Birth story - Ellen and baby Luca

Triggers - mention of fetal distress in previous birth, use of word contractions, 2nd degree tear

My first birth was a category 1 emergency c section at 38+1 due to fetal distress, with no labour, and baby went straight to neonatal for help with his breathing. I don’t reflect on it as negative at all and whilst I went into this pregnancy thinking I wanted another c section I’m so pleased I chose to have a VBAC and so proud of myself!

Once I realised that it was fear of the unknown that was making me think about another c section, I started doing lots of reading about VBAC. It was the stories on PBC website that gave me the confidence to choose VBAC and the book and digital pack that gave me the push to read up so I could advocate for myself with informed decisions (even more important in Covid times as I was attending appointments alone).

When I reached 37 weeks I was offered weekly sweeps which I decided to accept and enjoyed finding out the progress my body was making. I’m not sure they did much but I had lots of start stop spells of contractions for weeks! Then at 40+4 (coincidentally my due date based on my last period!) my waters broke with a dramatic gush (I’ll never forget the look on my husbands face as they gushed over the living room carpet ). I rang triage who asked me to go in where they checked baby’s heart rate and checked it was my waters. They advised induction if labour hadn’t started within 24 hours but sent me home.

My contractions started on the journey home and carried on all night and into the morning but didn’t get any closer together than 5 mins. I didn’t get any sleep but the contractions were manageable with a tens machine, some paracetamol and up breathing.

The next evening I headed back in to triage and after checking baby’s heart rate and 2 COVID swabs (first didn’t make it to the lab in time) a bed came up on the induction ward and I had the propress pessary inserted at midnight on Friday. My contractions became much more intense and regular straight away and I spent the next few hours stood up rocking and breathing through them. I was getting tired ,so gladly took some pethidine to help me get some sleep. The contractions had other ideas and I only slept for an hour, waking at 5am, before the contractions were too strong to sleep through. By this time I was feeling extra pressure but it took me over an hour and a half to call a midwife because I was falling asleep sat up between contractions! At 7:30am on Saturday morning I was examined, was 2cm dilated and the pessary fell out! I think I was put on a list to have the rest of my waters broken but this time is a bit hazy now!

At 9am I started feeling the need to push and an examination showed I was fully dilated so was quickly wheeled round to delivery suite! I called my husband on the way and he was worried he might miss it as he needed to wait for my mom to get home from walking the dog before she could come and look after our big boy!

I couldn’t believe things had progressed so quickly - after all the reading about active labour, I’d skipped it completely! After worrying it was the wrong time, once I was given the go ahead to push it felt great! With the encouragement of a lovely midwife and my husband (and the threat of a doctor being needed as I’d been pushing for a while), I stayed upright and baby came after over an hour of pushing! The feeling of the head moving down the birth canal was amazing!

Our baby announced its arrival at 10:29am on Saturday morning with a loud cry and my husband told me it was a beautiful boy. We had skin to skin and daddy cut the cord once it was fully white. I had a second degree tear which I didn’t even notice and was stitched up while daddy enjoyed cuddles. It all felt so relaxed and the midwife even asked if I’d been doing hypnobirthing as I was so calm.

I had the support of some great midwives to get home as soon as I could and it was great to be home the same day and to sleep in my own bed! It was a completely different experience to my first birth and it was lovely to feel human and be so mobile straight away! I’m so glad I chose VBAC - thanks PBC!