From 2cm to 9cm in 30 minutes…

This months positive birth story is from a lovely Mumma, Megan from Perth. Although the birth wasn’t how she imagined it would have been, she was still able to walk away from the experiences feeling overjoyed and damn right proud of herself!

Read how Megan’s account of how her body gave the middle finger to Friedman's curve (the whole 1cm per hour BS) and showed everyone who witnessed the birth of her daughter that birth just happens… whether you’re ready or not!

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My second pregnancy and birth was a rollercoaster from start to finish. After spending 28 weeks extremely nauseous and suffering from all day sickness, I developed really bad pelvic pain to the point of collapsing when walking and resorting to crawling around most days (something my toddler thought was hilarious!). When my OB suggested induction at 38 weeks, I was a bit nervous, as I was induced for my first birth and it wasn’t the nicest experience. But I made the decision to be induced again based on weighing up the pros and cons.

I opted to have an epidural cited but was keen to labour as much as I could without pain relief. It was an experience like no other - empowering, overwhelming and exhilarating. I enjoyed being able to move around, stand, walk and take control of how I wanted to move through the contractions. After many hours the pain became too much, the contractions too quick, and I asked them to check and see how dilated I was.

To my disappointment I was only 2-3cm! At that point I was tired and irritable so asked for the epidural to be started. I climbed into bed and the midwives went to get it sorted. Within 30 minutes things started to feel very different. The pain grew to such an intense level that I felt slightly panicked anytime someone would leave the room. As the midwives linked the epidural up, I started to feel a deep, heavy feeling and the strong desire to push. I was terrified as the epidural wasn’t taking the edge off the pain and wondered what was going on.

They checked my dilation again and I was 9cm and showing. And so began a flurry of movement - call to my OB, everything being arranged for delivery, the midwives encouraging me to try and push the next time I felt the urge… meanwhile my husband was ferociously pressing the epidural button to no avail. It was too late for it to work! The fear I felt was like no other - I was going to have to deliver without any pain relief.

It was not something I had planned for or thought I could ever do. I freaked out! I remember crawling up the bed away from the midwives, crying, saying I couldn’t do it. But the baby was coming and I needed to get it together! Three pushes later and my darling girl was born, delivered by a student midwife experiencing her first birth.

It was such a magical experience, and I still can’t believe I did it! It was so nice to be able to feel when to push, when to ease off and be able to move around straight after the birth. I don’t know what was more surprising - the fact I gave birth without pain relief or the fact I had a girl! The time after her birth was spent doing skin to skin, feeding for the first time and soaking in the moment. The last time I’ll give birth, and boy was it memorable!