Birth story - Cathy and baby Elliott

*Trigger warning* - induction, contractions, tearing (none of this is a trigger for me!)

Pregnancy

I had a pretty carefree pregnancy, I had morning sickness during the first trimester which included a horrible sensitivity to smells, and I struggled with the fatigue.

The third trimester was by far the hardest, I just felt so so heavy!! I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and advised to cut out carbs. I could control the diabetes by altering my diet and had to test my blood sugar six times a day.. no snacking between meals which was hard since I really wanted to eat 24/7. It was super annoying more than anything else!

The baby scans were fine but the head was measuring in >97th percentile so we had an additional third trimester scan. I was a bit worried about this and how it would impact the birth, but I was reassured that there was no need for intervention and that measurements can be inaccurate too.

I had Braxton hicks throughout the entire third trimester, sometimes quite intense but never painful.

My due date of 20th march came and went, I was invited to the hospital for monitoring every 2 days after my due date. The baby was doing well so I was able to wait a bit longer and an induction was booked in for me at 41w +5. I never felt pressured from the midwives and everything was explained thoroughly to me, but I was scared and disappointed that I’d have to be induced because I’d heard it can be potentially more intense and more painful (and I didn’t want any interventions!). I didn’t have a birth plan as such, but I did prefer the idea of a vaginal birth at the hospital, without an epidural (I had a consultation for an epidural anyway so I could have one if I decided last minute that I would want one). Home births and water births aren’t common in France at all so this wasn’t an option, but this didn’t bother me. I felt comfortable with the idea of a dry land hospital based birth.

Labour

At 41w+5 my husband and I arrived at the hospital at 9am ready for the induction. We were given a private room and had monitoring of the babies heart rate for about an hour before a cervical examination. I was still having light braxton hicks contractions at this stage, they happened a lot but very irregular and not strong. I was already 2cm dilated and they inserted the pessary to soften the cervix..This wasnt painful at all! I was advised that they leave the pessary to work for 24h and if I still didn’t go into labour then they would give me an oxytocin drip the next day. The midwife mostly left us to ourselves in the hospital room, and advised we could go out and have a walk as long as we stayed on the hospital grounds, so we did some walking and had a coffee in the hospital cafe.

The day was very boring and nothing much happened, but by the evening the contractions started to get much more regular though still not painful. We ordered dominoes to the hospital and watched netflix all evening, I felt very relaxed and comfortable (and very impatient)!

Throughout the night the contractions got closer together and much more intense, i mostly sat on the birth ball for comfort and did upbreathing. After a few hours I asked to be examined again because i felt things were progressing. The midwife suggested I had an hour of monitoring first and then my cervix was checked..after all the waiting around I was only at 3cm which was disappointing considering the intensity of contractions!

I didn’t sleep at all throughout the night as the contractions got stronger, the midwife gave me some paracetamol and suggested I take a warm shower, which I did, but this didn’t help much. The midwife also said that walking might help through the contractions, so I walked up and down the maternity ward corridors with my husband. Walking definitely helped things progress and the contractions got more and more intense until I couldn’t walk or talk during them. Breathing through them helped massively and I still didn’t feel that I needed further pain relief as i felt completely comfortable and calm in between each one.

Birth

In the early morning (6am-ish) I was struggling with breathing through the contractions and felt super tired. I had a couple of contractions where I had an uncontrollable urge to push, I’d heard lots about your body just doing it’s thing but it really took me by surprise! I called the midwife who examined me again and I was 7cm dilated. We gathered our belongings and moved over to the birthing room. The room I was in before and the birthing room at our local hospital were very basic and small, nothing fancy other than a bed and the exercise ball!

The midwife gave me a gown to put on and she told me to get on the bed and make myself comfortable in whatever position I’d like. I decided on all fours was best. With the next contraction I felt the urge to push again the midwife hurried to get things ready and called another midwife in to help because the baby was coming very quickly. The midwife broke my waters, then the next contraction was really intense and I pushed the head out..then I waited for the next one and pushed the rest of the baby out! Perhaps it was because it happened so fast, I could feel everything but I didn’t really feel the ‘ring of fire’ that everyone talks about. My husband cut the cord and the midwife put the baby on him for immediate skin to skin. He was gigantic and adorable!! The whole thing was very quick and intense but not scary or stressful, I felt as if I’d just done a huge work out!

A few minutes later they put the baby on me and he started breastfeeding immediately which was surprising but lovely. Pushing the placenta out was easy and painless, even though I looked at it afterwards and it was enormous!

We stayed in the room for about an hour with the baby on me, then they moved us to a different floor with a different private room. We stayed in hospital for three nights (this is normal in France for a birth without complications) I felt very looked after and the midwives were very attentive and made sure I was ok. They also helped with breastfeeding, bathing the baby and showing us how to clean his face etc. By day three I felt way more confident, healed and ready to go home. I don’t know how people manage going home the day after giving birth or even the same day! I really appreciated the help at the hospital, particularly since this is my first baby.

 Overall the birth experience was amazing and positive and went better than I could have imagined! I felt really confident due to the PBC preparation and I was so grateful to have felt calm and relaxed the whole time. My partner was fantastic and so supportive throughout the labour and birth, and the midwives were great too❤️ Thank you to everyone on here for sharing your stories because they really hyped me up to look forward to birth, I found the experience amazing and unforgettable and I’m so in love with my baby!