Birth story - Kerry and baby Finn

*Trigger Warning* - use of word contractions (not a trigger to me)

I had a very straightforward pregnancy, and actually enjoyed it. I was never sick, although did have food aversions. We decided not to find out the gender although I had a good feeling he would be a boy. I also always had a feeling he would appear early!

On the evening of 24th June I went out to water my veg in the polytunnel when my waters broke. I’d have thought I’d wet myself but I had just been to the toilet before hand. I went in and told my other half, then called the maternity ward. While on the phone I had more water gush. They recommended coming to the ward to confirm my waters had broken which we did. We were then sent home and given 24hrs to see if baby would make his own appearance, if not I’d be induced the following night. During the next 24hrs I did have a few mild tightenings but nothing regular. We had decided we would rather not tell family until the baby arrived if possible, and we managed to keep to that plan!

The following evening we headed back to the hospital knowing next time we went home it would be with our new baby. On arrival I had a Covid test (one of the worst parts of my experience ) and was examined to see if I’d dilated any. This part I also found uncomfortable, as they broke the rest of my waters but I was actually 4cm dilated, so we were taken straight to the labour ward afterwards.

It was just after 9pm on the 25th June the induction drip was started. I wasn’t too set on what pain relief to use, and just wanted to go with the flow. Once the contractions started it was 0 to 100 very quickly. I started with gas and air but I didn’t like it, didn’t like the feeling and it wasn’t helping. I then opted to go for an epidural, around midnight the anaesthetist came and it quickly took effect. I felt the baby was definitely moving down.

Around 2am I was examined to see if there was much progress as the baby’s heart rate was starting to drop and the head was right there! It was recommend to rest for an hour so baby was in a good position, then I started pushing at about 0315. He was born after 45mins of pushing at 0400 with no interventions required. The midwives put pressure on my perineum while pushing, which I think resulted in not needing stitches.

We had a very relaxed experience despite the induction. One of the midwives brought in a Bluetooth speaker so we could play some music. It was very intimate for my other half and I being the only ones who knew the baby was on the way and that definitely took the stress out of it for me.