Get your hot-off-the-press, limited edition of Spirit in Pregnancy and Birth: Practical and spiritual care, ceremonies and celebrations – available on pre-order!

After many months of hard work, the birth of my new ‘baby’ is finally happening – I am expecting delivery of my first print run of books within the next 7 to 10 days. If you would like to order a copy of Spirit in Pregnancy and Birth from this very special, first run, simply complete the order form attached or purchase on-line, and we will post your copy off to you.

About the book:
“This book was written for all the incoming souls who are still to join us, assisting Humanity in bringing Heaven onto Earth; and for all the parents who are open to increasing their own awareness and consciousness.
Blessed Awakening within all of us!”

Do you know how to ignite your intuitive flame for powerful parenting? Would you like to have angels present at the birth of your baby? Do you wish to know how to make this grand entrance into the big, wide world a much more gentle, harmonious and loving experience?

This book takes you from conception to well after birth in a manner that teaches spiritual awakening through five ceremonies designed to assist you in understanding the power and purpose within you, your body, your baby, and the process of pregnancy and birth.

The book incorporates many positive tools including which archangels and goddesses to call upon to protect and support you whilst in labour; which crystals to use to soften the bombardment of new tactile experiences your baby is having; how to create a positive, supportive environment for your baby; understanding and honouring the development of your baby from a spiritual perspective.

Spirit in Pregnancy and Birth aims to empower mothers-to-be with more spiritually enriched information with regard to pregnancy, birth and babies’ needs so as to awaken and enliven the inner voice and wisdom that they have already been gifted with.

Published by: Quickfox Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-620-48970-6
No of pages: 160
Format: Softcover

Copies of the book can be ordered by:
• completing the order form attached, emailing it back to colette@star-channel.net along with proof of payment
• purchasing it on-line via www.star-channel.net or www.nurtured-babies.com using either credit card or Paypal.

Colette Van Heerden
Open. Accepting. Serving.
+27 82 354 8873
colette@star-channel.net
www.star-channel.net
www.nurtured-babies.com

What is it that you are afraid of?

How are you going to work through it?

The basic principle is that you need to be in the right frame of mind to cope with any overwhelming situation – the better prepared you are and the more positive you feel mentally, the better you cope with the unpredictable and unknown (both of which are part of birth).

affirmation tree mind map

So with the 1st contraction instead of panicking and thinking “#!*/ this is painful, I cannot do this!!!” you would instead think in terms of an action you can take
eg “Breathing deep into the abdomen relaxes both of us (into peace and tranquility)” **
or simply something that changes the perception of the sensation “Positive pressure”.

Many of us carry negative self-scripts* which you need to recognize and release – your baggage or change them to positives.
* Negative beliefs you have about yourself and of which you remind yourself daily.
* Negative statements about yourself which you think and speak aloud

Creating your affirmations:
• Keep them positive (avoid reverse positives – do not use no, never, don’t wont).
• They must be in the here and now (not in the future) I am not I will
• **Create affirmations that are YOU – make it as short and sweet or as effusive as what you need for it to connect with you. (eg. I am coping or Everything flows perfectly like a beautiful dream.)
• Make it personal – those thoughts that connect with you on an emotional level give power to the affirmation.
• When referring to your baby replace the generic eg. ‘you’ with your petname for baby or the chosen name or an endearment that you use.
• Write / say / think what you want to happen not what you do not want to happen (reverse positives – such as using no, never, wont or dont) .
• You can have many or just one that deeply motivates you.

“Logic does not change emotion, but if perceptions change then emotions change”.

I personally liked my affirmations to be short , simple and powerful. With my second birth as a gift Sally made me lovely affirmation posters on bold positive coloured paper to put up in my birthing space as reminders.
They were:
(the ones in bold are those I used the most through labour)

♥ I can birth my baby
♥ Positive pressure (I used this a lot making a point of not thinking negative words – eg pressure replaced pain)
♥ Open (simple yet powerful)
♥ I am a strong woman
♥ My body knows what to do (important you need to remember this and trust your body and release control to the process)
♥ Work with the surges
♥ Peace
♥ Deeper relaxed (a trigger phrase used in the hypnobirthing course I had done)
♥ Let go
♥ Smile (smile and you will calm and relax)

The concept of affirmations is so simple most people brush the idea off, but test it in day to day life – the more you say it, the more you start to believe it, the better you cope.

♥x

Other articles that might interest you:
How painful is childbirth?
Doula FAQ’s
Aromatherapy in labour
Positions in labour

Here is a clip from 60secDoulas discussing this topic –
it is not all positive but honest in that it reflects how subjective labour is (for some it is painful and for others not).
Because of this and because each experience is so individual and contractions felt in so many different ways it is a very difficult thing to try and explain in words. Even when painful though, it is a positive pain – it is not one you pull away from but work with and the results are a beautiful gift of life.

