Birth story - Lucinda and baby Koen

**Possible trigger** A natural birth affected by Group B Strep and Covid-19 and baby needing to spend some time in neonatal ward.

At 39+2 I attended the hospital for a growth scan, I was advised the best thing for my baby was for me to be induced. 

Previous to this appointment I had had a number of growth scans and midwife appointments that all pointed towards my baby having the limbs and belly of 35 week gestation. Luckily I had read the positive birth book so was able to use my BRAIN and asked as many questions as I could & felt I had all the information I needed to agree to be induced. (I had just read the induction part of the book too.. thank god!) 

On the Thursday 2nd July 39+5 I had a pessary put in at the hospital at 3pm, I was already 2cm, and I was then left for 6 hours. By 5pm contractions had started and they were really mild and more like tightenings although the monitor was picking them up stronger then I was feeling them. This time around, thanks to the hypnobirthing book, I had loads of tips under my belt to help me through labour. I stayed as active as possible walking around the room I was in and bouncing on a ball, whenever I did sit down I had the back of the bed as far up as it would go. My first labour ended in my son having shoulder dystocia and most of my labour and birth was me stuck to a bed, hence me wanting to be more active this time round. 

By 7pm my contractions were coming every 3/4 minutes and were only lasting about 35-45 seconds but were getting stronger every time. At this point I popped on my labour playlist on my phone and got into a zone. 

At 9.00pm I was examined and was nearly 4cm, due to Covid-19 my partner couldn’t join me until 4cm or my waters going whichever was first. At 9.22pm I was given the pethadine injection in my leg as I was starting to hit a brick wall with how often my contractions were coming. They weren’t lasting long enough and I was panicking how I was going to do this and I remember thinking. ‘I’m not even 4cm yet and this is really getting uncomfortable now.’

Soon after, something inside me just changed, I felt the baby move lower and my upbreathing technique was no longer helping me. I now turned on the Freya app I had downloaded and let the voice coach me through the rest of the labour. I was in hospital on my own, so no birthing partner to help me during the strong contractions. At 10.28 I had a gush of blood & my body was starting to push, so I pressed the buzzer & when the midwife came I was in the middle of a contraction and she saw how much my stomach was tightening. She asked if she could examine me again and I was now 9cm and was told to call my partner to tell him to get here asap.

Over the following 10 minutes I was rushed down into delivery, had a cannula put in my hand ready for antibiotics as I had tested positive twice for group b strep in my pregnancy. My waters went and I couldn’t fight the urge to push any longer (I was trying to hold off for my partner) I was given gas & air & with each contraction that followed I just did what my body wanted. 4 pushes later and KOEN was born at 10.46pm. It’s so sad that Dad missed the birth, let alone the whole labour, and due to it all happening so fast I never got to have any antibiotics. 

At 3am on the 3rd July, 4 hours after birth, one of the midwifes on the ward picked up on how Koen was acting. To me he was a sleepy baby but to her she obviously knew the signs. She asked if he could be taken out to another room for one of the checks she needed to carry out. She said she would check him over and bring him back but next time I saw him he was in the nursery with doctors and nurses carrying out a number of tests before then taking him down to neonatal. 

Koen was showing all the signs of having an infection and needing oxygen to help him breath and calm his respiratory levels. He also had low sugar levels so needed fluids and was very cold so needed an incubator. Due to the type of oxygen he needed he also wasn’t aloud to feed. 

The next few days were the hardest of my life. Koen’s infection markers reached 38, and 40 is the cut off point for a lumber puncture to check for meningitis. I tore in labour so was very sore and constantly up and down between my ward and neonatal which were opposite ends of the hospital. My partner couldn’t be there and I had a 2 year old son at home wondering where his mom had gone. 

After 3 days in neonatal Koen was finally able to come off oxygen & breath by himself, come off fluids, be breastfed and come out of a heated incubator and be in a normal cot. This meant he could move to a ward and I was then able to stay with him. (I was just sat in a chair during his days in neonatal next to him as they don’t have facilities for parents to stay) Lucky each day his markers came down. 

I had 6 minutes between my waters breaking to Koen being born and that 6 minutes was enough to affect him as badly as it did. 

It was horrible having to go through that all alone due to Covid-19 but we now have a happy healthy baby and are home together as a family of 4 💙

I feel like a lioness, I dealt with a lot of women’s worst nightmares, their partner missing the birth, and as sad as I am as we can never get that time back, it’s also amazing that I laboured all on my own and only had a midwife for the last 10 minutes. Our bodies are incredible and all we need to do is trust in them as they know what they are doing. It’s funny how we just find the strength to get on with it when we have to. I honestly feel like I was meant to read the positive birth company book during my pregnancy because that, and the Freya app, ended up being birthing partners.

I still had a positive labour and remembered everything the book had said, to keep active, to be in a UFO position, to keep hydrated, to control my breathing and I believe it’s due to this that my active labour was 20 mins . I can’t thank the positive birth company enough. If I hadn’t come across the Instagram page I wouldn’t have found the book & dread to think how my labour might have ended up. I felt In control the whole time and had an amazing experience of it all being totally natural second time around.