Birth story - Carah and baby Saoirse

*Trigger warning* - use of the word contraction, tear, forceps, blood loss

I’m sorry this post is so long, tried to keep it as short as possible but it was a long pregnancy and birth.

I really wanted to avoid induction & was convinced I would just on the basis that my own Mama went naturally with us. But alas, it was not meant to be!

I was so lucky to have had a healthy & happy pregnancy. Once I got to 40 weeks, every day felt like a month. It was so hard to stay patient once I was overdue but I was trying my best to go with the flow and reminding myself that my baby will come when she is ready. Fortunately I hadn’t told many people my due date, but my partner had told so many people and people were constantly contacting him asking did we have baby yet. He won’t make that mistake again

So I finally give in to induction at 41 + 5.

I was admitted Thursday the 21st 11am. I opted for the Foley bulb over the pessary as they would allow me go home for the night. I had a bit of an emotional wobble in there as I just really didn’t want this induction and the nurses gave me some time to just think about it. I spoke with the doctor at lunch time and agreed to it.

At 5:30pm the doctor tried twice to insert the Foley bulb but each time she inflated it, it fell out. My cervix was soft but 3cm long. I used my BRAIN - decided to have pessary and stay overnight. The pessary was inserted at 6:30pm.

On Friday morning I was checked at 6:30am, cervix still too long.

At 9am I started to get mild contractions. The pessary was removed at 12:30pm and my cervix was still too long to have waters broken. At this point they suggested a cook catheter which is like a double balloon. This really annoyed me and I asked if we couldn’t get a single to work, how were we going to get a double to work? The midwives were so lovely but at this point this was the only real option I had. This hospital didn’t do the prostaglandin gel. Again I used my BRAIN and told them I wanted to wait until night time to discuss getting the cooks catheter inserted. I had been in for over 24 hours at this point and I just wanted to chill and get some oxytocin going. My partner and I lay in the bed and had a cuddle and a sleep. The oxytocin must have worked because my waters broke during our cuddle at 2:20pm. The midwives confirmed it was spontaneous release of membranes (SROM).

They asked if I wanted to go down to start the drip that night and I refused. I wanted to see if I could get it going naturally overnight. I started having contractions after my waters broke but sadly they seemed to dwindle off as the night went on.

On Saturday morning, the 23rd, I was brought to the delivery suite at 6.30am. They set me up on the syntocin drip at 8.30am. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let me have my water birth as my waters had been broken for so long.

I started having contractions at 10am. My partner and I just relaxed in to the room. We put our speaker on & set up some tea lights and cuddled under my nice soft blankie that I brought from home. We set up my TENS machine which was honestly the MVP of my birthing experience. I love the water so I decided to sit on a chair in the shower for a while. I didn’t stay longer than 30mins because I really missed my TENS machine and felt the contractions were a bit more painful in the heat. I also couldn’t stand any warmth so I spent the whole labouring process completely naked walking around the room.

I said I wanted to have an active labour but the most comfortable position for me was sitting leap frog on the bed leaning in to the ball in front of me.

I was checked at 2pm and I was 3cm dilated.

At about 4pm the contractions had levelled up and I called the midwife in to check me again. She checked me at 5pm where I was 5cm, so with that I asked for the epidural. I had always said if I was going to be induced, I was going to get the epidural. I feel like if I was already not having a natural birth that I may as well go for it, and I was sooo happy I did!

The anaesthetist arrived at 6pm and it took about 40mins to get it inserted. I was unaware it would take this long but it was fine. In hindsight, I think I hit my transition stage as I was getting the epidural. The contractions were at their absolute peak but I wasn’t allowed to move so I just held my breathe and squeezed my partners hands. My partner could see how strong my contractions were getting on the screen and he couldn’t believe how strong I was being. But I had no choice, there was no going back and I had to just get through it I can’t describe how much better & lighter I felt once I got the epidural.

My midwife said it was time to relax for a few hours and told my partner to head out for dinner as the epidural usually slows things down for a few hours. I was advised to have a sleep.

Oh how wrong she was! As soon I was left alone I had this crazy urge to push. It’s exactly what people say it’s like - you feel like you really need to poop. I tried to convince myself that I was imagining it but I was full on wriggling in the bed trying to hold this ‘poop’ in. Eventually I called the midwife and asked her to check me. I was 9.5 centimetres! I just had a cervical ‘lip’ left to dilate. She told me I needed to try hold it for an hour. That was the hardest thing ever, I was wriggling like a worm in the bed. That’s when I decided to do the gas and air. Purely as a distraction!

I had to text my partner to come back as bubba was coming soon.

There was a midwife change then & we got ready to push. It was so calm, we listened to khruangbin on my speaker and I pushed at every contraction. I could feel pressure but no pain. Unfortunately I just couldn’t get over the finish line with the pushing and bubba kept turning her head and seemed to be struggling to get out. After about 30mins the midwife saw a slight dip on the monitor and called the doctor in. They asked me to give one last push but when that didn’t work, we went for a forceps delivery. I kept cool & just went with it. They needed to perform an episiotomy which I had initially refused but I didn’t care at that point. They performed the episiotomy & I ended up tearing down a bit further than that (3a tear).

The doc gave one big tug and my gorgeous baby girl was placed on my chest. I couldn’t believe it when I saw her big thick hair! I was so relieved that she was here safe.

We had about a minute of magical snuggles together before I had to go and get stitched up. Baby had to wait for 3 hours for me to get back as when I got down to surgery, I had a high temperature & they said I was at risk of infection so they had to take more bloods from me. It was hard to find the blood vessels as id lost quite a bit of blood already. I was a bit dizzy by the time I got back to baby but I was over the moon when I saw her again. She has waited three hours for a feed and didn’t even cry. She latched the second she got to my breast and breastfeeding has been a dream ever since

All of that aftermath stuff sounds scary but honestly, reading through all of these birth stories before it was my turn really equipped me with the foresight to know that absolutely anything can happen & to just go with the flow. This birth could have been seen as traumatic but at no point did I feel unsafe or scared.

Good luck to all you mamas waiting for your day to come. It’s the most amazing experience & I can’t wait to do it all again.