There is always the comparison of the pain of natural birth vs ‘no pain’ of a c-section but in reality both forms bring some experience of pain – we just never when choosing think of the time after the birth but only of the moments of getting baby out. The one may bring pain for the hours during labour and the other is for the days, weeks of recovery after surgery.

From my own personal births I had one where I will be honest, in the moment it was painful, overwhelming and just plain unpleasant (however minutes after giving birth I was already planning my next waterbirth – so maybe it was not that bad afterall!?).
I was a lot more afraid second time around because now I KNEW what was to come and then I went in to labour naturally (first one was induced), gave birth and it was all so underwhelming compared to what i had anticipated. Second time I cannot remember one moment where I felt ‘this is too much’ or ‘I cannot do this’ or ‘it is so sore’ (I remember those phrases playing on loop first time around). I do remember clearly saying within seconds of of birthing “Gosh if they are all this easy I will have 10 more”.

Our birth story today is raw and honest – one of those where the mom is overwhelmed but like every mom the day after it is a distant memory and she is already thinking about next time.

In antenatal classes they spoke of the fear, tension, pain cycle – where because of fear your body fills with stress and your muscles tense and this increases the experience of pain. There are ways and things you can do to be better mentally prepared which drops the emotional stress of birth which lessens the physical pain of labour and birth – we will cover this over the next few weeks.

A similar question was asked here – the replies make interesting reading, some are honest, some ignorant and some just plain funny.

Previous blog – Walking or Being upright can shorten labour without complication

Then at 00:30 my wife, Tanja, decided to take a bath to see if it would help take away the contractions which were now coming about every 5 min. I decided to lie in bed and time the contractions just from hearing her breathing. At 12:45 I was out the bed and talking to her as they had jumped to every 3 min and seemed to be taking her breath away. As we were having a home birth, I decided to make us some cheese on toast and see how she felt after 30min in the bath. Well at 01:00 she was definitely in labour and I remembered Sharon (our Midwife) telling us that the second baby would come very fast. This speed scared me a little as I really wasn’t up for delivering my own baby. One thing I remember clearly was that while Tanja was eating her toast, whenever a contraction came it would fold her over and she would need to go on all fours breathing heavily.
I called our Doula and Midwife and told them I think this is it and the contractions are coming fast and strong. Then I called my parents to come and fetch Seth as we had decided it would be best in case he woke up in the heat of the new baby’s birth and wanted our attention. Tanja’s contractions then jumped to every 2 min and I felt like this was spinning way to fast. I mean our first child took a good day to enter this world. So while we waited for everyone to arrive I started to setup the birthing pool and Tanja began creating her altar.
Now I was excited and nervous as this was definitely happening, and my hands didn’t want to screw together the nuts for the pool, no matter how sternly I spoke to them about working correctly. My folks arrived first and I went to wake Seth up, who was fast asleep now. He was extremely understanding, especially for a 2 year old, and even said YAY when I told him the baby was coming. I took him to Tanja and he kissed her goodbye and when I put him in his car seat he was very calm and said goodbye to me with no issues.
A few minutes after my parents had left Andrea arrived and pretty much took over and helped Tanja by rubbing her back. I remember when Tanja went to the bathroom, Andrea said to me that she doesn’t think we will be able to fill the pool in time and we needed plan B (the mattress). I got the mattress down and Tanja came through feeling sick. Luckily Andrea was on the ball and quickly gave Tanja a bucket which she decided to fill a little. One thing Tanja said to me was that this was coming to fast and felt very intense, nothing like she remembered with Seth.
Shortly after that Sharon arrived (I think to all our relief) and moved Tanja to the mattress and onto all fours. I sat down in front of Tanja and tried to help her through her contractions although I felt like her body had taken over and there wasn’t much I could do except just be there. Before I knew it Tanja was feeling the baby crown and we were looking at the head slowly pushing out. Sharon did tell Tanja that this baby needed her to push and not to push in her throat but in her bum. From that point on Tanja seemed to take each contraction with a powerful force, breathing deeply and doing long hard pushes with deep moaning. Then at 2:38 our baby was born straight into my wife’s arms and a rush of emotions hit me, most of it shock at how quickly this had happened. My wife said, “And she is a girl!” and I remember we both looked at each other with pure love pouring out over our beautiful daughter.
From then on it felt like time was slow and thick. I drifted into clamping and cutting the cord and then entering the birthing pool to enjoy a few moments of peace. It was truly amazing just sitting in the warm water, listening to our welcoming music we had prepared and staring into the eyes of our new child.
I would seriously urge parents to look into a home birth as it was calm, magical and totally felt how natural birth should be. Every time I look into my lounge I see the area my perfect daughter was born into this world and loving emotions fill my heart.

Read Tanja’s story about Neve’s birth
and
Here is Tanja’s birth story about Seth’s Birth … Birthstory Friday: Seth – 18 days overdue and 4,15kg!

