Birth story - Helen and baby Ardyn

I had accepted an induction for my daughters birth last year but was curious to know if my body was capable of a spontaneous labour and wanted to get the MLU birth I missed out on.

I had said since 20 weeks I would like to use hypnobirthing for this labour however it took me until 35 weeks to actually purchase the digital pack. On starting the videos I began to really question accepting an induction should I go “overdue” again and decided to mention it to my midwife at my 38 weeks appointment, as I wanted to know more about what was entailed in declining and the related increased monitoring.

At 40 weeks I agreed with the midwife to decline my induction with the plan being to accept one had I reached +18 days without spontaneous labour starting. I had chosen 18 days from reading about and talking to women who had also declined inductions, and nearly all had their babies by +16/17 days. I was told I would be booked into have a growth scan on +14 and then would speak to the doctors in triage afterwards to see if they had any pressing reasons to change the plan, but I would still have the final say. By the time day 14 came around I had already accepted 3 sweeps and knew my cervix was still high, long, thick and at the most 1cm dilated. So I knew that the MLU was now out of the question (they only take women between 37-42 weeks) and I would be giving birth on the hospital delivery suite again.

The growth scan was quick and went well, but we were sent to see the doctor to assess a possible echogenic bowel that had shown up. The sonographer told us that it could be blood in the bowel or that he was bunged up due to being fully cooked, however the doctor would provide better advice. The doctor who saw us suggested that I was induced there and then, but admitted she couldn’t remember the textbook information on the risks associated with echogenic bowel in late pregnancy, so I declined and said I wanted to continue with my original plan. She agreed but asked to put me on the CTG for monitoring and have my obs done just for their peace of mind that baby was ok.

The CTG was fine as expected - I had had no concerns at all with his movements - but my BP was raised for 2 out of 3 readings. Prior to the third reading being back at normal this meant the doctor made a further recommendation to induce me and provided me with medication to control my BP (which they didn’t end up actually giving me). However during the time I was being monitored I began to have surges, which prompted me to ask for an examination before being discharged, as my husband and I were starting to disagree on if delaying until +18 was still the right thing given the uncertainty about what the scan had picked up. When the midwife agreed to check me she told me that I was now 2cm dilated, yet still high and thick. My husband agreed with me that we would go home with the possibility of bringing the induction forward if nothing progressed by Friday (if the surges continuing).

I was booked in to see the community midwife on the Friday and had been having on off tightenings ever since the hospital appointment. The midwife offered my another sweep which I accepted. However my body had not progressed any further in the 2 days so I discussed moving my induction up to the next day. This was a conscious decision we had been discussing all day due to a mix of exhaustion I felt from the anticipation and how difficult I was finding chasing my 15 month around while having unpredictable surges. However within 10 minutes of that sweep surges started to come every 6 minutes and continued like this until 6pm when they reached 5 minutes apart. At this point, because we live 30 minutes away from the hospital and I needed to arrange for my aunt to come over to watch our daughter, I called the delivery suite and they agreed for me to come in to be assessed. The surges continued at the same rate and intensity during the drive to triage, however as soon as I arrived and was taken in they tapered off! I was put on the CTG, had my obs and an internal. Still 2cm and surges coming in an irregular pattern, but my BP was high again and I was advised to be seen by the doctor on duty.

By the time the doctor came by the surges were back to being regular and the midwife (Leah) had gone to get me a birthing ball at my request. The doctor (Chris) advised that they didn’t want to send me home, instead would like to take me to delivery to break my waters and see if that could help my surges ramp up. I was told they would assess me a couple of hours after having ruptured the membranes to see if any further help was needed, ie the drip. I accepted as I was agreeing to an induction the next day anyway and I was ready to meet little man as soon as I could. Unfortunately a room was not free on labour and delivery until 1am so we had a long wait in triage (having arrived at just after 8pm). By the time we were moved to delivery the surges were coming every 3/4 minutes so it felt like things were beginning to progress anyway!

