My Birth Story

I guess the natural progression from my last post is my birth story!

When I was 12 days overdue I was in the hospital to be induced. Something I never wanted as I’d heard that an induced labour is ‘worse’ than a natural labour. But here we were anyway. My appointment was at 2 o’clock so we went onto the ward and waited…and waited…and waited. At 5 o’clock a midwife came to me and my husband and said ‘I’m really sorry you’d been written down as already had your baby’ err nope I don’t think so! I can still feel him wriggling around in there and it’s time to meet him! 

A couple of hours later finally the pessary is in and Mr K and I are doing the obligatory walk around the hospital to try and ‘get things going’. 10 o’clock came and it was the end of visiting hours. Nothing was happening. Will went home and was on standby to be called when I finally went into labour. Then the contractions started, oh did they start! The baby was still ‘back to back’ and the pain was all in my spine- agony. Obviously I’ve never had a ‘normal’ labour before but wow did this hurt. At 2 o’clock in the morning after about an hour of pain the midwife checked me and I was 3cm dilated and in a lot of pain. She gave me permission to ring Mr K. and Mum and tell them to make their way there. I got moved to the labour suite so I really thought things wouldn’t be long from there…how wrong was I! 

My family turned up and I have never been gladder to see them. Mr. K was there to put his fingers in my back as that seemed to be the only thing that slightly relieved the pain. My Mum rubbed my feet continually like she did when I was a baby. 

The midwife suggested I went into the pool to try and relieve some pain; I was so shocked and grateful when she said this as I was under the impression that my bmi was too high to go into the pool (probably all those packets of Maltesers and Minstrels!). I hadn’t packed a swimsuit due to this! So I flopped into the pool in my bra and nothing else and the relief was amazing. I managed to get some sleep in between contractions with Mr K holding me up so I didn’t slip under! The contractions were about a minute apart by this point and it was time to get out. The rest of the night is a massive blur. I know I had oramorph at some point, I know I was sick a lot, I know I was dehydrated and needed an IV drip, and I know that I spent a hell of a lot of time screaming. In what order? I don’t know. Neither does Mr. K. It was very traumatic for us all. I’d always sworn that I would never have an epidural due to my fear of needles (especially huge ones going into my spine)! However, when they checked me 6 hours later and I was STILL 3cm dilated the midwife strongly advised that I got an epidural. A lot of crying and calling myself a failure later I finally agreed. The anaesthetist was brilliant and was very reassuring. Especially when both my Mum and Mr. K. had to leave due to being upset about the fact I was going to get a huge needle in my back. 

After the epidural was in the relief was amazing. No more pain. I had a good 2-hour nap and when they checked me again I was 10cm dilated! YES! TIME TO PUSH! But first to get my legs in stirrups…oh that might be hard considering I can’t feel them! Cue 3 people lifting each leg (I did say I had a high BMI) they were finally in stirrups! Problem was, now I couldn’t feel the contractions I was relying on the midwife to feel them for me. However they were all in my back, my stomach wasn’t contracting much at all and I’m pretty sure she started guessing when my contractions were as she didn’t seem very sure. There was a clip in the babies head to monitor his heart rate as it had been a bit erratic during the night but here we were, we were pushing! 

PUSH! You’re doing so well! I genuinely thought I was getting this kid out of me! 

Mr K looking petrified!

It wasn’t until the consultant said we would have to go down to surgery that I realised I wasn’t doing as well as initially thought. The baby was in distress and his heart rate was dropping. The plan was to go down to surgery so that the consultant could try and twist the baby into the right position while I pushed. Once we were down there after 2 pushes they said it wasn’t working and I needed an emergency C-section. By this point I was so tired and numb that I just agreed and didn’t really consider what was going on. Even on the operating table I was laughing and joking with the people in the room. Asking them to put the radio on. I hadn’t considered that the situation was serious. 

I was still in surgery at this point!

Within about 5 minutes of being open the baby was out! After a quick glimpse at him he was whisked away and given to Mr. K. to hold. At this point I thought I was going to feint as I my blood pressure was dropping. Mr. K. was asked to leave the room with the baby while I was sorted and ‘closed up’. After 40 minutes I was finally out and with my family and it was beautiful. This is the first family photo we had taken of the three of us. Excuse the slight nipple exposure and my VERY rough appearance. 

Next up…my post baby experience! 

A x