Birth story - Chloe and baby Poppy

*Trigger warning* - mentions contraction, second degree tear, stitches, sick.

Thursday 25th August

Had some cramping around 6:30pm, felt quite bad but had similar before so didn’t want to get excited! Told my partner Stefan it was hurting quite abit, we were sat in bed watching TV.

At 7pm my waters broke, felt so weird and sudden, just started gushing out! Moved to en-suite and it kept coming! Was so strange and amazing, felt soooo excited!! I called the hospital who said to come in and get checked to make sure it was my waters. At this point I wasn’t in any pain at all, maybe getting really tiny period like cramps.

At hospital they confirmed my waters had gone (just had to lie down for 10 mins then go change pad and show them). I felt soooooo excited!!

Mum came over to pick up our dog and left about 8:30pm, waters kept coming and cramps were starting to get worse and felt like contractions. I tried sitting on the birth ball but ended up sitting on corner of sofa timing them using the Freya app. They were coming around every 2 mins and lasting about 45 seconds.

At 10:30pm we called the Day Assessment Unit and asked to come in as contractions were coming so fast. The car journey to the hospital was a challenge as every bump in the road made trying to breathe through the contractions hard. So, lucky it was late at night so there wasn’t much traffic!!

When we got to DAU the midwife did my normal checks and felt my belly during contractions. She said that I was contracting a lot but they weren’t long or strong enough. She didn’t want to do an internal exam as my waters had gone and it could cause infection. She gave me a pill to ease the pain and said to go home and come back when contractions were lasting 1 min and the pain was worse!

I felt so upset to have to get back in the car!! At this point I was also starting to feel quite sick from the pain. We drove out of the car park, pulled over straight away and I was sick which meant the pain killer didn’t stay down. The rest of the car journey home was a bit hard and I kept asking my partner to pull over every time a contraction came so I could concentrate on breathing through them. Took over an hour to get home due to pulling over so many times!

Friday 26th August

Once home we decided to go up to bed and try to relax, my partner put the tens machine on me which definitely helped ease some pain and was a good distraction. Stefan got some sleep while I concentrated on breathing through contractions and timing them. I kept being sick every few contractions and couldn’t keep any food or drink down. From about midnight to 3:30am my contractions were still coming every 2 mins and started to last around 50 seconds - 1 minute.

At 3:45am I woke Stefan up and said we needed to go back to hospital as I was in a lot of pain and they were lasting longer. We drove back to the DAU.

Got to hospital about 4:30am they asked me to do a urine sample and when I went to bathroom I noticed some blood. Midwife said this was a good sign of dilation and did checks and felt my tummy for contractions, I was sooo scared I was going to be sent away again! They finally did an internal exam and I was 5cm dilated and the midwife commented that her head was sooo low, she could feel it and no wonder it was hurting so much!! She said she would book me into a delivery suite straight away! I got asked if I would like a room with a birthing pool which I agreed to in the moment even though it wasn’t in my birth plan.

They put me in a wheelchair and took me to the labour ward, the room was lovely and had lots of fairy lights which was so calming! I just sat on the end of the bed and kept breathing through contractions, the sound of the birthing pool running was such a good distraction! They then offered me gas and air which I agreed to straight away! I didn’t really feel much effect of gas and air whilst in labour, but it definitely took the edge off.

The midwife said I had ketones in my urine due to being dehydrated (I had a feeling this would be the case as was being sick and hadn’t managed to drink since midnight) they gave me water but when they did further checks my pulse was also high so they decided to give me fluid through a drip. I had a cannula inserted and had a fluid drip. I also had to have a covid test around this time too.

I was contracting sitting on the edge of the bed for a while, using gas and air and had tens machine constantly turned on. At around 7am they asked if I was feeling pushy which I was and so they checked me and I was fully dilated! They said they wanted to give me an hour to let baby’s head come down further and do some practice pushes using the gas and air.

The pain was mostly pressure in my bum, felt like it was going to explode they also tried to make me go for a wee as my bladder was full, I tried but couldn’t do it so they had to insert a catheter to drain it.

I then did practice pushes using gas and air, they mentioned at some point baby had done a small poo inside me but they weren’t overly worried as it wasn’t a lot. I just kept breathing through contractions and pushing when told to. This went on for a while. The midwife’s changed over at 7:30/8am. They said the practice pushes would help me stretch and prevent tearing (this didn’t happen).

I tried a few positions during labour, started on my left hand side, then on all fours, then on my back and then back in my left side.

I started active pushing at about 8:30am. Finally I was able to push her head out! This was the most intense burning stretching feeling! I then waited for another contraction to come to birth her body. When the contraction came the midwife said her shoulders should turn by themselves to help with birth but they didn’t so I could feel a lot of tugging whilst they turned and helped birth her!

But then I had little Poppy on my chest and it was the most amazing feeling in the whole world!!!! We had skin to skin and my partner cut her umbilical cord. I had the injection to make the placenta come away. I was scared this would hurt but it actually felt amazing!! The midwife just pulled it out and it’s such a reliving feeling.

We then just spent time having cuddles and it was just amazing!!! The midwife checked me for tears and said I had a 2nd degree perineal tear she said this would need stitching up and it would take about 30 mins.

Poppy was weighed and then had her vitamin K injection whilst having her first bottle (drank the whole thing)

I then managed to have a wee which they were really impressed about and then got stitched up, this actually felt like the best bit as I had gas and air throughout and I felt on cloud 9! Like I was drunk and soooooo happy! Was stitched up for just over half an hour!

I had the cannula removed and our midwife took photos of us. We ate lunch and then turned on the birthing pool so I could have a bath! (Never got round to using birthing pool during labour as everything happened so fast) Had a bath, brushed teeth, had another wee and was ready to go home!!

We left hospital at about 2:30pm