David was born on Tuesday 27 September 2005 at Prince of Wales Private Hospital in Randwick. He surprised both of us as his parents and the midwife, by arriving a little quicker than anticipated.
David was originally supposed to be arriving on 14 September, but his due date was later revised to 19 September. Unfortunately, no-one checked with David. When he hadn't arrived by 22 September, his parents and Dr Grey scheduled Linda to be induced on Tuesday 27 September. Linda was due to be admitted to hospital on Monday evening, and Jan (Linda's mum) was due to arrive from Wagin at 4.30pm. Well, it all started to happen on Monday. Linda started to have "cramps" (lets not call them contractions) at around 9.30am, but they weren't strong enough or regular enough to call them contractions. Paul came home from work in the afternoon and we waited until it was time to pick up Jan at the airport. By 4.00pm we were pretty sure Linda was in labour. Then Jan's arrival was delayed to 7.00pm - Jan's plane eventually arrived at 6.30pm, and was picked up at the airport by Paul and Linda. By that stage Linda was definitely in labour, and she was not staying home waiting for them to arrive. Jan was dropped off at home, and then Paul and Linda went straight to the hospital.
We arrived and said that Linda was in labour - no-one was convinced. After being hooked up to a monitor for over half an hour, the midwife agreed that labour had definitely started, and after checking with Dr Grey, didn't have to have the gel to be induced. But the midwife said that Linda was only slightly dialated, and that it would all take a very long time. Linda was using a TENS machine to manage the contractions pain, and as instructed, had started it early (from around 3.30 / 4.00pm). Linda didn't want any pethidine, but had an open mind about everying else. So, Linda thought that she would try some gas but the midwife (Mandy) said that it was very tiring to use the gas (and Linda would be using for hours) so not to start too early - so no gas yet. Unfortunately, Linda was feeling nauseous and soon after was sick. Shortly afterwards at around 10.30 pm, Linda was offered some panedeine forte, but couldn't face any tablets. The midwife said she would check in later and see how things were going.
By the time Mandy came back at around midnight, Linda was having no break at all between contractions, and as she came back Linda started to have some
really bad contractions. Rather than offer panedeine forte, Mandy said that Linda should consider an epidural, as she needed a way of managing the pain from contractions. Paul agreed, as Linda was really starting to get a bit distressed. After a fairly short discussion over contractions, Linda said OK and the midwife went off to call the anethestist. When she came back, she wanted to examine Linda and it was about this stage that Linda's waters finally broke, during a contraction. Mandy examined Linda and as she could feel the baby's head, changed her mind as to how long it was going to take. David had made up his mind and was on his way!
The reason the contractions were getting more painful was that Linda was in transition and the final stages of labour. As at this stage Linda started to push, it was too late for an epidural, so when the doctor arrived, he took one look at Linda and saw that he wasn't needed, but luckily there was another lady on the ward who did want to speak to him. Mandy got someone to ring Dr Grey and we started to get ready for David, who arrived at 2.05pm. Paul cut David's umbilical cord and watched him being weighed. As the labour was fairly short, David was in great shape and a good colour. As he was overdue, he did have slightly dry skin, but was otherwise perfect.
So, as a result, Linda had a drug free labour, and would heartily recommend the TENS machine to anyone else. It definitely helps in the early stages of labour, and in this case also in the last stages of labour.
