Eva and Mikkels birth story.

Name: Mikkel Arvid Bergstrand

Born: 0356 am April 5 1998

Place: Ullevål Sykehus

Birth method: "Semi-natural" with the following pain relief: sterile water injections, a warm

shower, some accupuncture in the end, breathing nitrogen, and finally injection of

local painkillers before episiotomy and setting the vacuum clock.

Weight: 4660 g (10 lb 4 oz)

Length: 53 cm

I was due on April 1st, the day came and went, nothing happened. In the evening of April 3rd I went for a fast walk. It must have looked peculiar, because

my stomach was huge (got comments on the streets etc!), and I was walking as if I was going to reach my own delivery.

That did the trick! Went to bed at 2 am, and at 3 am I felt like an explosion in the bottom of my stomach. Got up, and pink water was just flushing. My

husband Kjetil thought I was joking when I called at him. Half an hour later, I got contractions 5 min apart. Did not manage to sleep, but the hospital wanted

me to wait till morning to come. Went around the house, the pain was much less when being up. Arrived the hospital, Ullevål Sykehus, at 8 am. Had a 2 cm

opening. Walked around the hospital with Kjetil, had a salad. After a couple of hours, I decided to try to get some sleep, since I practically didn't sleep the

night before. I regret that decision. Lying on my side, the pain got much worse. But I was hung up on the idea that I had to get some rest, so I lay for a

couple of hours, I believe. Before the midwife should be off for the day, I had an opening of 5 cm, and everyone were very optimistic. This was by 2 pm.

The new midwife I had, advised me to get up, which I did. Stood and lent to the "preaching chair" mostly. The pain my contractions caused was still

tolerable. The contractions lasted quite short, about 45 seconds.

After being in the shower for one hour (lovely!), my opening was still 5 cm!! And this was 4 hrs later! The midwife said that the contractions lasted too short.

For 2 hrs, I performed nipple stimulation in order to get stronger contractions. The pain increased, but not the contraction time. 6 cm opening now. Then I

was put on pitocin. The pain got worse. Some time I decided to lay on my side again, I got so tired of standing and moving. Started breathing nitrogen to

relieve the pain. The pain was almost intolerable when I was lying, especially if I had to be on my back for some reason. It got better if I lent my stomach

against a sacco bag on the bed. This lasted for several hours. 4th of April passed.

I was so tired, and started to fear that I wouldn't be able to push when that stage finally would come. I realised that I was very scared of that last stage. And

the opening progressed SO slowly!! I remember I said to Kjetil that one child is enough. We had always discussed whether to have two or three children. I

remember thinking over and over again that I can't do this, I want to go home, I need rest, please give me just a night of sleep and I will go on! I don't think I

said this loud, I thought I might upset Kjetil, and I wouldn't! When I finally had almost full opening, another nurse examined my cervix also and told me to

push if I felt like it. I only felt despair, and never really an urge to push. But I was told to lay on my back. Don't remember the reason exactly, but they said

that baby's position made that pushing position the best. I pushed for 81 minutes! I used all my power (where did it come from?), the new midwife (the

second went home by midnight) said she could see baby's head, it had dark hair! She said that each push helped some millimeters. But it didn't help. People

came in to push at my fundus. A woman was lying on my stomach! Baby, PLEASE come out!! At last, they decided that they should use vacuum to get the

baby out, since I had been pushing for more than an hour. I got injections of painkillers in my perineum, and the doctor put something big into my vagina after

doing an episiotomy (I had to ask her if it was right that she was cutting!). It felt like she tried to make it fit to baby's head, rolled the vacuum clock around in

there, it felt weird. Finally, she said to push all I had in the next contraction, it would not be enough if she only pulled. I remember feeling so concentrated,

and aware that this was probably the most dramatic moment in my life. After 4 contractions of severe pushing, the dr.s face looking SO concentrated!, I felt

the baby "slip" through me. This happened 0356 am on Sunday April 5th. I remember the baby felt so small! It was an unbelieveable relief!! The baby didn't

cry, but we could hear sort of "small" noices he made. It was a miracle, suddenly there was this new little person in the room with us! We couldn't see him

there he was below me, so I asked if he was normal. Kjetil's eyes were floating. They answered that he was fine, but they had to suck amniotic fluid, and he

didn't breathe so well, so they had to take him to a dr. and not to worry. I believed them. Then one woman went away with the most beautiful baby. He was

big (check the weight above!!), covered with some blood, had messy, black hair, and looked very much like Kjetil! He looked some sort of indifferent, he

looked a bit to his side, in our direction. He had come out with the cord around his neck. They came back with him after perhaps half an hour, he was

washed and dressed, and had to breathe in an oxygen mask. He was clearly percepting our voices. They had to take him out again, to have him in a the glass

cage again. Not until 6 am they brought him to our care, with no more trouble breathing. He was very eager to suck my breast, luckily!

I must say that the delivery was very different from what I had planned. I had planned to walk around until full opening, and to push in a sitting position, and

NOT being down on my back! And I had been looking forward to have him up to me at once. It was a disappointment that he couldn't be with me in the

very beginning, but after all I was so happy that the dr.s took good care of him when he needed it.

I lost 1100 ml blood. I was offered a blood transfusion, but denied. Since Kjetil was home the first 14 days, that choice turned out OK, we "survived".

Although I was very weak the first two weeks, and Kjetil had to do almost all diaper changes. After about 5-6 weeks, I felt like before.