birth story of Hadas Sarah aka Poppy
Birth of Hadas Sarah aka Poppy
weighed in at 3.1 k
25 March 2009 10.37 am
12 hours, 7 minutes labour, 20 minutes pushing.
First birth.
Cast: Proud parents - Miriam & Daniel
awesome brother/ ambulance driver - Eytan
doula - Batya
midwives - Shoshi & Naama
After a fantastic second and third trimester of pregnancy which culminated with several easy hikes in my 39th week, I finally collapsed at 40 wks+1. I had done everything I'd wanted to on my TTD list, handed in papers to school, cleaned the house, it was time. But first to sleep. My husband was at that point working in organic farming, I made my way down to the field, chose a shady spot and slept under the tree all day with the wonderful warm clean air reviving me. My body was clearly gathering strengths for the big task up ahead.
on the hike
That evening after a cosy time with my husband curled up in the bedroom and after many friends had popped by to wish us an easy birth and just say hello, my contractions started, at 10.30 pm I felt my baby get into position. I called my doula who told me to drink wine and fall asleep. Somepoint in the middle of the night the contractions returned, they were intense, every 5 minutes but I managed to sleep between some of them. Around 6.30am I decided I needed support (mainly I wanted a massage:), I also figured walking might help. I walked the half kilometre to the field where my husband was already at work and told him to come.
We bumped into a medic on the way back who said this could go on another 20 hours or so... and then thought again and suggested we pop into the clinic to check. Good thing he said that. By that point my contractions were every 4 minutes and I wanted to go to a hospital a hour's drive away. Luckily we live on a kibbutz where the clinic was only a moments walk away. The clinic took one look at me and handed me a birthing kit for the drive - just in case. I called my brother who was going to drive us there and by 8am we were off. By the time we reached the area of the hospital I was having contractions every minute and half or so. We went to pick up the doula first and say hello, she made us tea and then decided to check me, turned out I was already 8/9... Putting down the tea we quickly went to the hospital 3 minutes away.
From here on the birth got fun for me, I'd forgotten till now all my doula had told me about not fighting the contractions and making deep sounds. I'd been able to cope with them but they had hurt. Now my contractions were so frequent I wasn't able to hide, I stood in the hospital lobby groaning good deep animal noises allowing my womb to contract, another few steps and another contraction in the elevator while all the other people stared at me. I didn't care anymore, I'd entered my body and wasn't coming out till this was over.
In the birth dept the midwives started trying to fill out the forms, check me etc, then suddenly realised I'd walked in completely dilated. Quickly they stopped faffing and told me to go to a birthing room. With the doula and my husband I walked straight to the natural birthing room with its gorgeous view of the hills of Tzfat and the Kinneret Lake (for those of you who've ever been to Israel). The views were part of the reason I had chosen to drive to a hospital so far away. (The other reason being that they respect your views in this hospital, having been told you want a natural birth, they wont try and offer you anything else.)
view from the hospital
I do remember walking in and asking if they - doula and midwives - were all sure it was possible for the baby to find her way out and if this was really going to work? Obviously I knew the biology but I'd had some idea that I would feel a large hole, that's how come I'd not been concerned that my contractions were so close, I thought it would be a long time yet (first birth). They all laughed and worked on settling me in, I chose to sit in the birthing chair with the rope to pull on. At some point during the birth I remember looking at the jacuzzi in the room and thinking "oh:( I never even had time to get in it. - the birthing rooms there are brand new and really nice with all sorts of chairs/beds/shower/jacuzzi. I'd brought along my art pad and books and planned to make a day of it relaxing in there. Little did I realised I wouldn't have time for anything but to sit down.
