Lauren's Birth Story - Pre-Eclampsia & Natural Birth
This is our story...
From about 34 weeks our midwife found slight protein in my urine and my ankles had been hectically swollen for a while, so I was diagnosed with Pre-Eclampsia.
I was told to cut out salt in my diet and keep my feet elevated as much as possible.
But I was eventually booked off work at 35 weeks and told to “relax” at home. I then had to go for weekly check-ups for my blood pressure as it was just not going down.
I was about 38 weeks when we went for our Saturday morning appointment and our midwife asked what we were doing for the rest of the day. So we thought she was just being friendly and we told her that we had nothing planned yet for the day. So she said good because she is going to induce me and we will be meeting our little boy this afternoon.
She induced me at about 12pm. We then rather nervously and a bit in shock went down to the hospital and she instructed us to have a good lunch. Needless to say it was extremely hard to eat or concentrate!!
So then just after 1pm we went into the labour ward and met her there.
I started to get these heavy contractions and our midwife told me to just keep walking... so clutching my now hubby’s arm we paced up and down up and down! Then when it was getting too much we were ready to start and she did the normal enema process and then broke my waters. (Still the weirdest feeling in the world! Especially lying in this wet warm puddle!)
Hubby was given some surgical gloves and told to come stand by my legs and help.
After some pushes I forgot to breathe so she gave me an oxygen mask to help me and then after another big push or two he popped out with hubby helping to catch him... our midwife noticed the cord was around his neck and quickly loosened it and then hubby got to cut the cord.
Hubby was so proud at having helped deliver our little boy and was so glad to be able to be a part of the whole process. (He still has his surgical gloves he used!!!!)
So after about 3 and a 1/2 hours of labour.... no medicines... Joshua was born at 16:45pm on the 11 July 2009 weighing 2.98kg.