At 11:30 Seth woke up crying. I hadn’t really fallen asleep but had been dozing and gradually noticing my back was aching quite a bit, as it did with my braxton hicks most nights. Settling Seth down took a little while and once he was quiet again I told Daryn I was going to get a hot water bottle to try soothe my back a little. I climbed back in bed and was lying there and starting to breathe through my BH, again as I did most nights, to help ease them and practise for the actual birth. At this point the baby was extremely active and I took that as a bad sign for labour as I’d read babies are usually suppose to quieten down during labour.
Daryn finally asked if I was ok because I seemed to be having quite a few Braxton hicks, and I said I was actually feeling pretty uncomfortable, and I thought I might as well have a bath so if they went away I could at least get some sleep that night. Daryn said he thought it was a good idea because he’d been checking and it seemed the BH were about 5 minutes apart. We weren’t too worried, as they’d been that close before to no avail, but decided to go ahead with the bath.
So at about 12:30 I climbed in the bath, where Sharon our midwife had told us to stay for an hour to see if it was real labour or not. I told Daryn not to bother getting out of bed as I was sure the contractions would stop. I tried to read my book in the bath but quickly gave up as I couldn’t seem to get past the same few lines before having to breathe through another contraction.
After a few Daryn came through and said they seemed to coming faster since I got into the bath, and he asked how I was feeling. I said they were quite intense, but I still didn’t think this was the real thing and it might take some time for the water to work. Daryn timed the next few and said they seemed pretty regular to him at every 3 minutes and he really thought he should at least call the doula. I agreed and so he called Andrea. She said she was going to come right over and we should call Sharon too. I finally agreed because at this point the contractions were starting to feel quite intense and I didn’t want to be in the bath any more. I also felt like I wouldn’t be able to handle Seth if he woke up upset again, so I asked Daryn to call his parents to come and fetch him.
Daryn spoke to Sharon and she asked him to try go farming to see if I was dilating at all. So I got out the bath, but Daryn didn’t really have enough time to check between contractions and there was no way I could stay on my back through one. So he called Sharon back and organised his parents while I started trying to do things.
I kept being interrupted by contractions though and I was having to get down on my hands and knees to get through them. Daryn later told me once I got out the bath they were coming every 2 minutes. I managed to get dressed, stick on our celebration music and start getting my altar ready while Daryn was busy setting up the birthing pool. At some point my In-laws arrived to fetch Seth and I was suddenly mortified at the thought of having them see me go through a contraction, so at the first moment I had between contractions I high tailed it back to our bedroom. Daryn then brought Seth to say goodbye to me and he was just a star, he said hurrah for having a baby and gave me a big kiss and hug goodbye.
After they left I went to the kitchen because I wanted to start baking the birthday cake and I managed to start tumble drying some towels I’d put in the wash that evening, but I was finding I didn’t even have enough time to move from one room to another between contractions any more even. I was also finding I was having to moan to get through the contractions. At this point I started feeling like a real sissy…I thought I was just at the beginning of my labour which could potentially still continue for 12 or more hours, and here I was already struggling to get through contractions, I had no idea how I was going to make it.
Andrea arrived around this time and started trying to help me and Daryn at the same time. I was still trying to complete my altar but kept having to climb on the couch to get through a contraction. Andrea started rubbing my lower back through contractions and it actually felt wonderful, it was a great help. I made my way down to the bathroom and Andrea was concerned in case I was going to have the baby there. I told her not to worry, I really did need the loo because in my mind there was no way I was ready to have a baby. When I was on the loo I had a blood stained show, and told Andrea because she’d been asking about it earlier, and for some reason I completely dismissed it even though we had learnt it was usually a sign of transition.
Andrea helped me light the candles on my altar while I had some more contractions on the couch, I was struggling to catch my breath between contractions, it felt like they were all coming too quickly now and suddenly I needed to vomit. I was hanging onto the bucket when Sharon arrived and commented that she took it I wouldn’t be making my appointment later that day.
She asked me to get on the mattress, which had been set up, between contractions so she could try see what was going on. She then told me to reach down and have a feel of the baby’s head, which was amazing, I could feel the hair on the top the head because it seems my water had broken some time, although we have no idea when.
I was on my hands and knees and Sharon started checking how the baby was. After trying to find the heartbeat she spoke to me and said the baby seemed to be stuck and wasn’t very happy, so I needed to reassure her and push as hard as I could to try help her. Strangely I felt very calm about it and with the next contraction I started pushing. The heartbeat picked up again and she got happier with each push.
I was doing 2 or 3 pushes with each contraction but it took me a couple reminders not to push in my face and throat. It was really strange, I can’t remember feeling the same sensations when I was birthing Seth, I could feel the baby moving down and slipping back up with each push. Suddenly there was a big movement and I felt the head move past my tailbone and start crowning. I could also feel the baby trying to move about. The sensations were very intense, but pushing did feel good. It took a couple more pushes and between pushes I reached down to feel my baby’s head. Suddenly the head was out, the body followed really quickly and I had my baby in my hands.
I couldn’t believe it; I was holding a tiny little girl. She was born at 2:38 am on the 16th Feb 2010, after about 2 and a half hours of labour!
Sharon had to suction her a little and we blew in her face a little and waited for her to come into her body. After I spent a little time with her we handed her over to her Dad so I could birth the placenta. It came really quickly and then Sharon asked if she could check me as I had torn a little while the baby was being born. The tear wasn’t bleeding and didn’t seem to bad, which was great.
After that we all got in the birthing pool together and let our little girl float in the water for a while. Andrea put on our welcome songs and then she and Sharon left us alone with our little girl, and we all gazed into each other’s eyes.
Sharon in the meantime spoke to my gynae who said there was no need for me to be admitted, I could just pop into his rooms early and he would do the stitches there and just charge us a normal consult.
Then Sharon and Andrea settled us all in bed together and said they would meet us in the morning at the gynae’s rooms. And they left…
It was all so quick I’m still processing it, and all completely opposite from Seth’s birth, from the length, to my progression, to the baby’s weight and gender!

