Birth story - Emily and baby Senan

It’s taken me a long time to write this purely trying to find the time after having a baby! I really wanted to write my story to first and foremost help others. I was obsessed with reading other people’s stories whilst I was pregnant and found them so so helpful that I wanted to share mine in the hope to help others. This is a positive induction story!

My pregnancy was a typical pregnancy, minus the pandemic, and I was low risk. I was very grateful not to have to work and enjoyed our last few months just the two of us. It was sad not to be able to enjoy my pregnancy with everyone or be able to do classes/courses. I found there wasn’t anything available, even online for new mums and I had to do so much research myself. A friend suggested doing hypnobirthing and told me to sign up to this course. I will be forever grateful to her for suggesting as this course helped me so much and I would’ve had a completely different birth without it.

At 40 weeks I had my midwife appointment and was expecting to have a sweep but they wouldn’t do it until I was 41 weeks. The reason why I wanted it was because I didn’t want to be induced as I wanted to have as little intervention as possible. I was absolutely loving being pregnant even though I was very uncomfortable at this stage, I still didn’t want it to come to an end. Even though I planned and prepped myself for the birth I was still feeling really anxious about it and was afraid I wouldn’t actually be able to do it.

They booked me in to have an induction at 41+5. I was really reluctant about having this but I booked it in thinking it wouldn’t come to that.

41 weeks came and I had a sweep. I was really anxious about having a sweep but I did my up breathing and relaxed as much as possible. It gave me a bit of an insight into what it was like to be examined and made me anxious as it was quite uncomfortable. I was 1cm and very happy about this as I thought it was starting 😬. 24 hours went by and nothing happened 🙁 they said, “if it doesn’t happen in 24 hours it’s not going to have helped.” A few days later I rang up and booked in for another sweep at 41+3, I was still 1cm but this time hardly felt anything. I think it depends on what midwife you get and how gentle they are. I tried everything to get the baby out, bouncing on my ball, spicy food, watched every happy film to get my serotonin going and even sex 😬 nothing worked. I decided to go ahead with the induction because my bf works 4 hours away and he was getting really anxious that he was going to miss it so I thought at least we would know what day it will all start.

41+5 Induction day

I was feeling all sorts of emotions, excited, anxious and nervous to be going alone! I was able to go in as a day patient as my pregnancy was low risk. I went in and had the pessary fitted at 10am. It was a lot less uncomfortable than I thought it was going to be. We left and enjoyed our last day together relaxing, eating food and seeing my family. It came to about 9pm and I started to feel a bit uncomfortable but I knew I wasn’t having contractions as it was just like a constant dull ache in my vagina, a bit burny. One of my biggest regrets was not having a nap or going to bed early that evening. My bf went to bed at about 10:30pm and I tried but had to get up as I couldn’t concentrate and get to sleep. I was feeling too uncomfortable. I watched films and bounced on the ball for as long as I could. My brain started getting away with itself with thinking this was it but it still didn’t feel like contractions as it was too constant. I rang up triage and they asked me to come in as I couldn’t remember the last time I felt the baby move. I was too distracted. I woke my bf and he wanted to have a shower before we left 😂🤦‍♀️

The car journey was very uncomfortable as it felt like the pessary was burning my vagina and I wanted to rip it out! When I got to triage the midwife assessed me and said I was still 1cm and wasn’t in labour 😱 I decided to stay and go to maternity ward as I could have some stronger drugs. I had to come back to the hospital at 10am anyway to assess the pessary and I didn’t want to do that journey again.

At this point I thought I wouldn’t be able to cope with the pain! I said goodbye to my bf and went onto the ward. I was given codine at 5am and at 7am I could have something else. 7am came and I rang the bell to get something stronger as codine didn’t touch it. They offered me oramorph. I thought best to start slower on pain relief as can always go up. The oramorph just made me feel drowsy and tired, it didn’t take the discomfort away just meant I could go in and out of sleep. I put on the Freya app and kept drifting. I looked and I had the contraction count on for about 50 mins 😂 I wasn’t using it to tell me I was in labour just using it to help me with my breathing. It was honestly the best thing using that app and made me so calm and collected.

I was just relaxed lying on the bed drifting in and out. I think because I had the pessary in I wasn’t feeling contraction pain just a constant pain. I had to keep getting up and out of the bed and bouncing on the ball. I had asked someone to come and fit the tens machine for me but no one came. This was one of the problems with being on my own. I went to the toilet and felt like the baby was going to fall out in the bowl 😂 there was so much pressure building up in my vagina. I kept trying to keep calm and not let my thoughts control me and to stay grounded. I suddenly felt so much pressure whilst I was walking back from the toilet and I said to the HCA that I felt like I needed to push. I said I know I sound very dramatic but that’s how it felt. With that the midwife came rushing in. She sounded a bit patronising but still being friendly saying she’ll strap me up and listen to my contractions and baby.

