Birth story - Mum and baby boy

*Trigger warning* - Placenta previa, bleeding, contractions (as not negative for me), emergency delivery, pre-term delivery

I apologise for this being a very long post, but I feel so proud of what we have achieved. We absolutely loved reading other peoples positive birth stories on this page and feel like they helped prepare us so much for birth! So I’d absolutely love to be able to help people in the same way.

Pregnancy:

I absolutely loved being pregnant, I felt really happy and like it suited me. I was so lucky in the first trimester and managed to get away with only feeling nauseous and was never once physically sick.

I felt ecstatic when I could feel the baby move, first flutters at about 12-13 weeks, then actual movements and kicks at 17 weeks. I just found it so reassuring and magical.

PGP began quite early on in my pregnancy at about 14 weeks, but the physio at the hospital was brilliant and with swimming weekly and reduced walking (found this was the worst cause of pain) it was actually quite manageable!

I worked full time as a teacher up until 28 weeks when I was signed off sick due to antenatal haemorrhages (common with placenta previa) only a couple of weeks before the summer holidays came and I could begin relaxing and enjoying my maternity leave. (So I thought!)

Placenta previa:

At the 20 week scan it was all going really well, the sonographer was really happy with how the baby was developing and growing so we were feeling really positive. She then saw the placenta was low lying and asked to do a vaginal ultrasound to which I agreed. It was then confirmed that part of my placenta was fully covering my cervix (classed as a grade 4) but the sonographer was still positive as talked about how a natural c-section could be a good possibility.

We went home and looked on the NHS website and spoke to our antenatal class midwife which completely reassured us that it is not uncommon, and actually in 90% of cases the placenta moves in the second half of pregnancy! We also felt reassured that even if it didn’t move, a natural c-section was absolutely possible. We were booked in for extra scans at 32 and 36 weeks to check if it had moved.

At 29 weeks exactly I had my first bleed, it was scary at the time and I was blue lighted to hospital (on the instructions of the midwife), upon arrival we were prepped for theatre and emergency delivery of baby should the CTG be worrying. It was really frightening and a bit of a blur. I was given 2x steroid injections to prepare baby’s lungs and monitored over the next 5 days where it all stabilised and I was then discharged home on bedrest. This pattern then continued for the next 4 weeks where I’d have a bleed, go to hospital, everything would be fine and I’d be discharged a few days later.

In the meantime I had 2 additional scans to check on the placenta, 1st scan showed the placenta had moved 1.9cm clear of the cervix, the 2nd scan 2+ weeks later @ 32 weeks 5 days show the placenta to have moved 3.2cm clear of the cervix which meant I was now able to have a vaginal delivery! I was so excited! It was decided the bleeding wasn’t affecting baby at all, it was coming from the leading edge of the placenta near the cervical opening as it moved with my uterus growing and the blood loss was mine so as long as I didn’t lose more than I could reproduce, they were happy for me to carry on!

Labour and birth:

I’d not long come out of hospital having had my 7th bleed so I was just settling back into being at home again. I’d noticed my hips were really painful all day (Monday 8th), I’d put this down to limited mobility at the hospital and not being able to do my physio and thought nothing more of it. That night, my hips were in agony! My poor husband kept fluffing pillows and packing them around me to support my knees but I’d be comfy for a moment then be back in agony despite remaining still. At 2am (Tuesday 9th) I decided to have a bath as this was the only thing that would calm the aching. On getting out of the bath I noticed more blood, significantly less than previous bleed but enough for us to think to go and get checked out just in case.

By 4:30am we were at hospital and hooked up to the CTG monitor where baby again was happy as Larry confirmed as well by the bedside scan where the baby was shown to be head down but back to back. The doctor wanted to do a speculum to check the cervix to see if I was going into labour, they needed to clear out the blood in order to see so had to use gauze but at 6am it was fully closed. (I also think this acted like an unintentional sweep!!)

As the morning went on, my hip pain got worse and would come and go. It then became blindingly obvious it wasn’t PGP but in fact contractions! By 11am I was having 3 in 10 and really having to breathe through them. I was re examined and was 4cm and I was indeed in spontaneous active labour at 33 weeks and 2 days!

I went onto gas and air and spent the rest of the day on the birth ball. The midwife was fantastic at holding her nerve as I was bleeding throughout the labour but the CTG always showed a happy baby!

At 6pm, I was fully dilated I began to get the urge to push but at that point my waters hadn’t gone and I was desperate for a wee but couldn’t go, baby’s head was squashing my bladder!! So they “in out” catheterised me and ruptured the membranes and from that point everything happened very quickly!

I had to move from the ball to the bed which I wasn’t too happy about but went with it for the safety of the baby, this did slow down my contractions a little so I dug deep and used my breathing to remain focussed despite the room FULL of medical people (8 in total). My husband advocated all my preferences for me and kept me calm but helping me count my breathing. But I began to worry and baby’s heart rate began to dip with each contraction so they wanted baby out fast, I was given an episiotomy to help speed things up and within 10 minutes, baby boy was in our arms! He came out pink and crying so we were able to have skin to skin which wasn’t a given with his gestation of 33 weeks.

It was just euphoric! It may not have been the birth we imagined but it was just as magical! I recovered really quickly and so did baby as he was discharged from NICU at 4 days old and from hospital at 8 days old! Couldn’t be more proud of our little family and a big thank you to PBC for helping us to know our choices to get the birth we wanted!