Birth story - Ani and baby Charles

I was sent a link to the PBC by a friend I met on my antenatal class.

I have a major needle phobia so from the beginning of the pregnancy I knew I wanted to avoid any medical intervention and wanted a water birth.

The pregnancy was complication free other than the daily sickness throughout and a due date change. At the 20 week scan the sonographer suggested I must’ve got my dates wrong because the baby measured a little less than average so she put my due date back by two weeks, but my husband and I agreed that we’d aim for the original due date when sharing the information with friends and family.

I purchased the online course at 30weeks and during lockdown both myself and my husband watched all the videos and listened to the mp3s at night before bed.

40+1 at 7pm whilst cooking dinner, I had this strong surge that I’d never felt before, not to the same intensity level. 20 minutes later another one and within 10 minutes yet another. I’d had the ‘show’ earlier that day but I didn’t think it would start so quickly, so after we finished our evening chores, I went for a bath and started timing my surges which were now 8-10 minutes apart. At 3am I woke up with much more regular surges, so I switched on the Freya app again, went downstairs and sat on my pregnancy ball to try and help things move along. Surges were around 6 minutes apart with the odd ones at 3 minutes. This went on all day Friday so I spent the day around the house and several hours in the bath. By 4am Saturday morning the surges were happening strong and fast every 3 minutes regularly and the app suggested I was in established labour so at 7am after calling triage we went to the hospital. I had an internal examination, baby’s head was very low but I was only 2-3cms and the midwife said if it wasn’t for covid she’d be happy for me to stay in, but we were sent home.

Once home I got in the bath and literally spend the whole day in there as it was easing the surges and the tiredness.

Saturday evening at 11pm the surges were still 3 minutes apart but very strong and with underlying back problems I couldn’t cope with the pain so we went back to hospital where I had to have another examination to be told that the cervix is out the way but I’m still at 2-3 cms. And again I was sent home but with some codeine tablets.

I spent the whole night doing up breathing and all of Sunday, by which point I was so exhausted my husband said we’d go back to the hospital and we wouldn’t leave without help. So at 10pm I had my 3rd examination and a was 3-4 cms, waters still intact. I was admitted to the labour ward overnight with some paracetamol.

I was offered morphine via drip but I politely declined because of my phobia. Surges were extremely strong and I was in a lot of discomfort. At 4am I asked if I could possibly have some more paracetamol at which point the midwife wanted to do another examination. I refused but she insisted that I might have dilated further so at this point I gave in. Turned out I was 5-6cms so they suggested I go up to labour ward which I refused as my birth plan was to give birth in the birthing centre in the pool. 50 minutes later in came a midwife who took me across to the birthing centre.

Once there she kindly informed me that due to covid I would have to give verbal consent that I would only use the pool during labour and get out for delivery. My midwife assured me that the hospital always have a selection of staff to ensure there’s always a midwife who is happy to deliver in the water. I knew shift change was only a couple of hours away so I was desperately hoping I would ‘hold out’ for my midwife to come in.

At 8am, after shift change the new midwife examined me again and suggested breaking my waters would help move things along and she was happy to deliver in water.

After this things did indeed change quite quickly, within 35 minutes I was at the pushing stage and with my husband by my side reassuring me and trying to keep me alert, and the help of gas & air, after 87 hours of labour I delivered a gorgeous healthy baby boy. He is perfect in every way, we had delayed cord clamping, skin to skin for over an hour and were offered the choice of staying in overnight in case I needed help. We got home at 4pm and couldn’t be happier.

One exhausted but very happy mamma! 🥰