Birth story - Natasha and baby Alfie

I have been using this week to reflect on my birth experience and finally ready to share as I feel now feel confident in the decisions I made for myself, despite them being opposite to my previous plans & it being a complete whirlwind towards the end😅

*Trigger Warning* - induction, stitches, blood loss, use of word pain, potential ‘big baby’, talk about not feeling heard by medical professionals & feeling pressure of overstretched NHS during labour.

🤰🏼Pregnancy:

I had a really smooth pregnancy but it took me a long time to come to terms with the fact I was pregnant - it wasn’t planned and I had to delay going back to university which I found hard at first but my partner & I were really happy to be having our baby. I had sciatica and SPD from early on at 17 weeks but otherwise was lucky to have a really straightforward experience.

Baby had measured along the 50th centile until 37 weeks where he jumped to the 97th. They sent me for a growth scan and predicted he’d potentially weigh 10lb5 if we waited until 40 weeks or more if I was ‘overdue’. They offered me an induction then but we used BRAIN & felt this wasn’t the right decision for me and declined as I didn’t want to be induced for his size.

At 39 weeks I went in for reduced movements. He was okay but they talked to me again about the risks of a ‘big baby’ and now reduced movements. My gut feeling had changed due to his movements and decided to agree to the induction, I was given the option of that day or a couple of days later. The doctor tried to scare me into doing it there and then due to shoulder dystopia but I knew that a couple of days wouldn’t make a difference to his size and said that I needed some time to prepare and accept that I wouldn’t be having the birth I imagined so took the option of coming back.

👩🏼‍🍼 Induction process:

I went in at 7pm on the 26th however due to lack of staff had to wait until 6am for my first 2ml gel. I was less than 1cm dilated with a posterior cervix but they decided to try anyway. I was monitored and started to have cramping from this gel (which I didn’t know at the time were surges).

At 1:30pm (27th) I had a moment of panic and was sick as I was in quite a lot of pain, I was hoping this would be the start of something but the surges then died out completely and I wasn’t allowed any more gel. They checked my progress at 4:30pm and I was only 2cm, I felt quite disheartened and due to my posterior cervix she decided to pull it forward. I asked for gas & air for my next examination because I struggled with this. At 9pm I was examined again and had the same process of pulling my cervix forward to try to help me along. We got some sleep and at around 2am (28th) I was given 1ml of gel. I tried to sleep through the surges but was really shaky and knew something was happening. At 4am I was woken up to a popping sensation and my waters had gone, I ran to the toilet and knew that it wouldn’t be long until he was here now.

🤰🏼Labour & Birth:

Now my waters had gone the lovely midwife suggested I go for a bath as I mentioned to her that I wished I had been able to use a birthing pool. I was very lucky as the bath was really big with dimmed lighting and relaxing candles so felt the closest I would get to my imagined water birth. It was nice to be away from the other people on the ward with just my partner. We stayed in there using my up breathing to help me along and my partner massaged my back & reminded me to use the techniques he had learned together with PBC. The next thing I knew I was begging him to go and find a midwife because I began ‘mooing’ and knew I progressing much quicker than I thought.

The midwife who came said I would be able to go to the delivery suite in the next 24 hours and unfortunately I needed to wait (she didn’t think I was far along as I was only 2cm a few hours ago) so she brought me a codeine tablet. About 30 mins later I had to get out of the bath to sit on the toilet as it was the only place I could get comfortable (thank you gravity) & my partner rushed out to get someone. They told me the staff changeover was happening and they’d check me in the next half an hour.

We went back to my bed on the labour ward and I tried everything - standing, ball, lying down and started to panic slightly as I felt like nobody was listening to me and I knew my body was trying to push. I ran to the toilet and locked myself in (which looking back wasn’t the best idea) and my partner was trying to get me to down breathe whilst encouraging me to let him in😂 He went to the meeting room and said that someone needed to come immediately and I truly believe that without PBC he wouldn’t have felt so confident to advocate on my behalf & thankfully someone came at that moment. They got me on the bed at around 8:30 and checked my progress - I was fully dilated.

The midwife called for help and I was rushed up to delivery suite on my bed in the lift. I was using my breathing techniques the whole time to stay calm as I could despite how stressful this could’ve been. I needed continuous monitoring but I was saying I didn’t want to be on my back and my partner told the midwife that I’d prefer to be sat more upright. She helped me with that and encouraged me to follow my body’s pattern to push him down - this massively calmed me down as she was so reassuring and helped me to remember the concepts that I learned with hypnobirthing. I was given gas & air but hated it so didn’t really use it as I found my down breathing 100x more effective. I was pushing for around half an hour & Alfie finally arrived at 9:16am. I couldn’t believe I had done it. He was placed on my chest and he latched almost immediately. I was in complete shock but the love that I had for him straight away was incredible.

💉Third stage:

I had an active third stage due to anaemia and slightly higher blood loss (which at the time I didn’t know about) so I felt like this was the safest option for me. I was given medication via an IV to control this and a doctor came through to do some labial and clitoral stitches. They talked me through the whole process so I felt in control again. After the IV she ran me a bath to relax and clean so I felt comfortable going back to the postnatal ward.

💭 Reflections:

I honestly can’t thank PBC enough for the knowledge and confidence they provided for both me & my partner. The breathing techniques I learned got me through my surges and gave my partner the techniques he needed to help me, both physically and mentally. He had the confidence to advocate for me and I’m so grateful for that. Whilst it was the opposite of what we had imagined whilst doing the course, I am so happy with the experience that I had as I knew what was happening to my body and knew that I could remain in control despite other factors being out of my hands. Without PBC I feel like I would’ve struggled with the end of my birth but I have been able to reflect and know that I did the best I did in the situation and hypnobirthing gave me the strength to do so.