The birth story of Klara Elise - VBAC!!!!

Klára Elise
21st January 2010 at 16:26pm
8lbs 2ozs
56cm long (22 inches)

Beginning to feel highly frustrated that the chance of experiencing a natural delivery was slowly slipping away from me, I was elated to wake up at 4am on the morning of the 20th January with what only could be described as very strong abdominal cramping, which crept around my back nearly a whole week after my ‘official’ due date of the 14th January. I spent most of the morning in and out of the loo and timing the cramps which were rapidly becoming more intense and averaging 4 minutes apart.

The day before I had gone for a 3 hour walk which had left me in quite a lot of pain but I am sure this is what triggered labour for me.

There was no doubt in my mind that I was experiencing contractions as the pain steadily built up to a peak and gently eased off giving me a few minutes before the next one slowly took my breath away, however, at this stage I was able to use the breathing techniques I had learnt through reading Hypno-birthing and visualisation techniques from Ina Mays guide to natural childbirth to get me through each contraction or urge.

At 7am I woke up my husband to share the ‘good’ news and we decided that it would probably be best as the contractions were staying regular to get checked out at our local hospital, I telephoned them and they advised to come down as soon as I could.

At 9am I was monitored for 30 minutes and throughout that time I contracted every 4-5 minutes, the midwife advised me that I was in what is called the latent phase of labour, all I remember is hearing the words LABOUR and feeling excited that my hopes for a natural birth ‘could’ actually be possible after all. I explained the situation to the midwife and how important it was for me to deliver vaginally but to date my cervix hadn’t been playing ball, she offered to check my cervix to see if these contractions were making a difference. Unsurprisingly I was hardly dilated at all, barely a finger tip but I was very soft and stretchy and she was able to successfully give me a stretch and sweep which we hoped would help maintain the contractions and hopefully speed things up.

Rather upsettingly as the day went on my contractions began to get further and further apart sometimes as much as 20 minutes but they were definitely getting stronger and I was finding it increasingly more and more difficult to talk through them. I made the decision to quit timing the contractions and just chill out so I took a nice long hot bath and headed off to bed at 10pm.

It was 1am on the 21st when I was woken up by a really intense contraction so much so I had to get on all fours and rock back and forth to ease the discomfort.....adrenalin pumped through my veins as the next contraction started to build up 7 minutes later this was surely going to be the day!!

It was impossible to sleep as contractions were every 7 minutes apart so I hobbled downstairs and used the birthing ball but after a while it became useless and rather annoying, what I found most useful was leaning onto the sofa and rocking with one leg in front of the other. It must have been about 4am when I felt something icky down below on closer inspection I had lost some of my mucus plug - this should surely mean that my cervix was dilating. I kept on losing more of my plug with each contraction.

I had a pre-arranged midwife appointment at 10am and all I could think about was if I can just cope at home until then, get checked out and if I was 3cm dilated go onto the hospital where I would be delivering.

On arriving at the clinic my midwife took one look at me and said “Your in labour!!” she quickly ushered us into a room away from all the other patients which was just in time as I started to have another contraction and needed to quickly rock against the bed. After a vaginal examination she confirmed I was 3cm dilated YAY!! And so proceeded to call the hospital to let them know we were on our way.

The journey to the hospital wasn’t too bad we had thankfully missed the peak traffic and was able to find a parking space at L&D quickly.

At the hospital we were taken to a ward and told we would be seen shortly this was at 11am, approximately 40 minutes later a midwife came to check me in by this time I was contracting 4 minutes apart and was unable to talk through them. At 12:05pm my waters spontaneously ruptured at the peak of a rather excruciating contraction.....thing’s then started to happen incredibility quick. I was checked for dilation and was told that I had a show and was 4.5cm

I remember being asked whether I wanted to walk or be wheeled to a labour room...errrrrr! stupid question wheeled please!

