Rhodri Gwyn's birth story

Well, it's a good 3 weeks after the event but better late than never!

At 02.07, 7 days after my due date, I awoke with the first contraction. I was pretty sure what it was but lay in bed for a while keeping an eye on things. I had three approx 15 mins apart and then decided to wake DH up. I ended up on the loo having a bit of a clearout (TMI!) which was exactly what happened with DD's labour, so I checked the time and was assuming I was on a similar, perhaps a slightly quicker time scale. I got back into bed, popped my TENS on and carried on with my relaxation tracks, breathing through the contractions. I'd told dh to carry on sleeping whilst he could but as I was in bed they seemed to come more frequently so I suggested he started timing them. All of a sudden they were coming quite quickly so I asked hubby what the timing was but he'd fallen back to sleep! I suggested more urgently that things seemed to be stepping up a gear and that we should ring the unit. He did at this point say -we don't want to go in and be sent home again' at which point, as another contraction hit, I said that I didn't think that was likely! They suddenly started coming 3 mins apart and we rang the unit. DH spoke to the midwife and she asked to speak to me but by this time I couldn't speak and was getting very vocal. I started feeling pressure which I thought was my waters - DH told the midwife and she said that we needed to get in now, unless I said I wanted to push in which case we were to stay put and they'd send someone to us.

We quickly got all our things together and DH rang my brother to come round and look after DD - a phone call that lasted all of 8 seconds. Although the contractions were coming very close together (2-3 mins) I was still wondering whether I actually was very far along as they weren't as painful as I thought they should be. Once I'd breathed through the very sharp pain at the beginning, which lasted 10 secs or so, they were very manageable for the remainder of the contraction.

My brother arrived and we left straight away. I had another contraction whilst getting in the car and I hopped straight out again and told Dave I couldn't get in. He pretty firmly got me in and told me I had no choice. I put the seat down and lay on my side whilst whacking the cd player on full blast - it ended up being my new Joshua Radin cd which was, appropriately, on the track -Brand New Day' which stuck in my head until my little one arrived and I sang it to him.

We got to the hospital and again I thought that the contractions weren't feeling strong enough... I had another one as the midwife came to greet us and she waited with me. After it passed I told her that I wanted to get in the birthing pool but that I wanted to get out for the pushing - one midwife looked at the other and told her to start running the water ???????but I don't think we'll get that far???????. They got me on a bed but I told her I didn't want to be assessed as the contractions were coming thick and fast. She initially agreed but upon reading my notes and seeing I'd had a previous 3rd degree tear she told me that she really did need to examine me. So I got very bossy and gave her strict instructions as to when and how she could do it - shouting ???????go, go, go??????? at her in the brief period in between contractions. She told me that I was 9 ???? cm dilated - which at this point didn't surprise me at all because I was very definitely starting to feel the need to push.

It all got a little bit crazy as things progressed so rapidly and the midwives were desperately trying to get everything ready, whilst asking me lots of questions as they simply didn't have time to read my notes. It was this period, when the contractions were coming one on top of the other and the pain was so extreme, when the full horror of childbirth hit me once again. It's so hard not to panic but I managed to keep calm and focused on my breathing and the gas and air - which was starting to annoy me at this point. I'd completely forgotten that my TENS machine was actually on!

Once I started pushing, I finally understood what I'd heard others saying about it being a -relief' - I didn't have this with DD. With the 1st or 2nd push my waters broke and the midwife told me there was meconium in them - probably due to me being a week overdue. They didn't seem that worried and everything was moving so fast there was no chance the baby would be hanging around! With the next push I felt the head crowning and the midwives helped to direct my breathing - I couldn't really hear what they were saying but I was very conscious that I ease the baby out gently due to my previous 3rd degree tear. With the next push I felt the -ring of fire' which actually felt like a bit of an out of body experience to me - l had my eyes closed and all I could see was a bright vivid circle in lots of colours...and the pain seemed to distort to the point where I could almost displace it and pretend it wasn't happening to me...very random. Don't ask me to explain that bit I've no idea why it happened! Anyway, with this push the baby's head was born and very shortly afterwards and with the final push my beautiful boy was born. He was placed on my chest for skin to skin and was fairly quiet, he just stared up at me. I didn't think anything of this at first as this is what DD did when she was born but then I noticed he was a bit blue/purple in colour so I asked the midwives and they took him off me to check him. It was a bit horrible then as they were just holding him and staring at him, obviously waiting for something, and wouldn't answer my question -is he alright?' Eventually though they said yes, he's just had a bit of a shock after such a quick birth. They gave him back to me and he started to pink up nicely.

So all in all, a very swift, very natural birthing experience with just TENS and a bit of gas and air for the pushing. The whole labour from the very first -is this it?' contraction to the arrival of my boy was 3hours 45 mins and the pushing stage lasted all of 7 minutes. Rhodri Gwyn was born at 05.49 on 17th April 2010 weighing in at a whopping 9lb 10oz!

Ruth & Rhodri Gwyn xx