Birth story - Maddy and baby Margot

I was offered a sweep at my 40 week midwife appointment but declined as I was really in the mindset of “my baby will come when my baby is ready”. I booked one for when I was 41 weeks, but when the time came I cancelled again. I really felt that my baby wasn’t ready to be born and didn’t want to cause myself unnecessary stress! However, being over a week overdue, I was feeling really fed up and second guessing every single twinge I felt. I’d been having Braxton hicks on and off for about 3 weeks, and each time they came on I thought we may be leading into early labour, but was always disappointed that they disappeared.

We decided to have a few glasses of Prosecco to try to really relax on the Monday evening, in hope that it might bring on labour (I’d tried everything else I’d found online!) On the Monday night/Tuesday morning, I woke up at 2:30am to cramps that felt a little stronger than what I’d been having with Braxton hicks, and noticed they were coming on every 15 minutes. My partner was asleep in the other room (i’d been snoring lots in late pregnancy!) and I decided not to wake him as it could be another false alarm. However, by 7:30am, they’d been coming every 15 minutes for 5 hours so I decided to wake him to let him know I thought this was the real deal. I’d been practising my up breathing the whole time, and it was really great to deal with the mild discomfort I was experiencing on my own for 5 hours!

We got up and I bounced on my ball for an hour whilst watching Madagascar (wanted something lighthearted!), but the cramps seemed to disappear at around 9am and I was really disheartened. I decided to have a bath, and lay down around lunchtime to try and get some sleep as I hadn’t slept much! Whilst I was lying down, the cramps returned! They were coming every 10-15 minutes now and felt like they were getting stronger. My partner finished work at 5pm and we both sat in our lounge timing them. I had dinner at 6pm and knew these cramps were definitely now surges - I was having to use up breathing to cope with how uncomfortable they were and they were coming more often and lasting exactly a minute each time. My partner could even predict when one was about to come on!

It all ramped up quite quickly after that - by 7pm they were coming every 3 minutes and we set up the TENS machine a friend had lent me just the day before. What a god send! Although it didn’t help with the pain, it certainly helped focus my attention elsewhere during the surges and allowed me to concentrate on my up breathing. My partner decided to ring the hospital. They said we should come in to be checked out as they seemed to be the magic 3 in 10 minutes. When we got to hospital I was examined and felt disheartened that I was only 3cm dilated. They said I could be admitted to the antenatal ward (on my own due to Covid regulations), or we could go home. We chose to go home and the hospital gave me one codeine tablet to try to cope with the discomfort.

We got home at about 9:30pm and the taxi ride had definitely helped to ramp things up! I had a bath to try and calm down, but it wasn’t helping with how strong the surges were getting. I got out of the bath and we lay down on our bed to watch some TV (very unsuccessfully) as I was determined not to be sent home from hospital again! We lasted until about 1am before I really felt the need to go back to hospital. I’d started to notice some blood which later I found out was the beginning of my mucus plug. When we arrived, the surges were coming so often and strongly that they couldn’t examine me. Instead, we were put straight on to the labour ward and the birthing pool was filled.

I got into the pool around 2am and this calmed me down enough to allow the midwife to examine me on a bed - 7cm!! I was elated! A few very strong surges later and my waters broke (very close to my partner’s expensive trainers!) and the whole of my mucus plug also came out. I got back into the pool, but I was finding it hard to cope with the strength and frequency of the surges without my TENS machine. The gas and air didn’t seem to be doing very much, so I gave up on that too. I was solely focussed on my up breathing.

At about 3:15am I had a wobble. I now know this must have been the transition phase as I was screaming that I couldn’t cope anymore and was demanding an epidural. I got out of the pool and moved to another room and the anaesthetist was called. However, almost instantly I felt a huge pressure in my back passage and felt like I was about to poo. The midwife said she thought the baby was on her way and that we probably didn’t have time for an epidural. I knelt on the bed with my arms over the headboard and continued to focus on my breathing - now down breathing! - and ramped up the TENS machine. The midwife checked and said she could see the head! I was so excited to meet my baby that I breathed her out as quickly as I could and she was born at 3:59am.

The midwife checked for tears and I was so sure I didn’t have any - I couldn’t feel a thing! Unfortunately I had third degree tears, and a doctor assessed that I would have to go to theatre. We were still given the golden hour together and delayed cord clamping. In fact, the midwives didn’t even interfere with our skin-on-skin time when I was losing quite a lot of blood. It was magical! I had to go to theatre around 5am and this meant my partner and the baby had an hour on their own too. They watched the sun rise together and he says this was the most magical time too! The staff in theatre were all amazing and kept me updated with how my partner and baby were getting on. I had such a rush of oxytocin that I didn’t care what was happening, I was just so happy my baby was here and healthy.

Although it was a shame I had third degree tears and lost a lot of blood, I’m so proud of myself for getting through the whole labour with just a TENS machine and the breathing techniques I’d learned from Positive Birth Company! 💪🏻