Note: some of the details in this section are somewhat graphic - not for the faint hearted!
By 2am I was having difficulty not pushing and by 2.30 Sarah records in her notes that I was sometimes pushing. What I remember is being terrified I would poo! I had been told that it did feel exactly the same, but for some reason was trying to avoid the feeling, which didn’t do me any good. I think Sarah may have realised this, because she suggested seeing if gravity would help (remember what I said about wishing the pool were deeper!) so having tried a couple of different positions in the pool she suggested I try sitting on the toilet. I did indeed feel more comfortable doing that and of course was no longer scared of pooing, since I was in the ‘right’ place! I never did, by the way. That would have been about 3am.
At this point its worth adding that our bathroom is approximately 7ft by 6ft and contains a full size bath, toilet and basin. By the time Seoras was born, no one was sitting on the toilet and at no stage did anyone sit on or in the bath (despite the fact that we actually have a board that sits across the bath which is designed to be sat on!)
The change in position did indeed work and my pushes became more effective and I could feel the baby descending. At 4am Sarah could see Seoras’s head at the height of each contraction so suggested I sit on Neil’s legs (supported squat basically). I braced my feet against the toilet and bath and Sarah sat below me. Around this time my waters finally broke as the head crowned.
Sarah held a mirror so I could see what affect the pushes were having, which helped a lot as well. I could see whether I was holding the baby in position between contractions or whether he was slipping back. Once I got the hang of that it seemed to go pretty quickly. It was only a few more pushes before the widest part of the head was visible and Sarah was telling me to stop pushing and just breathe him out. I was most worried about tearing at the front, not the perineum and can remember trying to ease things through there. In the event I didn’t tear at all.
I can still remember the amazing feeling as the head was born, although I cannot remember the pain at all. I also remember seeing Seoras’s knuckles (of his right hand) up against his chin. Sarah said that there was no cord around his neck and with the next contraction (and as I remember it very little effort) the body was born and Sarah handed Seoras up to me.
I will never forget the joy of the moment he was born and the moment I first held him against me.