Birth story - Chloe and baby Mila

*Trigger warning * - sickness, hyperemesis gravidarum (hg), reduced movement, back labour at first.

Pregnancy

My pregnancy was quite hard, my sickness started at 3 weeks pregnant (which is how I found out ). Around 10 weeks pregnant, I had to see a doctor as I couldn’t keep any food or drink down for days, I couldn’t move or even brush my teeth some days as I would just be over the toilet either being sick or retching. I lived off packet chicken noodle soup and sipping water for around 12 weeks! This is when I got diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum and was given medication for the sickness which helped massively, and luckily after about 6 weeks it started to ease where I’d only be sick a few times a day. Then eventually week by week it would ease more and more until around the 24th week when it completely stopped! Unfortunately I had to give up work but had so much support so any mums going through sickness, especially HG I feel you but I will say it’s totally worth it, I’d do it a million times over for our baby girl.

After the HG eased off, I really started to enjoy my pregnancy and was only sick maybe once a week/2 weeks! I tried yoga 3 times but every time would be sick afterwards so decided to stop! I started hypnobirthing at 28 weeks and would really enjoy watching it in the bath! Also, as soon as a video would start, my baby would hear Siobhan voice and would go crazy I loved learning everything from the course and it really helped me to birth my baby girl I did go in three times due to reduced movement but thankfully each time was all ok! However they did send me for a growth scan to be sure but everything was ok with that too. I had been doing a perineum massage since week 36 using the expert midwife perineum oil, I ate dates with yoghurt and granola, pineapple, drank raspberry leaf tea and used my ball a lot.

On my 38 weeks midwife appointment, she felt babies head engaged in my pelvis so was hoping that was a good sign! Although I could definitely feel her down there and found it hard to walk some days, the birthing ball definitely helped with this!

Early labour

At 39 weeks I started to lose little bits of my mucus plug, although I didn’t have a large amount so just kept an eye on it and told myself my baby will come when my baby is ready! So Saturday night/Sunday 12th/13th I had really bad back pain all night but managed to have little sleep in between baths, massages and paracetamol. I think this was early labour but was back labouring due to baby being slightly back to back. I started my using my TENs machine at around 4pm Sunday afternoon and using my ball and up breathing but the pain was definitely still manageable. I sent my partner to sleep at 10pm and said she’s definitely coming tomorrow so get some sleep!

At around 11pm, I felt a large movement and all the pains went to my stomach which meant she was no longer back to back and was now labouring in my front. I tried to get some sleep but couldn’t get to sleep so I put on some planet earth to listen to David Attenborough’s voice to calm me and continued on my ball with up breathing. At 2pm I had my bloody show so called the midwife and they said to stay at home for as long as possible, which was my plan. At 4pm my Freya app said I was in established labour and it was getting more intense so I woke my partner up and said to get things ready. He put everything in the car ready and we went to the birth centre.

Birth

We got to the birth centre at around 5:30am and the midwife examined me and told I was 3cm but her head was right down, and my cervix needed to turn a little more and she was sure I would dilate pretty fast. So they said I could either go home or I could take a walk around the birthing centre. I didn’t want to do the car journey again so I said let’s go for a walk. At 6:45am we got back and they said they’d wait to put me in the birthing room and put me in the postnatal suite but as I had a surge, they could see how intense it had gotten so asked if I’d rather go in birthing room which I accepted, this was now around 7:10 and I was in established labour. The midwife read my birth plan and got the pool ready for me to go in and brought me some paracetamol.

I got in the pool at around 7:30 and I laboured in the pool with just me and my partner for around 2 hours with the midwife just doing the checks every 15-20 minutes. At 9:30 the midwife gave me an option of an examination but said it was completely my choice, I needed to use the toilet so got out of the birthing pool and decided to have the examination. She said I was 8cm so I knew she was coming pretty soon. I didn’t want to get back off the bed so I decided to stay out of the pool.

At 10:20 I went into the second stage of labour and had the extreme feeling of needed to poo, at this point the midwives knew it was time to go! So I got into a UFO position and was kneeling and holding onto the top of the bed. I said I needed to push and the midwives were really encouraging to trust my body and they are there to help if I need it. So I started pushing down into my bum and could feel her crowning then going back up. They said my perineum was really strong so we kept going like this for a little while but then I was pushing down too hard and was sitting on my poor baby’s head so they got me the lead midwife in with my consent for some help. Unfortunately she was a little old school as hadn’t seen my birth plan and flipped me over onto my back. Although I was reluctant and was going to say no, at this point I just wanted her in my arms as I could feel her coming so close every time I pushed! So within a few pushes and a little coached pushing, she was born at 11:13 on the 14/02/2022, our Valentine’s baby.

We had delayed cord clamping and had the golden hour then after about 2/3 hours, we packed our stuff and was taken to the postnatal suite just opposite! I then took a shower, had some food and started our breastfeeding journey! I was then discharged at 6pm and we were allowed home to our newborn bubble

My birth was so positive and I’m so proud of it that I tell anyone who will listen! And a big thank you is in order to the positive birth company because I wouldn’t have felt so confident if it wasn’t for the amazing hypnobirthing course

Our little girl, Mila.