Birth story - Nadia and baby Sofia

I started the PBC online course on week 37 so pretty late into my pregnancy, however, it completely changed my whole birthing experience and I was so happy I gave it a shot!

My baby was measuring small throughout the pregnancy so I was going in for extra scans. Covid meant that my husband couldn’t come with me but this didn’t effect me too much as he wasn’t coming to appointments before Covid due to work commitments.

At one of these scans on the 39th week of my pregnancy a consultant booked in an induction for 41+3 days and recommended I had a sweep there and then! I was not expecting this at all so I was completely shocked and declined the sweep. I felt like I had to accept that induction date even though my gut completely told me this was not right for us and I really wanted to give myself and my baby the time to have the chance to come out naturally. I was extremely anxious on my drive home.

On week 40+2 I had my routine midwife appointment with my designated midwife who was great throughout. I accepted a sweep from her as I felt this was the right time. The sweep was painful but I used the up breathing. After the sweep the midwife told me that my cervix was extremely soft and she felt the babies head. She said I was already 2cm dilated. She also told me that she had a feeling from this I would have a good labour and she’d be shocked if I needed to come in for a follow up sweep which was booked for exactly a week later. At this appointment she also moved my possible induction date to the last day possible that it could be on.

After that appointment I felt really happy and positive. I was aware that sweeps don’t always work but I had a feeling that mine would. Up until that day I had no signs of labour starting and the day continued as normal. I went to sleep and at 6am the next day I went to the toilet and lost my mucus plug! I was super excited and nervous at the same time. I told my husband and he said he’d need to tell work so he could get the day off. I told him not to be silly as labour could be hours, days or a week away from this point... boy was I wrong! Almost immediately the contractions started. My contractions did not start off small and then become painful they were intense from the get go and coming every 2-3 minutes, lasting for 30 seconds.

The midwife on the phone told me to eat something, take paracetamol and then come in when the contractions were lasting 40 seconds of more! This happened within the hour. By 9am we were on our way to the hospital. The car was pretty bad as I couldn’t bounce on my ball and get into the positions which helped me at home but I used up breathing to help me.

When I arrived my waters broke when the midwife checked me and there was meconium in my waters so I was taken to the labour ward. I was 4cm dilated so my husband was allowed into the room with me. I declined the epidural as I felt I could handle the pain at that current moment (my active labour was 4 hours and I got to 10cm pretty quickly) I used the gas and air and had my hypnobirthing music playing in the background. I had my arms resting on the top of the bed and I was on my knees whilst pushing. After around 2 hours of pushing my baby came out with a loud cry (she still has a loud voice!)

Thanks to PBC this was the best day of my life! I felt like a super woman and can only look back on giving birth as an incredible experience!