A positive gas and air delivery: Noah’s birth story
My pregnancy was fortunately completely healthy and uncomplicated. We found the Happy Parents Happy Baby Forest Hill class while we were still in Canada, as we wanted a way to meet people in our area and also learn more, especially about newborn care. HPHB was great and very thorough - it covered everything from hypnobirthing to how to "top and tail" your baby to baby first aid. It was also great to make connections with other people in the area having a baby at the same time as us.
I had originally planned for a water birth in a midwife-led birth suite - we learned from the class that water is the second most effective form of pain relief behind an epidural. However, as is often the case, the baby had other plans!
My contractions started at around 1:30am, 4 days before the due date. The class had prepared us well to recognize the difference between Braxton Hicks and actual labour contractions, so we were pretty confident that it was the real deal. When the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart, lasting over a minute, for over an hour, we decided to head in to the hospital. I was 3cm dilated at that point, but the midwife who assessed me told us to stick around the hospital as she was fairly certain my waters were ready to go.
We were admitted into a birth suite a couple of hours later, while we waited for the suite with the birthing pool to be cleaned. However, my contractions really picked up and I dilated from 4cm to 9.5cm in around 2 hours so there was no time to be transferred to the room with the birthing pool! I ended up using just gas and air for pain relief and some of the deep breathing techniques that we had learnt in class. Our baby arrived after only 50 minutes of pushing, just before midnight.
We had prepared our birth plan based on the template that the HPHB class had provided, which facilitated discussion between us on a number of topics that we had no idea about, for example delayed cord clamping and Vitamin K shots. This meant that when the midwife asked us our preferences, Peter and I both felt informed and able to answer her questions with confidence.
Although the active labour was short, it was quite intense. I was getting very tired while pushing and didn't know how much longer I could go on. The midwife told me to look down because the baby's head was crowning and it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I yelled "Oh my God! That's my baby!" - I couldn't believe that this abstract concept of having a baby was becoming reality before my eyes. It was all the encouragement I needed, and Baby Noah was born within 15 minutes.
We referred to our HPHB resources a lot during the first few days after birth, as neither of us had any experience with newborns. We were very fortunate that he latched almost immediately and we did not have any trouble with breastfeeding, but were prepared with a list of supports in our area thanks to HPHB.
The class also helped me better understand what my recovery from birth would look like. I had been doing perineal massages in the weeks leading up to the birth, but still had second degree tearing which required stitches. Because the obstetrics session that we had in class had discussed this issue, I knew that second degree tearing was not that bad and quite common, and was not that panicked when the midwife told me the news.
We would absolutely recommend the HPHB Premium antenatal course; it was so thorough and non-judgmental about the range of options available.
Top Tips:
Always have an open mind. You may plan one thing, but your baby may have something completely different in mind!
Being informed about various options available to us really helped us stay calm about the labour.
