A Potentially Posterior Baby - Luke's Birth Story

This is a story from one of our Home Birth Canterbury committee members, Bonnie. She writes about the birth of her 3rd baby, Luke, including the waiting and prodromal labour preceding the birth which can be so hard mentally. It is a bit of a long read so buckle up!

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I had a mostly straightforward pregnancy apart from low fundal height measurements at the end. Growth scan at 38w seemed to indicate growth was fine. I declined fundal measurements after that! 

Baby was in a posterior position in the final weeks of pregnancy. I had to work through my fears before going into labour - feeling worried about having a posterior baby and what that might mean for the birth in particular. I had to surrender my fears to God and really trust him that I would go into labour when the time was right and that it would be exactly as it was meant to be.

I started having prodromal labour the week before baby arrived. I would feel crampy at dinner time then get contractions in the evening. Then they would helpfully die down so I could sleep. 

Sunday (May 5th) (I was 39w 3 days) was a special family occasion. I told a number of people that morning that I was giving baby his eviction notice that night! I decided it was time to have this baby. That afternoon I bumped around on the Halswell miniature railway, cleaned the whole house top to bottom, went for a walk, scrubbed the kitchen floor on hands & knees, and got the oxytocin flowing with hubby that night. All those things just gave me lots of prodromal labour that evening that didn't go anywhere again! but I did get a good sleep that night.

Monday morning I woke up having contractions. They felt a bit more decent than previous prodromal labour. My mother in law came to spend the day with me as I didn’t really feel like parenting my 3 & 4 year olds that day. I felt a bit discouraged after all the prodromal labour the night before that had gone nowhere. We went for a walk and did some baking. I had contractions all day as long as I was moving. Whenever I sat or lay down the waves would stop. I found myself getting grumpy at my two girls and wanted them gone so my mother in law packed them up late afternoon and took them to her house for the night.

In the evening my husband and I went and got KFC for dinner and had a lovely evening hanging out together. It felt like the waves were ramping up. About 11pm I had one I had to vocalise through. I called my sister to come and started filling up the birth pool. I had a feeling once the contractions ramped up enough it could be quite fast! I didn’t know when to call the midwife but prayed she would make it in time and I’d know when to call her.

Then I proceeded to have what felt like long and strong contractions that were hard work and that I had to vocalise through, every 10-15 minutes pretty much all night. My husband and my sister slept some of the night. I sat in the lounge with my eyes shut, trying to rest myself, and praying, and trying to surrender to the surges and make myself as much of a wet noodle as possible and relax every part of my body, to let the contractions do what they wanted to do. 

I hadn’t wanted to get in the birth pool because I was worried they’d stop as soon as I did. But at 4am I realised maybe it would be good if I was able to rest more. I was right. After half an hour relaxing in the pool where I almost went to sleep and the contractions stalled, I got out and was able to lie on the couch and sleep for a couple hours. At one point in the pool I checked my own cervix and thought I was about 6cm dilated and I could feel baby’s head quite far up but reachable. That felt reassuring.

I awoke at 6am Tuesday feeling super discouraged nothing had happened overnight. I felt like maybe I'd be pregnant forever. I felt like baby’s position might be stalling things. I did start losing my mucus plug at this point which was a good sign I felt. I texted my midwife and she said she'd come see me at midday on Tuesday. 

I had another couple hours of sleep with hardly any contractions at all. I woke about 10:30am, super glad the girls were out of the house. My husband was doing a bit of work from home. I felt like I needed to do something useful. I was having regular contractions again as soon as I was up and about. I made a batch of scones and started a mince stew simmering on the stove. I was trying to ignore the contractions I was having because I had decided for sure it would be days more of this. The surges did feel painful but because I was alone in the kitchen I could do whatever I wanted to cope with them! I started dancing when I would have a surge. That really helped. I felt like I was really able to surrender, open and relax through the pain while dancing! I ended up on a video call to my kids while I was baking in the kitchen. It was lovely to see them and chat to my girls. 

Then about 11:40am while I was still on the video call I had a really big contraction. I struggled to cope during it and made lots of noise and did some very wild dancing around the kitchen! I quickly grabbed my husband from the office and got him to warm up the pool water as fast as he could. In between doing this he would put pressure on my back during contractions which felt amazing.

At 11:50 I called Sarah my midwife to check she was still coming at midday. She asked if she could pop in to see someone else first and I struggled to know what to say. I was still in denial land that it was actually finally real active labour. I said “I dont know, can you make the decision?” Fortunately she could tell I really wanted her to come and so she was on her way. 

I was having very strong contractions at this point and it felt really good to make lots of low sounds and sway and consciously surrender and relax.

I was going to the toilet and losing more mucus plug and emptying things out. I kept having contractions really close together (1 and a half minutes between them!). They felt very very intense. I headed upstairs to see how the birth pool heating was going.

My midwife arrived at 12 midday and just as she came up the stairs I was leaning over the couch, having a massive surge, and then I heard a pop and my waters broke on the carpet! I yelled that my waters had broken and basically dived into the birth pool. The warm water felt incredible. I stripped my clothes off once I was in there! The second midwife & my sister arrived then.

Then I had 20 minutes or so more of intense contractions where I had to make lots of noise. I knew it wouldn't be long now given my previous births. I could feel his head quite low down. I felt my body begin to push compulsively. One massive push where I pushed hard with my body brought him down the birth canal. With the next push he was crowning. I tried to breathe through this part. I felt the ring of fire but it felt more manageable than I expected! I was holding his head in my hands at this point to try to protect my tissues as they softened and stretched around his head. The 3rd push his head came out. I held his whole head in my hands and enjoyed the relief that I felt after birthing the head! Then with the next push I pushed along with my body and his whole body slid out right into my hands. I felt very in the moment and very aware of everything that was going on and everything I wanted to do. I made lots of noise for the pushing and said a few times "this feels really hard". I also was telling hubby what I needed him to say to me. My birth team were amazing and kept supporting me with everything they said. Baby wasn't born posterior so must have turned sometime during labour. He came out at 12:26!

Luke Wesley

7lb (3.22 kg) 

We unwrapped the cord from his legs and then had a beautiful golden hour of skin to skin in the pool.

It took 1 hr 40 minutes for the placenta to come out after baby came and I had to really work hard for it. Lots of pushing that felt like almost more effort than the actual birth! I was so so so relieved when that darn thing was born. I think the midwives were too, lol.

I decided not to be checked for tearing as I was pretty sure I hadn’t torn or grazed at all. I had been careful when pushing not to push when crowning or the birth of the head, I had guided his head out with my hands, and nothing felt like it stung or was overly sore (even when I went to the toilet). I've never torn before with the other babies and felt like I hadn't this time either.

I am so grateful to the Lord for how everything turned out with his birth. He was so faithful even through all the waiting and praying and wondering.  What a God. What a wonderful baby we got out of it.