They were taking forever getting it all set up and were more concerned trying to get the bed socks on me 😡 This is how I knew they didn’t think I was in labour! She finally got the tens machine fitted for me 😱😱 THE BEST THING EVER!!! She assessed me and was in shock, I was 6cm!!!!!!! I was absolutely thrilled I cannot tell you!! She suddenly changed her tune and was so wonderful, supportive and lovely! I asked if I could go to labour ward now and she was like, “yes, you can go to labour ward!” She kept telling me how amazing I was doing. As they wheeled me down I rang my bf and told him to come back to the hospital. I started crying and told him how proud I was of myself 😂 I couldn’t believe I had got that far. It was now around 11am.

As soon as I got into my room I asked for the gas and air. It honestly was a game changer. I was still very much relaxed and in my own head, listening to the Freya app, doing my up breathing and using the tens. My bf came in and he was so shocked at how calm I was. I got him to control the tens and every time I had a contraction I squeezed his hand and he turned it up while I sucked on the gas and air. He set the room up for me with candles and as my mum couldn’t be with me, which was one of my biggest issues, we bought a phone stand and FaceTime’d her so she could be there every step of the way and could see everything what was happening.

I eventually got into the pool. I was reluctant because I was scared to take off the tens but it was lovely to get into the water. It didn’t give me the relief that some people experience but it was pleasant. By this point my waters still hadn’t broken so was feeling a lot of pressure so it was nice to ease the pressure. My midwife was very relaxed and just let me get on with it. They kept checking babys heartbeat. I was still feeling anxious waiting for it to get bad and asking about more pain relief and my midwife just kept reassuring me and saying I was doing extremely well and didn’t think I would need anymore.

I was having a nice time sucking on the gas and air and talking gibberish 😂 I was sick a bit but it didn’t effect me. She got me to get out of the pool and assess me about 2:30pm and I was 10cm and I got back in the pool to start pushing. I did try to use my down breathing to push but I just couldn’t catch enough breath and could only get about 3 pushes into each contraction. I stayed in the pool, changing position for about an hour and half and nothing was happening apart from I’m afraid to say I did a lot of poos 😬 I literally didn’t give two hoots though!

I said to the midwife I hadn’t done a wee for a while (I wish I hadn’t said anything) and she got me to get out and try a wee. It was awful getting out of the pool and leaving the gas and air and trying to sit on the toilet. Again I felt like I was going to give birth on the toilet and the pressure was so intense. My midwife then suggested rather than get back in the water to try a different position and get on the bed. I said ok but asked if I could go on my knees and hang over the back of the bed. She said try lying down on my side with my leg in a stirrup. I’m so annoyed with myself that at that moment I didn’t listen to my own instinct and use my BRAIN. I got onto the bed and still nothing was happening. They kept telling me my pushes were great but I was loosing hope and thought the baby wasn’t going to come by himself. I had lost my plug when I got onto the bed and they had to force my waters to break. I had so much fluid around my body that I thought my waters were huge but only a tiny trickle came out. It was so unsatisfying! They told me to stop using the gas and air as it was slowing my contractions down. So for the last hour of pushing I did it without anything! By the time it got to 3 hours of pushing they were concerned as baby’s heart rate started to drop. I was luckily unaware of any of this I just thought I wasn’t pushing well. They wanted to get a doctor in for an episiotomy and at that point I was exhausted and done with pushing I would’ve said do it!! Another 4 midwives and nurses came in to help get him out. It was amazing they were like my cheerleaders and shouting for me to push. In the end they got me to squat, holding onto the bed and the bars to get him out. Eventually he came out at 6:20pm 🎉👼I honestly felt like superwoman and wouldn’t have done it without all their support!

I tore a little bit and had to have stitches. This honestly was one of the worst parts and I had to have the gas and air again and it didn’t really cut it. Some people say they don’t feel them as they are having skin to skin with their new gorgeous baby but I definitely felt it 😂

We had a good few hours together and I was soaking up that euphoric moment eating my tea and toast, I was absolutely starving and even asked for more. They were so lovely and even let my bf have some. Our little boy was perfect and latched on straight away. We decided that I should stay in the hospital to have some rest but I think now, looking back, that was a mistake. Due to Covid the hospital’s are so stretched that we didn’t get the care we could’ve got and I was left on my own without my bf to help me. I then really struggled as my LO wouldn’t latch again and we ended up being in hospital for 3 more days.

The positive birth company helped me tremendously and I cannot recommend it enough. I use my up breathing now when ever I’m anxious and need to relax, I even used it when I had my smear. I now use my down breathing all the time I have a poo 😂 works so much, wish it worked in labour. I wish I had listened to my instinct and used my BRAIN when it came to pushing. I will definitely use it next time! Mummy knows best. I can’t wait to do it all again 💝👼👼👼