Read Daryn’s story (a dad’s story) about Neve’s birth
and
Here is Tanja’s birth story about Seth’s Birth … Birthstory Friday: Seth – 18 days overdue and 4,15kg!

One and a half hours later, the feeling was not funny anymore.

I could not sit or lie down and I’d want to scream. The only comfortable position was bending forward slightly with my legs apart. Persperation was dripping from every single pore of my body and now i was worried that I might have some kind of infection. The thought still hadnt crossed my mind that I was in labour. I decided to have a bath and see if it would ease the pain. It was a big mistake. Like I said, the only comfortable position was standing wide legs and half bent.

At 01:56(I know this because we argued about the time later and I went back to my phone to check) I SMS’ed my midwife aunt from the bath to ask what could be the matter. She phoned me back immediately and asked me to explain what I was feeling. I told her “it’s not contractions but it feels like my fanny and butt is going to fall off”.She said that I must leave for the hospital immediatly to get checked out.

I tried for a good 5 minutes to lift myself out of the bath, but eventually had to call my sleeping husband to fetch me.The pain was still constant and becoming more and more unbearable. Poor Warren had a tough time trying to help me out the bath ( I gained a good 30 kg’s and was not too skinny to start with)

I pulled on a dress, woke my mother and sister, told them we going to the hospital and asked her to go lie with Daniel. At this point I thought I was gonna pass out from the pain. Warren loaded all the stuff and as I got into the car, I started groaning and making low growling like sounds to try cope with the pressure. I remenber saying that it’s not giving me a chance to catch my breath. I told my hubby that I as soon as we get to the hospital I want the drugs because I’m not gonna cope with 20 hours of this pain.

We got to the hospital at about quarter to 3 and I bravely say to my hubby thst I can walk to the maternaty ward. Pfffft. I could hardly lift myself out the car and had to be wheeled to maternaty. When we get to the counter I finally have a contraction and boy what a contraction it was. I announce to all and sundry that ” The baby is right here”. The sister on duty comes around and has to literally pull me by the arm to the labour room as I am immobalized by another contraction.

The contractions were now coming in thick and fast. Now it felt like labour. HARD LABOUR She tells me to take my dress of and get onto the bed. I cant move and another sister along with my stunned DH has to help me out of my clothes and onto the bed. I watch as Veronica(the sister) puts on her gloves and comes over to have look. She looks and without even touching says :” The baby IS here. You need to push now.”

Warren is next to me in a flash, encouraging me and telling me I can do it. At this point I’m not so sure I can. I ask for the back of the bed to be lifted a bit and Veronica does this.The contractions are now coming on top of each other.

Another contraction and I dont have a choice. I feel like I have to push and I do. Warren says he can see part of her head. He says that I must “just push her out. I can see part of her head.” I get really irritated and scream at him to just wait. He takes it in his stride. Another one comes and I push some more. This time her head is born. Seconds later and the rest of her body is born. I couldnt believe it.
I couldnt believe it’s over. I stared at the little baby laying on the bed between my legs and heared my husband say “Can I do that?”(cut the cord).
It took me a minute to realize that I had taken off the hospital gown and was trying to reach down and pick her up in all my nakedness when Veronica tells me she will give her to me. She does. I felt euphoric. I felt like I could take on the world.
Half an hour later Warren fetched our bags from the car.
Lily was born at 3:05 on the 16th January 2008, 20 minutes after I walked into the front door of the hospital. She weighed 3.58 kg.

There was so much that I had planned to do with this birth. I would take a photo of myself when I went into labour. I was gonna light candles and listen to my MP3 while in the birthing bath. Warren and I would bond and daydream and plan our new family’s future. None of this happened. I wouldnt change a thing though!

