Birth story - Ashleigh and baby Georgio

On 4th September I woke up at 1.30am to go to the toilet. Whilst walking to my en-suite I could feel a trickle down my legs and honestly thought I was on the verge of wetting myself! Until I sat down and felt how saturated my pj bottoms were and I knew my waters had broken.

My boyfriend, all excited, asked if he could call both our mums to let them know! I told him not to yet, I wanted to check with triage in the morning it actually was my waters and not that I had wet myself and given everyone false alarms.

Exactly 2 weeks before, I went in to triage to get some pain relief for back pain, this is the ONLY pain I experienced throughout my whole pregnancy! My pregnancy was really straight forward! When in triage I was popped on the monitor and I was showing "off the scale" regular contractions. The midwife asked me if I could feel those... I said, ‘feel what?’ And she showed me and explained how high and regular my contractions were. But I couldn't feel a thing! They now needed to check if I had started to dilate... which I had, I was 2cm dilated and was told that in 2/3 days maximum our baby boy would be born. The Dr and midwife were practically arguing over whether to send me home, but eventually I was allowed. My gut instinct told me he was going to be a lot later that 2/3 days... and I was right! When researching, I found out you can be 2cm for days or weeks... and I gave birth exactly 2 weeks later.

Anyway, back to the night of the labour, I told my boyfriend we should try to get some sleep as I didn't think I was anywhere close to needing to go to hospital as I wasn't experiencing any pains or anything. We didn't go back to sleep, we was sat Googling water breaking and chatting and getting all hyped! Eventually, after 2 hours we said right let's go to sleep now! The minute we closed our eyes at 3.30am I felt my first contractions, nothing major just felt like period pain! Again my boyfriend, all excited, asked if he should call my mum and again I told him not too as we were likely still hours away!

I used my contractions counter app to time my contractions to let me know when to go to the hospital... 4 contractions later my app told me it's time to make my way to the hospital (after telling my boyfriend it was going to be hours yet) It went from 0-100 real quick! My contractions were 45-50 seconds every 1-2 minutes! The minute they started they were very intense and I didn't really ever get a break!

My contractions were all in my belly rather than my back which meant my tens machine wasn't exactly usful to me how I had planned and hoped for. Before leaving for the hospital I was sick a few times (luckily only water) We also had to pull over on the way to the hospital as I was being sick.

At the hospital I found out I was just over 5 cm dilated. I did plan to have a water birth, however I wasn't fussed if I couldn't! The time I went in to triage was an awkward time as I went during a shift change and the water birth centre wasn't going to be open until 8.30am.

I didn't write a birth plan as I am quite OCD and knew that it was likely that labour would not go to plan so I just wrote preferences of things I 'could' control. (Funnily enough though I didn't do anything I wrote)

I wanted to use my battery tea light and spa essential oils! I'm not going to lie, I kept my eyes closed the entire time until the birth so tealights didn't even cross my mind!

I packed a new nightie and matching scrunchies to feel fresh and comfy... when it came to it, I just wanted to be naked.

I didn't want to have any medication... but I caved! (More on this later)

All that I did use was my wet flannel & water bottle with a straw and my speaker for music! I downloaded Disney piano and a few other songs and the atmosphere was just perfect and magical! (Even not having the water birth I had always dreamed of and imagined) my gorgeous boy Georgio was born to the acoustic version of "Latch" by Sam Smith and forever this will be my favourite song.

Regarding the pain relief... so.. annoyingly I spent months practicing my breathing exercises I learnt from the PBC, I started off doing these really well but got to the point where the small gap between contractions was just becoming too much! I had 2 hours sleep I was becoming tired and in my short gap I was scared for the next one to come. I ended up doing the polar opposite and holding my breath! The contractions were painful but honestly not overly painful it was more the fact I wasn't getting much break in between to bare them!

In my birth plan, I said I would only like my mum to mention to me if she thought I could do with any pain relief as she know me better than anyone! I really did want to do it naturally so I didn't want the midwifes introducing it to me. As I got the point where I was just holding my breath my mum and the midwife mentioned gas and air would be useful to just "help me breath"! I'm not going to lie I was always scared it was going to make me feel drunk (which I hate! I’m not a drinker) but it really didn't have much impact on me at all it deffo didn't make me feel drunk! It did take me a while to get to grips with how to use it! I also had the pethadine injection which funnily enough I was MAJORLY against! My birth partners knew this but my midwife didn't! My labour was all going too quickly with me being sick with most contractions my birth partners didn't even have a chance to give the birth preferences to the midwife...

My mum saw I was really calm and in the zone and asked if I was ok if she ran and put the parking on the car (as we ditched the car in such a hurry) I was with my boyfriend so wasn't alone, but as soon as my mum left I went into a state of panic and just couldn't get myself back in the zone after that. So the midwife offered pethidine! My mum tried to talk the midwife out of it as she knew I didn't want it (however whilst in a panic I kept agreeing to it... I had no idea what I was agreeing to I just knew I needed something to help me get back to being calm! My mum asked if they could please just check how dilated I was as I was over half way a few hours ago! And the midwife said this is the best time to have it. After my mum questioning a few times she gave in and thought we should listen to the professional as she must know what she's doing. My mum was worried I was having the injection quite late on in labour... as this happened with her and affected her for a while after she gave birth to me.

Anyway my mum was right.. I had the injection and 4 contractions and 15 minutes later I started to push!

I pushed Georgio out in 27 minutes and I found the pushing PAIN FREE! I was told the pethadine injection doesn't reduce any pain but does chill you out! Which I totally agree it worked! My actual pushing phase and giving birth was very chilled.

However… the pethidine I think they said lasts 8 hours which meant I was not really with it for most of the day after I had given birth!

My placenta came out straight away, I didn't even know I had birthed the placenta I just looked up and there it was chilling next to my hospital bed.

I have absolutely no regrets taking the pain relief, I know at the time I felt like a failure but the moment I was holding my baby boy safe in my arms none of that mattered anymore!

My birth was still so so magical and the best day of my life! I watch my birth video everyday and everyday I cry happy tears for the biggest blessing of my life and the day my biggest dream came true!

Thankyou Siobhan for this amazing course! I was so calm through my whole pregnancy and run up to labour! I was not nervous at all through my whole pregnancy! Even if people had negative comments towards pregnancy or birth stories nothing phased me! I was ALWAYS very excited to experience labour and contractions. I miss that day so much and am genuinely sad that day will never happen again!

The best day of my life.