Birth story - Jenny and baby Raphael

I'm still quite amazed that I am writing this story as a very positive birth story, as there was a point at the start of my labour when I was hooked up to a Syntocinon drip and antibiotic drip that I thought the only positive was going to be if my baby arrived safely. However, I ended up having a birth that was more wonderful than I ever imagined.

Midwife led units or home births are not options that are easily available in Spain so I always knew I would be giving birth on a hospital labour ward and was completely fine with that. My birth plan was mostly based around my communication needs as giving birth in a second language can be adrenaline producing in itself.

At 5am on October 27th I found myself googling 'have my waters broke or have I peed' after losing about 2 tbsp of liquid whilst sleeping. As I was Step B positive I knew that posed an extra risk of infection if waters broke before labour. I allowed my partner his full night of sleep then told him when he woke that we needed to head to the hospital as a precaution.

The hospital confirmed that it was tiny bit of amniotic fluid that I had lost. I thought they then told me that they wanted to induce within 24hrs due to the risk of infection and wanted to start the antibiotic drip straight away. I did remember to used my B.R.A.I.N throughout and always question decisions, asking whether I could wait at home rather than in the hospital, but because I needed to be on the antibiotic drip every 4 hours it did make sense to remain in hospital rather than constantly driving back and forth.

At 5pm I sent my husband home to see our daughter and I told him to spend the night with her as the induction wouldn't be until the morning. However, this is where my lack of complete fluency in Spanish caused an issue. Only 10 minutes after my husband left someone came to get me to take me through the labour suite where my induction was happening. I went through and was told by a midwife that they wanted the baby to be born within 24hours of the water breaking, not labour to start within 24hours as I had thought, and as I wasn't having contractions yet they needed to use the Oxytocin drip to ensure the birth was imminent. Again, I used my BRAIN to ask about using the pessary instead or to delay the induction, but ultimately the most important thing to me was that my baby arrived safely and without infection so I agreed to starting the drip as soon as my husband managed to return.

When my husband arrived I had a small panic and cry. I was in a very medicalised room with an Oxytocin drip, antibiotic drip and fetal monitoring. We had a long hug and chat about keeping focussed on the positive situation that all of this was happening to ensure our baby would arrive in to the world safely and how lucky we were to have that as so many people in the world don't have access to health care like we do.

Luckily we had the most incredible midwives who then went about making all the changes they could to the room to create a positive environment for me. We dimmed the lights, had my music playing and a little snack station set up. They got me a birth ball to sit on and rearranged all my wires to allow me a range of movement still.

The contractions started shortly after the drip began at 5.30. They were very manageable using upbreathing and I found swaying my hips in a figure of 8 movement to be the best pain relief.

After 3 hours of manageable contractions I was told I was 4 cm which I felt pleased with. This is when things changed to a million miles an hour...

I got back on my birthing ball and the rest of my water broke suddenly. The contractions after this were far more powerful than before. I was doing my best to keep to the upbreathing but found myself starting to struggle. After 20minutes of these stronger contractions I jumped onto the bed and started hugging the back of the bed that was raised. During one particularly strong contraction I thought I was losing control so said I wanted an epidural. However, whilst saying these words I found a deep mooing sound escape me and my body bearing down. The midwife obviously recognised the signs and asked me if I wanted to push. I thought she was going to tell me I needed to stop as I was only measuring 4cm 20mins earlier. However, she told me to just listen to what my body was telling me and to push if I felt ready to. She then went and brought me the gas and air to help me control my breathing.

The gas and air helped so much with down breathing as with it in my mouth constantly I had no choice but to breath down rather than hold my breath. I remained in a UFO position, hugging the back of the bed, and husband was telling me affirmations the whole time, that my body knew what it was doing and that I was so close to meeting my son. After only 3 contractions worth of pushing my little boy was out. That made it a total of less than 45 minutes between being told I was 4cm to holding my baby in my arms, and a total of 3hrs 45mins since the very first contraction

I couldn't believe it. I was in complete shock. My body obviously knew exactly what to do, and luckily I had wonderful midwives who trusted my body completely and helped me to do so. To top it off I didn't have any tearing which I was thrilled about.

I never believed a highly medicalised birth with an Oxytocin drip induction could feel so natural and empowering. For anyone else who finds themself in that situation I would tell them to not be scared at all. Manage your surroundings the best you can and you can still have the wonderfully empowering birth you wanted.