Birth story - Melissa and baby Macy

*Trigger warning* - Emergency C-Section, uterine rupture, group strep b, use of the word contractions

I had a pretty relaxed and normal pregnancy. I had both consultant and midwife led care due to a previous c-section (previous section due to ‘failure to progress’). I chose to have a VBAC as I really wanted the chance to birth vaginally, and I felt really supported the whole way through my pregnancy for this. My consultant was really supportive and informative of both the pros and cons and signed off on my choice to birth in the birthing centre, using the birthing pool and intermittent monitoring.

Fast forward to labour.

My first born came at 39+5, with my waters breaking at 39+4, so I was convinced that this baby would be arriving earlier or around a similar time. Especially as I had been feeling really uncomfortable for so long!

From 39+2 I had been feeling really nauseous every time I ate and was having loose bowel movements. I was also having regular braxton hicks and was having lightening crotch pains every time baby moved low down.

However, my due date came and went and I was feeling really deflated. At 40+2 I was having contractions all night and my husband even packed our bags in the car ready. We decided to get some rest to reserve our energy and by the time morning came, my contractions had completely died off.

40+4

My waters broke with a massive pop at 1:35am and it felt like I’d been kicked in the crotch, which obviously woke me up! I knew instantly my waters had broken. Luckily I had a mat on the bed and then my husband put a towel on the floor so I could stand up and put a pad in. I text my mum and dad for them to come round to look after my daughter and rang triage to see if they wanted me to come in or if I could labour at home for a while. They told me my group b strep result from the previous week had come back positive (this was the first I’d heard of this) so I would need to come in straight away to be put on a drip with antibiotics in case baby got an infection. I felt really disheartened at this point as I was thinking.. ‘well there goes my birth preference!’

Contractions started within 30 mins and came thick and fast! I was listening to the positive affirmations on the Freya app and practising my up breathing on the way to the hospital in the car. Then put my earphones in so I could carry on listening to this on the walk to triage. This really helped me stay focused and calm.

We got to triage at around 2:30am and we could not believe we were put in the same bed as my first labour (we were in this bed on triage for over 4 hours in my last labour and it was triggering for me to the point where I refused to sit on the bed and stood up the whole time 😂). My midwife introduced herself and was talking to me about arranging to see the doctor and possibly being induced. I questioned this as contractions had already started but she said they might still need to do it to get my contractions closer together faster (they needed my labour to quickly progress due to the strep b result). I told her I really don’t think they needed to be any closer together, and after watching me breathe through a couple of them, she agreed. She did an observation (which was quite uncomfortable as my contractions were pretty close together and baby was really low down) and told me I was 4cm already, so they put a cannula in and said they would start getting my birthing pool ready in the birthing centre 😍

As soon as I walked into our room, just listening to the sound of the running water instantly relaxed me - I was finally getting my water birth! I got in the pool at around 3:30am. My husband put on my labour playlist and put my neom essential oils in the diffuser and it honestly felt amazing! I was having intermittent monitoring every 15 minutes and the midwife just left me to it.

However my contractions were a lot more painful than they were with my first labour and I wasn’t getting much of a break (10-30 second breaks in between). After about an hour in the pool, the midwife called the doctor to come in as she was concerned my contractions were too close together and I wasn’t getting a break. She also said this could be putting a lot of stress on my previous section scar. She advised they could possibly give me something to slow the contractions down on the labour ward.

The doctor came and also advised me to move me to the labour ward so they could monitor baby continuously as an extra precaution to my scar possibly rupturing. I was listening to this but not able to fully respond as I was in so much pain, but thankfully my husband was vouching for me and requested the one and only pool room on the labour ward with the wireless monitor, which they agreed to! I used my BRAIN and agreed to being moved, as it was still sticking to my birth plan and it meant that we could have that extra monitoring for the baby just in case anything was wrong.

They wheeled me down in the wheelchair and I remember thinking it felt like we were going really fast. The breeze on my face felt amazing.

