Birth story - Lyndsay and baby boy

Triggers: forceps, episiotomy, use of word contraction, emergency rush to labour suite

Pregnancy backstory:
My partner and I found out we were pregnant 2 days before Christmas and were both over the moon (even though this was a planned pregnancy I did have a slight meltdown about it but he reassured me everything would be fine). My pregnancy was positive apart from the usual pregnancy symptoms in the first trimester.

However...my partner works abroad (he should be away for 5 weeks at a time with 5 weeks then spent at home) and he left on 15 March for his usual trip. The world then went into lockdown and my partner has been unable to return home as there are still no flights from his work base. So I have spent the last 6 months of the pregnancy at home on my own. This has been an emotional rollercoaster at times and I have had to deal with the loss of how I thought our baby would be brought into the world and the image I had of how we would spend our first few weeks as a family. I think the PBC has probably been even more important to me because of this. It's educated me and given me something to immerse myself in. It has also reduced my anxiety about birth. So thank you.

Birth:
On 10.09.20 I had woken during the night with awful itching in my ankles and lower legs. I was aware that this could be a sign of a liver problem so around 7am I decided to call triage. As expected they asked me to come in to be checked. I got there around 8:45am and the midwife took some bloods and carried out an CTG on baby. Anyway, before I knew it I was being rushed to the labour ward as the midwife wasn't happy with baby's heart rate as this kept dropping. I was met by about 5 doctors and I genuinely thought they were going ask me to agree to an emergency c section to get baby out asap. I had a bit of a wobble at this point just because I got a scare but managed to get back to green pretty quickly.

I had a cannula inserted (just in case) and the Doc gave me a sweep. At this point he said I was only 1cm dilated and cervix was really far back so it would be difficult to break my waters. Up breathing definitely helped me with this procedure. They discussed induction using the Cooke's balloon however docs were concerned my baby wouldn't tolerate a long labour so it was eventually decided they would do another examination (a couple of hours had passed by this point) and if they could break my waters they would and put me on the hormone drip. The sweep was a success and I was now 2-3cm dilated and waters were burst. I used one of the up breathing downloads through this as the visual aid kept me focused. I asked to use the wireless CTG monitor which was brilliant as it meant I could get out of bed and maintain UFO positions. The hormone drip was started at about 4:30pm and I was getting regular contractions pretty quickly which were manageable with up breathing.

For the first few hours I thought I was coping well but I got to a certain point and asked for an epidural. Turns out I was 8cms dilated and had got to this point super quick. I was confident in my decision as I wanted pain relief that would allow me to remain focused and not space me out. Honestly I am so glad I chose this as it definitely allowed me to regain control. This took a bit of time to kick in (about 2 hours) and so again up breathing was used in the meantime. I must admit I found it really hard to achieve breaths of 4 in and 8 out but I just concentrated on making sure my exhale was longer than my inhale.

We then got to the pushing stage. Despite pushing well, baby just did not want to come out! Again the discussion of an emergency c section was mentioned but docs wanted to check position of baby and if they could then they recommended forceps delivery. I have always been focused on my birth plan being to get my baby out safely and so I was happy with this decision. I was prepared for theatre and within a couple of hours my beautiful little boy was here with the assistance of an episiotomy and forceps.

Unfortunately he passed meconium during his birth and so extra monitoring was needed and we had one night in hospital. Thankfully he is totally fine and is just as sleepy on the outside as he was on the inside!

So my birth story ended up being pretty different to the relaxing water birth I had in mind but I wouldn't change it for the world. This is our story and it has the best ending 😍