I then have no concept of time at all I never spoke to Rich again until after Klára was born it was physically impossible to speak all I could do was nod. I was given gas and air as this was part of my birth plan, did it make a difference?? I don’t know, all I know is for the next few hours I felt the worst physical pain I will probably ever experience in my life, I remember hearing almost animalistic noises and it dawning on me that these noises were actually coming from me! I couldn’t control the noise or grunts they were totally involuntary the midwife kept on asking me “Georgina do you feel like you want to push?” I wasn’t scared at any point as I knew my body was capable of doing this but I did have a one or two moments where I felt like I couldn’t cope with the pain, in hindsight I guess this was when I was going through the transition stage, contractions had been one on top of another for what felt like eternity....I was getting tired and started to feel very sick....I was 10cm

The midwife tried to take the gas and air away from me but I clung onto it for dear life eventually I gave in and handed it over as the midwife in charge declared my baby was ready to be born she could see her head.

Oh my gosh what an amazing feeling...............I suddenly really wanted to push with all my might I felt like my body was taking charge all on it’s own, with each contraction I was told to push as hard as I could so I pushed right into my bottom and could feel the most immense pressure down below, the support I received from the midwifes was fantastic they kept telling me, one more push Georgi and your baby will be here...as I had no pain relief at all I did feel myself tear as Klára’s head crowned and the burning sensation was so much stronger than I had imagined it would be but I felt so empowered and in control.

Fortunately for me as I was pushing in an almost upright position as Klára’s head was delivered I was able to see it, she immediately cried and was twisting her head side to side which felt rather strange, her body was delivered easily with a new found sense of energy at 4:26pm.

I pushed for 37 minutes.

I turned to Rich and said “I did it babe!” I am so proud of myself for declining an elective c-section and pursuing my dream of delivering naturally, it was much, much more painful than I imagined but totally worth it and a week on would I do it again....................................yeah sure I would!

Oh Georgi she is sooo beautiful. Klara and her mum look absolutely beautiful together. I am so happy for you that it all happened as you hoped. Congratulations!

OMG, that is totally amazing! I'm so glad you got the birthing experience that you wanted. Klara is beautiful!

Beautifully written, Georgi.


Congratulations!!!! She's a doll!

Well done babe!!! I am so happy you got your VBAC! It gives me so much hope for the future! She is just beautiful and I think she looks a lot like Theo! I am still in such shock that she is here time is just zooming on by! Awesome job momma!

Wow!That swas AMAZING! I was gripping the sofa! I felt like I was there with you every moment.Thanks SO much for writing it so wonderfully! I am SO SO SO proud of you!You DID do it and I am thirlled that you got to experience it the way you wanted.I can TOTALLY relate to the 'animal noises' I think your body just takes over at that point.I also recall thinking,mistily in the back of my mind 'wow,who's making that noise' only to realise within a second or two that it was me ? LOL! I feel you there! And the pressure,yes wow!I thought I was going to be ripped in two,I think that was the only time during my birth that I panicked because I suddenly felt like she wouldnt fit.The midewife did say she had the head/shoulders of a 9lb baby so that's probably why.Anyway,back to you my love!What an amazing experience.I bet you feel somewhat complete now after not being able to expereince Theo's birth like that? It must be wonderful! Anyway,I am so proud of you,I knew you could do it,you're a very very strong lady and I admire you all the more for sticking to everyhitn as you wanted it! And you got a gorgeous little girl out of it

love you hun,thanks again for this amazing story! <3

Wow georgi that is an AMAZING story!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How wonderful!! I am so happy for you and proud of you for sticking to your guns cuz obviously this was an amazing experience for you that you KNEW you could do Wow, i am just in awe over your story! congrats! she is beautiful!!!!

Wow, Georgi! What an amazing story!! I am so glad you got the birth you wanted!!! Adorable pics of you and Klara! She is such a cutie!!!

that is sooo beautiful!!! i knew you could do it hun. im pleased we had our wee chats before hand, made it a little bit more special for me! she is so so gorgeous. xxx

Wow you make it sound so beautiful but very scary as well. What is the pain like? Maybe it's a good thing I haven't been through it before, naievety could be a good thing!

Thanks everyone!!

Emma - It does hurt like no other pain I can describe but with every contraction I knew I was one step closer to seeing my baby girl and when she was born the pain instantly vanished....quite amazing! 2 weeks on I haven't forgot that it hurt but the memory is almost numb! I would most definately do it again without meds. x