Aida Kaman Stephens
January 04, 2006, 11:57 AM
Trinity's birth Story
As I had been getting Braxton Hicks every evening for the last few weeks I thought nothing of the ones I started getting at 7pm on 1st April. These carried on after I went to bed but were no different to any other night. They were just strong enough to stop me getting to sleep but not strong enough to hurt.
At around 4 am I said to Pete that I was going for a wander to make a drink and see if I could get them to stop as they usually did when I moved around.
About 4-30 Pete came down to find me breathing through the first one that made me think this was it. He immediately set the camera running in the corner just in case.
I told Pete I would give it until 5 am and if they were still painful then I would say this was it and to call Aida and Berny.
I asked Pete to come upstairs with me so I could go to the toilet and just walking upstairs were making things quite painful.
When we got back downstairs I asked Pete to check them as I felt they were getting closer and to our horror found they were 2 minutes apart. It was 4-45 and I told Pete to phone Aida now and not wait till 5 as I had planned.
I needed the toilet again and while I was in the toilet Pete phoned Berny to tell her to come now.
As I came out the toilet I had a major contraction and Pete said to me that we had better get downstairs now if I didn’t want to have it on the stairs !!!!
As the contraction finished I literally run down the stairs as I knew this was only a short breather until the next one.
I spent until Aida arrived at 5-45 gripping Pete with each contraction and trying to breathe through them.
I felt what I thought was baby starting to move downwards and Pete told me to get in the pool. I kept saying no I am waiting for Aida which with hindsight was a good thing.
As Aida arrived I said I would get in the pool and I think this opened my pelvis which allowed baby to drop right down.
I entered the pool around 5:50 and begged Aida for entonox as I felt I was losing control. She told me I didn’t need as I had asked her too but I was determined I was going to have it.
She told me she was running low and would call Mary to bring more.
Not long after I heard Aida say that Mary wouldn’t get here in time and I thought she meant my lifeline was going to run out !!!! Little did I know that she meant baby would be here first.
Almost straight after getting in the pool I felt pushy but managed to breathe through until 6:10 am when as I pushed my waters broke. I started to push again straight away and heard Aida say to push baby out slowly. With the first push I had managed to deliver her head but it seems Aida could only see the membranes flapping as the water was murky from my waters breaking. With the next push Angela noticed the baby come slithering into the pool although I thought it was the rest of the head that I had delivered. I heard Aida say take your baby and from then it seemed to turn into a comedy.
Where I had been leant on my arms at the side of the pool I couldn’t move them and my chin was stuck to the side of the pool where it was hot and I couldn’t get up !!!!!!
We ended up having to lift my leg over the cord so I could just flop down into the pool to meet my new baby.
As Aida had lifted her up behind me I asked Angela to tell Pete and I what sex it was and she excitedly told us it was a little girl as we had thought.
I went on to deliver my placenta with no drug intervention as I had wanted and this happened within 20 minutes with no sign of the enormous bleed that many people had told me I would have.
With help I managed to get out of the pool and onto the sofa to begin an hour of breastfeeding.
My 10 year old son cut the cord and while Pete and I got to know our new daughter she showed Michael the placenta and explained how it worked.
Aida spent the next few hours attempting to write her notes. I say attempting as my 2 year old Zoe wanted Aida to draw pictures for her.
I was getting some pretty painful afterpains so Aida tucked me up on the sofa with a wonderful heat pad and gave me one of her homeopathy remedies which worked wonders.
My in laws were due to come down that day anyway and I think Trinity couldn’t wait to meet them either. They have a 70 mile journey to see us and if I had been in hospital they would have had to wait until later in the day to meet their new granddaughter.
My other children were brought home for an hour from my exs where they had been staying so they could all meet their new sister.
This I think was the best bit as the youngest they had met their sibling before was over a day old.
This birth has given me back confidence in my body and its ability to do what it was made for.
Thank you Aida for making this a wonderful experience for my whole family.
Liz Creed.