This is the story of how Seth, our firstborn son, was born.

It was my first pregnancy and all went really well. We had tried to conceive for a while and even before I finally fell pregnant we had decided we wanted as natural a pregnancy and birth as possible, which led us to seek the services of a midwife rather than a gynae.

We finally found Xoli, our midwife, and decided to have our baby at Linkwood Clinic as we couldn’t find a midwife we were happy with to help us with a homebirth.

Everything with the pregnancy went very well, in fact Xoli told us it was a text book pregnancy, with all the measurements etc, being spot on week for week. We finally reached the last few weeks of our 9 month wait and began looking forward to our baby’s arrival into the world, which I had estimated to be the 16th December, and not the 12th as the gynae had advised us.

The 16th came and went without any indication of labour, and I was not too surprised as my mother’s pregnancies all went full term plus a few days. A few days extended to a week and my midwife left on holiday, sad that she was going to miss the birth as I was only allowed to go 10 days overdue. I had really wanted her to deliver my baby so tried various natural induction methods, including castor oil, but all to no avail. At the next appointment with the stand-in midwife I discussed the induction and told her I was reluctant to induce as I felt the baby was happy and I thought my due date could in fact be out by up to 5 days. She agreed to let us wait another week, as baby’s heartbeat was still so strong and healthy, I was very comfortable, and my bump still seemed relatively small.

Over the next week I continued to try all the natural induction techniques and I started getting regular contractions some evenings, only for them to completely fade away the next day again. During this time, Christmas came and went and Xoli returned from holiday. She contacted me very anxious that I hadn’t given birth yet and asked us to do a non-stress test every second day to make sure baby was still coping fine. Every time we went baby showed no sign of distress at all, and no sign of arriving anytime soon either.

I finally agreed to a stretch and sweep to try induce labour, failing that we were to return on the 1st or 2nd of January for a gel induction as we couldn’t wait any longer than that. I was convinced the stretch and sweep would work as my cervix had been nice and soft for some time now. The evening after the stretch and sweep I had regular contractions again, which frustratingly disappeared the next morning. By this time we were starting to get very tired of waiting and just wanted to meet our baby!

And so New Year’s arrived and I prayed as hard as I could that my labour would start naturally…and my wish came true, on the evening of the 1st, after dinner at 8pm, my nightly contractions started again, but this time they were different because they were painful, where none of my previous contractions ever really were. We timed them and when they were 5 minutes apart and at least 40 seconds long we called Xoli, she asked us to go into the clinic as it sounded like I was in labour.

We reached Linkwood at 2:30, my contractions were monitored and it was confirmed that I was in labour. We were so excited, until Xoli did an internal and said I was unfortunately only 1cm dilated (as I had been previously) and it could still be a very long time until I gave birth. She did another stretch and sweep, and advised us to go home and call her when the contractions were closer together, she would give us until Friday to let labour progress naturally, but if baby hadn’t arrived by then she would have to intervene.

We got home at 3:30 and went to bed, but after the internal my contractions seemed stronger and more painful than before and I was unable to sleep through them, so I got up and sat on my birthing ball to try open up my pelvis and speed up my labour. My contractions became more and more painful but weren’t getting any closer together, and finally I woke Daryn as I didn’t feel like I was coping very well on my own any more.

Daryn called Xoli and she advised us to take an hour long walk, and then make our way to Linkwood. As my contractions were painful enough to stop me in my tracks, we decided to walk around our garden and in front of our house, without going to far. We walked and walked, with me holding onto Daryn through the contractions. I began feeling nauseous and suddenly threw up. Worried, Daryn called Xoli, even though I told him it was normal, and they decided we would go to the clinic immediately and rather walk around the grounds there.

We arrived at 10:30am on the 2nd January and started walking, and walking, and walking, with me throwing up several times during this time. Xoli finally arrived and monitored my contractions again, and checked my cervix. Although my contractions were stronger, I had only dilated to 2cms, which was very disappointing. Xoli said she would check again at 2pm, and until then I should take a bath to relax, and continue walking etc. We walked and walked some more, and I got in the bath a bit to try relax. My contractions were becoming steadily more and more painful and I was moaning through all of them, and no positions or swiveling I did seemed to help ease them at all, the only thing that did help was the bath.

When Xoli checked again my contractions were really intense, but I hadn’t dilated any further at all. At this point she said we would have to decide on a course of action as she was worried about the baby going into foetal distress and me becoming too exhausted, as I hadn’t slept the previous night, I wasn’t able to eat and was throwing up, and with the baby being so overdue she felt my placenta could be taking too much strain. We agreed to let her break the waters to try speed things up, rather than use Syntocin to increase my contractions. She broke my waters and discovered Meconium in the water, which she was concerned about, but throughout all of this my baby showed no signs of distress at all when they monitored his heart rate. In fact he was unusually happy through every contraction. I went into the bathroom and burst into tears as I thought I was going to need a c-section. Xoli came in and told me to try calm down, and that her first concern was for my baby, but as they couldn’t find any other sign of distress she was happy for me to try to continue to labour naturally for a further 4 hours before checking us again. So I calmed down and we went for another walk, and the pain of my contractions increased a lot. When we got back to the room I had another bath and waited for our next checkup at 6pm, continuing to standing and rotate my hips, and doing everything in my power to help dilations etc.

