BIRTH STORY
EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED By Natasha Harte Kinley Rose Harte arrived 6 days late on the 23rd of September, 2014, by emergency Caesarean Section, at 12.23am. It was 11.00pm on Sunday night. 6 days overdue and starting to feel very much like a large sea mammal in trackpants, I had been having contractions on and off for a few days. I had become so used to these “practise” contractions that I had convinced myself that tonight would be no different and I wouldn’t be having the baby anytime soon. I had been putting every old wive’s tale into practice to bring on labour - to no avail. I had also had acupuncture sessions to induce labour, starting at 38 weeks. The contractions started just as we were going to bed, and this turned out to be the first of many sleepless nights to come! They were quite uncomfortable straight off the bat but were only coming every twenty minutes or so. I would liken it to the feeling where you know
you are getting a bug and just can’t get comfortable. I got out of bed and began to pace the hallway of our home. My husband, Adam, tried his best to support me, but at around 1am I thought one of us at least should get some sleep and sent him to bed, where he was asleep within minutes. This began a long night of pacing, taking baths and hoping in and out of the shower. I started to feel confident that this might be it! At around 5am I lay down to try and get some sleep (got none!) and then with sunrise my contractions stopped! Stopped! What the…..? Out of politeness, I waited until 8am to ring my amazing midwife for advice. We had a quick chat and she explained I was in a long latent phase. She asked if we would like to come up to the hospital for a check up and we jumped in the car - I am an action orientated person and this gave me something to do. As my
22 PALMY PARENT . PALMERSTON NORTH PARENTS CENTRE MAGAZINE
