Birth story - Georgina and baby girl

❗️Trigger : Use of word contractions (don’t see as a negative thing), tearing, induction and blood loss. ❗️

I had always planned to have a water or home birth and as our due date was approaching we were getting ourselves more prepared.

Freya was due on the 27th October and we had our 40 week appoitment booked on the 28th October. 

On the 26th October I was at home waiting for her arrival when I took my dogs outside, while stood outside I started to (what felt like) wee myself, I ran to the toilet and finished what I could in there. Throughout my whole pregnancy I had been quite good with bladder control and thought it was very strange so took a photo of the puddle on the floor and sent it to my midwife, she immediately called me and said she believed my waters had gone and for me to call triage. 

I called triage and made our way in, we went straight into bracken ward for them to check me over. After what felt like hours in there they couldn’t tell me 100% if my waters he gone and sent me home to see if labour progressed. 24 hours passed and I started to doubt myself and thought I had just wet myself 😳 and carried on as normal waiting for baby girl to make her appearance. 

My 40 week appointment came and at this point I was fed up of being pregnant after the false hope labour was starting and wanted my midwife to do a stretch and sweep (something which wasn’t originally in my birth plan). She started to examine me and I could tell by her face something wasn’t quite right, she then told me there was no water in front of the babies head and confirmed my waters had broke the other day (36 hours since then going) and that she had found some protein in my urine (sign of infection) she decided for babies and my health we should make our way to labour ward to be induced (again far from my birth plan)! 

Myself and my partner made our way in, I think we got to labour ward around 12ish (just in time for lunch 😂). I got settled, checked in and met the doctors and midwifes that were going to look after me. I had a very low risk pregnancy so all this ‘medical talk’ was very strange. They explained when woman are induced it can come with more risk, so they needed to run through different scenarios should they arise, however it isn’t common for things to go wrong so ladies don’t panic! 

While I was being checked my partner set the room up to how I wanted, we had candles, oil diffuser and soft music playing with dark lighting to relax, he got my flannel which was soaked in lavender oil ready for me to use during the contractions. 

At around 1pm once I had eaten and settled in to the room the midwife said they were ready to put the drip into me and start labour, I noticed on the monitor I was already contracting but not noticing which was really great to see however they weren’t as strong as they would have liked them to be so needed to still put me on the drip. 

I didn’t want to be examined and wanted to hold off on pain relief as long as possible so when I did come around to use it, it was more effective. 

Contractions started to come in fast and intense but I remembered my breathing and used my flannel every time a wave of contractions came. At around 7pm I asked to be checked as the pressure was getting a lot stronger and I wanted to use it as a point to see if I needed to use the gas and air. 

The midwife checked and said there was water back in front of babies head and that she will need to break my waters as they had induced labour. I was 3cm when she checked and when the waters were broken I went straight to 7cm! (Talk about no break). 

At this point I decided to use the gas and air for contractions. 

From this stage on everything happened very fast and my body just took over (pretty incredible). 

My midwife was super supportive and told me to follow my body with what it needs to do. 

At 8pm I had the urge to push and told the midwives, they encouraged me to follow my body and I started to push. Freya’s head was born at 8:04 and she fully came out at 8:05. Only 7 hours since being put on the drip.

I was standing up when I birthed her so I pulled her from my legs and put her on my chest. 

My partner cut the cord and the midwives sorted me out. 

I started to loose a bit of blood and they wanted the placenta delivered quickly so asked my permission for the injection to deliver the placenta to which I agreed to. The placenta then delivered and I was checked over for tears. 

Unfortunately I tore and it was apparently quite a ‘complicated’ tear so I got taken to surgery for it to be repaired. They put a spinal block into me to make the procedure more comfortable. I couldn’t believe I was given this after hardly any pain relief during child birth!

I was in surgery for around an hour and then came back to my baby for some well needed booby milk and cuddles. 

I stayed in hospital for 24 hours and I can honestly say it was great, I received lots of support and help with breastfeeding and felt it was a much needed rest following birth. 

(P.S the tea and toast is the best thing after birth!!)

Mummas to be, please don’t worry if your birth doesn’t go to plan, your birth will still be your story and it will still be truly amazing.

I had such a positive experience and would do it in a heartbeat, I am not scared of birthing and get so excited for other mums who are about to go through it. You all helped me to do it and I have a new found respect for my body now it has gone through it. 

Trust yourselves, you are the one in control. 

I honestly can’t wait to do it again and wouldn’t want to do it any different. 

However we may try for a home birth next time! 🤞🏼