Birth story - Lauren and baby Theodore

*Trigger warning* - use of word contractions (not a trigger for me), Haemorrhage.

I had read the positive birth company hypnobirthing book from around week 16, my husband had been watching videos on YouTube and at 30 weeks we decided to buy the course. We would watch these together in the evenings.

Pregnancy:

We were very lucky when it came to our pregnancy, we fell pregnant only after a few months and had a very smooth enjoyable pregnancy. I loved being pregnant, every single moment. We had sickness until 16 weeks, Pelvic girdle pain from weeks 20 but even that didn’t put a dampener on the experience.

I had a massive bump and loved it. I measured 2 weeks ahead from around 30 weeks and was adamant I wasn’t going to reach my EDD.

I was wrong

I have an active job (A&E nurse) and if I wasn’t at work I was often on my ball or hiking with the dog. I was very active throughout pregnancy, climbed a mountain at 33 weeks pregnant. Curb walking as we got closer to due date, eating and drinking every old wives tail. I had been drinking raspberry Leaf tea for weeks. But over that “D-Day date I went”.

The Birth:

Night of the 12th myself and my husband decided to go down to the fair that was visiting. We had a little meander and headed back home and decided we would walk the dog so I could get some more curb walking in. I had been uncomfortable for the last 2 weeks with a lot of pressure in my pelvis and my coccyx. I didn’t feel any different and had no signs of anything occurring. On return from our dog walk my husband grumbled that he had to go to work in the morning and was more then ready to start his paternity leave and we decided to watch and episode of the crown in bed. As I climbed into bed I feel a very small trickle and honestly just thought I’d peed slightly. On walking into the bathroom I very quickly realised that the trickle was my waters and it was still coming. I shouted to my husband to tell him I didn’t think he would be at work tomorrow!

I was now ecstatic things were starting, but I had no contractions, no sense of labour starting at all. We called the Midwife’s and a lovely midwife made her way over to our house to check me over.

In this time I ran the hoover round and made sure the candles were out and everything we needed for our home birth was about.

Midwife arrived still no contractions to be felt/seen and noticed that my waters were slowly turning a pale green.

After a few phone calls and assuring I was ok it was decided it was insignificant meconium and I was safe to stay at home. The only preamble was the proverbial clock was shortened due to the meconium and my body had 12hrs to start naturally before they would want to start thinking induction. The midwife left at 10 to midnight stating to get some sleep. My last question was “will I know when my contractions start” (I did not want an induction)

10 minutes later we’re climbing back into bed when I had my first contraction. At midnight on the dot they started.

They came thick and fast - I didn’t get the build up everyone talks about, the slow increase in intensity and quantity. They were coming so fast they felt like they were rolling into each other, so my husband started to track them using the Freya App and within our first 3 we were told we were in established labour. Deciding it couldn’t be true as the midwife only left 10 minutes ago, we waited for a few more thinking they would settle down but they did not.

I was having a contraction every 1 minute 30 seconds lasting 45 seconds long and they were uncomfortable. I was doing my up breathing from the start and during a contraction I couldn’t talk.

With each contraction I was on my knees holding onto a door frame or the toilet.

We rang the midwife’s back to be told there wasn’t enough on call midwife’s to have our homebirth. This really upset me as with already having a midwife out I had got my hopes up. We had been warned staffing in our area was bad and that on the night there may not be enough on call midwife’s but having already had one we had allowed ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security.

It was at this point I had my little wobble. I felt out of control, my husband was making all these phone calls to midwife’s who kept repeating “it’s her first baby, tell her to keep calm and wait an hour at home” I knew I needed to be seen by a midwife as this was happening quickly.

We rang them back and they agreed they would see us, so off we went. Back up hospital bag packed, bag of tools packed (tea lights, back up affirmation cards, essential oils, etc).

We arrived at the hospital at 3am and were met in the main foyer where we were told they had got us booked into the MLU on the 7th Floor and to go right up. I was relived my water birth might still happen but then I had to go through the hospital up an elevator ride and I was on my knees every minute. The poor cleaner looked horrified.

My only irritation was everyone we spoke to said the same thing - “oooh it’s her first” I felt like I wasn’t being taken seriously. We were shown into an examination room and told they were very busy and had to do some paperwork quickly but we were safe and she would be back. I just wanted to be examined as I had so much pressure and they were coming so quickly I needed the midwife to tell me everything with my baby was ok.

We caved after 15 minutes and called the buzzer asking for an examination. When I managed to get on the bed on my back (the most uncomfortable position whilst chanting “please tell me I’m at least 4cm and I’m not usually such a drama queen” we were told we were “at least a good 6cm” and they had a pool available.

The relief of getting into the pool at around 4am was immense, I asked for gas and air as I just needed something. Time seemed to fly at this point the water grounded me and I zoned out. What I do know is our bag of tools never got opened. My husband was fantastic reassuring me throughout, keeping me centred and grounded. I was humming to the radio and very occasionally it would register that my husband and midwife were still in the room.

At 4:45ish my midwife went for her break and the other midwife came in. Almost immediately my body started to push, I could here myself mooing and notified the midwife I was pushing. Being told to stop something that was happening without my control was difficult but she stated it was too soon as I was only just 6cm. After looking with her mirror that attitude changed and she was preparing for my baby to arrive. I told my husband to start the camera as we were recording segments.

The actual down stage was my favourite, it seemed to hurt less then the contractions in the up phase and my pool was my area. I felt so in control and was given my husband and the midwife a running commentary on what was happening. It was the most empowering experience I have ever had. And at 5:17am my baby was born, lifting him out of the water and onto my chest was surreal, realising I had given birth to a sumo wrestler baby was rather funny.

We had aprox 10 minutes in the water before the midwife was asking to cut his cord as I was bleeding alot and she wanted me out. He also hadn’t done a big cry although he was fine just hadn’t squealed to clear everything. My husband had skin to skin at this point and I was fine to get out.

She asked if I would have the injection for my placenta due to my bleeding and I agreed.

Within a few minutes after a very small pull of the cord my placenta was out along with alot of blood and some massive clots. Overall I lost 1.4L of blood, the midwives were so calm throughout and both me and hubby felt well looked after and calm even when I was moved downstairs quite rapidly.

Even with the blood loss and technical “haemorrhage” it was all still so positive the staff on MLU were amazing and calm throughout.

I’ve always been a firm believer that things happen for a reason and, although MLU wasn’t our plan, it worked out for the best. Because if I’d haemorrhaged at home it would have caused panic, and an ambulance trip to hospital.