Birth story - Lizzie and baby Oliver

This is our positive planned caesarean story for the birth of our beautiful baby Oliver.

We’ve had quite a turbulent time in pregnancy as we discovered I have a bicornuate uterus so it’s heart shaped which increased the chances of a breech baby amongst other things. We’ve been consultant lead from the start and had monthly growth scans which for me were a great reassurance that our precious baby was doing well. He turned to being breech at 31 weeks as I felt him turn and stubbornly stayed that way around. With my uterus an ECV was not an option for us.

We discussed the options with the fantastic registrar and decided using BRAIN that a natural breech birth carried too high a risk for our liking and so we elected to have a planned caesarean. I had really hoped to have a natural birth but for us it just wasn’t to be.

Oliver decided he was definitely ready to enter the world as I had signs of early labour for 3 days before the section but as it wasn’t progressing they advised to wait until the planned date at 39 weeks. To me this was positive as I knew he was ready to be born.

On the day of the section, we went to hospital and I was a mixture of excited and nervous. We met the team and had such wonderful care from the obstetricians, anaesthetists and midwives. They were all incredibly supportive and lovely. I was getting anxious about the surgery whilst we were waiting to go down so I listened to the positive affirmations and the relaxation tracks to help. I also used up breathing to help stay calm whilst waiting and again during the spinal anaesthetic being administered.

I really wanted to see my baby being born and they were absolutely fantastic as they fetched a mirror and we didn’t have a screen so that I could see Oliver coming into the world feet first! Baby had moved into an oblique and breech position so he took some getting out as his head was a bit stuck but we had the doctor we’d been seeing in the clinic for ante natal care doing the surgery so we knew we could trust her totally and that made me feel at ease. When she delivered him she asked if we had a name so we said Oliver and she was really excited as her son is also called Oliver. Nobody could believe that he was 8lb 14oz as I’m really quite small and petite!

We had skin to skin in theatre, delayed cord clamping and my husband cut the cord. Oliver even fed in theatre recovery and has been doing really well since.

I wanted to share this story as I had dearly wanted a lovely natural birth but even though I couldn’t have that, the experience was still the best and most special day ever and I’ll never forget it. The key is to talk to the team and explain what you want and why, we’ve found if they can accommodate it and it’s safe for you and the baby then they will. It just shows a section can be a positive experience too and once you hold your baby you don’t care how they have arrived!