Birth story - Kayleigh and babies Daisy and Rose

Previous birth- long latent phase of 54 hours. Active labour of 4 hours, 3rd degree tear so ending up in theatre and 900ml blood loss! My anxiety around birth again was high, the anxiety lasted a while after my first birth!

This story - This time a pregnancy with identical twins, sharing a placenta. So ideally delivery should be at 36 weeks and not after 36 plus 6 due to risk of failure to the placenta.

I reached 36 weeks with my twin girls on Monday the 18th of Jan, previous to this I had already decided I wanted to try a membrane sweep before a planned induction.

18th of Jan- sweep went ahead as planned, cervix around 2cms dilated. A few period type pains post but nothing else.

20th Jan - induction day! I had been previously very anxious at the thought of a planned induction. Arrived at the hospital and monitoring of babies completed. As my cervix was at 2cms it was decided to go for an artificial breaking of my waters on twin 1, waters broken with no problems, allowed to mobilise for 4 hours but in my room on delivery suite (not allowed off the ward due to prematurity)! In this time I watched TV programmes, danced and felt happy. Could feel surges slightly more but nothing that I had to use any sort of up breathing for.

At 17.00 agreed to have a VE to assess the cervix and plan from there. I had stayed at 2-3 cms. The next step being the induction drip.

I had already decided pre induction that I would have an epidural. Using BRAIN to help me decide this before the induction process! The birth of the second twin can be challenging and often needs intervention. The epidural was placed around 17.30 and test doses given but not started. I still wanted to be able to feel the contractions but not pose any risks to the babies if interventions were needed and really wanted to avoid an emergency section which there was a chance of. Having it placed meant more likely to need an unplanned as opposed to emergency!

The syntocin drip was started at 7pm and increased every 1/2 and hour. Going up and down depending on how my body was responding. I used ‘up breathing’ for when they felt more intense. Around 10pm my surges were pretty strong and up breathing wasn’t quite keeping me 100% calm so I decided I wanted the epidural to be started!

My surges continued, I could still fell them but the intensity had reduced, I think if I could have moved around it would have been better but due to the monitoring that was needed it was essential to stay on the bed!

At 1am I was examined to check my progress and I was now 7cms! I was so pleased to hear this news. We carried on listening to our music and having a laugh! My hubby decided he would go and get us a drink and crisp around 1.40 whilst he left the room twin 1 began to start dropping her heart rate so I changed onto my side to see if that could help!

Being on my side I could start to feel the first baby moving down, and come 2am I shouted ‘this baby is coming now’. I agreed to another VE as we needed the correct team. As soon as she put her hand in, she could feel the head!

The team entered the room I remained calm and focused only on my hubby and the midwife, I began to push with the surges and 5 pushes later twin 1 had been born at 02.12, I had asked to have an episiotomy if needed rather than a more serious tear like last time. But the muscle was very tight. So the midwife helped to protect my perinuem! Twin 1 was placed on my chest for skin to skin. My hubby cut the cord. Delayed cord clamping not possible due to the sharing of the placenta!

After the birth of twin 1, another midwife held my belly to keep twin 2 from moving or spinning! Ideally twins should be born within 30 minutes of the first. So after 10 minutes it was decided that it would be best to break twin 2’s waters at 2.24am. I decided that my husband needed to hold twin 1 at this point as I needed to focus again on my breathing and push this second baby out! Within seconds of this happening the surges started stronger again and again I needed to push and at 02.26 our twin 2 was born! Again straight onto my chest where she was joined by her twin sister!

For the 3rd stage I had active treatment, so the injection in my leg, which is advised in twins due to the placenta being so large and increased chance of high blood loss. I did have a 2nd degree tear which was stitched in the room whilst I had the girls on my chest!

I truly believe I had the perfect twin birth and am so pleased I felt confident enough in my body to birth twins!! I have PBC to thank for that! Giving birth with a team of 8 people watching and a whole other team waiting outside the door, I managed to keep calm and focused! A day I will never forget and really enjoyed!