Birth story - Anna and baby Freddie

*Trigger warning* - use of the word contraction, not negative for me.

Friday 15/07/22 at 6am I was woken with my waters breaking in bed so I jumped up out of bed with a bit of a shock. We rang the birth centre and were advised to wait for a few hours for contractions to start on their own. My husband rang his Mum to come up and look after our first child so I could labour in peace when the time came.

I got ready and had breakfast while my husband packed the car, I then started to get mild contractions around 8:30am so laboured on the birthing ball listening to Freya and timing contractions. I was having 3 contractions in 10 minutes so we rang the birth centre again but the contractions were mild and only 30 seconds at a time so we were advised to stay at home until they were stronger and longer.

At around 11 they were more intense and around 45 seconds long so we started to get ready to go and rang the birth centre to say we think we should come in. I was actually coping okay but I’d heard 2nd labours were fast so we wanted to get there in plenty of time.

We got to the birth centre at 11:30 and were led straight to our room. The midwife palpated my tummy and initially thought baby was breech which was a surprise as my community midwife had internally examined me in the week and he was head down. This gave me a bit of anxiety but they quickly scanned me to confirm and he was head down. They then examined and checked his heart rate, I was 3cm dilated but his heart rate was dipping so they kept heart rate monitors on throughout contractions.

Once all the checks were done I got comfy labouring on the ball and things escalated quickly. By 12:30 contractions were intense but I managed to use up breathing and my husband rubbing my back to keep control. The urge to push came quickly and I requested to get in the birth pool, however the midwives were worried about his heart rate and wanted to keep the monitors on so I stayed put. They suggested to change position to see if that helped the heart rate so I stood up to labour. A weird thing happened once I was standing and I lost all feeling of my arms which was a strange sensation, midwives tried to focus me on the labouring and ignore my arms! I then went on my knees to push and finally stood up when he was crowning, midwives coached me through the final contractions and he was born at 1:28pm. I was only in active labour for 90 minutes!

Baby Freddie was passed between my legs and into my arms and I turned to sit on the bed to have skin to skin. My husband cut the cord after a few minutes and me and Freddie worked on breastfeeding. I had the injection to deliver the placenta and the midwives performed checks and confirmed no stitches which I was so pleased about!

Despite not getting the water birth I’d wanted, it was another positive birth experience and the safest option for baby. The recovery has been so much better second time around which is helpful with a toddler running around!