Birth story - Alkmini and baby Zoi

*Trigger Warning* - early bleeding, induction, long labour, episiotomy

MY PREGNANCY

Apart from a slight bleeding in the 6th week of pregnancy, my pregnancy was the smoothest it could be!

The baby always performed well in all tests, she slept at night and was kicking around all day so I never had to worry about reduced movement (thankfully she is keeping the same sleeping pattern also out of the belly!)

I had almost no morning sickness, no bodily pains and most of the time I forgot I was pregnant! I found pregnancy much easier than I expected and I continued to stay active throughout my whole pregnancy.

Despite the baby being low for the whole pregnancy and being 1-2 cm dilated since 38 weeks, my due date came and went! Up to my due date I had not even felt a Braxton Hick! Then at my due date very mild warm-up surges starting happening but never progressing to anything more than slightly uncomfortable!

When it became clear that baby girl was taking her time, I was walking 15 kilometres a day to try and nudge her out!

As all my efforts to naturally induce labour were failing (including walking, bouncing on a yoga ball, eating spicy food, eating dates, warm baths, special teas, breast pumping and sex), but the baby was consistently doing well and my amniotic fluid was sufficient I made it to 41 +1. That Saturday morning my health care provider recommended to book an induction for 41+3 (Monday), which is the longest they normally happily allow a pregnancy to go on in Germany, where I live.

My goal throughout the hypnobirthing training was to manage and have a delivery without an epidural, as I was scared of an epidural leading to a c-section. Realising that induction was close, I was definitely scared of the induction pain and missing all the good oxytocin-feel good vibes but I tried to stay calm and positive!

THE BIRTH

That Saturday after having booked the induction I went to bed thinking that at least the end of the pregnancy and the time to finally meet my baby was near!! At 1:30 am I woke up feeling weird but I thought it was because of the spicy Indian food I had for dinner. I stood up to not wake up my partner and suddenly I felt a surge that was most definitely more than a Braxton Hick! For the next 3-4 hours I continued having noticeable surges but the frequency or intensity never built up…

During Sunday I kept feeling some surges coming and going but definitely not intense. We had a nice relaxing day and also did some walking.

Sunday night the surges starting getting more intense so I stayed in the living room drifting in and out of sleep and sitting on the yoga ball. At 4 am the Freya app suggested I was in established labour as I was having regular surges for the past 2 hours.

We decided to go to the hospital to get checked and I was hoping to avoid the induction. Unfortunately they informed me that I was still at 1-2 cm. They suggested I take some paracetamol and try to sleep at home for a couple of hours before coming for the induction a few hours later. I managed to catch a bit of sleep and was ready for the labour to start!

The induction in Germany is done with oral pills given every few hours if labour does not start. The first two pills had minimal effect on my dilation although I kept having surges all the way through. My partner could be with me for those two as visitors time was ongoing. He had to go home before the third pill to wait for established labour to start in order to be allowed to be with me (Covid rules). The third pill was given to me at 11 pm and after one hour of foetal monitoring I was given some more paracetamol to try and sleep. They said to go to my room and come back in the morning for the next pill unless I think labour is starting!

The surges were really strong at this point but I managed to catch 2-4 minutes of sleep between each surge for the next hour.

At 1 am I could not take it anymore, the 5 min walk from my room took me about 15-20 min as I had to stop every few steps!

Once there, the midwife checked my cervix and informed me I was finally at established labour, I had reached 3-4 cm and I could call my partner to come back!

At 2 am we went to the birthing room and practiced all the up-breathing, caressing, swaying, music, yoga ball etc. thankfully the room was smelling nice, the lights were dim and the midwife was only coming every now and then to see that we are doing well. I wanted to go in the water but the foetal heart rate was not optimal so they were not too comfortable with that. I agreed to stay outside. The progression of the dilation was very slow and at some point I asked for some painkiller in order to have a bit of a rest. I got a meptid IV at a very slow pace and this helped me relax reducing the intensity from 100% to about 70%, so I could definitely still feel everything!

The morning came and I was at about 7-8 cm, there was some discussion about whether to induce more with pitocin (the synthetic oxytocin) because my surges were slowing down but thankfully they picked up on their own!

A few hours and one memtid IV later, I was at 9,5 cm and one side of my cervix did not want to give up! After changing position a few times I finally got to 10 cm around 12 o’clock!

Even after being fully dilated, I continued having the surges going upwards… I was expecting maybe a break for transition to catch my breath but it literally happened mid-surge!! The surge started the same way as all the previous ones and suddenly as it was reaching the peak, I felt my uterus push! The experience was surreal! I was not sure if the downward phase is really starting as it changed mid-surge and the next couple of surges were the same, starting going upward and then pushing down! This lasted only 2-3 surges and after that all of them were only about pushing. I told my partner to call the midwife and she confirmed that we are getting closer!

My partner tried to remind me of the down-breathing but this was the only part during labour that I felt beside myself and an animalistic instinct to just push kicked in… being calm and breathing was not an option.

As my little one was kind of stuck, I changed a lot of positions to try and use gravity and also laid on both sides to help her navigate her way! Finally, after almost two hours of continuous pushing she was almost out but not making the final exit… Surprisingly I was not feeling physically tired but I started getting mentally tired of not being able to push her out. The midwife suggested to boost my surges with pitocin in case they were not strong enough, so that my uterus could push more. We did that and the pain did not increase, at the whole downward phase I was painkiller free, but that didn’t help the situation. She was getting every time to the tip of my vagina and then going back in.

At this point the midwife suggested to bring in the OB, who in turn recommended using the vacuum to deliver the baby. I was more than happy to hear that as I had started loosing hope of being able to push the baby out! We tried a couple of contractions just with the vacuum but that was also unsuccessful so the OB recommended to do an episiotomy and I was open to anything that would allow me to finally meet my baby! It turned out that was the best decision! The cut didn’t hurt at all and in the same contraction my baby’s head was out!

One contraction later the body followed and they brought her to my chest for skin to skin while waiting for the umbilical cord to stop pulsating… I couldn’t believe I made it!

THIRD PHASE OF LABOUR

After 30 min and some massage the placenta was still inside and no contractions were happening so they gave me some more pitocin and the placenta was immediately and painlessly out!

Then they stitched my episiotomy and this was likely the only tear I had.

RECOVERY FROM BIRTH

The decision to do the episiotomy was the best for me. I had no pain afterwards and never took a single ibuprofen. The day of the birth I could walk to my room and the day after I could walk around the hospital.

One week after the birth I felt totally normal and could sit and walk without issues! I did not get the impression that healing was at all delayed due to the artificial cut and the whole area looked almost like new after a couple of weeks!

PBC definitely helped me stay in a positive mind set, managing induction without an epidural and having the best possible labour! I’m pretty sure that without the PBC I would have ended with an unnecessary c-section so I’m grateful and will definitely recommend it!