Birth story - Emma and baby Thea

*Trigger warning* - Use of the word contractions.

My pregnancy was fairly straight forward and low risk, I ended up going for 2 extra growth scans throughout due to having a low fundal height but each time baby had been growing as expected so it was all just precautionary.

My latent phase of labour was extremely long. My very first contraction actually happened on 09/09 so definitely took a long time to get going.

On the evening of 12/09 I was getting strong contractions about 3 or 4 in every 10 minutes so we went up to the hospital. I was taken to labour ward as the midwife unit was shut due to staff closure however they opened it again because I was one of two ladies due to go there that night. I was examined and told I was at 4 cm! At which point however, they’d been measuring baby’s heart rate and found that it was a little too high. I was taken back to labour and put on the monitor for 20 minutes to make sure nothing was wrong. As nothing was we were transferred back to the MLU. At about midnight I was examined again and told I was now 6 cm! It was slow but I was progressing.

By 3 am I was really starting to feel it and it started to feel like it was it so I got in the pool. After about half an hour everything had basically slowed down so I got out and bounced on the ball for a while. At around 4:30 a different midwife examined me and had felt something completely different to what I had been told previously. At which point the most senior midwife took over care (who happened to be my antenatal midwife) and did a 4th examination and found that my cervix was 1 cm dilated at the interior and 6 at the exterior so I was in labour but not anywhere near established. It was very frustrating and I was very overwhelmed at this point. We went home and waited for it to actually get going.

For the rest of the week I was still getting contractions on and off. Keeping active, lots of walks.

On the Saturday 16/09 by lunchtime the contractions were again 3/4 in 10 minutes so back to the hospital we went. Fortunately I guess for us this time we had my antenatal midwife looking after us and she did the examination. Unfortunately and most frustratingly I had not even moved 1 cm since the early hours on Wednesday morning. At this point she sent us for a heart trace to make sure baby was ok and to check in with the doctor. The doctor was happy with the trace and we could go home. One midwife did do a sweep at this point too.

On Sunday morning I started getting really awful period cramps and whilst I didn’t want to get my hopes up I felt like it could really be happening this time. Contractions were still coming but not regularly.

Come Monday afternoon I had an antenatal appointment and was offered an examination where it was found that I was finally 3-4cm dilated!! I was so relieved! At this point she did another sweep and things really did ramp up!

By 6pm they were strong and a good 4 in 10 minutes so off we went.

I was checked again and still at 3-4 but as they were clearly coming regularly I was kept in.

At 10pm the midwife decided established labour had begun and said she’d check again at 2am if no baby.

2 am - nothing had changed so she broke my waters. They were a little straw coloured suggesting baby had done a poo in them but they weren’t overly concerned.

Another check had to be done at 4 am to ensure that breaking the waters had done what it was supposed to and it had as I was now at 6 cm.

By 5:30 am I was getting very strong very regularly contractions and got into the pool and started not long after on the gas and air.

By about 6:15 I was transitioning and started on the usual “I can’t do this” and apparently said some very strange things like “my nose feels weird”.

Not sure on time but I only had to push about 4 times and baby girl was born at 6:41! That sense of euphoria mixed with relief was incredible.

The reason it took so long for labour to get going was because baby was on her side so wasn’t pushing on my cervix properly. She did turn very near the end as she came out the right way up but it was frustrating to begin with!

My overall experience was frustrating but also so positive when I finally got there. Despite really not wanting to be on the labour ward I was able to have the pool room and still keep everything calm and relaxed as I would have done in the birth centre.

I hope you as positive experience as I have and take on whatever it throws at you! You got this 💪 💕