However, I really believe that no matter how close I was to giving birth, just like I didn't go into labour till I'd finished all the things I had to do first, I wouldn't have given birth till this point, settled in the birthing room with support around me. I felt my brain say "ok, I'm out of here" and my body take over (must have been the endorphins kicking in:) By that point I'd been in the hospital about 20 minutes. There was some point where the midwives were trying to find the baby's heartbeat with the monitor and looking worried, I wanted to tell them, it's fine, I *know* she's fine. After a few minutes they fixed the machine and we were able to continue with proceedings (!) My waters broke (all over the midwives), they told me I could push and I looked to my doula for conformation and also for explanation. They were telling me to push but I couldn't think how. She whispered back to me to pretend to poop. I did and suddenly they told me the baby had crowned. They put my hand around her head, it's a good thing they did or I probably never would have believed that she really emerged from me:) Another few pushes and good deep grunts (and a swear word or two) and at 10.37 in the morning, 40 minutes after our arrival to the hospital, 12 hours after labour began, my baby came out. They put her on my stomach and I held her tho I'm sorry to say I wasn't too aware of her, especially since my placenta followed soon afterwards. Some of it retained and my husband claims he thinks the midwives pulled on it while I was pushing and that that's why. Is that possible? Can pulling on the placenta result in the womb retaining a piece of it? Maybe they told me to push it out too soon? I'd also been using stretch removal oil on my stomach, could that have some retainment effect? I heard that this is a possibility.
A lot of the above may seem that I was uninformed, I wasn't, I'd read up on information, birthing stories and so on. It just all seemed so surreal and miraculous. I think especially so in today's society where we're so detached from our bodies.
We took some photos and then since the placenta was retained the fun was over for me, Poppy was handed to my husband and I was wheeled off downstairs for general anesthetic, a small op to find the missing piece and stitches.
A month later and I'm happy to say I enjoyed my daughter's birth, it was a positive experience that allowed my body to feel it was fulfilling its purpose, I learnt from my birth to trust my body completely and to forget shame, there are times you cannot be 'civilised', just let those groans come out, no matter who hears.
The only thing I would change for next time is that because of the retained placenta, I wasn't able to nurse my baby for hours. Next time I really want to be able to have more time with the baby straight away. And of course to try not to tear.
Thank you so much for this forum and for all the ladies who've put up their stories and questions, and answered my questions. You helped a lot.
Amazingly this baby, Poppy was born exactly a year after I miscarried my first baby Sesame at 7 weeks - March 25th 2009 to March 25th 2010.
weighed in at 3.1 k
25 March 2009 10.37 am
12 hours, 7 minutes labour, 20 minutes pushing.
First birth.
Cast: Proud parents - Miriam & Daniel
awesome brother/ ambulance driver - Eytan
doula - Batya
midwives - Shoshi & Naama
After a fantastic second and third trimester of pregnancy which culminated with several easy hikes in my 39th week, I finally collapsed at 40 wks+1. I had done everything I'd wanted to on my TTD list, handed in papers to school, cleaned the house, it was time. But first to sleep. My husband was at that point working in organic farming, I made my way down to the field, chose a shady spot and slept under the tree all day with the wonderful warm clean air reviving me. My body was clearly gathering strengths for the big task up ahead.
on the hike
That evening after a cosy time with my husband curled up in the bedroom and after many friends had popped by to wish us an easy birth and just say hello, my contractions started, at 10.30 pm I felt my baby get into position. I called my doula who told me to drink wine and fall asleep. Somepoint in the middle of the night the contractions returned, they were intense, every 5 minutes but I managed to sleep between some of them. Around 6.30am I decided I needed support (mainly I wanted a massage:), I also figured walking might help. I walked the half kilometre to the field where my husband was already at work and told him to come.
We bumped into a medic on the way back who said this could go on another 20 hours or so... and then thought again and suggested we pop into the clinic to check. Good thing he said that. By that point my contractions were every 4 minutes and I wanted to go to a hospital a hour's drive away. Luckily we live on a kibbutz where the clinic was only a moments walk away. The clinic took one look at me and handed me a birthing kit for the drive - just in case. I called my brother who was going to drive us there and by 8am we were off. By the time we reached the area of the hospital I was having contractions every minute and half or so. We went to pick up the doula first and say hello, she made us tea and then decided to check me, turned out I was already 8/9... Putting down the tea we quickly went to the hospital 3 minutes away.
