Birth story - Julieta and baby K

*Trigger warning* - Long labour, 2nd degree tear, vomiting

Wednesday evening, 13th May, I went to bed with some cramping, mild period pains. I hadn't felt any Braxton Hicks so I felt like these aches were the start of something. I woke up at 2am as the cramping became a little stronger. I was so so excited. I felt butterflies in my stomach like Christmas morning as a kid. I tried my best to go back to sleep.

At 5am, I woke up again, the surges had become pretty consistent, so I started to time them using the Freya app to see if things were progressing. They were lasting about a minute each and coming every 3-4 minutes. I tried to go back to sleep again but couldn't so drifted in and out of wakefulness.

At 7am, I got up and tried to eat something. I felt pretty nauseous, so I couldn't eat more than a piece of toast. By 11am the Freya app told me I was in established labour, and I spent the rest of the day trying to distract myself.

I went for a long walk with my mum at about 3pm and at that point the surges were getting intense. When each one came, I would get into a deep squat position and breathe through. We decided to go to the hospital at around 4:30pm. To my dismay I was only 2cm (I had to be 4cm to go to the birth centre due to COVID restrictions). They advised us to wait about 4 hours until we came again. We went home, and I tried my best to distract myself, still breathing through the surges and sniffing lavender oil.

At around 10:30pm, the surges were still coming regularly but were manageable with my breathing. As per their advice, we decided to go in again. I was only 3cm! I was frustrated and annoyed about having to go back and forth. During my check at triage, the midwife gave me a sweep as she checked me. I only realised this as I started to bleed a little and had to ask what had happened. I wasn't happy at all as she didn't ask for my consent for a sweep.

I went home and put on the tens machine to distract me enough to get some sleep. It helped a little, and I managed to drift in and out of sleep between surges. By early morning they had intensified. I wasn't planning to go to the hospital any time soon, so I watched Dr Strange with W and ate dried mango. I also took a long bath in the afternoon to ease the tension in my body. I felt really calm as I knew next time we went in, I would be meeting my baby. Finally, at 11:30pm, we decided to go to the hospital again, now my surges were intense, and the car journey was pretty tough to maintain concentration. I went in to get checked and finally was 4cm dilated and allowed to go into the birth centre with W.

The room was beautiful, with mood lighting and music. There was a birth pool which they had already filled up for me. The midwife introduced herself and read my birth plan. I was really excited about using the birth pool, so I decided to get straight in. It felt amazing, and I got into a great flow, leaning over the side of the pool in a squat for each surge and standing/stretching out my legs in between to ease cramp in my thighs. I felt pretty nauseous but crunched on ice throughout to hydrate and cool down. I tried to wee regularly too as I had read that this is important to make space for baby. I continued like this in the pool for about 4 hours before things really intensified. My body was dilating really slowly, so the midwife suggested I got out of the pool to speed things up.

I continued labouring in the same positions but knelt on a beanbag. I felt a change as soon as I got out and the contractions got very intense. I started feeling the desire to push with each contraction and told the midwife. She checked me, and I was still only 7cm. This was so disheartening, but I didn't have much time to dwell on it has the surges were coming so quickly. She advised to try and hold off on pushing, and this was really tough as the feeling was so strong. I decided to try some gas and air to take the edge off, and this made my waters break as I vomited. I was really excited they had broken as I knew It was go time from here. I got back in the pool with the gas and air and tried to hold back on pushing as much as I could to let my body dilate more.

Eventually, the urge to push was too much. I remember screaming at the midwife "I'm so sorry I just don't care, I'm pushing, I'm pushing". After a couple of pushes, I started to feel light-headed, and in-between the surges I said "I need to get out this pool right now before I faint when the baby comes out - its too hot" they helped me out and onto the beanbag. I knelt forward in a squat shape and pushed. I could hear a voice telling me to push downward instead of out my mouth and not to use the gas and air because I needed to focus. I left the gas and air, and with one push, I directed the energy down and inside me. I think I must have blacked out for a second as a few random thoughts came in my head and I felt really numb and peaceful. When I came to, I heard some voices telling me to breathe, I took a huge breath and didn't even seem to feel the next contraction because baby K was put onto my chest. It was so surreal I couldn't believe that was it and he was here. I was unbelievably happy.

After some skin to skin, we cut the cord and had his skin to skin while I was stitched up. I had some small internal tears that the midwife easily stitched. I used gas and air for them, and I remember apologising to the midwives about how loud and crazy I had been. They just laughed with me, haha.

So that was it, It was a dream. I was elated and so proud of myself. Special shout out to the midwife who left me to my own devices didn’t do coached pushing, as per my requests in the birth plan. And of course special thanks to W for not losing the plot and being there with me throughout. I loved my birth so much, It was the most incredible moment of my life.