My labour/birth story
First time Mum – Drug free, natural labour.

When I was 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant, it was a Friday night. We had some friends come over to watch the football and I was pretty tired from my hard days cleaning (aka nesting!) I had scrubbed the floors, dusted every nook and cranny in the house, I even sorted the dreaded Tupperware cupboard!
So our friends left around 11pm and Zane and I headed to bed for the night. Zane wasn’t feeling 100% so he took a sleeping tablet to help him have a good nights rest.
At around 12am, just as I was about to fall asleep, I started getting these painful tightenings in my tummy. I woke Zane up after I had them about three times and told him I thought I was having contractions. As sleepy as he was (sleeping tablet kicking in now), he started timing them on his phone. 15 minutes apart. At about 1am when he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer, I told him to go to sleep and I’d wake him up if I needed him. I knew he would need sleep if this wasn’t a false alarm.
With the annoying tightenings and slight pain, I couldn’t seem to fall asleep, so I went downstairs and listened to music while bouncing on my exercise ball. Slowly but surely the contractions built up and got to 5 minutes apart. So I rang my midwife at 3am to see what I should do and she told me, as it’s my first, just lay down and get as much rest as I could, I could be like this for a few days yet. I knew my mum would be awake soon, as her and Dad usually go for a morning walk around 4am, so I bit the bullet and called her to let her know.
At 4:30am Mum arrived, and we put on a movie and laid down.
Zane woke up around 8am and couldn’t believe I was awake all night.
However; at about 9am my contractions had slowed right down they were around 40 minutes apart. Which was really frustrating for me because I thought I was well and truly about to have my little baby!
So after waiting around till 11am with nothing more happening, we decided to ring a family friend who just happens to be a midwife, she told zane to get me some clary sage oil and said if I wanted it to happen, go rest and as soon as the contractions come back – do not stop moving. Walk, bounce, dance – whatever you have to do, do not lay down because they’ll slow right down again and I could be like this for days/weeks.
So Zane and Mum went off to get the oil, and when they came back, at 2pm we decided Mum should go home and I will have a bath (while sniffing my oil) and then have a rest.
4pm. I was woken up from my nap. Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Okay this HAS to be the real deal! I ran downstairs and mid contraction told Zane they were back, so I bounced on the ball and started walking around and he called mum. She came back at 5pm and it was on.
We ate spicy food, listened to music, danced, walked up and down the driveway of our complex, did laps around our dining room table – they were 1 minute apart now.
10pm we arrive at the hospital, to find I was only 4cm dilated. Welcome to the ACTUAL start of labour. Active Labour.
From 11pm when I was transferred to birth suite, I was in a lot of pain. I thought I was literally going to die. But I rode it out knowing that she would soon be here! I spent most of the time slumped over an exercise ball in the shower with Mum and Zane breathing with me, helping me to get through each and every dreaded contraction.
By 12:30am I was only 6cm dilated and I couldn’t take it anymore, I had already been on gas for an hour and wanted the epidural. Deep down I was so distraught because my whole pregnancy I swore I wouldn’t have it. The thought of a huge needle in my spine scared the crap out of me! So the doctor came in and put in a cannula (needle in my hand) and I was screaming through every contraction. I begged for the epidural feeling like it was taking hours and everyone kept telling me “It’s coming, not much longer now…” I got so frustrated that when I punched my hand forward on the bed to brace for a contraction I ripped the whole cannula out of my hand and blood was going everywhere.
Zane had been really good up until now. He stayed calm the whole time, talked me through every contraction, but after seeing how much blood I was losing he got worried and asked the midwife what was going on. I got so fed up that I told the midwives that if they didn’t give me the epidural right now I was going to push this baby out myself… I know right, such a threat.
But within minutes I actually felt like I needed to push, I rolled over to my back and started pushing. The midwives raced around getting their masks on and the table ready and I was in a whole other world of pain.
People tell you labour is bad. But nothing, NOTHING can actually prepare you for that kind of pain.
When I started to crown, Mum and Zane were so shocked that Mum passed out (could you imagine!) I felt so bad but I couldn’t stop focusing on getting this baby out. They told me if I didn’t push her out in the next contraction, they were going to cut me from front to back. NO THANKS! So as soon as my next contraction hit, I muscled up some strength that I didn’t even know I had from somewhere and pushed as hard as I could, Zane holding my hand, Mum watching on from the ground, machines beeping.
There she was. 1:56am.
I reached forward, pulled her onto my chest and I didn’t even know how to feel. I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time, I felt so relieved, yet so excited. Zane and I couldn’t believe how beautiful and perfect she was. I didn’t know I could ever love something so much, and I didn’t know I could love Zane anymore – until I saw the way he looked at her.
And that, was my labour story.
Amarni Fay Elleray, born 1:56am on the 23rd April 2017 weighing 7 pound 2 oz. 💕

