Birth story - Emma and baby Henry

*Trigger warning* - Infertility, previous baby loss, pregnancy after loss, second degree tear.

Our story and this pregnancy:

My husband and I did not have a straightforward journey to becoming pregnant. Our journey started with naively thinking at 29 years old we would fall pregnant straight away but a year into trying, it wasn't meant to be. The routine tests followed and many tears. We were diagnosed with Unexplained Infertility and I was found to incidentally have 2 wombs, a condition called Uterus Didelphys.

We went through 3 rounds of a milder fertility treatment which failed and then we went through our first round of IVF. We fell pregnant in July 2021 with our son, Oliver who devastatingly didn't survive pregnancy and I was induced and gave birth to him on 21/11/21 which resulted in heartbreak, funerals, post mortems and everything a parent should never have to experience.

After taking a break from treatment we underwent a frozen embryo transfer in May 2022, which failed. There was a national medication shortage at the time which meant our next transfer was postponed until September/October 2022. So... you can only imagine my surprise when I had an overwhelming urge to do a pregnancy test in August and it was positive!!! Our rainbow baby conceived the same week as our son, Oliver 12 months later! 🌈

Pregnancy after loss is a difficult one to imagine if you haven't experienced it, the amount of anxiety knowing exactly what can go wrong and having being on the wrong side of statistics before...knowing full well there were no guarantees was overwhelming at times. I had a rocky first trimester with a lot of bleeding/spotting which was horrendous at the time and I had regular scans at EPAU, I was diagnosed with a haematoma. I was so lucky to be supported by our local Rainbow clinic (a consultant led clinic offering regular scans for parents pregnant again after loss) and I had an allocated midwife, who had looked after me when we lost Oliver. They held my hand so tightly through this pregnancy and for that I will be forever grateful.

Throughout my pregnancy, after the first trimester things seemed to go well, baby was growing well and physically I was coping well. I had regular Braxton Hicks (BH) from the middle of the second trimester, which kept me on my toes!

I always knew I was at risk of having a premature baby with my uterus so I made sure we completed the PBC material in good time!

Labour and Birth:

On the Sunday, at 33+6 weeks I had some slight spotting after intercourse and felt some lower abdominal cramping when having BH that evening which settled in bed. The day after I lost a little of my mucus plug and over the next 2 days I had some very mild cramping intermittently, but it never lasted when I rested.

At 34+4 weeks, the Friday we went out for a delicious pub dinner with my husband's family. We got back nice and early, settled into the lounge for Gogglebox. I sat on my birth ball and did some gentle swaying, as I had been doing for my hips and then 10 minutes later..."click!", I felt a downward pressure and a warm liquid as my waters broke!

I rang MAU and they told me to go in due to my gestation. In the 20 minutes spent running around putting last minute additions to my hospital bag and sorting food out for the dog 🐕 we were on the road, via my parents to drop the dog off. By this time my surges had started and were becoming gradually more intense. The journey is 30 minutes to our hospital and all the way I focussed on my up breathing through every surge. By the time we arrived my surges were every 3-5 minutes. I was sat in the MAU waiting room leaking everywhere and having regular surges when my husband insisted I was seen urgently. I was desperate to hear our babies heartbeat at this point, as the movement seemed to have changed during labour and thank God, all was ok. I was examined and was already 5cm dilated. I remember having the urge to empty my bowels so badly on the unit which makes sense and after this there was sense of relief as I was so scared to have an accident whilst not on the labour ward!

I was walked up to the Labour ward (I declined a wheelchair) and we checked into a spacious labour suite as my husband quickly sorted the car, as it had been dumped outside maternity in our rush as my waters kept gushing! I needed antibiotics via a canula due to the gestation and also continuous CTG monitoring of the babies heartbeat throughout labour. The portable CTG machine had no batteries so I was sadly restricted to the bed for monitoring. I insisted on moving around on the bed and adopted the all fours position, which for me worked very well. I was very sure I wanted gravity to help me and refused to lie on my back, accepting examinations on my side.

Not long after arriving on the labour ward I felt a very strong urge to push down as my down breathing came into play and suddenly my breathing became noisier, which I remember from the teaching. The pressure of the baby descending is intense but incredible in many ways. On my records my 2nd stage is recorded as 12 minutes! My husband was told to put some gloves on as baby was visible but all he got was a back splash of blood as our beautiful Rainbow baby was born 🌈.

I chose to have an oxytocin injection to help deliver the placenta as I wanted to stay on the ward and not have to go to theatre if it didn't come, it was delivered in 26 minutes.

I did have a shallow second degree tear, which I didn't feel if I'm honest! The midwife sewed me up on the bed and I didn't feel a thing, which is a credit to her ❤️ A doctor in the room examined our son immediately due to his gestation and we were so blessed to have him handed straight back to us for skin to skin, as he looked perfect.

My labour was 4 hours from my waters breaking to Henry being delivered and for that I will always be thankful. Of course, with loosing Oliver this was my second labour so that is a consideration and likely impacted on the speed of delivery 🌈.

Aftercare:

I was told I would have to stay in hospital with our baby for 5 days due to his early arrival so later that day I was transferred to the ward. Henry was diagnosed as being Jaundice on Day 2 and needed some light therapy, so an incubator was brought into our room and his treatment started. These next few days were tough emotionally as he came out and went back into his incubator only for feeding and changing. Saying that, he seemed to love it in there as it was nice and toasty!

Feeding also posed a challenge as at 34 weeks the suck/swallow reflex has only just developed. A combination of breast and bottle was introduced to monitor his intake as he started to loose weight, which is partly normal as a newborn and partly due to slower feeding. The day his Jaundice levels came down and he starter to put on weight we were discharged home! This was 8 days after he was born.

We have now happily been at home for 5 weeks and I can't tell you how happy being a Mum makes me ❤️

Sending positive vibes and praying for more Positive Birth experiences for all of you ladies 😘