When Xoli checked me again I had only progressed to 4cms, but baby still appeared as happy as ever. At this time Xoli said we would have to do something as I was so exhausted she was worried I wouldn’t be able to continue for much longer, and she wasn’t sure how much longer the baby could carry on for either. We agreed to a Syntocin drip, and the Pethidene which accompanied it, even though we had wanted a drug-free birth, as we felt it was our best option for still having a vaginal birth.

The Syntocin made my contractions incredibly painful but although the Pethidene didn’t stop the pain, it made my body relax sufficiently for me to sleep between contractions. I later found out my contractions at that point were every 2 minutes so I wasn’t sleeping much, but it did help.

At 8pm the contractions became so painful I told Daryn the Pethidene wasn’t working and he better get Xoli. Unknown to me, she told him I had to wait until 8:30 and he should try stall me, so he just kept telling me she was on her way.

When she finally arrived she checked me and I was 9 and a half centimeters dilated, it had worked! She told us to get ready because it was time to have a baby before the next hour was up…little did she know!

They ran me the bath and I got in and we started pushing, and pushing and pushing. It felt so good to push, somehow it changed the pain of the contractions so that it was bearable again. The baby’s head was just short of crowning and Xoli told me to feel my babies head, it was amazing and I told Daryn to feel it too!

I pushed and pushed and pushed but the baby just kept trying to crown and then slipping back again. I only found out afterwards that I spent 2 hours pushing in the bath, luckily for me it didn’t feel that long. Xoli eventually said to me I would have to get out the bath as baby clearly needed some help. So I climbed out and back onto the bed, and bracing myself against Daryn and Xoli, tried to push again. At this point baby’s heart rate started dipping with my contractions, and Xoli said it was time for him to be born as he was getting stressed, and he clearly needed some help. So she called in another lady to help and they got the Ventouse suction cup to help him. So with me pushing as hard as I could and the assistant pushing as hard as she could on my bump, Xoli gently pulled the baby’s head. Before I knew it he crowned and then his shoulders and body followed at 22:57. Baby was immediately placed on my chest and I was so happy I looked into my baby’s eyes and said “You made it my baby!”, that’s when Daryn said, “It’s a little boy!”

Daryn then cut the umbilical cord and they gave my little boy to him to hold while they were finishing with me, the afterbirth came straight out without any problems, and then they needed to give me some stitches because they had to give me a small cut to help my boy out. The entire time I just kept asking if I could feed him yet.

Apparently at this point they measured my little boy and he was a whopping 4.15kg and 54cm long, my midwife asked if I was an athlete because she said my bump was so small no one could believe the baby was that big, also she said my perineum was very tough and they usually only see that in horse riders or athletes etc. I don’t remember this but apparently I replied and told her it must be from lots of sex cause I’ve never done a day of exercise in my life – how embarrassing!

Then finally I was holding my little man again, and he latched right on and fed. They ran me a nice bath and I climbed in with my baby and we washed up, climbed back into bed and went to sleep for the rest of the night!

Throughout everything, Daryn was the greatest support I could have asked for, and I could never have done it without him.

The day afterwards Daryn told me that when my placenta came out they were expecting a lot of calcification etc because baby was 18 days overdue – but it was a 100% fine still, if I hadn’t gone into labour then or been induced, my baby would have just carried on growing and growing for who knows how long! Oh, and I have the dubious honour of breaking her record of 8 months with no episiotomies & being Linkwood’s first for the year, as well as being her most overdue patient

I found out that I was pregnant on 2 December 2003. My due date was 10 August 2004. It was so exciting to tell everyone. My sister was the first to know and then I told my mom and my grandmother. My mom and sister were flying to visit my brother in Canada for the month that evening and I called my brother from the airport to tell him the news. Everyone was very excited, with it being the first grandchild on both my and my husband’s side of the family.

My pregnancy was great, except for the nausea, which lasted the whole way and was not only confined to morning sickness. I really felt like I was glowing. I love being pregnant.

I don’t know when exactly I began leaking amniotic fluid. I was feeling dampness downstairs for a week or so. I had been ill with bronchitis for a few days and had really been coughing a lot. I just assumed that the dampness was due to incontinence because of the pregnancy and that this was just worsened due to the coughing. I wore a pad and though nothing more of it.

