Ava arrived right on her due date, August 23, 2011. I could not have been more happier for this, due to the hot August we were having. I woke up on the morning of August 22 and discovered my water had broken. I phoned my midwife at a more reasonable hour and she instructed me to wait it out until labour started. I was having light contractions throughout the day but they had faded by dinner time. I went to sleep and woke up at 6 am with contractions 5 minutes apart. My midwife arrived at our house at 10:30, I was 3-4 cm dilated so she swept my membrane and made me drink a castor oil milk shake :( She left and said I should hear from you within the half hour. Sure enough 20 minutes later the contractions were stronger and closer together so we ventured to the hospital.
Of course the main road to get the hospital from my house was closed so we had to take a different route which took, what seemed to be, forever. To top it off there was a huge line at admitting and nobody wanted to be nice enough to let the lady in labour go ahead of them. I arrived at my room at 1pm and my midwife had me in the bath tub which was very relaxing. I was in there for quite some time. After the bath the most comfortable position was standing during my contractions, unfortunately my blood pressure was so low that I would get extremely dizzy after a contraction finished so I ended up in bed on my side.
As the contractions were getting closer and stronger my midwife decided to see how dilated I was. When she discovered I was only 5cm I felt defeated. She also discovered my main water sack had not broken and that it was only the outer layer that had broken the previous morning. She broke my water and then the pain started. My contractions were not ending so I asked for drugs. While the nurses were getting an IV I felt like there was something coming out and sure enough the head was crowning. A few minutes later and a lot of screaming she was out.
Having a midwife this time round was all the difference. If I had gone with an OB I would have been induced after my water broke and probably would have had lots of drugs and much more tearing. I highly recommend everyone to use a midwife!
Ava was born at 3:44pm weight 8lbs 1oz and 20.75inch long.
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