They started filling the pool as soon as we got there, but it wasn’t holding any water and kept draining so there was about 3/4 midwives in the room just trying to fix the pool. My new midwife, Beth, introduced herself and they started to strap me up to the monitor. At this point they were struggling to get a good reading and noticed that babies heart rate wasn’t changing with positions/contractions which was a worry. I was also flinching every time anyone touched my stomach and ripped the monitor bands off my stomach 😆 Because of these two things, the atmosphere quickly changed and the doctor was advising an emergency C-section as he suspected a possible scar rupture. I kept saying it wasn’t scar pain as it didn’t feel like stinging. It just felt like my contractions were getting 10x worse every time someone touched me on my stomach. I used my BRAIN and agreed to the section, as I knew in myself that this pain I was feeling was a lot worse than my first labour and my instinct was telling me something could be wrong.

They got me down to theatre in a wheelchair pretty quick after I had signed all the papers and got into my gown.

Having the epidural was hard as you have to remain completely still, and I was still having really intense back to back contractions so I was in a lot of pain. I had to hold on to the midwife’s hands and try and force myself forwards to stay still which was so so hard.

After the epidural I was shaking a LOT, like uncontrollably (apparently this can be a side effect of the epidural). The doctor then explained that he was actually happy with babies heart rate now as it had picked up on this monitor, so he gave me the option of continuing to birth as normal with the epidural. They examined me and I was 5cm at this point. I was so relieved as I really didn’t want another section so I was saying pleeease I don’t want another section. However, he went on to advise I go forward with the section as the fact that I was flinching every time someone touched my stomach was still a big red flag for my scar rupturing. I was really reluctant to say yes but this doctor was amazing at explaining everything and I really trusted what he was saying, so I agreed to go forward with it as I didn’t want to put my baby at risk.

As they started the procedure, he soon went on to explain that my scar had in fact began to rupture on the left hand side! Thank goodness all of the signs were seen and they acted early. As they pulled Macy out, the doctor asked if I wanted to announce the gender and brought baby over the sheet for us to shout out the gender (it’s a GIRL 😍💗). She was born at 6:25am weighing 7lbs 11oz - just 5 short hours after my waters broke! She cried straight away and we got to do delayed cord clamping and Michael cut the cord.

It felt like forever waiting to be stitched up so I could finally have a cuddle (was about 45 mins). I was still shaking a LOT so one of the doctors ordered some medicine from another room which stopped my shaking pretty much straight away which made me feel sooo much better.

We were wheeled to a private room on the labour ward as the recovery ward was full and Macy latched on pretty much straight away during skin to skin for her first feed 🥰 it felt amazing!! I never got to do this with my first born.🥹 We got to stay in our own private room all day which was sooo much better than last time! Had the famous tea and toast which was absolutely needed and just had the most gorgeous day snuggling and breast feeding Macy in our little private bubble.

I was finally moved to the labour ward around 9pm where I had to stay overnight for extra checks (Macy had to have 12 hours of monitoring due to the strep b result but was perfectly fine). We were finally discharged around 2:30pm the next day, just in time to get settled and pick our two year old up from nursery to meet her baby sister!

Although I didn’t get the birth I wanted and am always going to be gutted I never got to have a VBAC, I am so thankful to the positive birth company for giving me the tools to keep calm throughout and have the knowledge to be able to make informed decisions during labour. I did a LOT of research into VBAC’s and always knew the risks of a uterine rupture. I was unfortunately one of the 0.2% that experienced one. If you are wanting a VBAC, please do not let this put you off. I see my story as extremely positive as although it didn’t go as planned, we both came out the other side completely healthy. Even if you are one of the unfortunate 0.2% that experience a uterine rupture, it does not necessarily mean it will have an unhappy ending. All of the signs were there and were picked up quickly by the amazing team I had at the hospital. We are both completely healthy and am currently enjoying our newborn bubble 🥰

I have found this birth healing in a way, as this section potentially saved us both, as opposed to my previous section which I felt was unnecessary!

Good luck to all you expectant mummies. Birth may not always go to plan, but it can still be an amazing, healing experience 🥰