Wishful thinking paid off

More Birth Stories Books of interest: Preparing for Birth: Mothers The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth Gentle Birth Choices

Hi there, My name's Janine Salter. I am from New Zealand. This
is the story of my daughter's birth. Her name is Paris. She is
now 13 months. I am currently finishing off my nursing degree and hopefully plan to study to become a midwife once my little girl is about 10. Your website is a great resource for me!

Wishful thinking paid off:

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. 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 6 pound, maybe less.

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? 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. 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, 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.

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 am. 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 our midwife 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 I was 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.

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 2003, 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 13 month old who is into everything. 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.