William Henry Ruthven

 On the 11th January 2011 my contractions started. They were every 3 - 4 minutes apart so my Mum headed down in the car to look after Olivia. After 20 hrs of contractions they just stopped. On Thursday 13th I had 6 hours of intense contractions and once again, everything stopped. On Friday 14th January the contractions began again in the afternoon. My mum drove down and my husband came home from work. This time the pain was a lot more intense.

By 8:30pm we were in the car heading to hospital. We were now living in Hertfordshire and when we got to our hospital I was the only one on the Midwife led birthing ward. This was already a whole different experience to my previous labour. I went straight into the sensory ward where there was a huge low level bed, aromatherapy mist being pumped into he air and David Grey being played. There was lovely low lighting and colour changing LEDs that softly went through an array of colours. Upon being checked I was only 3 cms dilated. The midwife explained to me that I was slowing things down by tensing every time I had a contraction and that it would move along much quicker if I tried to not fight against the pain.

As I had begun throwing up again I was given an anti sickness drug which really helped. I got out my ipod and surprisingly everything I thought I would want to listen to didn't feel right so I ended up listened to Gregorian Monks chanting Psalms and through every contraction I tried to flow the pain out of my body by gently using my hands in a wafting motion and mentally envisioning the pain as water or mist. As bizarre as it sounds it really worked for me and within 2hrs I had arrived at 10cm. Once again my waters had not broken and I had no show. They lanced my waters when I was 9cm whilst in the birth pool.

Although I liked the idea of having a water birth I didn't enjoy it at the time so I promptly got out. I found out that I was 10cm dilated after I asked for some additional pain relief as I was struggling to cope. They checked me and I was informed that I was too far gone to have anything. This was the point where I lost control over the pain and started to panic. It was not my intention to have a drug free labour. The time came to push and it was an experience that I will never forget. I thought I was being turned inside out. One final push and out he came. My beautiful boy. He was so perfect. My husband and I just stared at him sobbing. He was just so beautiful that it was breaking me into pieces.

William was born at 2:30am so my husband had to leave and I had to wait until 9:30 before I could leave. This time round I had no tears and I was in my own room with an en suite. That first shower felt amazing. I never slept that morning. I sat and stared at him for hours. Finally, 7 hours after I gave birth I got to go home.



DUE DATE - 18th JANUARY

BORN - 15th JANUARY

WEIGHT - 7lbs 7oz