Part 2
OK where was I? Oh yes, on the loo...been there a long time!
Eventually, the instructions changed to don't push as I started to - entirely involuntarily and impossible to avoid. After a good while of this, me getting more and more frustrated with my rubbish pushiness, So-san decided I could get in the water although it was a little early (7 cm dilated?). Still compos mentis enough to notice that Cameron had changed into shorts not his trunks and to send him back to get changed! A change of midwife shift saw Kondo-san on duty while So-san popped home for a bit.
The water was wonderful but I continued to push with each contraction, try as I might not to: I clearly remember trying so hard to just breathe and not push, thinking I had managed, then failing and having a good push each time. Not a clue how long this went on for but eventually So-san came back to tell me that they thought I might be having pushing contractions (no, really?) - but an examination showed that I was still just 7 cm dilated. Disappointed and starting to ask (not entirely unseriously) for drugs and/or a transfer to hospital for a c-section just to get it over with.
So-san decided we had to try something different: I was to put my head down, hold my breath and PUSH every time I felt the urge, while she tried to open things up. Well, it feels like I did that for about 6 hours yet also about an hour; I have no idea which is more accurate. But boy, did I push! I got out of the pool after a while because they thought it wasn't helping so there I was pushing with all I had and bellowing like a cow, Cameron behind me feeding me bananas and water and holding the basin for me to puke in, So-san doing I know not what, Kondo-san pushing on my tummy (I had bruises from that for a week). At some point, So-san went to ring Keiko the friendly acupuncturist but by the time she arrived, I was past needing acupuncture so she just held a leg (!) and later, bizarrely, took photos. I wasn't really prepared for that and neither was Cameron - the pictures are very odd, I am obviously far and away and unaware but Cameron, behind me, is obligingly gurning for the camera.
Just as I was beginning to think I had no more strength and it would never end, everybody started getting excited and I could feel that something had changed: more pressure. A wee while later, I put my hand down to feel the top of a head - the softest thing I have ever felt in my life. And then I was allowed back into the pool for the final few pushes.
Standing and climbing in was interesting as it felt like the baby's head was right there! In the pool I came over all Mabel Lucie Attwell (why her? Perhaps I mean Enid Blyton?) oh my goodness oh my goodness (rather gratified and surprised to find me not swearing my way through labour actually). One more push had the head out - I felt a face! Then the baby gave a wriggle and a twist by itself and seemed to swim out of its own accord. I leant forward to scoop it up but So-san reminded me to leave it under water until it was ready. We gazed at each other (Cameron too) for long minutes before somebody suggested I find out what sex it was. I couldn't be sure, the cord was in the way, but I thought, a girl. And Cameron said a girl!
Then she started moving her mouth so we lifted her up out of the water and climbed out of the pool. Cameron cut the cord while she lay on my tummy (more photos and we named her. Maggie, then? and Sakura?) then I had to stay lying on the floor while they took her off for the weighing, measuring, dressing and phoning home ritual. I spoke to somebody but I can't actually remember who - my sister, perhaps? Then they brought her back to me and we just lay being happy. I am sure she didn't cry even then; not until much later.
I remained sufficiently a scientist to ask to have a look at my placenta (like a very very large liver, it was extremely interesting!) and they told me that neither it nor the baby looked like she was actually overdue at all. An hour later Kondo-san came and had a feel of my tummy; much muttering then they decided I needed a catheter and withdrew something like a litre of urine...all very impressed with the size of my bladder - like a camel! An hour or so later I was asking to get up: they said I could stay downstairs that night but I felt OK so wanted to go up to our room. Very shaky on my legs and I had to crawl up the steep stairs but I made it! So-san came in and made up a futon for Cameron (Maggie and I had the bed), showed me how to feed Maggie and change a nappy (I knew nothing!) then we all went off to sleep.
Lisa at 1:00 pm
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