My mom and sister had been away and I went to fetch them at the airport on Sunday 13 June. I had been booked off work for the week and between my mom and I we decided that I should go back home with her so that she could “look after” me and nurse me back to health, as I was still not feeling on top of the world. Just as a precautionary measure, I packed a bag for myself and one for little Andrew (I always say that one can never be too prepared, or maybe I just had a niggling feeling that something was about to happen), and off we went. It was actually great to be able to just rest and by the Thursday morning I was feeling a lot better and had a lot more energy. It is amazing what relaxation can do for the body.

I woke up the morning of 18 June and noticed that there was some blood in the fluid that I had been leaking. After calling the local GP, it was decided that I need to go to the hospital to be checked out under sterile conditions. They needed to find out what the fluid was that I was leaking. My mom drove me to the hospital and I was checked out by a gynecologist, who told me that it was definitely amniotic fluid and that I would have to be admitted into hospital and monitored. He also requested that I go for an in-depth scan to see how much amniotic fluid I still had. If there was not enough then I would have to have an emergency caesarean. I was given a cortisone injection to strengthen the baby’s lungs in case he was born early. I spent the entire day in a beautiful hospital gown, flat on my back (I was not allowed to move around at all) until I finally went for the scan later that afternoon. The scan revealed that the baby was doing very well and that there were still a few “pockets” of amniotic fluid and that I could continue with the pregnancy and it would not be necessary to do an early delivery. I was really relieved, as I felt that I was not quite ready to be dealing with a newborn baby and besides I was in a “strange” town and without my husband.

Semi-lying, I managed the 2 ½ hour trip back home early on Saturday morning. I was so glad to be home, at least now if things do go wrong I am in my own town, my own home and have my own doctor around as well as my husband.
I had my stork-tea that afternoon.

I went to see my gynecologist on Monday 21 June just to make sure that everything was fine. He did a full check and seemed to think that everything was fine. My leaking had even seemed to have sorted itself out. He sent me for some blood tests to check that I did not have an infection of some sort and then put me on bed rest for the rest of my pregnancy, just as a precaution.

I woke up at about 2am on the morning of 23 June feeling pains in my stomach, but not thinking too much of it – I thought they were Braxton Hicks contractions, which is quite normal so far into the pregnancy. I went to the loo (my normal thing a few times a night) and then went back to bed. I woke again at 7am and the pains were still there. They were very slight and felt like period pains. My back was also quite sore. I told my husband that I think something is not right and he advised that I try to get hold of the doctor when his offices opened at 8am. My husband went to work and asked that I call him as soon as I know what is happening.

By 7h30 the pains were getting worse and I was getting a bit worried, so I called the labour ward at the hospital. I asked the sister on duty what a contraction feels like said that she thinks that what I am feeling are contractions and I could be in labour. She said that I should come to the hospital to be monitored. I was 33 weeks and 2 days pregnant – surely this is too early for labour! I called my husband and told him that I am going to the hospital and that (yes, I know I am crazy) drive myself because I felt fine. I did the whole packing my bag and Andrew’s bag thing and off I went.

When I got to the hospital I was immediately hooked up onto a monitor as it was confirmed that I was definitely having contractions and was therefore definitely in the early stages of labour. PANIC!!!! I was only 33 weeks pregnant!!

The doctor was called and I was admitted into the hospital and immediately put onto a drip with medication in it to stop the contractions. This was at about 9am. My husband came to see me later that morning and we suddenly came to the realisation that our baby could be born any time from now. The medication that I was given did not seem to work very well for the contractions/pains and it was only after the dosage was increased that I felt better. The increase was so severe though that it was at the maximum allowed and I was warned that I would have to stay in hospital for a few days to be weaned off the medication. So it seemed as if I was not going very far.

My gynae came to see me just after 9pm and said that everything looked good. They baby was fine, I seemed to be doing well and the contractions seemed to have slowed down to such an extent that I was not really in labour any more. My husband went home after the doctor left and promised to come see me on his way to work the next morning.

All seemed to be under control, and I actually managed to get some sleep until 2am, when I woke up with terrible contractions and called the sister for some pain medication. She gave me a shot of pethedine and promised me that it would “knock me out” and that it would help for the pain. Needless to say, it did neither and it seemed as if nothing on this earth was going to stop these contractions. After an hour, I could not cope any more and went in search of the sisters on duty once again.

I was then moved from the general ward into the labour room so that I could be examined and the baby be monitored again. The contractions were becoming stronger and more frequent and it was quite evident when I was hooked up onto the monitors. There was nothing more that could be done to stop the labour process and it was all systems go for me.

My gynae was called at 4am and he told the sisters to schedule me for an emergency caesarean for 9am, as I was only about 2cm dilated. I called my husband shortly after 5 am and let him know that I was fully in labour and that Andrew was on his way and would be born by C-section at 9am. I called my mom at about 6am with the same news.

At about 5h30 my waters broke after an internal examination and I dilated another 2cm immediately. Labour progressed very quickly from there and things started gong a bit hazy for me. My gynae was called at 6am again and told that I was dilating very quickly and he moved the C-section forward to 8am.

