August 7, Monday… my due date. That day I had my last check-up with my gynecologist. The CTG was fine, and the ultrasound was fine too. My partner and I were impatient and convinced that the full moon on my due date would help. Occasional cramps like period cramps and lower back pain, which had been showing up for the last two weeks, and that was it. Monday passed, Tuesday too, and then it was already Wednesday and still everything was the same…

And then we’re here. 10 August, the night from Wednesday to Thursday. During the night I started to feel crampy, and for an hour I was more or less tossing and turning in bed, wondering whether something might finally start happening today. When I went to the bathroom towards morning, I had a strange feeling, like I’d just gotten my period. On the pad I noticed light pink spots, and my first thought was that my waters had started to leak. Because there really wasn’t much, I didn’t want to panic right away, so my partner and I waited and watched to see if anything else would happen. Soon after, the cramps that had been bothering me at night got a bit stronger. They started coming in intervals, but it still felt so strange that I didn’t know whether they were contractions or not. The pain was only in my lower back and nowhere else. Since no more water had leaked since morning, my partner and I decided to go for a walk and wait to see what would happen. After the walk I took a hot shower, and then the cramps started getting stronger and stronger. Late in the morning, some water leaked again. This time there was more, and that’s when I was sure it was really happening. I lay down for half an hour, and my partner started timing the contractions. We found they were coming about every 5 minutes—sometimes 6, sometimes 4… I rested calmly and thought that in just a few hours I’d be holding my baby in my arms.

It was exactly 1:00 PM when we drove out of the yard, and around 1:30 PM I was already admitted to the clinic. The nurse examined me and said I was 3 cm dilated, completely soft, and that the start was very promising. We filled out the admission paperwork, and then she escorted me to the delivery room. In the meantime, my partner took our things to the car, and they put in an IV cannula and hooked me up to the CTG, and gave me antibiotics because my waters were leaking. Because it was around shift change, we had midwife Maja until 3:00 PM, and later midwife Martina. After the shift change, the midwife examined me and found I was 5 cm dilated. The contractions were already quite strong and painful; I breathed through each one calmly, and between them I could still talk normally with my partner and the midwife. Since I’d said from the start that I wanted to get up and breathe through some contractions on the ball, the midwife brought me the ball after the exam. For half an hour I breathed through contractions sitting on the ball, while my partner massaged me the whole time and made sure I took a sip of water every so often. After half an hour the contractions were already quite painful, and because I was leaning a lot on the ball, the CTG often beeped. The midwife advised me to lie back down on my left side for a while. At the exam she said I was 6 cm dilated and asked whether we might speed things up a bit and add synthetic contractions. I said I didn’t want them and that I’d like to wait a bit longer, but I asked for pain relief that might also help me relax. I believed I could do it, and I was convinced my contractions would sooner or later get stronger and that labor would continue on its own. At this point I suddenly lost all sense of time. I kept breathing through the contractions, which were already very strong and frequent, and I kept repeating to myself that the greater the pain, the closer I was to my little boy. I don’t know when, but suddenly I said to my partner, “Push, I have to push…”. For a moment my partner didn’t even understand what was happening and just asked, “What do you have to do?” He called the midwife, who was surprised at how quickly we’d progressed and told me to start pushing. I hear voices; my eyes are closed the whole time. I started pushing on my left side, but it somehow didn’t work, so we tried on my back. I have no idea how much time passed, how many contractions, how many times I pushed. I only know that at one point I heard the midwife say to my partner, “Look, you can already see the head. Do you see the hair?” That gave me extra strength, and the head was out very quickly. I hear my partner: “Maja, the head is out, you know how beautiful he is.” I stroked his head and again got this special strength. In the next moment, which I’m a bit more aware of, our little one was already lying on my chest, and I felt immense relief and indescribable love for this tiny little being. “Congratulations, it really is a boy… What will his name be?” My partner and I both answered, “Lukas.” We still couldn’t believe he was ours. The most beautiful little boy, who had lived under my heart for 9 months, was finally with us and lying on my chest. I was shaking all over; the feelings were indescribable. My partner and I just quietly admired him, and we immediately agreed he’s the spitting image of his dad. The new dad then cut the umbilical cord, and then we just waited for the placenta to be delivered. Because I tore slightly, they prepared me for stitching, and in the meantime the midwife weighed and measured Lukas. Our little boy came into the world at 5:15 PM, 51 cm long and weighing 3,440 g. Until 8:00 PM we all stayed in the delivery room, getting to know each other and cuddling, and then they moved us to the ward. Thursday, 10 August, was coming to an end, and I couldn’t have wished for a more perfect day. That day my partner and I started a new chapter of our lives—life as three.

Thank you to midwife Martina, thank you to my partner Timi, and thank you to the entire postpartum ward that took care of Lukas and me. My birth experience was unique, and I’d happily do it again. Thank you also to all my closest ones who helped pass the time for us in the maternity hospital, and thank you, midwife Nastja, for the best preparation for birth and the postpartum period. Even though you weren’t physically with us in the delivery room, all your advice and encouraging words were with us.