Birth story - Lu and baby Loy

I cannot believe I am finally writing my own birth story.
My husband and I were living in Manchester up until 22 weeks of pregnancy. I had just finished my research degree. I was initially planning to stay for longer, but decided to go back home, to Japan, as my visa was expiring around my due date and airline companies wouldn’t allow me to fly too close to my due date.

I was under NHS care until I left the UK, and then my local hospital in Japan took care of the rest. I purchased the digital pack around 28 weeks into my pregnancy. It was on Christmas sale and was the best 25 pounds I ever spent. I found all of the videos very useful and informative. My partner watched most of them with me too.

I had a pretty straightforward pregnancy without any complications, but was asked by a number of people if I was going to have a c-section because of my small body frame. I am 4ft 10 and my pre pregnancy weight was 90.4lbs. Even my doctor was concerned about me going past my due date because the baby was measuring 3100-3200g according to the estimates from the ultrasound. He suggested I had a sweep on my due date (15 March).

My husband had started his new job in Shanghai and came to stay with me on my due date. He only had 10 days leave from work, so I was anxious whether baby would make it in time. I decided to accept the sweep. For the next two days, we took long walks together around my neighbourhood.

I started having contractions in the early morning of 18 March, but for the whole day, they were lasting 45 seconds and 8 minutes apart and didn’t intensify past that point. The next morning I went to the doctors to be examined, but I was only 1cm dilated. The doctor then suggested I have a hormonal drip because I wasn’t able to get much sleep the night before and would be exhausted by the time baby arrived. I used BRAIN and accepted this offer.

I was on the hormonal drip for a little less than 8 hours and I progressed steadily. I was on birthing ball and managed most of the surges using up-breathing. Things intensified once I was about 8cm dilated. I was being quite vocal at this point while holding onto my husband. This worked well for me and my husband turned out to be an amazing birth partner.

My midwives were lovely and helped get the baby into the right position while I was on all fours. I walked to the birthing table when I was 9.5cm dilated and started to push soon after. I was on my back during the second stage of labour as hospital staffs in Japan aren’t usually used to other birthing positions, but this wasn’t a big issue for me. I asked to be coached to push while still keeping my own pace breathing. I found the pushing stage was much easier. Unfortunately, my baby’s head got stuck on the way out. With a little help of the vacuum device, my baby boy was born at around 7pm on 19 March. We had a delayed cord clamping and immediate skin-to-skin. It felt amazing. He was beautiful and so warm. We had a little bit of a birthday miracle as my birthday happens to be 19 March too!

I hope other petite women will find this birth story reassuring that they too can deliver a normal sized baby vaginally. I am TINY and I did it. I did have a little bit of tearing but it healed very quickly that by the time I left the hospital I felt completely fine.

I’d like to thank Siobhan for creating the digital pack and will be recommending it to anyone who is having a baby!