What happened after that is a bit of a blur because things were moving quite fast and I was having a contraction every 1 ½ – 2 minutes and trying to still breathe in between. My husband arrived to support me – thank goodness – and he massaged by back for me and towelled down my forehead. He was a real star. Somewhere through this lot, I was prepped for the caesarean and my husband tried to fill out the concession forms for the epidural to be administrated. All I really remember is begging for an epidural and the nurses telling me I had to just wait for the anaesthetist, who was on his way.

Next thing my catheter was pulled out and I was told that it was too late for the caesarean and that the baby was coming…..

By this stage the contractions had let up and I started feeling the need to push. Only problem was that my doctor was not there yet. My gynae arrived a few minutes later and made an entrance in his own right. He had been out cycling when he got the call to come to the hospital urgently. He cycled into the hospital, into the ward, parked his bicycle outside the door, took off his cycling helmet and his cycling gloves, put a pair of latex gloves on and said, “Well, let’s deliver a baby”. The pushing was not too bad, although it was very tiring. It lasted for about 15 minutes and next thing Andrew was born. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world, seeing that little helpless baby and knowing that he is yours. The love that you feel for this child who is only a few seconds old and who you don’t even know yet, is indescribable.

Again, things moved quite fast after that and the cord was cut and Andrew was been given his apgar test (which he only scored 1/10 for). I was shown Andrew for a brief moment before he was taken to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Andrew ended up staying in the NICU for 3 weeks before we could finally take him home.

All in all a wonderful experience and something which I will remember for the rest of my life. It is truly a miracle to give birth!

Gestational age when born 33 weeks
Weight when born 2.23kg
Reason for premature birth (eg. Pre-term labour, pre-eclampisia, placenta praevia etc) Pre-term labour
Baby’s age at time of submitting (and date) 4 years (June 2008) Baby’s weight 16kg

I found out that I was pregnant on 2 January 2006. My due date was 8 September 2006. I had a lovely (textbook-like) pregnancy and the baby was growing very nicely, although a bit big – but that I would only worry about later.

On Wednesday, 26 July, I woke up the morning with contractions. Not being sure if they were false ones or not I started timing them and sure enough they were regular, meaning it was the real thing! This concerned me as I was only 33 weeks pregnant. I went off to the hospital and was admitted with premature labour, which my gynae (tried to stop. After some drugs for the pain and others to stop the contractions I made myself at home for a bit of a hospital stay.

I remained in the hospital for 2 nights and was discharged on Friday, 28 July with some medication for in case the contractions started up again and told to take things easy (mild bedrest). All was well until 5am the next morning (29 July) when the contractions started up again. I got up and did some washing and packed a bag for myself and the baby, just incase – instinct must have taken over then – had some of the medication to stop the contractions and waited to see what would happen. By 7am I was in a lot of pain so I woke my husband up and we all (my eldest child too) made our way to the hospital again. I got to the hospital at about 8am and was told that I was indeed in labour again and that the doctor would be called. Unfortunately my gynae was not available as it was his weekend off, so I was introduced to the on duty doctor. He examined me and told me I was already 5cm dilated and therefore they would not be able to stop the labour process and that the baby would be born that day. As you can imagine, I was in a lot of shock (and pain) and had to quickly mentally prepare myself for this as it was really the last thing I had expected!

We called the parents and my mom (who happened to be in town) came over to the hospital. We also called my husband’s mom to come fetch our other child, who was still with us at that stage (terrorizing the people and the poor fish in reception, but luckily I was the only patient there that day).

After being prepped, I was moved into the labour suite. Things started to get a bit hectic then and pain-wise I was not doing too well and the baby was lying posteriorly, making labour a bit worse than anticipated. I asked for an epidural as pain relief at about 10am and the anesthetist arrived shortly before 12pm to come do the procedure. It was quite quick and painless with the only challenge being to sit perfectly still during a contraction for him to work on the spine. The epidural kicked in quite quickly and the midwife did a sweep of the membranes and my waters broke at 12h25.

Before I knew it, I was 10cm dilated and was told to hang on for the doctor before starting the next phase of labour. The gynae arrived just in time and about 10 minutes later Michael Albert Cross made his appearance at 13h35! HE screamed when he was born and wee’ed all over the nurses. He had an apgar score of 8/10 and 9/10 and I managed to hold him for a few minutes before the paediatrician took him off to the NICU. He was fine with the birth, weighing in at 2.39kg. He only needed a little bit of oxygen, which they administered by holding a tube close to his nose and mouth.

Michael spent 11 days in the NICU before coming home

Gestational age when born 34 weeks
Weight when born 2.39kg
Reason for premature birth (eg. Pre-term labour, pre-eclampisia, placenta praevia etc) Pre-term labour (I had a bladder infection)
Baby’s age & weight at time of writing 23 months (June 2008); 13kg