Birth story - Jenna and baby Margot

*Trigger warning* - Pre-Eclampsia, COVID 19 positive, GBS positive, previous loss of pregnancy, PCOS

My husband and I decided to try for another baby when our son was around 2 years old and were excited at the idea of him being a big brother. Fast forward 18 months and with a total of 7 miscarriages on our backs we had come to terms and peace with the fact that 2 children wasn't in our future and put the idea to rest.

As I suffer with polycystic ovarian syndrome, my cycles were all over the place and regularly had to take a medication called provera to induce a cycle to keep things regular - after taking my normal 2 week dose my period still hadn't started which is unusual so something took over me and made me do a pregnancy test and it was positive!!

My pregnancy was rocky from the get go - bleeding, pain, hyperemesis, multiple growth scans , excess fluid, diagnosis of GBS, tonnes of episodes of reduced movements and the big one - pre eclampsia! My blood pressure was hugely unstable and I was on varying doses of drugs to try and lower this and get me to at least 38 weeks where I would need to deliver if my blood pressure stayed at this level, my care plan included daily home checks and daily inpatient care to keep it under control. I had a consultant appointment on the Monday where I was admitted to hospital due to my blood pressure and given an induction date of 24th April 2022 but the consultant was certain I would deliver before then whether it be naturally or moving my induction date forward.

I was originally hesitant of induction due to its unsuccessfulness in my sons birth in 2018. For his birth I had an emergency section due to rocketing blood pressure (deja vu!) and fetal heart distress. I used my BRAIN and tailored my induction to be as close to how I wanted things as possible which made me feel more at ease with this decision. As I was GBS positive also I could not labour at home and would need to come into the hospital when my waters broke or contractions started to receive IV antibiotics to help protect my little girl as she was born.

On top of all the hospital trips and appointments, on day 1 of my maternity leave my 3 year old tested positive for COVID, and by the Wednesday and Thursday me and my husband had both tested positive too! We joked that baby girl would definitely need to stay cosy in there for a while but if she was stubborn she would still come out just to add to the madness!

I went to bed on the Saturday night feeling more tired than normal and with a bit of a groggy tummy after what I thought was a bit of an IBS flare up and decided an early night would help. I originally fell asleep in record time but woke up around midnight just not feeling right, I had a really heavy period pain type ache which wasn't shifting so I fetched some paracetamol and a heat bag and tried to settle down again. I woke up again around 1.30am and the pain had become more intense and I suddenly felt as if I couldn't lay down anymore and just needed to get up and move. I walked to the bathroom to go for what felt like the 50th wee that day and felt a sudden gush of liquid. I didn't think much of it until I stood up and heard an audible pop and knew my waters had then gone. I went back into my bedroom and told my husband it was time to go and by 2.30am I was at the hospital ready to be seen.

As I was Covid positive I was given my own room adjacent to the ward and a midwife and midwife support worker who would be allocated to me so as to not cross contaminate and risk infection. When I arrived I was given my IV drip of blood pressure medication and antibiotics and examined and I wasn’t dilated at all so was told they would give me some time as my body had started to labour but would give me a drip if it hadn’t progressed by the next check. My contractions started to build in intensity and I used breathing techniques from PBC to get me through these. I wasn't allowed to leave my room to walk the hallways so I paced in the room and asked for a ball to bounce on in between contractions. After around 7 hours my contractions were coming thick and fast and I felt I needed more than just breathing now at this stage so was moved to labour ward to have some gas and air. Once I arrived at labour ward it all started to go a bit haywire and I could feel myself panicking so I remembered my breathing and tried to keep myself as calm as possible.

I was placed on a monitor as my blood pressure was continuing to rise so they needed to monitor baby girls heart rate to see how it was affecting her. I was in and out of the room at this point and my memory is a little fuzzy but my daughters heart rate was not coping with my contractions or with the peaks of my blood pressure. I used my BRAIN and asked to me examined again to check my progression and whether or not I was close to being dilated enough to push as I had the urge and it had been a looooooong time since I was checked last. The consultant agreed but said if I hadn't progressed past a certain point I would need a category 2 emergency section as baby would be in danger ( the exact same situation happened in my first birth!) I was examined and to my disappointment I wasn't even 1cm dilated and cervix was not ready at all.

I agreed to the section and was taken down to theatre to be given my spinal block ahead of surgery. I used my breathing techniques as I started to panic and cry and my amazing midwife support worker who was familiar with the PBC programme did the breathing with me and repeated loads of positive affirmations to be during this as my husband had been taken to get into his scrubs the operation itself went relatively smoothly, just took a little longer due to tackling scar tissue from a previous section and a baby who had then decided she didn't want to come out!

Margot Joanne was born at 11.48am weighing a tiny 5lb 12oz and on the 2nd percentile and is absolutely perfect

Then followed a 3 day hospital stay for myself and Margot - she needed monitoring due to low birth weight and struggles to maintain a good temperature but we got there in the end!

I may not have got the birth I wanted but I managed to implement tools and parts of my PBC programme into the birth to make it an experience I could control and I am proud I did it, although no more babies for me!