Once on the delivery suite I was put back on monitoring for a bit and my husband was sent out to get our bags from the car. While he was gone Leah ran through my birth preferences with me before going to see when there would be a dr free to allow me to have my waters broken. However due to a large number of priority theatre cases there was no doctor free and the coordinator asked her to delay the plan. She agreed to leave us to it for an hour and would come back around 2.30am hopefully with approval to go ahead. There was still no doctor free at 2.30am so Leah agreed to leave us to it a bit longer.

By 3am I was having surges consistently every 3 minutes with a lot of pressure downwards. I used up breathing to breath through these for the best part of an hour before I pushed the call button to get Leah back into the room. By the time I chose to do this they were coming every 2 minutes and I was fighting the urge to push. Leah put me back on the monitor and checked if I was happy to have a VE to assess my dilation (I had specifically requested minimal VEs in my notes). I agreed, as I was considering if I hadn’t progressed much that I may need a little help with pain relief. During her examination she was very silent and my heart dropped a little that I was right and may need some help, however once she was done she sat down next to me and said - we’ll you’re 9cm, we don’t need to break your waters and will meet him today. She disappeared for a couple of minutes to inform the coordinator that a doctor was no longer needed to be available just incase, however one was needed to provide some BP medication as mine had taken another jump up during monitoring.

Once she was back I could no longer fight the urge to push, moved myself onto all fours and requested gas and air to help me. At this point the monitor stopped wanting to pick up baby’s heart rate (the same thing had happened during my daughters birth) so we rejigged my position a few times, ultimately ending up back on my back. I had a little panic at this point because I really didn’t want to be in that position and told Leah my concerns, however she assured me it would be ok and agreed to help me get the same level of resistance that I felt I had on all fours. This meant bringing up the foot rests on the bed for me to be in a similar position as I was before, just flipped over.

Not long after this Leah pushed the button above me, I had breathed Ardyn down and was very close to birthing his head, however in the process had burst a vessel in my perineum. Leah stayed very calm, didn’t say a thing to me about what had happened and therefore I was completely unaware other than a fairly warm and damp feeling appearing around me. With a second midwife in the room Leah started to coach me through my surges to help me and to ensure he was born quickly so they could check the bleeding. 2 surges later Ardyns head was out and Leah asked if I would like to reach down to feel - I believe my exact response was a short sharp and very loud “NOPE”. I was so focused on my surges, breathing and pushing Ardyn down that I really wasn’t processing what was going on anymore. 2 more surges and a very big looking Ardyn was placed on my chest with a towel on top of him and I was allowed to rub him down myself.

I had specifically requested a delayed weigh and an extended golden hour provided there was no medical reason not to. So no one jumped in to check on him, as he was clearly ok and breathing well. My husband cut the cord once it was completely white and then Leah requested if I was happy to have a managed 3rd stage. She then explained the level of bleed I was experiencing, I was starting to be aware as Chris had been called in, and despite my previous plans to leave it to be natural, I agreed it would be best to speed this process up. Two injections later my placenta was delivered, all while I continued to get an extended amount of skin to skin with Ardyn. I had sustained a 2nd degree tear, confirmed by Chris as there was a concern it was bigger, which was stitched up while I continued to enjoy my cuddles. Once the stitches had been completed I was given some help to BF and left for another 30 or so minutes. When he was finally weighed (at a chunky 9lb 7oz) I had had the privilege of holding my little boy and enjoying uninterrupted skin to skin for just over 2 hours.

It might not have been the MLU delivery I had my hopes set on originally, but I am so glad I trusted my body and baby to do what they needed in their own time. I am also incredibly thankful to have Leah as my midwife who genuinely took her time to go through my preferences and ensured i was getting what worked for me as this is what was missing from my daughters birth. Using the digital pack allowed me to heal some of the emotional wounds I had from my first birth and gave me the tools to ensure I got exactly what I wanted from labour this time around.