this didn't help, Sanne quickly went to get the birthing stool from the car. After emptying my bladder with a tube, I got on the birthing stool. The contractions still came every 4 minutes, but they were not nearly as strong as before. Sanne said that I really had to do it on my own now, otherwise we would have to go to the hospital. As soon as the word 'hospital' was mentioned, some kind of primal strength emerged. Eventually, on Tuesday, July 30th at 08:55 AM, Sophie Mae was born. It turned out that Sophie Mae was a stargazer who also had her hand next to her head, which made it difficult for her to be born. Even though I gave birth at 39 weeks, she was very small with a length of 47 centimeters and a weight of 2460 grams. Because Sophie Mae also received bottle feeding in addition to breastfeeding, she only lost 20 grams on the first day. From day 2, she grew abundantly! Fortunately, we didn't have to go to the hospital, but could enjoy our beautiful daughter at home.

CHANTAL