 One
birth, two stories
Rich and Tracy Vincent share their versions of their perfect
birth experience, involving much groaning and grunting, hypnobirthing
and a useful but not-much-used pool!
I'm the luckiest man alive
At 16 days overdue my partner Tracy and I started believing that the
birth was just never going to happen! For over two weeks I'd been driving
over every drain and pothole I could find and ordered increasingly spicy
food - all to no avail. However, during a quiet night in front of the
footie things began to happen. Tracy calmly said that it felt as though
the Braxton Hicks she'd been experiencing for a month were notching up
a little. So at about 11pm we went to bed wondering if this was the start
of things or a potential false dawn. We 'knew' at 11:50pm just when I
was about to switch off the bedside light and Tracy said "Ooh, I think
my waters have just broken".
Mopping, giggling and staring
During the next 10-15 minutes there was some mopping up and giggling
and some staring at each other before deciding to call the midwife. She
reassured me that nothing much was likely to happen for a good long while
so we should try to get some rest. For three hours, we lay there, counting
how long each contraction was and how long the gaps in between were. At
2:55am I called the midwife again to say that we had regular minute-long
contractions every 3 to 4 minutes and that we'd like her to come and check
everything was OK.
The midwife arrived at 3:30am and said I should fill the pool. She stayed
for about an hour and a half and was so calm that Tracy's contractions
slowed right down to every 7.5 minutes! Our midwife decided to go home
to grab a couple of hours of much needed sleep. By about 5.00am I'd made
us tea and snacks and somehow I fell asleep. I've no idea how, or for
how long. I woke up hearing voices downstairs. I hurried down where Tracy
was going through the routine checks once more and the midwife was calmly
reassuring her that nothing much was likely to happen in the next few
hours.
Was it moaning or growling?
By 8am Tracy's contractions had notched up several gears. She'd started
moaning (not in a complaining way) or maybe growling (it was a noise I'd
never heard her make before). I phoned the midwife again and two midwives
(one student) arrived together at 9:35am, just after Tracy was demanding
to get in the pool. She wouldn't be allowed in the pool for another hour
and during that time Tracy was kneeling down with her arms on the sofa
and her head in her arms. Growling. They tried to move her to carry out
various checks and it took about 15 minutes and three of us to get her
up onto the sofa lying on her side.
We were waiting for a third midwife, who had the gas and air for Tracy
and the oxygen in case our baby needed it. Fortunately she arrived soon
afterwards and our hallway became a veritable operating theatre full of
stuff we might need. Tracy was allowed into the pool, which had a miraculous
effect.
Hypnobirthing helps
The growling stopped, to be replaced by the occasional grunt or groan.
She was only in the pool for thirty-odd minutes but it was worth every
single penny. Tracy was extremely calm - no screaming obscenities, nothing.
I put a lot of this down to the hypnobirthing course we went on. We learned
breathing and relaxation techniques and for weeks I'd been putting Tracy
into a fairly deep trance and planting key-word suggestions for the big
day. On the day itself we only managed one full hypnobirthing script and
even that was a bit stop-start because of the intensity of the contractions.
But throughout we had the relaxation music on loop and I kept repeating
the key phrases. The midwife had also read up on hypnobirthing and clearly
knew what to say to say to keep Tracy focused and calm. It worked a treat.
She shot out like a torpedo
The head had been crowning for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, then Tracy was
able to reach down and feel our baby. Next contraction she shot out like
a torpedo. There was some fishing about down below as the cord was wrapped
around her neck, and then Eden (or baby V as she was known for the first
three days) was passed up and put on Tracy's chest. After a little while
I cut the cord, then we got Eden and Tracy out of the pool and dried off.
As Tracy was patched up I held Eden on my chest skin-to-skin: magical.
I passed her straight back to Tracy when she could sit back up, but before
long we were off to the downstairs loo to drop a placenta into a handily
placed carrier bag.
I'd recommend a homebirth to anyone. We remained in our own surroundings,
with our own music, food, drinks, and in control of our own environment.
I'd also recommend hypnobirthing but suggest you take some of the 'pain-free'
claims with a pinch of salt! Definitely a big help to us, and others we've
spoken to who went on the same course as us. My overwhelming feeling was
of how proud I was of my utterly amazing wife, and how totally beautiful
my little baby girl was. I'm sure every father feels like the luckiest
man alive, but I am.
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