Birth Stories

Its great being able to read all these different experiences - Im just wondering what will happen when my turn comes!! Still, another 22 1/2 weeks to go, plenty of time to plan

Me too, funny thing is since Maya was born time has disappeared, I can't believe she's 8 months already.

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Edited by Astrid

wow wat a wicked birth story.

U have 11 kids?how do u do it?wow thats amazing ive been saying i couldnt handle twins let alone 11 kids? how old r they all?

Love the avatar, Andrea. Is this one of your kids?

Wow! What an amazing birth story! That is definitely a story to tell Lydia when she's a little older! Are you planning n having any more babies?? You have chosen beautiful names for your children, 5 of those names belong to 5 special people in my life also. Well done Andrea, you're a legend!

dnt worry your not alone with maya im obsessed too marsh is 6mnths and ive taken thousands of pics cause hes so goregous and cute.

andrea thats great with your family u must be one hard working mumma and good luck for the future thats a great pic too

that gives me a headache imagineing me havin 11 kids

hey kewl - what a good idea to bring this back up - its always good to read about other people's experiences.

so heres mine - sorry if its a bit long - i wrote it a while ago:

I was 20 when I found out I was pregnant. It was the end of my first year of nursing training, and wasn’t too sure how I’d juggle everything, but I was still pretty sure I could do it. I was due in the middle of the holidays, half way through my 2nd year. My study meant that I didn’t really get to rest a lot, and I was working every second weekend. Despite this my pregnancy went very well, I didn’t really have any of the problems that everyone else seems to have. The worst I got was a bit of morning sickness early on. It conveniently struck just when I was trying to prepare a Pre-Christmas dinner for about 16 people, in my tiny kitchen, on a very hot day. But that’s stressful enough to make anyone feel sick. As for weight gain, it was all baby and not much else. At full term I only looked like I was 7 months, and I was told my baby wouldn’t be very big, possibly around 5 to 6 pound.

I’ve walked everywhere all my life, and that never changed. People thought I was a bit nutty, walking to and from town most days for classes, and to my midwife appointments in my lunch hours. Even at full term I was still waddling about and I believe that kept me fit, and helped me have a good labour. I made a point of reading up as much as I could about everything. I bought magazines full of birth stories to read. Funnily enough I always skipped straight past all the horror stories of long, painful labours, inductions and caesareans, to the stories of quick births. I have no idea why I did this, maybe it was wishful thinking? Reality is, I think I was more scared than anything else. I’m a bit of a baby when it comes to pain. Despite this, I knew I didn’t want an epidural, or pethidine unless I really had to, so I decided that I would try everything else first. When I packed my hospital bag I made sure to put in all the things I thought I’d need – magazines, wheat bags, a TENS machine, barley sugars, crossword puzzle books. You name it, chances are I had it in there! I was planning for a long haul, and was looking forward to having a nice spa up at the hospital.

On the Friday, a week before I was due, I noticed I had a show. It was pretty neat to think that in the next week or so, I was finally going to be a Mum. It was hard to keep it quiet when my Mum came round that day and wanted to go for a walk – I just made up some excuse about not really wanting to go. The weekend passed and was pretty un-eventful. I went to a home expo but left after only a little while because my partner Mike was getting annoyed, as I had to keep going off to the bathroom. I felt quite uncomfy, like baby was pressing on my bladder constantly, but apart from that I was fine. On Monday night I was looking at baby names on the internet. Our girl’s name had been picked for months, and I ended up going to bed early because I just couldn’t find a boys name that we both liked.

I had a really good sleep, and at 5am on Tuesday I got up for one of those frequent late-pregnancy bathroom trips. I’d barely been back in bed for 5 minutes when I heard a POP! It sort of felt a bit like someone had just popped a balloon in my tummy. I wondered if my waters had broken or not because there was no sign of any liquid – until I stood up, then there was no doubt. I woke up Mike, and told him I didn’t think he’d be going to work that day. He just said “cool, can I go back to sleep now?” Since I still had no pains of any sort, I let him sleep and did a last check-over to make sure I hadn’t left anything out of my bag.

Contractions started just after 6am. Each one felt like a really nervous cold wave washing over me, and I could feel my tummy tighten, but they weren’t painful. I timed a couple and they were coming every 5 minutes or so, some lasted ages, and some barely a few seconds. We rung our midwife Maretta, who suggested I get in the bath to try and make the contractions more regular, and ring her back later.   I will never know how I managed to squeeze into the bath so that I was kneeling, with my arms resting on the side – but somehow I did, and that's where I stayed.

I wanted to be alone, and whenever Mike talked to me, I felt frustrated - so he went and lay on the couch and went back to sleep. I just concentrated on each contraction. I could feel when each one was coming, and I would focus on rubbing my head back and forth along my arms instead of what I was feeling. I still wouldn’t call it pain, just that same weird nervous feeling. However, I do remember trying to think of a song to repeat in my head, to take my mind off it. The only one that popped into my head was the Bananas in Pyjamas song, and wouldn’t you know it, it stuck there!   By now it was 8 o’clock. The contractions were lasting forever, and were coming really close together. I felt like maybe something was happening but I still thought I had hours and hours to go. I got Mike to ring Maretta back. She arrived at 8.30, and practically had to drag me from the bath because I didn’t want to get out.

She checked me and found that I was 7 centimetres already. It was finally then that I realised I didn’t have far to go. We got to the hospital at quarter to nine. I had a HUGE contraction at the back doors to the delivery suite while we were waiting to go in. It made me double over, and it was just then that a group of people came out the doors. They looked at me, clutching the door frame for dear life, who knows what they thought. Truth is, I really didn’t care – I felt cold, sick, and the contractions were relentless. We got up to the delivery suite and at quarter past, I was checked again and told I could push.   

At first it was hard to get it right. I felt like I was getting no-where. Then I changed position so that I was more upright, and that was much better. The baby’s head started to keep its place instead of sliding back after each push. When it was crowning Maretta asked if I would like to touch the head. I didn’t, I just wanted it out!   Finally, at 11.07 am the head was delivered, and the baby just came sliding out without another push. It was a girl! She was put on my tummy, all warm and wet and slimy. It was the best feeling in the world; all I wanted to do was just hold her forever. Mike came and cut the cord – throughout the whole delivery I had made him sit over at the side of the room, only coming over to give me sips of water. I never swore at him, or was nasty – I just didn’t want him near me. We did have a bit of a scare a few minutes after the birth though, when the baby was quickly handed to Mike, because I was bleeding more heavily than usual and it wouldn't stop - in those few minutes I was more petrified than I have ever been in my whole life. The midwives managed to sort things out though, and after that everything was fine. I had about 5 stitches for small grazes, where I had torn upwards and sideways, but nothing too major.

After all my preparations, my bag of goodies was never opened. I didn’t get my spa, I didn’t even have any pain relief! Paris Harmony Taylor was born on Tuesday the 5th of August, after a mere 5 hours of labour. She weighed 7lb 3oz (so much for that “small” baby!) She had olive skin, dark eyes and lots of beautiful black hair. Today, Paris is a cheeky 1 year old. She is well above average height for her age, and her features have changed so much. She is now fair-skinned, with blue eyes, and light hair. She loves her Daddy and her Nana, and her cat called Joey. I never thought I would give birth with no pain relief, and so quickly. It was just like something I had read in those magazine birth stories. Maybe all that wishing came true.

thank you - i wrote it to put on an american birth story site when paris was about 10 months old. I've kept a copy to put in her baby book.

hey, where did you get that cute little thing underneath your signature.. i've seen a couple on here lately, its so gorgeous!