Erin and Sam's magical birth of Piper

Pipers birth was even more magical than we could ever have wished for, Sam
was of course AMAZING! His support through language and his confidence
in how he could support me physically made all the difference.

As you can see from the photo we were able to birth in the
position we had hoped, with me on all fours and Sam facing me in a
bean bag. We then sat and snuggled with our baby girl in our arms and
marvelled at how quiet, calm and pain free the birth was.

Here are some of the details: On Tuesday morning I was woken by waves of period like pain that were
coming every 10 minutes and lasting about 30 secs. But at 7am they'd
fizzled out and I went back to bed until 10am (thank god Jack was at
daycare!) I then collected my mum from the airport at 11:30am and we
went out for lunch and walked round the shops gossiping and catching
up. I had pains every now and then at the shops but they were in
between BH and light contractions so thought nothing of them. We got
home at 3:30pm and I started running through jacks routine with mum
and showed her our new house and then sat and had a coffee with her. I
then started getting mild waves of pressure so I sat on my Swiss ball
and continued chatting. Mum suggested we should time them as they
seemed to be regular and they were 5 minutes apart lasting 30-45secs
but weren't hugely painful. After an hour or so Sam called the
hospital honestly thinking they'd say hold off but they said come in!
We drove in and the pre assessment lady checked me and I was 3cms
dilated - I was shocked because the pain was nothing at this point.
She sent me up to the early labour ward so I could see if I'd progress
and they'd re-evaluate in 2-4hrs. At 6pm they checked me again (still
not in a lot of pain - just walking around the corridors with waves of
pressure hitting) and she said "your 5-6cms your officially in
labour!" I was so shocked - the pain was so manageable and I was so
awake. So we headed down to the birth suite and I was able to set up a
bit of a 'birthing circuit' a warm bath was filled a Swiss ball and
mat were on the floor and the bed was high and in the Car. I also had
a walking 'track' that I paced and then every so often as the pressure
progressed i'd switch 'stations' to keep active and keep my mind off
the pain. It was like a PT boot camp session in there! Sam knew all of
the ways to support me physically and with the language he used
because we did a calm birth refresher at 36weeks and he was amazing! I
then got to a point in my mind where the waves of pressure were
starting to win and I started to question whether I could do this
without an epi. I remembered that last time this was actually because
I was transitioning so i asked to be examined and I was 8cms. Knowing
that gave me the determination to hold on - it was now 8pm. At this
point I was leaning on the edge of the bed rocking side to side to my
soft music and kept focussing on not wasting the contractions. I then
felt the need to push and said to the midwife "I feel like the girl
who cried wolf because the pain isn't too bad, but i think I need to
push?!" Sam sat on a bean bag in front of a mat where I was knelt on
all floors. The midwife was behind me with a torch and I had the most
crazy pressure and felt like I was going to get diarrhoea then SPLASH!
My waters broke like a vaginal tsunami and all three of us got soaked!
even though I was at the pointy end of labour I said "quick change the
sheet on the mat before my next contraction I can't birth in this!"
Sam and the midwife jumped up and cleaned it all and fixed everything
before the next contraction. I rocked back and forth on all fours with
Sam guiding me in front and cheering me on and within 2 contractions
her head was out and within 3 she was born! I used gas and air on the
mat and it was fantastic to help focussing breathing and take the edge
off the ring of fire sting! But I was SO shocked how 'pain free' it
was. The position I was in used gravity so well and I didn't 'push' my
body did all of that for me. I then pulled piper between my legs and
turned and sat between Sam's legs on the bean bag and the 3 of us
cried and snuggled and Sam and I were so shocked at how beautiful her
entrance into the world was! This pic was taken in that time.
Considering she's probably my last baby I was SO thankful for the
experience to be so magical and perfect. I feel so blessed