Birth story - Esther and baby girl

WARNING: Brief negative incident with Covid restrictions

I wanted to share my story as there weren't many planned C section stories, and mine ended up using hypnobirthing techniques anyway, so even if you're looking at an elective section, it's worth practicing breathing...! It's a long one, so grab a cuppa.

I started looking at hypnobirthing around the middle of my pregnancy. The more I read, the more I knew I wanted to give it a try - it made total sense that the more relaxed and focused you are, the better you'll be at managing the surges.

However, as the pregnancy progressed, our baby remained stubbornly breech. This wasn't a problem at 28 weeks, but as I moved to the fortnightly midwife appointments, they suggested I prepare myself for her remaining breech the rest of the pregnancy.

I went for a scan at 36 weeks, at which point the sonographer informed me baby had one foot down in my pelvis, and the other foot up by its head (!?!?!). This made it 'complex breech' and although I didn't have to make a decision there and then, they walked me through the options and said it would be inadvisable to attempt a vaginal breech birth, and an ECV wouldn't be possible due to the position of its legs.

At this point, I made my peace with having a C section. I'd done a bit of the hypnobirthing pack at this point and decided that I might as well watch the rest even though I thought most of it wouldn't now apply! Just in case.

At 38 weeks I had another scan where the baby had moved its foot up so both feet were now by its head. This meant I could now attempt a vaginal delivery if I wanted, and could also have an ECV. The doctor set out all the pros and cons and I used the BRAIN framework to think through it (sadly my partner couldn't attend any appointments or scans due to Covid so I had to do a lot of this alone). I decided, on balance, due to the low probability of success of the ECV not to try and turn the baby, and also not to attempt a vaginal breech birth due to the additional risks to baby.

We were happy that our baby would be arriving in the safest way for both of us, even though it wasn't the birth I'd originally wanted.

The C section was booked in for lunchtime on 25th January when I'd be 39+3. The hospital team were fantastic at talking me through the procedure - they also had some really helpful videos on their website about what to expect which were great at reassuring my husband and I, as well as giving a sneak peek of the theatre. There was a video on the Tommy's website which helped explain the procedure as well. We spent the last few days relaxed and excited to meet our baby on Monday.

Baby had other ideas! Early Sunday morning at 04.50, I was woken by what I thought was gas pain. 3 toilet trips 10 minutes apart later I realised it was not gas pain, and that surges had started. I was slightly surprised they were so regular already as they were coming in 10 minutes apart, but I'd probably slept through the irregular ones! At this point, we phoned the hospital to let them know what was happening. They told us to have some paracetamol and a hot bath, keep an eye on it and keep them updated.

By 9am the surges were 6-9 minutes apart but not very intense - I was managing fine with up breathing (and VERY thankful I'd watched the rest of the course and practiced them...) The hospital asked us to come in for assessment as they wanted to know the likelihood of me 'making it' to the scheduled C the next day.

We made our way in on roads we could barely see due to a snowstorm. Once we were there we went into triage and were monitored for a bit to check the baby was OK and the surges were regular. At lunchtime, there was no change, and so the doctor gave us a choice: we could either stay in and see if surges picked up, or go home and come back later on. This was a difficult choice, and because the roads were so icy/snowy, we decided to stay in the hospital.

At this point, I had to be moved out of triage. But because I wasn't considered in 'established labour' (3 in 10 or 4+cm dilated) I couldn't go onto the labour ward, so instead they found a bed for me in an empty postnatal room. Unfortunately partners weren't allowed on the postnatal ward outside of visiting hours, so my husband had to leave. At this point I really struggled to keep it together as he'd been timing surges and reassuring me with each one. Being alone was the worst part of the whole process and definitely informed our decision making later on.

By 6pm the surges were still 6-8 minutes apart. The doctor said he would rather keep me in overnight as he didn't think I'd make it to 12pm the next day, but it would involve labouring alone for the night on the ward. When my husband was allowed in for visiting hours, we talked it over and made the decision to go home where I could get in the bath again and have his support, even if we were back in later that evening (the roads had cleared a bit by this point).

Back home we were much happier - my husband had a quick nap while I (tried) to relax in the bath. By 11pm the surges had got more intense and I was beginning to struggle to manage them, although up breathing was helping a lot. At midnight, we phoned the hospital again as we were now at 2 in 10.

Back at the hospital (and now early hours of the 25th...baby's scheduled date!) I was still just 3cm dilated, but this was because the breech position meant that there was no pressure from its head helping things along. Monitors showed the contractions were getting really intense and regular, and the midwives guessed my waters were about to break with the pressure. At this point, each surge was becoming a real effort to get through, and my husband had to really help me refocus after each one.

The overnight team had just finished up with a C section, so the doctor said I could go in next as they were concerned it would become an urgent situation if my waters broke. But because there was no immediate 'danger', the whole team came and introduced themselves as they would have done the next day, and went through the preparations as though it was on schedule. They were really calm and took their time to explain things to me, which was really helpful and reassuring, and made it feel less of an 'emergency' (I found keeping the language to 'early' rather than 'emergency' helped).

At 3am they brought me through to the theatre and took my husband off to get scrubbed up. Again at this point I had a little wobble as it looked like something from a film set, but up breathing and the team helped me calm down. Once the anaesthetic was in, the relief from the surges was instant, and I relaxed a lot more.

At 3.38am I heard our baby cry, and my husband announced the gender - a little girl! They took her over to be cleaned up and weighed, and he then cut the cord while they were patching me back up. A short time later we were wheeled into recovery where I got skin to skin time with little Emily Anna.

I later found out there were 5 of us booked in for scheduled C sections that Monday, and all of us had gone into labour earlier...!

My one takeaway is if you've got a scheduled C section for whatever reason, taking some time to learn the hypnobirthing techniques for managing labour and making those BRAIN decisions is time very well spent. Just in case...

Also, the buttered toast everyone talks about really is the best, even post C section.