Birth story - Kayleigh and baby Leo

*Trigger warning* - use of word contractions (not negative to me), theatre, major haemorrhage, reduced fetal movement, anxiety , Covid positive, retained placenta.

Even before trying for a baby with my husband I knew I wanted to try PBC because I had my first son very young and felt completely out of control throughout the labour and delivery with him. The recovery time was also lengthy so I decided I wanted things to be different this time!

Roll on 10 years later I fell pregnant with my second son and we were all so excited to welcome him to our family

At 16 weeks I got a call from the midwife to say I had low PAPP-A and would need extra scans to keep an eye on babies growth, which was steady throughout. Pregnancy was enjoyable and as easy as could be thankfully. My due date came and went and I was offered induction which I declined. At my 40 week scan (which I had a little later than 40wks) I was again offered an induction and a sweep I took the sweep and declined the induction . The Dr told me that if I hadn't went by 40 + 9 they would have to induce me due to reduce fetal movements I had had in the weeks previously.

I spent all day everyday after my DD drinking my raspberry leaf tea, bouncing of my ball, walking and meditating. On day 5 overdue my anxiety had started eating away at me because I had covid at 39 weeks and was still really tired from it I had started to doubt my ability to be able to labour (ridiculous I know ) so my MW brought me in to talk things through to help reduce my anxiety she also gave me a fluid drip to help bring my hydration levels back up after being unwell and gave me a really good sweep!

The next day I felt baby sooo low I couldn't sit down unless it was on my ball and was having back ache all day on and off but never came to anything. I decided to do some gentle exercises aimed at getting things moving. I went to bed super early on Feb 17th as my son was away to his grandparents for the night and I woke up at 220am unsure what woke me I went back to sleep but woke again at 2.28am with what I knew was a contraction. I got up and left hubby sleeping and went to run a bath. I smelled my essential oils did some deep breathing and put on my relaxing music. Another contraction came during this time and then another once I got in the bath. I soon realised they were coming close together considering they just started, so I timed the time from previous contraction and they were coming roughly around every 4 mins. So I got out, went downstairs and set the mood in my living room with dimmed lights my favourite tv show and my ball.

I made a call to the MW department and during the 5 min call I got TWO contractions and was told to not wait any longer, just to come straight in. I went and woke up hubby and said we have to go now.

Feb 18th we has the worst wind and rain we had for a while so had to drive super careful the 20 minute drive to the hospital. During the journey I wasn't able to sit at all and during one contraction I felt baby head twist and come further down, by far the most surreal and amazing feeling I've felt! That's when I knew we needing to be quick We arrived at the hospital and I was on a mission to get to my room! A lovely MW saw us come in and knew it was go time so she escorted us to our room and as soon as I got in I removed everything but my top and had a little gas and air. Funnily enough I recognised my MW as the very one who delivered my first son 11 years prior! Leo was born super quickly in just a couple pushes and after only being in hospital for around 30 minutes our beautiful baby was born!

Even though we asked for delayed cord clamping my MW said she wasn't happy with how long my placenta was taking so she was going to have to cut the cord which we agreed was OK. After exhausting all efforts to remove my placenta and the cord snapping leaving the placenta still inside the MW pulled the emergency buzzer. Still in my bubble of pure happiness and feeling super proud of myself for having the labour I had always dreamt of I still felt OK leaving the room but along the way I stated to haemorrhage which then progressed super quickly resulting in me being in theatre for 3 hours and waking up in critical care.

Having said all that, I woke up still in such a good state of mind that I had achieved the best labour I could have, and even though things did not go to plan after, it did not take away from such an amazing experience for both me and my husband. I really wondered if I could change my mind that contractions felt 'painful' to 'powerful' and can honestly say I 100% did!!

I debated whether to share my story, or not, since its not the most positive but I think having such a positive mind going into labour helped me to accept what happened after and to let it go and focus on how amazing labour was, I was even laughing and joking in between contractions right up at the end! So I decided to share and show even though things might not go as planned, as long as you stay focused on your positive thoughts and use your comforts you can get through anything!

The female body is truly amazing!