Birth story - Mona and baby James

Hospital birth , emergency c-section , raised BMI

On first glance this might seem like the picture book of complications, but bare with me, it was the best day of my life! 

I found out about the Positive Birth Company through Instagram when I was about 20 weeks pregnant and immediately felt the need to give it a go. 

My partner and I watched the whole course over a month in the evenings before bed and it helped both of us immensely to understand the female body and it’s capabilities when it comes to pregnancy and birth. 

Starting this pregnancy I was quite worried as I always wanted to lose weight before getting pregnant but soon I realised that I could have an empowered birth experience, making informed decisions by myself regardless.

My midwife was luckily very supportive and even got me booked into the midwife led unit attached to the hospital after they gave me an individual risk assessment and found that I was fit and mobile. 

At 24 weeks I was tested for gestational diabetes and the test came back as 7.9 which was 0.1 over the 7.8 that were allowed. I pushed  to get retested and it turned out I didn’t necessarily need to monitor it after all. I still got a diabetes kit, and sometimes I tested myself, but there was no need to worry as I  never went over the allowed range. I still had growth scans but baby was doing well.

Fast forward to the 26th of December. I hadn’t felt Jamie move as much as I was used to and got a little worried about him. We called hospital and they asked us to come in. We had him monitored and he seemed to be doing fine but I was just not happy with his movements or my gut feeling. The doctor, who was very nice and considerate then offered me induction via pessary as I was 39 weeks the day after. I agreed as I felt unsure about his well-being.

The pessary got inserted but I overreacted to the gel and my contractions got so frequent and heavy that it had to be removed. I agreed to an examination with a stretch and sweep but I was still only 2 cm but did not worry about it. They booked me in to have my waters popped the following morning which at that point was the 28th.

I had to stay in for monitoring and on the 28th was referred to the labour ward. There we met our midwife, Laura, who was an absolute delight! She popped my waters and we went for a walk to get labour going. My contractions started and I was doing super well with gas and air and my tens machine. We listened to Disney songs and all sang along as I was bouncing on my ball and it was really lovely. Since contractions weren’t coming fast enough and my waters had already gone they put me onto the drip after a while. Still I was doing well and felt good about labour and birth. My partner and my midwife were very encouraging and counted for me and gave me back rubs.

At one point during all this Jamie turned back to back and dislodged out of the birth canal. I have to admit that everything after that was a blur for me. I was still only on tens and gas and air but it felt like the surges were not stopping anymore. I can remember that I constantly apologised for being loud but was reassured I was doing amazing. A doctor came in after babies heart rate dropped a little and asked what we wanted to do. I have to say, that I can’t remember any of this as I was so focused on breathing and the surges being so strong since the baby was back to back. I felt the need to push very hard, which I told my midwife and the doctor but I was only 5cms and they were worried I’d hurt myself and the baby.

At this point Laura has to go home and another midwife took over. I remember being very sad and asking her not to leave but the other midwife was just as lovely. My partner then tried to talk to me and asked if I was ok to go into theatre for a caesarean as it seemed like baby and I were both struggling. I agreed and they gave me an injection to stop surges. The next thing I remember was being propped up for the spinal. This was the one thing I was really scared of and the reason I didn’t have an epidural. The revelation was, that I didn’t feel it at all and it gave me immediate relief. I felt awesome after!

They checked to see how far dilated I was and if they were able to opt for an assisted birth rather than a section. However I was only 8 cm and they were scared of waiting longer. At this point I was able to talk again and laugh and smile at my partner. Jamie was born 10 minutes later at 21:16. It was the best thing we’ve ever done. We had delayed cord clamping and Jamie was handed to me immediately after for skin to skin which we enjoyed for several hours. He latched onto me in theatre and luckily breastfeeding was, and still is, an easy journey for us. 

Even though my birth went nothing like I planned it, I felt very empowered and like superwoman. In no way was it traumatic for me. In fact the first thing I said whilst holding my son was that I’d do it again tomorrow! I was very lucky that my section went without any complications and i was walking around Bristol 5 days later (in hindsight, I wouldn’t recommend this as your body does need some rest from birth especially after abdominal surgery) Apart from being sore, I never had any pain or problems at all. 

I think the digital pack really helped me to stay calm and just go with whatever felt the right way for me to birth my baby. 

We were released on New Year’s Eve and we’re able to ring in 2019 as a family of three in our home.

Looking back at my labour now that it has been 9 months , I can still only say that it was the best day of my life and that it was a great experience even if it wasn’t the water birth I wanted. There’s always a second chance at that as well 😉 

I wouldn’t change Jamie’s birth even if I could!