Natalie then urged me to try walking around a bit, though for some reason I felt glued to the birthing ball. Finally I got up, with Brian’s help, and we walked out into the hall, but we didn’t make it far as more contractions slammed into me. I hurried (as much as I could hurry in that state) back into the birthing room and fell back onto the birthing ball. Soon after (at about 9:10 a.m.) I began to feel the urge to push. This was a new feeling since I hadn’t felt it with Isaac’s birth, but it was an undeniable sensation. Brian later told me he realized birth must be imminent as Natalie began to prepare by getting out a towel and other paraphernalia, but he didn’t know at the time how she knew. I think she just knew how to read my screams.
Indeed just before she began to prepare, I began to feel like I would push soon. We didn’t discuss it at all, though I may have screamed something about wanting to push after we started to move. As Natalie prepared I scrambled around trying to decide what position to take -- finally I got back on all fours embracing the birthing ball again. Brian went in front of the ball and supported me from there.
The next hour seemed to last for several hours. I only realized later, as I read over the midwives’ birth notes, that it was only an hour. I leaned over the ball grasping Brian and screaming like I’d lost my senses (which I had at that point). As I pushed I felt a strange horrible stinging sensation, but the midwives explained that was normal and that I needed to push through that feeling. At 9:40 a.m., Natalie started saying she could see the head and everyone kept telling me we were “almost there” but I just kept screaming and pushing. Finally, at 10:07 a.m., I actually felt a release with a huge stinging push and baby Ewan was slipping out -- Natalie was there to catch him.
Then I expected her to hand Ewan to me between my legs so I could see him but instead I realized it was eerily silent. Finally I looked behind me and my baby was lying quiet and still on the floor and his skin was blue. To be honest, he looked dead -- I was terrified. The midwives were very busy trying to get him to breathe, sometimes blocking my view so that I wasn’t sure what was going on. Also, I had taken off my glasses so I couldn’t even see him or what was happening clearly. They were giving Ewan oxygen and then suddenly paramedics were rushing in the room (only 5 minutes after his birth) and soon they took him away to the hospital. Brian and another midwife, Rachel, went with him.
Meanwhile, Natalie gave me an injection to deliver the placenta (another change of plans as we’d meant to deliver it naturally). Once the placenta came out they also had to clean me up because of the blood and meconium that had come out with the baby. I was shaking from shock and from the injection. I couldn’t quite grasp what was happening and I felt so cold (though it was a hot July day). At this point, the midwives explained that when Ewan was born the umbilical cord was wrapped tight around his neck, so he couldn’t start to breathe. Fortunately his heart rate never faltered -- it was fine when they monitored shortly before delivery and still fine after -- it was the only points he got on his first APGAR evaluation.
As I was changing into some clean clothes, the midwives got a call from Rachel at the hospital -- Ewan was now “pink and screaming.” Soon after another ambulance arrived to take us to the hospital to be with the baby. I managed to hobble slowly down the stairs and walk the few yards to the ambulance outside. Luckily the hospital was a very short drive and when we arrived we were told Ewan was doing well and they put me in a wheelchair and took me to him. Finally, an hour after his birth, I was able to hold and breastfeed my baby.
We stayed in the hospital for 48 hours so they could observe Ewan. Then we were both released with a clean bill of health and we took Ewan home to meet Isaac. I’m so happy that Ewan is OK now and I’m very pleased with the great care we received from our midwives!
