Birth Revisited
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Birth Revisited
by Mary Aspinwall
Our son Gabriel Luke was born at 11 .14pm on Saturday 30th
January 1999 at our home in West Cork. He was delivered in
a birthing pool after a fast and feral labour, most of which
I spent howling at the (full) moon.
Whereas our daughter, Martha,
took three days to labour into this world Gabriel came in
only three hours. I knew at about 3:30pm that things were
moving, although I had no pain, just regular tightening sensations.
I drove into town to get some shopping and met a friend in
a cafe for a cuppa. I was feeling greaat and planned to take
a long walk on the beach in the twilight with my daughter
and her friend, but the heavens opened so we got some videos
and headed homeward. I cooked up a huge pot of thick minestrone
soup and chose a good bottle of red wine to have with it and
lit some candles. We all had supper and then Martha (who was
then seven) went to stay with our next-door neighbour’s.
She had looked at some birthing pictures and (despite her
initial enthusiasm) had decided it was not, after all, for
her.
The mild contractions were
now coming every five minutes or so lasting up to a minute.
We rang the midwife to put her on standby that we might need
her as she lives one hour’s drive from us, started filling
the pool and then settled down to watch a movie. I assumed
I was in for the long haul, but only five minutes into the
film I got the first big contraction, swiftly followed by
another. We told the midwife to come and my husband, Wayne,
began heating up enormous pans of water and kettles... as
if we were in some old black and white melodrama. Pools are
great, but the average domestic water heating system takes
two hours to fill one. To make matters more complicated our
stove and the pool were a flight of stairs apart, so there
was a lot of toing and froing with steaming cauldrons. During
each contraction (every three or four minutes) I needed Wayne
to put very firm pressure on my back.
He somehow managed to be in two places at once. Since nearly
all the pain was in my lower back I was worried the baby might
be posterior. These labours tend to be long and grim. I took
Ku/i carb 200 and then a higher dose but I can’t say
it did much. The contractions were by now thick and fast and
painful, so although the pool was only half full I got in
and went on all fours to try to relieve the pressure on my
back. Around this time I switched from breathing through contractions
to screaming through them. It felt like the only thing to
do. In between I came back to focussing on my breath.
Our midwife, Elke Hasner arrived
at about 10pm. She walked in on one of my banshee wails and
said later she thought to herself: "That sounds good".
She took over back pressing duty so Wayne was able to top
up the pool with the various pans and kettles. Between contractions
I was able to stand up briefly so Elke could check the baby’s
heart once with a sonic aid monitor. It was hale and hearty.
The contractions were growing closer and closer together so
my breathing time was shorter and shorter. I felt everything
was going too fast. It was something I had not prepared for.
I asked Elke to make me up a herbal painkiller. I took Aconite
200 to ease my rising sense of panic. I had a list of acupuncture
points for speeding up a stalled labour from Steve Gascoigne,
the acupuncturist who had been treating me in the run up to
the birth. I got Wayne to ring him and ask if there was anyway
to slow it down. Steve asked "Why would you want to do
that?" I answered "GRRRRRR" and thought uncharitable
thoughts about the opposite sex. "You could go to hospital;
that would slow it down..."
Once or twice whilst this
was going on I felt a fleeting urge to push, but just dismissed
it. It just couldn’t be that time already, but the desperation
and the out of control feeling was, in fact, transition. I
felt the need to take a Pulsatilla 1M in which seemed to help
and in no time at all I was pushing.
My waters broke and unlike
last time (when they were artificially ruptured) the water
was clear and meconium-free. I noticed the water level had
gone up in the pool, but it wasn’t until Elke said:
"Use him" that I even realised that Wayne had climbed
into the pool with me. I hung on to his neck and the change
of position and his calm and strength helped me to bear down.
