Birth story - Nadia and baby Oliver

*Trigger Warning* - Pain, Anxiety.

Points of interest - Polyhydramnios, Large for Gestational Age (LGA) baby, Transverse Lie, SPD, Irritable Uterus, CMV positive, Fear of Medical Procedures.

With so many pregnancy complications I took so much peace and confidence from reading positive stories on here, particularly from mama's with the same issues as us so hopefully our story will do the same for someone else.

So up until about 24 weeks we had a pretty textbook pregnancy...I felt constantly sick and exhausted up to week 15 which then passed and I felt pretty good for a few weeks other than back pain and getting up every hour during the night.

When we got to about 24 weeks I felt absolutely enormous and was already struggling to walk/sit/lie down so I knew that something was different about this pregnancy and potentially not as it should be - my instincts were bang on. At 28 weeks, I took myself off up to triage because I was getting Braxton Hicks every 5 minutes and they were quite intense so I went to be monitored. I reluctantly had an internal exam (looking back I should have followed my gut that I knew I didn't need one!) which confirmed I wasn't in labour but had an irritable uterus which from that point continued throughout my pregnancy with extremely intense and crazily frequent contractions (literally hundreds every day, all day, every day which by the end were very similar to early labour pains!) The midwife commented that I looked big but she didn't think it was anything to worry about and sent me home. A few days later at my regular midwife appointment, my midwife measured my tummy and plotted me at 32 weeks (4 weeks ahead) so she sent me for a growth scan the following day. The scan showed the I had Polyhydraminos with a deepest pool of 12cm (I was informed that the absolute max should be 8cm). Baby was also measuring off the charts so we were sent for torch screening and a GTT test to see if there was a reason behind the fluid and baby size. Our GTT was negative (huge relief as I put on 4stone during my pregnancy! I was a size 6/8 when I got pregnant) but our Torch screening came back positive for CMV so we were referred to the fetal medicine unit at Birmingham Womens Hospital for a detailed scan. At that appointment they couldn't find any problems with baby but the fluid was now 14cm and they offered to do an amnio to drain some of it and test the baby for infection. I used my BRAIN technique and decided that this wasn't a necessary procedure and declined it as it would have made no difference to the outcome of the pregnancy either at the time or going forwards and it carried risks I wasn't comfortable taking. At this appointment they ordered a review of my booking bloods to see if the infection could be an old one (if so the chance of it affecting the baby were minimal to zero) and thankfully for us, that was exactly the case so we were discharged when the results came in 1 week later (longest week of my life and I was SO thankful I declined the amnio!). So after negative tests all round, we never found out what caused the polyhydramnios or why our little man was a big one and we were booked in for growth scans every 2 weeks. Consequently my MLU waterbirth plans evaporated and I was so disappointed.

At this point my SPD was so bad that I had to use a wheelchair to leave the house and I was spending all day and night on the sofa, usually in a steady flow of tears from the pain and the weight of my belly and my mental health was in the floor from anxiety and sleep deprivation. It was genuinely one of the hardest few months of my life.

Fast forward to 36 weeks...my SPD all of a sudden seemed to let up and I felt better than I had in months. I could walk without my crutches/wheelchair and as long as I was supported by aaaaaaallll the pillows I could sleep sitting up in bed so I wasn't so exhausted. It turned out the reason for this was that Oliver had managed to move from fully engaged head down (he had been this way since 28 weeks which put us at an increased risk of early labour) to transverse at my 36 week scan (he then turned again to breech the day before the section)!!! My fluid was up to 16cm and he was measuring at 6lb,13oz at this stage so it was quite the magic trick to manoeuvre, even with so much water to swim around in. At that appointment we were given a section date for 39 weeks due to his position and I was told to rest up so that my waters didn't break. We spent the next 3 weeks very anxiously waiting for our date which thankfully we reached without going into natural labour.

We arrived at hospital at 7.30am and were told we were the last of three sections that day and would have to wait until 2pm which felt like an eternity. I was incredibly anxious as I am terrified of hospitals and medical procedures and I knew that our section carried more risks than usual due to the size of my belly. We were blessed to have my sister in law look after us as she has just recently finished her midwifery studies and so was allowed to assist our midwife on the day which made a huge difference to my state of mind - don't underestimate the power that people you are surrounded by can have on your delivery! At 2pm her and our midwife walked us down to theatre and I had my spinal block.

I won't go into the details of the section but for anyone frightened about them - please know you will be absolutely fine. You can indeed feel the sensations of the pushing and pulling happening to bring your baby into the world but there is no pain once you've had your spinal block, which is almost painless if you can relax and trust your anesthetist like I did. I had some discomfort as I have a very little frame and there had to be a lot of pressure applied to get my boy out due to his position but my anesthetist was amazing and gave me something to help to calm me a little and she stroked my hair the whole time just like my mum would have done. Just over an hour later our boy was safely here (I cried so hard when I heard him cry - the relief was like nothing I've ever felt!!!!), all the fluid had been successfully removed and we had no hemorrhage which was a very high risk for us so a very successful surgery for which we were so grateful. My hubby was with me the whole time up until the team cleaned me up and moved me onto a new bed when he went off to recovery with the baby where I joined him about 20 minutes later to be monitored before I went to our room. I wasn't able to have any skin to skin, which really upset me at the time but it made absolutely no difference to the bond I now have with my baby so if you have to miss out on this bit for any reason - please don't worry!!!

I was really worried about not being able to care for Oli in hospital after my section and not being able to have that early connection with him that I had with my daughter but the midwives and support workers were incredible and will make sure you have every opportunity to do exactly whatever you feel able to, even if that's just to hold baby on top of cushions for a few minutes to start with which was all I could do for a while. Don't be afraid to lean on the team taking care of you as much as you need to - it's what they're there for and they do it because they love it.

A note on recovery - a lot of my friends have had sections and many of them were sent home the same day so I was hopeful/expectant that I would be the same...I wasn't AT ALL! Because of the enormous extent of the stretching my tummy had been through my incision was very low and extremely tender because I also had a lot of abdominal swelling to go with it so I wasn't able to get out of bed until 48 hours after my surgery, and that was incredibly painful. I also had awful gas and constipation so all things combined I found the first 3 days extremely difficult, painful and upsetting. After such a hard pregnancy all I wanted was to feel well enough to care for my baby and myself.

My C-section advice- take ALL the pain relief you are offered post birth if you need it, don't be afraid to buzz for help in hospital and absolutely don't put any pressure on yourself to feel well. You've just had MAJOR surgery and your body deserves the chance to stop, rest and recover - respect what is has just done for you and your baby! I was discharged on the Saturday afternoon (48 hours after surgery) and spent until Monday in bed. The awesome news - by Wednesday (today, 6 days after surgery) I feel like a different woman! I'm showering, I'm managing the stairs, I can change/dress/feed my little man on my own and hopefully by the weekend I'll manage a little walk in the sunshine I'm still taking ibuprofen, paracetamol, lactulose, codeine and arnica around the clock but I'm getting stronger every day. Our bodies are amazing machines and our babes are testament to the mental and physical strength we all have within us.

A HUGE good luck to all of the mama's to be reading this and a HUGE well done to all you who have already been through your own birth journeys xxx