From here on the birth got fun for me, I'd forgotten till now all my doula had told me about not fighting the contractions and making deep sounds. I'd been able to cope with them but they had hurt. Now my contractions were so frequent I wasn't able to hide, I stood in the hospital lobby groaning good deep animal noises allowing my womb to contract, another few steps and another contraction in the elevator while all the other people stared at me. I didn't care anymore, I'd entered my body and wasn't coming out till this was over.
In the birth dept the midwives started trying to fill out the forms, check me etc, then suddenly realised I'd walked in completely dilated. Quickly they stopped faffing and told me to go to a birthing room. With the doula and my husband I walked straight to the natural birthing room with its gorgeous view of the hills of Tzfat and the Kinneret Lake (for those of you who've ever been to Israel). The views were part of the reason I had chosen to drive to a hospital so far away. (The other reason being that they respect your views in this hospital, having been told you want a natural birth, they wont try and offer you anything else.)
view from the hospital
I do remember walking in and asking if they - doula and midwives - were all sure it was possible for the baby to find her way out and if this was really going to work? Obviously I knew the biology but I'd had some idea that I would feel a large hole, that's how come I'd not been concerned that my contractions were so close, I thought it would be a long time yet (first birth). They all laughed and worked on settling me in, I chose to sit in the birthing chair with the rope to pull on. At some point during the birth I remember looking at the jacuzzi in the room and thinking "oh:( I never even had time to get in it. - the birthing rooms there are brand new and really nice with all sorts of chairs/beds/shower/jacuzzi. I'd brought along my art pad and books and planned to make a day of it relaxing in there. Little did I realised I wouldn't have time for anything but to sit down.
However, I really believe that no matter how close I was to giving birth, just like I didn't go into labour till I'd finished all the things I had to do first, I wouldn't have given birth till this point, settled in the birthing room with support around me. I felt my brain say "ok, I'm out of here" and my body take over (must have been the endorphins kicking in:) By that point I'd been in the hospital about 20 minutes. There was some point where the midwives were trying to find the baby's heartbeat with the monitor and looking worried, I wanted to tell them, it's fine, I *know* she's fine. After a few minutes they fixed the machine and we were able to continue with proceedings (!) My waters broke (all over the midwives), they told me I could push and I looked to my doula for conformation and also for explanation. They were telling me to push but I couldn't think how. She whispered back to me to pretend to poop. I did and suddenly they told me the baby had crowned. They put my hand around her head, it's a good thing they did or I probably never would have believed that she really emerged from me:) Another few pushes and good deep grunts (and a swear word or two) and at 10.37 in the morning, 40 minutes after our arrival to the hospital, 12 hours after labour began, my baby came out. They put her on my stomach and I held her tho I'm sorry to say I wasn't too aware of her, especially since my placenta followed soon afterwards. Some of it retained and my husband claims he thinks the midwives pulled on it while I was pushing and that that's why. Is that possible? Can pulling on the placenta result in the womb retaining a piece of it? Maybe they told me to push it out too soon? I'd also been using stretch removal oil on my stomach, could that have some retainment effect? I heard that this is a possibility.
A lot of the above may seem that I was uninformed, I wasn't, I'd read up on information, birthing stories and so on. It just all seemed so surreal and miraculous. I think especially so in today's society where we're so detached from our bodies.
We took some photos and then since the placenta was retained the fun was over for me, Poppy was handed to my husband and I was wheeled off downstairs for general anesthetic, a small op to find the missing piece and stitches.
A month later and I'm happy to say I enjoyed my daughter's birth, it was a positive experience that allowed my body to feel it was fulfilling its purpose, I learnt from my birth to trust my body completely and to forget shame, there are times you cannot be 'civilised', just let those groans come out, no matter who hears.
The only thing I would change for next time is that because of the retained placenta, I wasn't able to nurse my baby for hours. Next time I really want to be able to have more time with the baby straight away. And of course to try not to tear.
Thank you so much for this forum and for all the ladies who've put up their stories and questions, and answered my questions. You helped a lot.
Amazingly this baby, Poppy was born exactly a year after I miscarried my first baby Sesame at 7 weeks - March 25th 2009 to March 25th 2010.