Birth story - Emily and baby Clara

I loved reading everyone’s birth stories so here is baby Clara’s!

I started watching the pack in the last few weeks before giving birth, once I’d finally received the great news that my placenta had finally moved up after it was previously still previa at 34 weeks (I had been told then to prepare for elective section). After being told we only had a 50% chance of the pregnancy progressing at our initial 6 week scan and then having a subchronic hemorrhage at 13 weeks whilst on an overseas business trip which was honestly one of the most terrifying days of my life, it had been a fairly stressful pregnancy.

I was conscious after my previous induction (after my waters went at term without labour coming on) that births in the Cayman Islands are typically quite medicalised with high rates of unplanned/emergency sections. I found the pack fascinating and empowering but I also recognized and respected that things were often done a certain way out here for safety, with it being a small island with limited resources to deal with medical emergencies.

On Saturday 20th April I woke up to some spotting and as my OB had mentioned waters could be blood tinged and with having Pre labour Rupture Of Membranes last pregnancy I swabbed myself for my waters but it was negative. I shortly started experiencing some cramping and later in the day switched on the Freya app and started timing the contractions - they were around 30 mins apart lasting around 45 seconds. In the night from around midnight until I got out of bed they increased in frequency to around 15 mins apart which was annoying as I couldn’t sleep through them and didn’t have long enough to get back to sleep after one. The next day (Easter Sunday) they started to tail off again and we went round to a friends place for an Easter Egg hunt with my toddler. When we got home they were around every 25 mins again and I started wondering whether they would ever increase! That night they increased in frequency again but the shortest time between them was still 10 mins. I kept staring at the Freya app which said I needed 3 in 10 mins to be in established Labour.

I decided to lightly warm a heat pad and see if it gave me any relief to allow some sleep - it gave me some relief but not enough to sleep. At 6:30am I got hubby to run me a bath and at 7am I called my Doctor to complain about the lack of sleep I had been getting. It was Easter Monday and he said his office was closed but that he was going to the hospital anyway (which is round the corner from my house) at 9am so I could meet him there.

When we arrived I was monitored for a bit and there were definite contractions but around 20-30 mins apart now, baby was doing good but was a bit sleepy so I started drinking some Gatorade with ice. The Dr came in and asked to examine me, I hated being examined last time but I used BRAIN and decided I really wanted to know if anything was going on after 2 nights of no sleep so I accepted. To my utter disbelief my Dr told me I was 9cm dilated which he could stretch to 10cm and fully effaced! I cried a tear I was so happy and convinced he was going to tell me I was 2cm dilated at best.

He said he’d leave me for an hour. At this point my waters still hadn’t gone. He came back an hour and a half later and manually broke my waters as I’d only had a couple of contractions in this time. This wasn’t pleasant as they were tightly packed but I had my breathing and some gas and air to help me through it.

He then left me for another hour and still nothing was really happening and still the contractions wern’t regular so he suggested giving me some fluids through the drip and then starting the oxytocin drip. I knew from friends this drip would be strong but I used my BRAIN and asked my Dr some questions including whether he thought I could handle the intense pain it would likely bring on without an epidural, he assured me I could handle it and I clenched the gas and air mask tight as he left the room and told me he’d be back soon.

Two contractions after the drip went in and I screamed out to my husband to go get the Dr as I felt like I needed to push! The Dr and midwife ran in and they could tell I wanted to push but were asking me to hold fire whilst the Dr scrubbed up. The next contraction started and my body told me I had to push and her head emerged with the first push, was out with the second and she was born with the final push. The Dr and midwife were trying to coach me not to push so hard but I struggled to control my body and ended up with a couple of tears which I’m totally fine with.

Clara at 1 minute old!

The best part for me was that afterwards we had delayed cord clamping, immediate skin to skin then my husband got some skin to skin whilst I got my stitches before we had our first feed. With my daughter a pediatrician had to attend birth due to the time from my waters going and I hadn’t had the opportunity or the voice to get these preferences met if possible.

Meeting her 19mth old sister for the first time