Birth story - Cara and baby Rupert

Monday 15th April -

After days of experiencing period cramps and some mild back ache I woke up feeling all out of sorts and threw up in the morning. I decided to stay at home and rest whilst Chris (husband) took Florence (daughter) out for the day.

Tuesday 16th April - 12.30am

Chris and I had stayed awake to find out what Primary School Florence had got into. I wasn’t massively worried about it but we both knew we only really wanted our first choice, thankfully she got in! I joked and said that I would probably go into labour now that we weren’t thinking about schooling. I even posted on Instagram about it! We went to bed and didn’t think anymore of it.

At 1.30am I woke up thinking I needed the toilet but as soon as I stood up I had a huge gush of water and there was no denying that it was my waters. I woke Chris up and we both laughed. We first called the Maternity Unit at our Hospital and were advised to go in. We then called my mum as she was my second birthing partner and was around an hour and a half away, and then called around to try and arrange someone to come and sit with Florence. Chris’s parents and sister started to make the hour and a half journey to collect her and we called the hospital again to let them know a rough arrival time and to also put my name on the board for the one and only room with a birthing pool.

I gave Chris a list of last minute things to put in the car and I got in the shower to freshen up. The warm water seemed to relax my body and my surges started coming around 2.30am. Chris lit candles in every room and I opened my @thepostivebirthcompany Freya app and started using “Up Breathing” to breathe through each surge.

I got myself into a UFO position of all fours on my birthing ball and stayed there until Chris’s parents arrived around 3.15am.

We said a teary goodbye to Florence, knowing that the next time we would see her we would be a family of 4. We headed to the hospital and for the whole journey I had my headphones in and tuned into Freya. This really helped me to relax and block out any traffic or red lights that would delay our journey.

We arrived at the hospital at 4am and met my mum in the car park. We checked in and a midwife took us to the room where I would deliver our baby. My whole body relaxed as we walked in and I could see the Birthing Pool in the corner.

The midwife carried out all of my observations and it was found that I had high blood pressure and she wanted to put me on the monitor. My mind instantly slipped into a negative state because the one thing I didn’t want was to be confined to a bed being continuously monitored. Chris reminded me of everything we had learned on the course. He dimmed the lights, switched on the LED candles, and told me to put my head phones in to relax my body again. I was initially monitored for an hour because I wasn’t feeling any movements. Half way into that hour I remembered that there was no need to be laying on my back whilst being monitored so I got onto all fours and asked Chris to get me a birthing ball.

When I came off the monitor I continued to breath through each surge. They were coming every 7 minutes and lasted for 1 minute by this point. Nobody could believe how calm I was through each surge, even myself! My observations were repeated and I still had high blood pressure. No alternative plans were made at this stage so I carried on how I was and remained relaxed and calm.

At 8.00am the team had handover and I was visited by several doctors. They told me that my surges weren’t regular enough and asked me to vacate the room and move to a ward until my labour started to progress more. I was devastated. We had become so settled in the room and I had everything under control and calm. Chris started packing the room up to move and my new midwife, Emmy, came in to meet us. My mum explained the situation and asked if we really had to move. Emmy left the room and came back 5 minutes later and said that she would like to put me back on the monitor for half an hour. Turns out she only did that because it meant we could stay in the room. This time I sat on the birth ball during monitoring. This really kick started my surges and by the time Emmy came back in to see me they were coming every 4 minutes and lasting 1 minute. They had become very very intense and when the wave came I was finding it difficult to calmly breathe through them. At times I felt myself loosing control but Chris and my mum were very quick to bring me back and coached me through the breathing.

Around 10am the surges were coming every 3 minutes and lasted for just over a minute. Emmy performed my first internal assessment and said “I have some good news, you are 7cm!” we couldn’t believe it and many happy tears were cried! The surges really ramped up at this point and I was starting to find it really difficult to keep my mind calm. I got myself up off the bed and resumed an UFO position for the next hour.

Around 11.30am I felt the urge to go to toilet every time I had a surge. Chris led me to the bathroom and every time I had another surge the intensity radiated down my pelvis and I told Chris “the baby is coming!” He told Emmy and when she examined me I was 9cm. By this point everything was intense and incredibly overwhelming, I couldn’t get off the bed. With every surge came the overpowering urge to push and I was finding it hard to stop myself. Emmy examined me again and told me that I was 10cm and could start pushing with the next surge.

I asked whether it was too late to get into the pool and Emmy said no. Around 11.45am and with encouragement from everyone I managed to get myself up and into the pool, finally!

My whole body relaxed when I entered the pool. The warm water calmed me and I was able to control my breathing once again. I used the “Down Breathing” technique to move baby down with every surge. After a handful of surges baby’s head was born, and the body followed with the next.

Baby Rupert was born in the water at 12.09pm. We had immediate skin-to-skin, delayed cord clamping and Chris cut the cord. I was helped back onto the bed to deliver the placenta and it was packaged up to be encapsulated.

During pregnancy I really worried about tearing if I tried for a VBAC. I was constantly googling statistics and ways to reduce the risk of tearing. I did suffer a 3B tear however, the information in the digital pack is correct. You can’t feel it at the time and even when the Dr was examining the damage I couldn’t feel anything. I gave birth 3 weeks ago and I am no longer experiencing pain or discomfort from the tear. I stopped taking all pain relief after 2 weeks and I can even walk my daughter to and from school, and drive!

We’d both like to say a huge thank you to Siobhan for creating the digital course. It allowed us to make informed decisions and have the birth we wanted. I still can’t believe I did it!💕