Birth story - Fiona and baby girl

*Trigger warning* - Use of word contraction.

When my due date arrived with no sign of baby making an appearance I felt ok about this. You often hear first time babies are often late.

I declined a sweep at 40+5 as instinctively I didn’t feel like my baby and body were ready yet. I made my decision using evidence based information and my own intuition. My midwife agreed with me after I declined that she believed it was a good decision. However I was then booked in for an induction at 41+5 this then caused me stress in week leading up to the given date (10.08.23), as an induction was not the route I wanted to take, and I wanted our little girl to arrive on her own time.

I was trying everything to get this baby moving along.. raspberry leaf teas, sex, long walks, bouncing, gym routines to encourage labour ect.

I found myself scouring through this FB group to find a story about someone else declining an induction. So I hope my story helps someone else who is currently in same position.

On the morning of 10.08.23 I noticed I had lost some of my mucus plug, finally the first sign something may be starting!

I attended a routine midwife appointment where she reassured me to go along to my induction appointment at the hospital and stand my ground in declining the induction.

My husband and I attended the appointment and kept our hospital bags in the car just in case. I was a little naïve thinking we would just speak to a consultant. When we arrived we had been booked onto the maternity ward to start an induction. I explained to the midwife that I didn’t want an induction if there was no medical reason to have one. We spent the next 4 hours having both mother and baby monitoring and scans to ensure everything was still looking good. And it was!!

The midwife then did an internal examination in which she told me that I was already 2cm dilated, and I agreed to then have a sweep carried out.

The consultant agreed based on our test that they would allow me to go home and continue on. I would have to return in a couple of days if nothing had progressed.

When we returned home I started to have very very mild cramping. We went to bed that night and I woke up at 3.30am with frequent contractions. I rang the hospital and they told me to come in when I was unable to cope with the pain.

I turned on the Freya App and started monitoring my contractions and used the Up breathing technique through the contractions. At this point I gently informed my sleeping husband Labour has started, but told him not to wake whilst I had a bath/shower. At 4.30am I woke him up as the contractions had become more frequent and intensified and asked for help putting on the TENs machine. He made me breakfast and we even took the dog for a short walk. At this point I was contracting every 4 minutes, and had to kept stopping and using my husband as a leaning post.

By around 7.20am the contractions felt very intense so I called the hospital to let them know we were on our way in. When we arrived we were sent into triage, I proceeded to vomit at this point which is completely normal. I was told at this stage I was 4cm dilated and could be stretched to 8cm.

I waited for a midwife to come and collect me and take me to the Labour ward.

Our midwife Charlie was great, she asked me what my birth plan was and I handed her my birth preference sheet and said I really wanted a water birth. She said the pool was available so we headed to birthing suite. At this point I had to take some anti sickness medication to prevent dehydration from continued vomiting and I asked for some paracetamol.

Around 8.30am we took the TENs machine off and I climbed into the pool. My gosh was the feeling of getting in there a giant relief! Anyone who has had a water birth will tell you how amazing that feeling is. It took the edge off the contractions.

My Labour was very quick, and my waters broke in the pool 34 mins before my baby arrived. I used the down breathing technique and trusted my body to take full control on every contraction. I tell my family and friends I moo’d like a cow because the sound that was coming out, however it’s what my body was wanting to do and I went with it! I gave birth in the pool and whilst holding my little girl in my arms we had our delayed cord clamping.

I delivered the placenta naturally (physiologically) too. Although I did however have to have to have 2 injections in the end due to heavier than normal bleeding and clotting, but it was managed quickly. My husband was having skin to skin at this point. And we got our ‘golden hour’.

I didn’t tear and only had 3 minor grazes so no stitches were required. I had been doing the perineal massage in the lead up to my due date and I believe that, the water birth and letting my body do its thing all contributed to helping prevent tearing.

I can truly say my birth was extremely positive! I would recommend a TENs machine (we hired one), PBC Hypnobirthing and a water birth to anyone.

Downloaded the Freya App, it was a godsend for keeping my breathing in check, recording the contractions, and letting me know when I was in established Labour.

We even have a nice keepsake of the logged contractions on a download. It is worth the small amount of money the app costs.

We are hoping, and have been encouraged to have a home birth next time around.

I hope my birth story gives someone else the courage to decline an induction and trust that your baby will come when your baby is ready and your body knows what to do!

I wish everyone good luck with their birth journey, it’s a rollercoaster of an experience!And remember you can do anything for 60 seconds!!