Very quickly I could feel the head in the birth canal and
put my hand down to help me gauge how hard to push. The water
was great for giving a greater sense of control as the force
of gravity is so much reduced. Within ten minutes I was able
to push just enough to deliver the head and next push launched
baby into the water into the waiting arms of Elke who unwound
the cord from its neck and swiftly passed my darling to me.
We both just stared in wonder
at the wide-eyed beauty before us. For a while I didn’t
even think to check whether it was "a boy or a girl".
It just was. I held the baby to my breast, but having just
had three huge bowlfuls of minestrone he wasn’t remotely
hungry and was more interested in looking around him. Once
the cord had stopped pulsing Elke clamped the cord and Wayne
cut it. All too soon the third stage started and I passed
our boy to his papa and got back on all fours to deliver the
placenta. After that I was feeling a bit chilly and I wanted
to get out of the pool. Getting out was a real revelation
of what the pool had been doing for me. As I stood the force
of gravity almost pushed me back down. I felt weak and unsteady.
Elke helped me out very gently. Our boy was still enjoying
floating around on the palm of his papa’s hand. I put
on a nice thick towelling robe and sat down on the bed and
looked fbrward to being able to spend a bit of time with our
son. I had forgotten that there might be after-pains. I was
stunned by the force of them. They felt exactly like the first
hour’s contractions and once again I needed very firm
pressure on my back. All the pain was in my lower back. I
had to focus hard on my breath to stop myself from screaming.
Since Kali carb IOm (a high dose) didn’t seem to help
at all I worked my way through a few more remedies to no avail.
I was sick of feeling pain. I wanted to be with my son. I
started thinking laterally and decided to have a large medicinal
swig of brandy and a couple of Paracetamol which made me feel
better but didn’t really alter the pain. Finally Wayne
suggested going back to Kali carb 200 and that worked beautifully.
Good to know someone understands minimum dose! I had a shower
aiming a very hot jet at my lower back and started to feel
human again. So by 3am the placenta and my blood pressure
had been checked and we said farewell to Elke. The three of
us snuggled into bed together and slept for an unbroken, blissful
four hours.
Martha came over next morning to see her baby brother for
the first time. She was a little underwhelmed when she realised
he only had two modes: suck or sleep, but she is getting the
hang of just gazing at him. In the last issue I asked for
your thoughts and good wishes around the time of the birth.
On the day I went into labour I was almost two weeks overdue
and I know many people were thinking of us. Unbeknownst to
me the Salmon provers were having a reunion that weekend in
England and phoned me on Sunday for news. Apparently Gabriel
is the third Salmon prover’s baby to arrive during one
of these weekend reunions. Perhaps that was what he was waiting
for. I wonder how many of the Salmon babies came on the full
moon? Also on that Saturday a friend of mine had organised
a day’s meditation retreat and dedicated the practice
done that day to us. Many thanks to all of you for making
this birth such a healing experience.
In the past year or so three
friends have had home births with Elke and it was only as
I was reading Midwifery Matters (published by the Association
of Radical Midwives) that I realised what rare events home
births are in Ireland. There are only thirteen independent
midwives currently working in Ireland and in 1996 of 50,390
births only 206 were at home. Sally Millar points out that
although women have a legal right to home birth under the
1970 Health Act, the inaction of the Health Boards means there
are still areas with no midwife cover.
In addition, those who choose
a home birth are penalised financially. Although one now receives
a grant of £600, this leaves a shortfall of between
£250 and £400 in midwifery fees. If you also opt
for a water birth, pool hire costs around £150 for a
minimum three week hire period. Having said that, the fees
mentioned include not only the delivery itself but also monthly
ante-natal checks; and ten consecutive days of post-natal
visits. This level of continuity of care is an enormous bonus.
After a home birth it is a good idea to ask your local doctor
to pay a home visit to check the baby over, particularly the
heart and lungs as a midwife may not be trained to do this
for you. Home birth was a wonderful experience for all of
us and once it was all over we were able to curl up in our
own bed with our new-born son and sleep the sleep of angels...
© Mary Aspinwall
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