Birth story - Amelia and baby girl

Pregnancy:

First trimester I had mild nausea.

I had 2 growth scans at 32 and 36 weeks (small bump then accelerated growth - scans were fine, roughly 50th percentile).

Third trimester from 37 weeks onwards increase in lightning crotch, sciatica, Braxton Hicks.

Birth:

At 39+5 days I woke up at 12:30am to some period pains, I tried to sleep but pains kept me up. I wrote in the May/June bump club that I thought I might be starting early labour. I had about 3 bowel movements over a 4 hour period, each one more loose. In between I watched some Russell Howard and Jimmy Carr to get the oxytocin up and noticed that the period pains were about every 15/20 minutes. By 3:15am I knew it was early labour so I logged into my work emails (accidentally waking up hubby - who then got excited and couldn't sleep) to send all of my pre-made emails and out of office reply and cancel any meetings (I am a teacher and had to do the GCSE grading and planned to take maternity leave on my due date).

I started tracking surges around 4am as they were about 10 minutes apart and ran a bath which helped my lower back aches and carb loaded with plain pasta. By roughly 7am they were about 5 minutes apart so we called triage to let them know and they said when they are 3 minutes apart to call the birth centre directly.

I can't remember what time (I think roughly 8:30am) they were 3 or 4 minutes apart so we called the birth centre and drove in. The walk from the car park to the birth centre felt like the longest walk and the surges really ramped up as soon as I entered the hospital entrance. I ended up crying by the time I was around the corner from the birth centre due to the intensity. We were shown to a room and I agreed to an examination. I was 3cm dilated and the midwife said I could stay as she thought I'd dilate to 4cm in an hour. (My delivery notes say 9:30am for "labour started" ).

They read my preferences and confirmed that I was happy to have a student midwife. I said yes and told her as a teacher I believe they need to have much experience. She went to start the pool so I was very excited and grateful of my luck since reading so many amazing stories, it seemed like not many people end up being able to use the pool, even if they had planned/preferred to use it.

As the surges increased in intensity, I vomited a lot in the bathroom and told the midwife when she came to tell me the pool was ready. She said this was good because it meant I had progressed to established labour.

Notes say at 10.59am I was in the pool (such a relief on the back), I was also given gas and air which initially made me light headed the midwife warned me) so I tried to do about 3-4 breaths to start with and get used to it. I stayed leaning back as this was the most comfortable position despite being on all fours and UFO during the majority of my pregnancy (kept baby from being back to back).

In the pool, I mainly kept my eyes shut using the Freya surge counter (3 in and out for 6, I could only realistically do 8 during practice!) and my mucus plug/bloody show came away in bits (no appearance prior to early labour) and the midwife asked me to pee as I hadn't peed at all. I couldn't go on the toilet so she put in a catheter which also triggered my waters breaking. Back in the pool I kept feeling transition surges but they would die down and after however many hours she asked me to pee again, no luck so catheter again.

Notes say at 4:51pm I left the pool (so 5 hours 52 minutes in there). The midwife realised that I was a bit too relaxed with the gas and air and was concerned that I was showing signs of transitioning but would relax again. I felt like this too. I was 9cm when she gave me a VE (after the catheter to release urine). The midwife suggested to go back to my room and labour. (I like to think maybe someone else could use the pool if they needed it but the birth centre was empty, everyone else seemed to be in the labour ward). My husband said that I got to 10cm in about an hour and my notes say 2nd stage was 44 minutes. That whole time, I kept my eyes shut to try and focus.

Once I had to start pushing I really thought that I couldn't finish and the midwife thought she'd just miss out on the birth because she was due to clock off at 7 but luckily baby girl was crowning around 6:30 so she made sure to stay. I was told that I was not pushing from my bum properly but with lots of coaching and the midwife telling me baby's heart rate was dropping suggesting I might need a cut, so I really bared down. Hubby said they even got the equipment out! (sorry for TMI - it felt like the biggest constipation feeling) there was definitely a lot of loud noises from me and the ring of fire is really something.

By 7:04pm, baby girl was out. She was already crying once her head was out (I have no recollection of this but hubby said so). She was handed to me and we did skin to skin and delayed cord clamping. I apparently said "oh shit we're parents!"

The midwife remembered reading that I had a preference for a physiological 3rd stage but I just said give me the injection which helped the placenta deliver in 11 minutes (I knew writing my preferences I'd probably end up asking for it, especially as the cord felt like an uncomfortable tampon and just wanted it out).

I am grateful that the midwife had put her hand on my perineum and was able to stay just before clocking off so I only had a few grazes and slight tear which were stitched (not the most pleasant despite anesthetic). I had also been doing perineum massage about 3 times a week for about 2 minutes (that's all I could tolerate).

Our golden hour felt like 2 hours (genuinely have no idea how long it was) and I was knackered from the 16.5 labouring with 3 hours sleep before surges had started. We spent the night in a postnatal ward but baby girl was not settling so she slept on my chest whilst I stayed up the whole night! Day 5 and she's finally done her giant poo which made me gag and is very happy!

Thank you to everyone for their stories and PBC. Definitely changed my view of labour prior to it. Still can't believe I'm a mum!