Birth story - Bianca and baby Thea

*Trigger Warning* - the word contractions as not negative to me, consultant led, babys growth small for gestational age, second degree tear

BACKGROUND:

I had a relatively “normal” pregnancy, sickness to begin with that tailed off after about 18 weeks. At my 20 week scan my placenta wasn’t in the correct position so I was booked for another scan at 32 weeks to ensure this had moved to allow for a natural birth. During this scan they measured baby and said she was coming up as small (just on the 10th centile) so I was offered extra scans every 2 weeks and went consultant led. It was decided at 37+2, after some reduced movements, that I would be induced at 38+3, I used my BRAIN and decided that it was in mine and babies best interest that we went with this option. I had already been using my clary sage, drinking raspberry leaf tea and expressing colostrum to try and get things started on their own.

Tuesday 26th July:

I called the induction bay at 10am to see if they had a bed for me, to no surprise they had no bed and said I would need to call back at 4pm. I instantly felt a bit negative so decided I was going to go back to bed for a nap. I tried to sleep but tossed and turned, at around 1pm I got up for a wee and noticed I had some spotting. I called the triage and they told me to come in. I arrived at the hospital and explained the situation, they put me on the monitor and baby was fine. Due to waiting to be induced they offered me a sweep, I accepted as I really wanted to get my body in the best position ahead of induction. The midwife examined me and said I was already 2cm dilated, her head was there and my cervix was paper thin. I was so relieved that my body had already started the process. The midwife said I wouldn’t need to be induced and they would just break my waters and I would be able to labour naturally, even potentially get my water birth! I asked if I could go home to labour naturally but the midwife in charge said due to baby’s size I would need to stay in hospital and be monitored every 4 hours until they could break my waters. I was admitted, thankfully into my own room where I could really get myself a positive mindset.

Wednesday 27th July:

The midwife came round in the morning and explained the waiting list for my waters to be broken was massive and I could be waiting a week for this. I instantly felt negative, I didn’t want to be in hospital for that long before even giving birth but I had to flick a switch, I remained positive and decided I was going to do EVERYTHING I could to get this baby out on my own. I didn’t spend hardly any time in my room, I was just walking round the hospital grounds, up and down the stairs, anywhere I could just to try and bring on labour. On the evenings I would watch Love Island and use my ball for an hour, I’d hand express and continue with the clary sage on my pillow and raspberry leaf tea with breakfast. My boyfriend came up that evening and I was experiencing some lower back ache, however, I’d been experiencing this for about 2 weeks so didn’t think anything of it. Visiting time was over and I went for a walk, once again up and down the stairs to try and get things going myself.

Thursday 28th July:

I woke up to a little trickle, I went to the toilet and saw it was a yellow colour so put a pad on and buzzed for the midwife. The midwife told me to put a pad on and they’ll be back in 30 minutes to check, I was experiencing some backache but nothing different to what I had from the last 2 weeks. I fell back to sleep and woke up at 7am, I went to the toilet and that’s when I saw a greeny colour in my pad. I buzzed for the midwife and she examined me, she confirmed Thea had pooped and I was around 3/4cm dilated. I was told to contact my birthing partners as I was going round to delivery! It all felt very quick but I remained as calm as possible and asked the plan, I was told that my front waters would be broken and I would go onto the hormone drip to get my labour started. If this failed, I would have a section.

I had my waters broken at 10:30am and went onto the hormone drip at 11am, as soon as my waters had broken I started getting contractions (this is when I started timing them and using Freya) but all in my back, I never experienced one contraction in my stomach. The hormone drip had to be turned off at 1pm as it was too strong for my body, I continued to labour on my own using the gas and air. At around 4pm I felt like I wanted to push, the feeling was indescribable - I just knew it was time. I did 3 big pushes and my baby girl entered the world. We had skin to skin whilst doing delayed cord clamping and I also began to breastfeed at this point.

I did have a second degree internal tear which they wanted to stitch in theatre using an epidural but I decided against it and asked for gas and air instead. At this point Thea was given some of the colostrum that I had expressed. I was taken to the ward where I stayed for the evening and was discharged home Friday morning.

All in all, my labour was a very positive experience. I was really apprehensive about being induced but I remained positive and open minded throughout which I really do believe gave me the experience I had.