Birth story - Kayleigh and baby Clementine

*Trigger warning*- word contraction will be mentioned & also there is talk of pre-eclampsia

I've wanted to share this for so long but finding the time with a now one month old has been hard, plus I've enjoyed the family time before my partner goes back to work tomorrow.

As far as pregnancy goes I had a pretty simple one. I had extreme morning sickness for the first 4 months or so and spent pretty much all day being sick. But was never hospitalised for it. I always had higher blood pressure but was told it was nothing to worry about as it wasn't dangerously high.

When I found out I was pregnant I knew I wanted to avoid a hospital birth, birth scared me enough and so did being in hospital so I started the conversation of home births with my partner. After 4 months he came around and we started looking into hypnobirthing and birth pools and making our birth as safe and special at home as we could. I spoke to my midwifes and they said we are good to go. However week 30 came and baby girl was breech. I spent SEVEN weeks walking, hanging off my sofa, lying on an ironing board... to get her to flip and on the morning of my presentation scan she turned (yay!!). So the midwife gave us the go ahead to have our home birth. Week 39 came and something in me told my partner to book the day off work to take me to my regular midwife appointment. We got there and she said that my blood pressure was still high, my pulse was high, babies heart rate was high and that there was protein in my urine. She rang Chester hospital and told them that I would be coming in to be monitored. We rushed home and got my hospital bags and off to Chester we went (40 minute drive!).

We got there and went to the labour suite to a cubicle where they monitored me and baby for 3 hours. A doctor came in and explained that I have pre-eclampsia and said that they would like to offer me an induction and, of course, for my babies safety I said yes. She then said the words we absolutely did not expect and said "we can do it now if you want". WELL I TELL YOU, MY HEART FELL OUT OF MY BUM. After months and months of positive affirmations and breathing techniques, I just completely forgot it all and suddenly realised MY BABY IS COMING THIS WEEK. You'd think at 39 weeks it wouldn't be that much of a shock but for a FTM it honestly didn't feel real until I heard those words.

We rushed home 40 minutes because honestly...I wanted to give my puppy a cuddle and get him to my mums and we got straight back to the hospital (after picking up some snacks!). We went into our own little room with a bathroom and got comfortable for the night. It was now around 8pm and a lovely lady came and gave me my 24hr pessary at 9pm. The next day was spent watching movies and eating snacks, bouncing on my ball and having lovely showers. Some midwifes even brought me little battery tea lights and fairy lights to make the room more relaxing. Around 11am that next day I started getting some mild cramps but nothing special. Very very mild. At 9pm they came to remove my pessary and examined me, I was 3cm. They told us there was no room for my waters to be broken at the moment but in the morning there might be. That night my cramps got a lot more sore. The next morning at 7am the midwife came in to tell me they were ready for me. We packed our stuff and went downstairs.

The two midwifes in there...I won't lie, we didn't click. They weren't really jokers and were very serious. One was an older lady and one was a very young student and I felt a little deflated. I’d read so many stories on here of women with amazing midwifes that they had a connection with.

And I didn't have that. My birth is already so different to what I had dreamed and now I was in a consultant led room that was very cold and I had 2 midwifes who I trusted but they just didn't make me feel at home. No fault of their own.

Then by some grace of God, in came two other midwifes for the hand over! Their names were Jenny and Roisin and instantly we hit it off. They even managed to get my nervously silent partner laughing. Roisin was a student but an older lady who had a very stern but nurturing nature. The previous midwife had botched my cannula so there was blood everywhere and she was so apologetic and cleaned it up which the other had failed to do.

At around 10am they broke my waters, it took 2 attempts as I let Roisin have a go first. It was an amazing feeling! The rush of water was insane.

I told them my birth preferences and that I wanted to avoid drugs but would accept gas and air if I needed it.

They asked if they could put me on a drip and I said not yet and asked if they could give me an hour to see how my body goes. They joked that I needed to be out of there by 3pm as they had dinner reservations and we all had a giggle. My partner text our mothers saying our girl would probably be there that evening or early hours the next day and not to obsess over their phones too much.

An hour later I was 4cm and they asked if they could put me on a drip and I said yes. They explained it was a slow burner and nothing would kick off for a while. About 10 minutes later or so I was writhing in pain and doing my up breathing. I apologised several times for being dramatic and tried to carry on our conversations. My partner held my hand and asked them if I should be this sore early on. They giggled and explained that it would get a lot worse and that everyone has different pain thresholds and I just needed his support etc. About 20 minutes or so later I asked for gas and air and they said "you don't want it too early...but we can give it you if you really want but if you want to avoid drugs later on then it might be best not to" but I wanted to try it. So I did. The pain didn't leave but my god I felt drunk! I started making this uncontrollable noise and felt like my stomach was pushing. They were giggling when I was explaining this and told me "you're being far too polite and look far too comfortable for you to be there". Babies heart rate got lost so they put me on my side to hear it. As they did I let out a scream as I FELT HER SHIFT DOWN. I said to everyone "I feel something". So they put me on my back and went to put a monitor on her head. When they did they realised I was 9cm! They apologised and said we are ready to push! My boyfriend dropped his sandwich and leapt to his feet. I start pushing and next minute there were 3 more ladies in there! They were all amazed at how fast I had progressed and were laughing and joking. I started pushing and after 2 goes a lady said they wanted to cut me to help baby out. She explained that my body hadn't caught up with my baby and she wouldn't come out without it.

I said no several times and she kept saying it was the best option. She injected anaesthetic, I let go of my gas and air, held Roisins hand and as they took the bottom half of the bed away to make the cut, she inserted a catheter and I told her to "move!" And I just started pushing. Jenny, my other midwife, quickly shoved the lady trying to make the cut out of the way and caught my little girl! As I pushed, they kept the gas and air out of my hand so I could focus and Roisin and my boyfriend were coaching me through it and she flew out! Poor Jenny was on the floor on her knees because they had taken the bed away!

They handed me my little Clementine and stitched me up and I have never felt pride like it! It wasn't my homebirth and it wasn't my water birth but I honestly wouldn't change it. My partner told me I was silly for pushing when they told me I needed help but I knew my body and knew I could do it.

The hospital has told us to expect a 9lbs baby...but our Clemmie was 6lbs 5oz. Daddy cut the cord and mummy got stitched up and the rest was history.

I cant wait to do it all again. I honestly found the stitches from my 2nd degree tear worse than labour. Is that ridiculous!?