Our Birth Story

This is our Birth Story as written by Lana, our Doula. I am so grateful she worte it our for me because I had my eyes closed for most of my labour and it's a bit of a blurr when I try to remember what and when things happend. I may add some commentary later when I have time (She also took some pictures which I will add). Commentary in Red

Lochlan Parker Mayo was born 7 pounds 15 ounces at 7:10pm on June 29, 2009. It all began at 2:30 on June 28, when Anna started experiencing early signs of labour, she started feeling ill, had some low backache and had some show. I was not really convinced I was in labour, I thought I lost my mucous plugg, which can happen weeks before you deliver, but I think it was actaully Show After about an hour and a half her contractions started, it was “time”! Andrew and Anna managed the onset of labour at home moving around from the bathroom to the bedroom. Andrew was keeping track of the contractions with an excel spreadsheet and I wasn't really sure when my contractions were starting or ending because all the pain was in my back. Early on Anna started to feel nauseated and with each contraction was throwing up.This sucked At 7pm I was called to join them. Anna’s contractions were becoming closer together and we all worked to try to relieve some of the back pain that she had. At about 10 pm Anna was ready to go to the hospital to get checked out. I was sure I was at least 7 cm, I could hardly moved, getting from our appartment to the car was epic. Just before we left Anna’s sister arrived at the house from Vancouver.

We arrived at the hospital and got settled into Anna’s room and waited for the Doctor to come and tell us about Anna’s progress. Dr. Klein came in with some pretty good news, Anna was fully effaced and 2 cm dilated. (Great news to someone who thought they were 7cm)We still had a ways to go, but things were progressing well. Anna was experiencing quite a lot of back pain so we decided the tub was the best place to go.
Anna laboured in the bath tub at the hospital for a few hours, her contractions were becoming more powerful, and we could tell she was making progress. The bath helped her back pain and we were able to help her move around and make her more comfortable. After a while with every contraction she wanted to push, we coached her through the urge, but decided to have the Dr. come and check her. At 2:30 am she was 4 cm dilated. Only 4cm for 12 hours of labour!!!! 12 hours is the average length for the entirty of most labours This was great progress. Anna was having little reprieve from her back pain, each contraction melted into the next with the pain from her back, She needed a break from this so with the Dr. she decided to have some morphine to give her a break from the ongoing pain.

She got out of the bath and back to her room and the nurse came in to give her the morphine and decided to give her an IV as well since she was quite dehydrated. Once the morphine started to work Anna was able to relax between contractions. It had been a long haul we took advantage of this and we all tried to rest a little. During the night Anna’s contractions seemed to back off and her labour really slowed down.

Dr. Strydom arrived at 8am the next morning when she checked Anna there had been little progress from the last check. Anna had some options on where to go from here; the Dr. could artificially rupture her membranes (AROM) which would kick start labour but could intensify things a lot, or she could try moving around to try to kick start labour. Anna and Andrew decided to try moving around to help labour progress. We got Anna up on the birth ball, in the shower standing and rocking, walking up and down the hall, all this and her labour seemed to have stalled. With this result she decided that and AROM would be the best. So at 1pm Dr. Strydom came back and checked her and she hadn’t changed.

The Dr. ruptured her membranes and Anna tried laughing gas for the pain. This really helped; her contractions came in and seemed to be a good intensity and becoming more regular. The gas was the weirdest feeling, like I would disapear in the middle of each contraction, Andrew had to count for me to regulate me breathing All three of us worked with Anna to keep her comfortable and relaxed, but also keep her contractions coming. We got her up on the ball again and massaged her back to help with the back pain. She worked hard with her contractions and it really felt like her body was working hard and progressing. The nurse came in and said we should move over to the birthing room, we still had a ways to go but this was a good sign, the end was near!

During the C-section

Very first picture we have of our beautiful son

25 hours in Anna was still going, the contractions were coming and she took them in stride. Exhaustion was starting to set in, Anna was working hard and we were waiting for the Dr. to show up to see where we were at. At 5:30 Dr Strydom was back to check Anna, she was still 4cm, all that work and no progress. It was time to make some decisions. Anna was exhausted she had worked hard for hours with these contractions and her body was not responding. They talked about trying an epidural and giving it a couple more hours or there was talk of a c-section. The Dr. went to talk to another Dr about Anna’s situation and she came back to say that Anna had failure to progress, This could be for several reasons, the baby was not positioned right, the baby was too big for the pelvis, the contractions weren’t strong enough. With the amount of time that she had been in labour, reaching exhaustion, and no progress it was decided that it would be best for Anna to have a c-section. She was prepped and ready to go when the anaesthesiologist came in, and at 7:10pm Anna and Andrew were parents of a healthy beautiful baby boy.

They let me hold him as soon as he was ok

Below is our first (albeit we look awful) family photo

Daddy changing his little man (Andrew has corrected me, this is the nurse changing Lochlan...ooops)