Birth story - Hannah and baby Niamh

First of all I want to say a massive Thank you to each and every person who has written their birth stories and shared them over the past few months, as well as to the PBC for helping me have the confidence to have the birth I wanted.

I found the Positive Birth Company at around 20 weeks of my pregnancy. I had been looking at hypno-birthing, and knew that my work wasn’t going to let me attend a regular ante-natal class (I have been travelling a LOT and being able to give an evening a week for several weeks just wasn’t possible), and so opted to do the online course as an alternative. I bought the course during a sale, because at £25, what have I got to loose! and spent a couple of weeks getting my husband, James, on board with the idea. I had always talked about how pregnancy/birth isn’t an illness and so I didn’t feel hospital treatment was necessary. We slowly worked through the videos, I bought the book on pre-order and downloaded Freya nice and early too.

I should say at this point, I am a worrier. I have a history of panic and anxiety, and I basically run on adrenaline 90% of the time. Doing the hypnobirthing course has given me more than just tools to birth, but also a set of tools I can use in my daily life. Doing hypnobirthing for me was less about having a pain-free, drug-free birth, but more about me staying calm and being able to remain in control.

My pregnancy was pretty straight forward generally. I suffered from “morning sickness” throughout and was sick on a daily basis from about 10 weeks right through delivery. However, I really enjoyed being pregnant, the rest of the experience was just lovely. I had very few other symptoms, I had no oedema and very little back ache etc.

We did attend the hospital a couple of times for growth scans and once because I had reduced movements. However, throughout all of this I was able to stay calm, and feel confident that my baby was ok.

My local area have a policy of induction at 40+7 and this was something I really, really wanted to avoid. So, after finishing work at 36+5, I started walking daily and re-doing some of the PBC videos. I have to say at this point I didn’t actually finish the course! I picked out the bits I felt I needed, but I did Siobhan’s book from cover to cover (on a sun lounger, next to a pool, during a relaxing Spa hotel weekend at 37 weeks... I’d highly recommend doing that too!). I accepted a membrane sweep at 39 weeks, because for me knowledge helps me to remain calm and not to panic, and I was happy to find that my cervix had started to make its journey. I then set about cleaning, finishing work jobs, and generally keeping busy to take my mind off the fact that my midwife was super keen to get my induction booked for 40+7. At 40+1 (thanks to a bank holiday), I had a second sweep and was a 1cm but my cervix was still a bit long. At this point, I also declined a 40+7 induction, and was booked in for a scan and monitoring instead.

I woke up at on the Thursday (40+3) feeling different. I got up at about 5AM, and had a series of painless contractions, 5 minutes apart that actually carried on throughout the day. I had another midwife visit to check my blood pressure as it had been raised during her previous visit, it was fine, and she suggested that we go for a walk to see if we could move things along. James and I walked about 7 miles that day. The contractions kept coming, but weren’t painful and didn’t stop me walking. By the evening they had almost stopped, except a couple I had in the bath, and so we went to bed.

I woke on the Friday at about 4:30 and felt another contraction. This time though it was uncomfortable. I got up, left James asleep, and went downstairs. I did a bit of timing and found that they were every 3-5 minutes, and so I used Freya to do some relaxation and a bit of timing. By 5:30 I felt that this was it, and woke James. We spent the next few hours getting ready for the day, I had some toast (which I didn’t manage to hold down) and a shower. By 0800 contractions were still 3-5 minutes and I asked James to ring Delivery suite. They said to come in if I felt it necessary, but were more than happy for me to stay at home, take a couple of paracetamol and have a bath.

I was happily using my Up Breathing, on my hands and knees on my living room floor. I did take the Paracetamol at about 10AM when I decided that I wanted to go in. My contractions were getting stronger and Freya had long turned green!

The car journey was 25 minutes, not the most comfortable experience, but I managed to carry on with Up breathing and stayed calm. We arrived at the hospital and James parked just about as far from the main entrance as you can get, leading to me having to make a very slow walk, stopping every 3 minutes to Up breath, sway and cuddle with James. We stopped just outside A+E and were offered a wheelchair by a Paramedic, I declined as I was happier on my feet that sat down!

