Birth story - Mum and baby girl

*Trigger warning* - pain, contractions - these don’t bother me as i know it was serving a purpose.

My pregnancy was fantastic, no complications, only mild queasy symptoms first trimester that was quickly quelled by a snack. My original due date was 17/12/22 but I know my cycle is longer than average and my Natural Cycles app had my estimated due date as 24/12/222. My due date was changed at the 12week scan to 24/12/22 which felt like a weight off because I was expecting to carry longer than average due to consistent family history. At one of my checkup with the midwives (I can’t remember if it was 28 weeks or 30) I had a different midwife and she suspected that the baby was breech position but there was also a student midwife with her who thought the baby was head down. I had a checkup with my usual midwife a few weeks later and she also felt the baby was head down but offered us to have a scan to check. We decided to decline because I felt confident in her ability and I also always felt the babies hiccups really low down on a daily basis and where I felt kicks was all indication for a head down baby.

I felt no big turns at all later in pregnancy. I was very conscious too of making sure I did everything I could to manoeuvre baby into the best possible position. My job kept me on my feet all day, I slept on my side, rarely crossed my legs or slouched, etc etc.

At every subsequent midwife appointment it was always felt the baby was head down. So we carried on happily and I made preparations for as positive birth a possible, listening to podcasts, reading, doing the positive birth company hypnobirthing course.

23/12/22 at 1am I got up (as usual when you’re pregnant) to use the loo. When I stood up there was a trickle down my leg. I immediately thought, “surely I didn’t just wet myself”. I sat down, was a bit confused for a few moments and a bit more trickled out. Then I stood again and same trickle. I then thought this might be my waters as it didn’t feel like it was urine. I got myself cleaned up and padded up, then woke my husband with a bit of excitement. I didn’t think to call the midwives until the morning. It was all clear and I thought sleep was more important and there was no rush, plus I was due a midwife check in the morning.

Sleep was pretty minimal due to pure excitement that something might be happening plus every time I moved a bit more waters would come out.

We called the midwife team about 8am and they told us to go into the delivery ward about 11am to confirm if my waters had gone.

We got there 11am and had that checked. Mind you we had to wait an extra 20 mins because I sat up halfway through the waiting period for this check as lying down on my back was uncomfortable and the midwife didn’t explain to me why not to sit up 😅. Anyways it was confirmed yes my waters had gone, she also check baby’s position and confirmed she was head down. So we were told to wait for contractions at home or if nothing had started by the next morning to call and an induction may be decided.

We went to IKEA, did some grocery shopping and as we were walking around I could feel the occasional uncomfortableness like early period pain.

This slowly increased during the day at home but nothing major. We had some friends pop by briefly with their kids which was great because I could explain to her what I was feeling and she said it sounded like early contractions. The rest of the evening was chill. We went to bed about 10pm by then the contractions were coming every 15-20 minutes or so. However as soon as I laid down it got very intense, too intense to stay lying in bed. I got up and told my husband I couldn’t lie down but he should get some sleep and I’d wake him if I needed him.

I went out onto my ball and bounced around while watching a movie. I found towards the end of the movie I wasn’t really concentrating on it as these surges were coming more frequently. I decided to download the freya app and start to time them. I used the up breathing to focus on.

24/12/22 About 2am I woke my husband up as I was struggling to handle it on my own anymore. He helped me time them and support me. The surges were coming on more frequently but inconsistent some were 30 seconds and others about 3-5 minutes. The spacing between the contractions was so varied as well, sometimes 1 minute, sometimes 8-9 minutes. Which made it really difficult to judge the 3 contractions lasting for a minute in 10 minutes. I was determined to stay home and not make an unnecessary trip until the contractions were closer together.

My husband called the midwife’s about 6am because he could see things were moving and I wasn’t comfortable in any position. They said to stay home until the contractions were the 3-in-10. The breathing was getting me through and once it had passed I felt completely normal. Things got more intense though and the surges were becoming longer 7/8 minutes were some and others 2-3 minutes or some just a few seconds. It was getting a bit confusing and I started to doubt if I was actually timing them right. My husband made the decision to call them again about 10am and they said to come in.

I was worried about sitting in the car but my surges really slowed down, I was worried that would happen going in and I was worrying in my head about having to stand up for myself if needed….😅 so I was my own enemy in that situation.

We were shown to a private room and I explained what was going on to the midwife. She offered me an exam and explained all the reasons why etc, I was happy to have this done as I wanted to know what was going on. The midwife confirmed I was 3cm dilated and she could feel the baby however she wasn’t sure she was actually feeling baby’s head, it felt more like a bottom, as she actually thinks she went up the baby’s bottom 😂.

The midwife explained and asked if it was ok if the lead midwife came and assessed as well, which I was happy with. The lead midwife also gained my consent and she agreed it felt like the baby’s bottom. This point my surges had started back up again as I was feeling relaxed. They then got a doctor to check and bring a portable scanner to confirm. Sure enough she was breach.

We were then given options and explained the benefits, risks of each and given space to make our decision. A fetal heart monitor was placed but I asked to make sure I could move around on it as standing up was the only comfortable position for me. Cesarean was their recommendation due to the fact that it had now been over 36 hours since my waters broke and the baby’s heart rate was a bit high but not too overly concerning. I did initially decide to go with trying to have her vaginally and they supported that decision. This was the only point I panicked a little, things weren’t going as planned and I couldn’t run away from the situation 😅 it was coming with me. However after having a moment with my husband and another chat with the midwife and asking her to run through everything again for us, she left the room and we decided to go with the Caesarean and I felt really calm again and at ease. The risks to our baby were starting to stack up and outweigh the benefits of a vaginal birth. I knew this was the best decision for my baby and for me.

She let the doctor know and checked to see when it would be done.

Just so happens that they were ready then and no emergencies were in. So we were dressed ready for surgery with all the paperwork done within 20 minutes. I had a few surges on my walk to the surgery but I was determined to walk myself. We ran into the midwife who confirmed my waters had broken and she was so shocked that the baby was breech, she asked if I’d felt any turns, nope, nothing other than normal movements. By this point I was 5cm dilated and had no pain relief other than focusing on my breath.

The epidural was sweet relief though. We were able to put on our music in the surgery room and everyone was in a lovely chilled happy mood.

Baby was delivered with no complications and we had skin to skin contact for hours after she was given a quick check.

Without the knowledge of what I learnt in my Positive Birth Course things would’ve been a lot more stressful. I was able to keep myself calm and focused because I knew what was happening with my body.

I’m looking forward to hopefully having a VBAC for next bubba. Thank you for making this information so accessible 🌸.