Birth story - India and baby Jago

*Possible triggers* - Maternal distress, Urgent C-Section, failure to progress, use of word contraction, induction.

Pregnancy:

Pregnancy was incredible and I loved every second! I was one of the lucky ones not to have any sickness, I was only sick once throughout the pregnancy at 37 weeks. I started the course very early on in pregnancy!

Towards the end of my pregnancy I was “measuring big” via fundal height which triggered the pathway of having growth scans every 2 weeks from about 34 weeks and on our last one at 38weeks we were told I had oligohydramnios which is low fluid. They recommended I be induced as there was no real way to tell how the baby was managing and they suspected it may be due to an issue with the placenta and that it could get significantly worse if I waited for potentially another 4 weeks to 42 weeks.

Induction:

We did our BRAIN and decided to book the induction for the following week and in the mean time have 2 sweeps and see if we could get labour to happen naturally before then. On my first sweep my cervix was favourable & 2cm so they thought I had a good chance, we did lots of walking and bouncing on my ball. But by the time I got to the induction date I’d not progressed much after the 2 sweeps.

I had the 24 hour pessary at 10am on Monday, I had my own room and my husband could stay with me over night. We did everything to get the oxytocin going in those 24 hours and it was really fun and we had a great time. After the 24 hours I hadn’t gone into active labour, but I was having regular mild contractions and was 3cm. I had my waters broken at 1pm on Tuesday & went into active labour immediately.

Active Labour:

I was so happy that I was still able to use the pool, we took our room spray, lighting & music and there wasn’t too much difference between the MLU room and the Labour Suite room we had. I spent the first part of labour on the ball and walking about, while we watched the office and our wedding video. I got into the pool at 3pm which I loved and asked for the gas and air at this point. I found it frustrating cause I couldn’t time the high very well as my contractions were long and close so I didn’t have a lot of time to regroup in between. At 4.30 I asked for an epidural which I didn’t really want I just wanted to hear someone tell me I didn’t need it. My husband was amazing throughout and he read me my affirmations and knew exactly what I needed to hear in the moment and we worked as a team throughout. I had Diamorphine instead and loved it! It lasted about 2 hours and gave me such a good rest - the contractions were still coming quickly and were intense but so manageable.

I had a VE at 8pm and was 5cm, which I felt was a little disappointing as contractions has been very intense for 7 hours at this point. I had more Diamorphine at 8.30pm and loved it just as much! We kept going in the pool and at 11.30 I was 9cm which I was thrilled by as I was beginning to struggle and I had been feeling like I wanted to push. I was pushing pretty soon after that and after a while the midwives were starting to worry as my blood pressure and heart rate were very high and my contractions had slowed so doctors started to come in regularly and monitor me more closely.

I had a VE at 3am by a doctor as I’d been pushing for 4+ hours, I was still 9cm and marked as failure to progress. They advised me to have the drip to get me over that last 1cm and get baby out. By this point I was really tired and they needed my blood pressure down so they wanted me to have an epidural so I could rest while the contractions ramped up. We did BRAIN and decided to go for it!

C section:

After 2.5 hours of regular contractions on the drip I was examined and still at 9cm. Off we went to theatre. I now know that my blood pressure and heart rate had risen while on the epidural which is quite unusual and concerning for the doctors but baby had been fine the whole time. I was completely at peace with the c section as I was just focussed on seeing baby. We were able to take our own music and it was a really lovely experience and not at all scary. Jago Otis was born at 6.12am on Wednesday, I got delayed cord clamping and immediate skin on skin, my husband still cut the cord and it was magical we all cried.

He weighed a good 8lb 14oz and was completely lodged in my pelvis with his face turned which is why I was unable to dilate that final bit as his head was stuck. He had a funny cone shaped head and lots of swelling from being stuck there but it went down really quickly.

Due to hypnobirthing I felt so calm from the moment I knew I was pregnant and that continued throughout labour and beyond.

I still view my whole birth process as really positive and I enjoyed every second! I’m so proud of how well I adapted to the changes in the plan as that’s something I thought I would struggle with. I’ve recovered really well from the c-section and having Jago in my arms for the last 3 weeks has been a dream.