Birth story - Moyosolo and baby Teleola

*Trigger warning* - emergency c-section, contractions, gestational diabetes

Although this wasn’t my planned or ideal birth, this process was made so much easier by the tools I acquired from the Positive Birth Company.

Pregnancy for me, wasn’t a walk in the park. I put it down to the amount of stress I put my body through - moving countries, starting on a masters degree while navigating work all while being pregnant. I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes by week 28, but was able to keep my sugars down with diet control as I tried as much as possible to limit medication where unnecessary. I probably took paracetamol a total of 5 times through my pregnancy and I had nearly every symptom under the moon but I knew my body was made for this so I took it all in stride.

I began experiencing surges by 37 weeks so I thought baby would come sooner rather than later. I preemptively started on the old wives tales eating dates and drinking raspberry leaf tea to make sure my cervix was prepping nicely for birth. After two unsuccessful sweeps and getting sent back home due to false contractions, I realised baby was way too comfy in there and probably wouldn’t be here for a while.

By week 38, my back felt like it was keeling over from the weight but from my week 35 scan, the midwife had said baby was measuring average - I on the other hand could feel my baby was a big baby & I knew to trust my instincts thanks to PBC - I could feel it and I trusted my gut (again, another thing I’d learned from PBC - nobody knows your body like you do).

By week 39 I got the call from the hospital to say I’d need to be induced on my EDD if baby wasn’t here by then due to GD. This was fine with me as my instincts told me it would be best to get baby out sooner rather than later as I was already starting to feel really sick.

On my delivery date, I showed up to get induced - ready with my tea lights and playlist - there was so much I couldn’t control but I was determined to control the things I could. I was told in the 48th hour after two pessaries had been inserted, repeated contractions which I worked through using TENS machine, up breathing, gas, pain relief, an eventual epidural, that my waters had broken but my cervix was only 4cm dilated. I was told this increased the risk of infection for baby and a caesarean was advised if it didn’t improve before 72hours. While this made me panic as a C-section was completely not my plan, I remembered to use my BRAIN and knew this was the best option for me.

While a caesarean was not what I had planned for, I had the best possible birthing experience. I requested for my playlist to be played during surgery and was able to still set the atmosphere and environment I wanted. The epidural that had been expertly inserted during my contractions was increased for the caesarean and the entire procedure was comprehensively explained to me by the incredible OBGYN. Baby was born to my husband holding my hand, speaking positively and sharing how much he loved me, our favourite worship song and I got my request for immediate skin to skin after birth.

My baby boy’s sugar tests also came back great! It was such a pleasant experience in the end and I look back with no regrets.