“The latent phase of labour is the time when changes in the body start occurring in preparation for actual or established labour. It is generally described as a period of time, not necessarily continuous, where there are painful contractions accompanied by thinning and opening of the cervix up to 4cm.”
The days prior to giving birth seemed to drag on for a lifetime. Despite much encouragement for Darcy to arrive from the folks in the Parent Chat, it seemed that no matter how many walks we took as a family or cups of raspberry leaf tea I drank, Littlest was as comfy as can be and in no rush to make her way into the world. Believe me, I tried everything to induce labour naturally and was growing impatient; I was starting to convince myself that I would have to be medically induced. It wasn’t until Noa started acting odd that I realised everything was kick starting...
On the evening of the 10th, two days before I delivered, Noa was incredibly clingy. For those of you who don’t know, Noa is Kenji’s dog and she hates me with a passion. She never had the time of day for me, leaving the room when I entered or moving to sit beside Kian or Kenji if I came too close to her. This all changed when I fell pregnant, she was the first to know. I remember, before I’d even had any symptoms, she came to me one evening and lay her head in my lap... I was shocked! This continued throughout my whole pregnancy but the 10th was different.
She growled at Kenji when he tried to cuddle on the sofa with me; she’s never shown any signs of aggression towards anyone before! In addition, she would walk up and down the house, whining softly before coming back to lie down next to me. Apart from losing my mucus plug, insanely intense nesting and sporadic Braxton Hicks, I’d had no real labour symptoms so understandably, everyone was confused.
Only a few hours later, at around 2:30am, I had my first surge.
The morning found me on the end of a home doppler. I’d been having surges very irregularly all night and was desperate to see if I was dilated at all. 0cm, I was informed by Lynda. Great...
Another walk to the town market, another plate of spicy curry, another mug of red raspberry leaf tea.
As the day went by, I tried to keep as active as possible: play wrestling with Kian, taking Noa for her walks and bathroom breaks, dancing, and doing household chores. I guess I was rewarded because little by little, the surges increased in intensity and I became more dilated. The surges really started rolling when Lynda gave me some clary sage oil to smell. I swear, within 30 minutes my surges were coming thick and fast, and were becoming a little bit too intense for me to handle.
At around 16:15, I was having surges every ten minutes and they were lasting for around half a minute. Kenji and I phoned our family and friends to let them know that things seemed to be moving along quickly. Kenji’s dad and step-mum were also on standby as they had agreed to look after Kian if he wasn’t coping with me being in labour.
By half seven on the evening of May 11th, I was 4cm dilated and having a surge every five minutes. We decided that now was the best time to fill the pool so Kenji got right to it, simultaneously timing my surges using an app on his phone - until he dropped his phone in the pool! I’m sorry to say that his phone did not survive haha.
Kian grew restless as we neared and passed his bedtime. Seeing me in pain, unable to communicate with him as I focused on my surges made him nervous and he cried almost non stop - not good when you’re hypnobirthing! I cuddled with him and Noa until he fell asleep, and then moved into the living room to continue labouring.
Kenji’s dad arrived within the hour to pick him up, and found him fast asleep, half in our bedside cot. Once Kian was with Kenji’s family, the real work could begin!
