Birth story - Holly and baby Erin

**Possible triggers** 2nd degree tear, talks of episiotomy, pre term baby, SCBU stay and previous positive for Group B Strep.

It’s taken me a while to share my birth story, but felt like it was time to…

I look back on Erin’s birth as extremely positive. It was empowering and I felt euphoric. I loved every minute, despite it not being the birth I had hoped for (home or hospital water birth) due to COVID restrictions and the fact that Erin decided to come early.

Erin was born 4 weeks early, so to say I didn’t think I was in labour was an understatement.

The Friday before Erin’s birth I noticed what I thought was blood in my urine, I rang triage and they invited me in to check me over and see if I had a UTI. The midwife measured my bump while I was there and checked baby’s position, I asked if she was engaged as I’d felt a lot of pressure the last few days and she just said “she’s getting there”. She sent a doctor to see me and she requested that I was monitored on the CTG to make sure everything was okay, she also offered to check my cervix etc but for some reason I declined this (if I hadn’t I may have known sooner about how close labour was!). CTG was fine, but I could feel tightenings which were also being recorded however the midwife said it was baby moving and if they were surges I’d know about it, so I thought nothing of it. I was sent home and advised to call if I needed to.

The next day I noticed a “bloody show” and I was starting to get pain/pressure in my pelvis. I continued to experience these tightenings in my tummy, which were painless, this continued over the rest of the weekend.

I woke quite early on the Monday morning, I felt very uncomfortable and restless, and the tightenings continued and because they remained painless I put them down to Braxton Hicks and went about my day as normal. Midday we went on a socially distanced walk with my sister-in-law, nephew and niece, at which point the tightenings were becoming a little uncomfortable though tolerable, almost like mild period pain. My sister-in-law was convinced Erin wouldn’t wait until the end of the week but I didn’t believe it!

Once home I rang triage and explained what had happened over the weekend and what I was experiencing. The midwife was lovely but said she thought that baby was just “getting ready” and advised me to take some paracetamol and try a bath and see if anything changed. I had read somewhere that if you experience Braxton Hicks that if you do these things they’re likely to stop, however they didn’t and they continued to be very irregular.

At this point my husband and I decided to watch some PBC videos, we watched the whole of the “be informed” section and I began timing contractions while sprawled across the sofa bed!

The evening came and I noticed the tightenings were definitely more uncomfortable, I got in the bath and began timing them again - still very irregular! At this point I began up breathing during tightenings, however I still didn’t think this was labour so my husband was having an evening gaming online with his friends and I was completely calm, though I felt that I should maybe pack my hospital bag just in case as that was the one thing I hadn’t yet done! So I pottered around trying to sort that out.

My brother stopped to drop some shopping off at around 9pm and stayed to chat for a bit, at this point I was unable to talk during tightenings and focused on my up breathing. I felt a bit uncomfortable and went to get changed and noticed I’d had a bleed, I shouted to my brother to tell my husband and then called my mum (she lives 5 doors down). We rang triage, quickly shoved the last few things in my bag and headed off to the hospital, leaning over the back seat of my mums car while my husband timed contractions on the Freya App!

Once at the hospital, Josh had to leave me while I went onto the ward to be monitored due to COVID restrictions, I always thought I’d be very upset about this, however I remained surprisingly calm. I was attached to the CTG and baby’s heart rate was monitored and I was having irregular contractions and had what was described as an “irritable uterus”, I was offered pain relief (cocodamol - that I can’t take) which I declined but requested paracetamol as I also had a headache. I was monitored for 1hr, using up breathing through contractions. At around 11pm a doctor then performed a speculum exam and stated that I have bulging membranes - which at the time didn’t register in my head and didn’t think much of it! - then she performed an internal exam and to the surprise to all of us, considering how irregular my contractions were and how calm I was she announced I was 6cm! I had said throughout my entire pregnancy that I wished to stay at home for as long as possible during the first stage of labour, especially as COVID restrictions meant Josh couldn’t be with me until I was in established labour, and I had done that without even realising! I quickly texted Josh to come up and I walked to delivery.

I was given gas and air which I was happy to have just in case, I wasn’t offered any other pain relief as the midwives could see I was coping well using up breathing. Josh came in and I was given IV antibiotics as a precaution as I’d previously tested positive for Group B Strep. Due to this and baby’s gestation I wasn’t allowed to use a birth pool as I had to be continuously monitored, plus they were out of use at the time. I thought that being told this would upset me greatly, but I was just so calm and requested the use of a birth ball so I could sit upright and rock, which they gladly got for me. Contractions began coming closer together, I started using some gas and air but I didn’t like how woozy it made me feel, so didn’t use it a lot! I started standing up during contractions and I wasn’t sure if I was feeling pressure, the midwife and Josh helped me onto the bed and she quickly checked me while on my knees and she advised that she could see the head! I laid down on the bed and just as baby was crowning my waters broke and hit the wall, narrowly missing the poor midwife! Baby then came very quickly! At some point baby’s heart rate had dropped and the emergency button was pressed and I stopped the gas and air and realised that there was a team of doctors etc in the room and they were about to give me an injection to numb me to give me an episiotomy because the gas and air made me woozy. I wasn’t concentrating on down breathing and at that point I knew I needed to push! I said no to the injection and I started pushing and she was out in 2 pushes at 00:34hrs Tuesday 26th May 2020! Not sure if they would have intervened etc if I hadn’t pushed! My baby girl was put on my chest for skin to skin and the Paediatricians were happy enough with her not to intervene at that time so she stayed with me and attempted our first little breastfeed. I had suffered a 2nd degree tear which the midwife sutured while having skin to skin with Erin

I feel extremely lucky as I look back on labour and birth of my little girl really positively. I thought we’d be able to go home that same day or the day after. Unfortunately we had to stay for a week as Erin ended up going to SCBU that night after having difficulties with jaundice, breathing and feeding, and due to COVID we weren’t allowed visitors.

So it was very tough and I struggled with this part the most. But we are so blessed with this beautiful little girl and I hope any future mummy’s reading my birth story can feel excited about their labour and birth. It is honestly incredible, the most amazing thing I have ever done.