KATI'S STORY

Manuel’s birth story – By Kati, his Mama.

It all started on Tuesday the 8th of September right on my very much expected ‘due date’. That day I was active, baked a healthy cake with all sorts of ingredients found around the kitchen while cleaning the cupboards. Around those days nesting was my thing. Later on that day, I went for a walk and caught up with my friends Andrea, Antonio and Cami, their one-year-old girl who was playing at the South beach park. We talked about feelings associated with overdue pregnancies thinking that I could be having one of those. However, that night while we were talking on Skype with my sister in law, I started to experience stronger contractions. These weren’t the Braxton Hicks type anymore, but it was confusing since I had been contracting for the last two weeks. I wasn’t sure if this time it was the real thing. And, well, it was! 

That night contractions went from irregular to regular and were pretty intense. This time I knew I was going to have my baby soon. I even wrote a letter to him/her while in bed. The intensity of the contractions was increasing so I woke Daniel up and asked him to start timing. They were 20 to 15 minutes apart. At around 5am, contractions were coming every 7 minutes. I was breathing and trying to concentrate on something else. I was excited. I was scared. But from this time my mind was set on all the tools I had learnt through my pregnancy-long yoga classes and the hypnobirthing course Dani and I did together. I manage the pain (yes, to me that was painful, and I have no issues with calling things by their name) by walking to the bathroom and back, meditating, breathing. I also tried to catch some sleep, which I did but only for very short periods. At 6am I got very excited about the idea that I was going to hold my baby in my arms soon. I felt empowered, excited, and prepared. I called my mother, she was so excited and desperately wanted to support and accompany me through this unique time. At 7:12am I called my dearest midwife from the Community Midwifery Program, Tracy. She said she was going to come to our place at around 9am for an examination. From that time I used the TENS machine, walked around the house, used the fitness ball, was massaged, had breakfast. But there was a key thing I didn’t stop doing: breathing, deeply and consciously. At this stage, the breathing was my anchor, my distraction, my ‘pain killer’. Together with the affirmations, my Mum and Dani were wonderful to me. Contractions were intense, regular, and frequent.

In the afternoon, after a second examination, it was time to make the move to the hospital. I kept my eyes closed on our way there. I was so into my breathing and picturing the release of endorphins to help me along. My biggest worry was to regress in my labour, to stop dilating and be sent home because “I wasn’t dilated enough”. When we arrived to the Maternity and Fetal Assessment Unit at Fiona Stanley Hospital at 5:35pm, I was taken by the changes that my body was going through. I didn’t think things could get more intense than that. After waiting in a room at the emergency area of the Unit for over an hour and being examined by midwife Gaby, I was admitted and walked to a huge birthing suite, number 11, the room where my baby was going to be born. It was a spacious, well set up, comfortable room. I was pleased. Dani and my Mum did all the adjustments to make it a safe and peaceful environment. Dani even hung on the door of the room the hypnobirthing sign that was given to us by Pip as part of the course portfolio. I only learned this later and thought it was so sweet of Dani to remember this and cover everything from our ‘birth preferences’ list.

From that moment onwards, I did everything I could to have a natural, calm, relaxed, healthy, beautiful, inspiring birth to welcome my baby into this world under the best possible conditions. Contractions were really intense. I was managing them with the help and company of Amanda and Pat, both excellent midwifes and human beings. They were both so special to me! As I wanted to use the birth pool but couldn’t have a water birth since there was no qualified staff at that time on this type of delivery, I was offered to use it for pain relief. The truth is that in there I was so relaxed that I fell asleep and my contractions, sadly, slowed down. But on the other hand, I had a 30-minute nap (without intending to do so). I think that although I can’t recall being tired as such, I was probably needing those minutes of sleep to recover some energy for what was coming next. It was already 3am and I was still 6cm. It was like the dilatation process was stuck. My membranes were intact so they were then broken to accelerate things. I discovered that contractions could indeed become stronger!! But this was not enough to move things forward as my baby’s head was slightly tilted. I remember Dr Amin saying at some stage something like: “This can happen last minute, when baby’s head is getting into the canal, and although it is now obstructed you can have a natural birth if we give you a hand to get you there”.

Consequently, Dani and I had one of our private moments in the toilet. This happened every time I needed to pee which was pretty frequently, so we would talk, cuddle, hug in there! I needed to have stronger contractions to naturally have my baby’s head rotating. Finally, the decision was made. A very slow drip of synthetic oxytocin was administered. I discovered, again, that contractions could indeed get even more intense. It was something out of this world. I can’t properly describe the sensations my body went through. I felt I was splitting in two in order to allow a little person to pass through me and make its way out. At this stage, I wasn’t scared, I had no questions, I had no comments to make. I couldn’t do anything else than breathing and vocalizing. So many ‘Aaaaas’ came out from my mouth that night and morning. I remember someone said to me “Swear, it’s okay, swear loud”, but no bad words could come out of my mouth (in another context I would have had a huge variety of bad words coming out in Spanish but not this time).

At 7:30am the doctor gave me the best news ever. He said to me (literally): “You are 10cm dilated. Well done!”. Then he turned around to the midwives and said: “Start active pushing”. I was over the moon. I was so doing this! Forget about ‘breathing your baby out’, I thought, as that seemed not realistic to me (is it really possible for first time mums, anyway? I still wonder). While I was in between contractions, Lisa, our lovely stem cells collector, gave me a huge smile from the distance and said: “Well done, Katerina! You’re a strong woman!”. For the short time Lisa was inside the birthing suite, she was so kind and caring, full of positive energy. The whole team was there, in front of me, looking down, prompting and encouraging me. Pushing was an experience coming with so much intensity; body sensations that I will never forget yet they seem to fade away with time. I have been trying to recall them and consciously save them in my precious memories archive. At 9:09am my baby boy was born.

He was calm, long-headed, slippery, alert and sooo beautiful!!! My husband yelled: “It’s a boy!”. I stretched my arms out and said: “My baby, my baby”. Skin to skin was fascinating. We were all speechless, tearful, smiley; so proud, so humbled. Such a happy moment it is just indescribable. When a woman gives birth to a baby the whole Universe is there celebrating live. Mother nature takes care of it all, no matter what your journey is like. This is what I felt. This is what I think. I trusted the people taking care of us. I trusted my training. I invoked Beant, my yoga teacher, and her wisdom. I was holding my toolbox and using each hypnobirthing tool as I needed them. I was connected with myself and my baby. I was so grateful my mother was there with me, holding my hand, caressing my hair, looking after me with her medical knowledge. I felt so lucky to have my loving, sensitive, thoughtful husband who I know went through a lot that night and stayed firm next to me.

On the 10th of September 2015 at 9:09am I rebirthed. My new self got an added name which is printed from that moment in my cells, my blood, my mind, my spirit. That word is: Motherhood. Thank you, Manuel.

You have taught me so much from the moment you were conceived to this very moment, and I am so ready for whatever is coming next.