Birth story - Charlotte and baby Jackson

*Trigger warning* - use of the word ‘contraction’ - not negative to me, meconium, instrumental delivery, emergency c-section (I still felt it was positive!)

Pregnancy

I really enjoyed pregnancy, despite being exhausted pretty much all the way through! I had sickness up until about week 18 and a bout of headaches/migraines in the second trimester but nothing too terrible.

Early labor

So, I didn’t realise I was in labor which made the first part easier! I’d had lower backache for a few days and just put it down to the size of my belly at the end of pregnancy. I woke up on Wednesday 8th with backache. It sort of seemed to be coming and going but I put it down to paracetamol/wheat bag/changing position because it wasn’t super painful, just a bit miserable. At about midday, I felt a bit weird so I called my husband at work to tell him that I thought things might be happening... we joked that it would be funny if he came on his due date because I’m late for everything.

The afternoon went in the same way as the morning, niggling backache but nothing major. By about 4pm, the backache had ramped up a bit. Not unbearable but more miserable than before. I spoke to my Mum who told me she thought it sounded like labor (spoiler, it was!) but it just didn’t feel the way I imagined contractions to feel so I brushed it off.

My husband called on his way back from work and after I told him what had been going on, he suggested I was in labor too, but again, I said it was just backache because it just didnt feel the way I thought it would I was managing the pain with paracetamol, a (very hot!) wheatbag and changing positions.

By about 10pm, the pain was pretty intense and it was very clearly coming and going so I started tracking the pains (spoiler, they were contractions ) on the Freya app. They were coming and going inconsistently but I started to believe I was in real labor which was exciting. Hubby wanted to go to hospital but I was worried we’d be sent back home if I wasn’t far enough along so I just carried on tracking the contractions and breathing through them. The phrase ‘I can do anything for a minute’ REALLY helped, as did the visualisation of a roller coaster... building up to the peak and then it dropping off again. I had a few baths as well which were amazing and definitely relieved some of the pain. I imagine a water birth is heavenly!

At about 1am, I decided I was at a point where I was struggling to cope at home so I called the hospital. The midwife I spoke to asked if it was my first baby and suggested I had a bath and stayed at home a bit longer as first babies tend to take a lot longer to arrive. I used my B.R.A.I.N and said I’d rather go in to be checked because I felt like I’d stayed as long as I was comfortable and my instinct was it was time to go to the hospital.

When we arrived, the contractions were much more consistent but the staff did sort of brush us off as ‘first time parents’ and I did have a mini ‘can I do this’ panic because it hurt and I was worried nothing had happened yet. But i’m glad i trusted my instincts because it was soon to be go go go!

The midwife asked if she could do an exam and I agreed, I personally wanted all the information I could so I was happy to have one. When she examined me, she said I was 4cm which made me feel so much better... it really had been purposeful pain! My waters then broke but there was a lot of meconium in them. Because of this, I was put on the consultant led ward in quite a ‘medical’ room. This didn’t really bother me because I was very much in the zone and had my eyes closed 90% of the time! I had gas and air but wasnt really using it to start with, just breathing through the contractions and I felt in control for about an hour...

The contractions then ramped up really quickly and the next few hours are a bit of a blur! I was encouraged to use gas and air so I did and it did make me sick (I’m sick quite easily though!) but after that it was lovely! Within about an hour of being checked in, my body started pushing, and when the midwife examined me again, she said I was 9/10cm but baby wasn’t in the right position. The pain in my back was really intense at this point and I was really struggling to lie on the bed so they could keep the monitors on. I only had pain in my back which is absolutely not what I was expecting. My midwife was INCREDIBLE and helped me move into different positions but the doctors were quite insistent about lying on the bed for exams. I asked for an epidural but a doctor said it was too late. This went on for a couple of hours. I was given something to slow down contractions because they were practically non-stop and because there was hardly any break between them, the amound of gas and air I needed was making me feel sick again. I did have a wobble at this point because I could hear words like ‘instrumental and c-section’ being thrown around but I was struggling to concentrate on what was being said. My midwife left the room while a doctor was examining me and came back with the anaesthetist. There was a bit of a disagreement between the doctors, midwife and anaesthetist but the anaesthetist said I could have the epidural as long as I kept still - which I absolutely was going to do.

As soon at the epidural was in, I was able to concentrate and sort of came back into my body. I had actual conversations with staff and much better understood what was going on. I felt back in control and for me, the epidural made my birth experience much more positive. We had discussed pain relief options and basically I hadn’t ruled anything out. I’d told hubby that he’d know if I really needed it so he was comfortable consenting to it when it came down to it.

I had the epidural in place for a couple of hours and I was literally pain free. It was a lovely part of the labor because I wasnt in any pain and I knew babes would be with us one way or another that day.

It was decided that I would do an hour of coached pushing to try and get the baby down and out, and if that didnt work, it would be down to theatre for instrumental delivery or a c-section.

The coached pushing was a really strange experience. Not painful at all, just weird! Baby still wasn’t in the right position so we were prepped for theatre. Our midwife was SO GOOD and I felt as though we’d tried what we could to do things the natural way and it was absolutely the right time to do something different.

The anaesthetist who’d placed my epidural came to theatre with us and did all the technical things needed for surgery, and my midwife stayed until the end even though her shift had finished. They were SO LOVELY and I wish I could remember their names to thank them personally! Honestly, I was really unhappy with some of the doctors but the midwife was 10000000% on my side and I really felt that all the way through.

The surgeon attempted a forceps delivery but Jackson was well and truly stuck bless him, so it was a c-section. The midwife said that it would feel like someone doing the washing up in your belly, and that was the perfect description of the feeling.

There were additional doctors present because they were worried about Jackson because of the meconium. I think because of this, they didn’t tell us when he was coming out. I had my eyes clamped shut, doing my up breathing and Mike was chatting away which was a good distraction! There was a little squeal and a chunky little Jackson was held up for us to see. We weren’t expecting for him to cry straight away so that was an amazing feeling. We’d been asked what we wanted music wise in theatre... my request for heavy rap was not taken seriously and we had cheesy pop... and Jackson was born to Britney Spears ‘oops I did it again’

After being stitched back up, I was being wheeled into a hospital room and said ‘well, that wasnt too bad, I’d do it again.’