On arriving on Delivery suite, we were shown into one of the birthing rooms, to find a lovely Birthing pool. I have always wanted a waterbirth, however my BMI was over the hospital guidelines and so I knew that this wasn’t going to be possible. The midwife checked us in, and went through our birth preferences. At this point, I would like to say I would seriously recommend ensuring that your birth preference are written out and are in the front of your maternity notes, every single one of my midwifes both during labour and during the rest of my hospital stay read them and made every effort to follow my preferences. The first midwife on Delivery suite read that we were doing hypnobirthing and checked every single detail with me and/or James. She offered me an internal examination, saying she totally understood if I didn’t want one. I accepted again, and was found to still be at 1cm. Now, usually I’d have been off home at this point, however I had also been asked for a urine sample, which I have to admit looked horrific, and they believed I likely had a UTI. Because of this they asked if I would accept some fixed monitoring of baby, which I agreed, and I spend 25 uncomfortable minutes lying on my back. At the point I was sick (not unusual for me at this time of day), and this combined with the very cloudy urine, the midwife requested a medical review. They suggested that we move onto the Ante-natal ward for some IV fluids because I was dehydrated, and for a urine sample to be sent off. They were happy for me not to have immediate anti-biotics because I had no other symptoms, but advised to take some codeine as the contractions could be linked to the UTI and if so the codeine would likely make them stop. I agreed to all this, because I wasn’t overly happy to have to get back in the car more than anything I think. So, we moved wards, and my contractions continued. I think this was about 2-ish in the afternoon (although me and James have since realised that I have no concept of time throughout the entire experience!), and we were settled onto the ward, my obs taken, and basically left to it. At about 6PM my contractions were still there and so the codeine had done nothing. At this point the contractions started to get the better of me, although I think that part of this was because I felt that I’d been forgotten about. I’d been told that I’d be getting IV fluids once we got onto the ward, but they still hadn’t appeared. My obs were taken again, by a lovely Healthcare assistant, who, after taking my obs (which were fine) walked away down the ward declaring “have you seen the midwife, this woman is in labour!”. My contractions were still every 3 minutes like they had been all day, and I started to panic. I swear it took hours for the midwife to re-appear, although it was apparently only about 30 minutes. I accepted another internal (like I said before, the knowledge of how things were progressing was of more benefit to me than the risks), and was found to be 4cm. She had also brought my IV fluids, but didn’t put them up as I chose to get into the bath (best thing ever!). I was in the bath for over an hour, which felt like 10 minutes, and in the end James forced me out because the water was starting to go cold.

At 8PM the midwife from Delivery suite came and collected us and took us back down, into a different room this time (no pool), and James set about setting the room up. My local hospital has previously offered Hypno-birthing course and the ward is totally set up with dim lighting, music systems etc. So, James shut the blinds, covered every surface in battery powered tealights and put my playlist on.

I finally got my IV fluids and some anti-sickness, after being sick a further 3 times (including once in that bath!) and I basically chose not to eat again. I was still managing at this point with just Up Breathing. I wouldn’t say that my contractions were particularly painful either, uncomfortable yes, but totally manageable. I was checked again at 22:40 according to my notes, and was 8cm. During this examination the midwife accidently broke my waters and we found that there was meconium present and I needed to be monitored. I was fine with this as I was basically on the bed anyway.

By now I was starting to get really tired and the contractions did get a bit much, and so around midnight I asked for some gas and air. James has said since that he thinks that this was really only needed because I was so tired, and if we had stayed at home longer I wouldn’t have needed it at all. The gas and air was wonderful, although I am told that we had some very strange conversations while I was taking it, and I did hallucinate Harry Styles in the corner of the room (he was sat on a fence, taking off his pants apparently!). However, it allowed me to stay relaxed and at about 2AM I was pushing. I don’t remember very much about pushing, other than the fact that it wasn’t painful at all, in fact I’d ditched the gas and air by this point, more just a very intense feeling. I did end up on my back, but this was my choice because I was completely exhausted. James informs me that I was so tired by this point that I was sleeping through contractions as well as in between!

My birth preferences stated that I didn’t want coaching to push, but I did need some encouragement in the end. However, I did avoid needing any assistance with delivery which I think was probably on the cards if I’d have gone on much longer. I did also need an in and out catheter as I couldn’t pass urine and they did put a clip on babies head because the monitoring kept dropping out.

Baby Niamh arrived at 0349 and was immediately put on my chest, and James told me that she was a girl (we hadn’t found out the gender during pregnancy). We had delayed cord clamping and James cut the cord. We were able to enjoy some skin to skin time while we waited for the placenta, which I had had the injection for. However, this is where things take a bit of a turn.

The placenta took a little while to be delivered (I have no idea how long), although that wasn’t particularly painful, they did catheterise me again to help speed this along. Then they started to examine me as they already knew I would need some stitches. I should also mention at this point I had surgery about 10 years ago to remove a Vaginal Septum, and had been nervous throughout my pregnancy that this was going to cause problems, I was right! The midwife asked for a surgical review because they couldn’t decide on what grade the tear was and they thought I might need to go to theatre for a repair. It turns out I had a grade 2 tear next to my scar from my previous surgery which was stitched on Delivery Suite my the surgical team, and with the help of a LOT of gas and air! This was my choice as I preferred not to have a spinal anaesthetic, something I wouldn’t have challenged if it hadn’t been for the online course. It wasn’t the most comfortable experience, however it did allow me to get back on with recovery quicker.

I did have a further complication of a Postpartum Haemorrhage during the stitching, and according to my notes lost approximately 500ML. I am grateful that I was so high on the gas and air at this point that I was only really aware that there was a problem with a different midwife attempted to give me some medication through my cannula. I probably should also mention that I am a nurse, and there was no way she was giving me anything without telling me exactly what it was! I did then come round a little to find I had 2 surgeons and 5 midwives in the room, I asked the surgeons to stop, and asked if everything was ok, was given reassurance from both the midwives and James that things were fine, and I got back on the gas and air! I am planning on asking for my notes relating to this, as it wasn’t then explained to me what had happened, and I know that knowing the full details will help my recovered and reduce my (already increased risk) of post-natal depression.

However, although the after part of my birth didn’t go quite as I had planned, I had the most amazing experience... My daughter is now a week old, and I already want to do it all over again! I have recommended the course to just about anyone who will listen to me, and I know that without it I wouldn’t have been able to get so far without medication, and I certainly wouldn’t be so positive about the rest of my birth experience.