Birth story - Niamh and baby Sienna

*Trigger warning* - Short NICU stay, Polycythaemia

Pregnancy:

My previous birth (also on here), the only sign of labour was a small bleed, resulting in us calling the midwives at the hospital nearest us for a quick check as we were due to attend a wedding that day and were in Birmingham, not home in London. On arrival I was 5.5cm and we were told we were going nowhere and so our son was born a Brummie a few hours later

So, as soon as I was pregnant again I started preparing for a fast labour. I considered a homebirth but decided to be on the birth centre again and in a way re-create my first birth as it had been so amazing. Pregnancy was much easier this time - no real morning sickness or food aversions, just a Roast Dinner addiction. From 21-28 weeks I got hit with extreme nausea and reflux which came on with a tummy bug I caught and just seemed to linger.. resulting in a few hospital trips, but once the third trimester hit, I just felt tired - but put it down to having a 3.5yo in tow!

Prodromal Labour

The morning of 36+6 I was so tired and uncomfortable and so so BREATHLESS. I decided to pop and get my nails done to make me feel better and I could hardly sit still in the chair. By the time I got out I was not well at all and callled my sister who pointed out that I might want to call the midwife as I was in such a state. Then the vomiting started.. and did not stop until I was hooked up to anti sickness back in hospital. At this point they started monitoring me and sure enough, my contractions were happening slow and steady, so I started getting antibiotics because baby was technically prem until midnight. Then.. my admission Covid test came back positive. I was in total shock as other than the breathlessness, I had no symptoms.. we were given a private room and I was told I’d be holding my baby by the morning. My husband arrived and we rang my mum and told her to change her flights as baby was on the way! We felt really positive that I was a good 3cm, her head was really low and contractions were coming every 4-6 minutes, I was bouncing on the ball and trying to ignore them and watch Christmas Movies. Then as it got later into the night they just stopped.. I thought it might be my body taking a rest before the end and I asked to be checked again. I was still 3cm. And her head “didn’t feel as low”. I was gutttttttted, how had I laboured all day and got nowhere? Why did I suddenly feel nothing? Well other than exhausted They believed the combo of Covid/Vomiting had kickstarted things but my body was too weak to get over that line into active labour. I accepted a sweep to see if we could get going again and I was told to try and rest if I could, hand express and the idea of induction was put on the table but after thinking it all over, we decided on the Tuesday afternoon after making no more progress and having really random but intense contractions to go home and see this out there where we were happier.

I wish I could say the next few days were any different but things were very much the same. I thought I was going crazy at points having such intense periods of contractions (they were powwwwwerful too not like braxton hicks!) that would then just disappear. I had two proper meltdowns, one on Saturday (Christmas Eve) and one on Tuesday, where we wound up back in hospital convinced this was it and told nothing had changed. On Christmas Eve, I was offered intervention as they could see I was really struggling with tiredness and was getting scared I wouldn’t have energy to do the damn thing but I decided (using BRAIN) that if I could keep going to Wednesday morning and I didn’t get further when I had my scheduled midwife appointment, I would discuss it then. This kept me positive until the Tuesday, when in the afternoon I had the mother of all meltdowns and I think the pressure of her head (it was soooo low) actually caused me to pee myself in the bath. Not feeling 100% confident that it was just pee and not waters, in we went again and I very calmly told the midwife that I would be accepting any and all intervention they’d give me and asked her if they could do it now because I wasn’t able to wait. She said she knew I was seriously desperate, because there were no tears - I just felt sooooo tired and thought deep down if they could just give me a little nudge, my body would take over and know what to do. She was so kind and really listened to me. She couldn’t get me in for that night but an induction was scheduled for 5pm the next day and we were told to go home and rest. I was SO relieved, I’d been against intervention throughout but after days of start and stop contractions I was willing to sneeze her out through a nostril if that’s what it took! I’d made my decision and I was so at peace with it. At this point it was the same itd been for a week, 3cm and baby low. Again I had a good sweep while she was checking because I thought why not while you’re there, whatever it takes! Baby would be here soon and I had a little fight left in me to get her out myself like I’d planned. We got a big drive thru on the way home and headed to bed. I climbed in beside my baby boy knowing it would be the last night we’d get snuggles for a while.

Around 5:30am I woke up feeling DODGY. But at the back of my head I thought, stop it now. I’m not doing this start stop today. We just need to get to 5pm! So I snuck into the bath and just chilled, reading positive induction stories on here! Around 8:30 am, my mum woke up and I decided to get out so I could go and have a little nap while she minded Charlie. We decided to let my husband sleep a bit later as we had a big evening ahead! My nap didn’t last long and by 9am I was back in the bath but this time I’m in a sports bra and pants because I wanted company, so mum, David & Charlie were each coming in and out of the bathroom bringing paracetamol and water, telling me what was on This Morning, trying to climb in with me (the 3yo that is). I truly thought it was just going to be another morning of the same old thing but was determined to stay calm and positive as the end was now in sight

Around 10:55 I started to notice a new and definite pattern in my “discomfort” and started timing on Freya. I climbed out, got dressed and started hanging laundry to distract myself.. 7 contractions passed and I decided it was really time to call the midwives and see if I could jump the queue for induction or at least come in sooner so that I could have something to relax me until 5pm But the 10min on the phone waiting for the midwife to answer was enough to change from breathing through “discomfort” to pure guttural roaring through SURGES that were taking over my whole body. The midwife heard one contraction and told us to hang up and call 999 immediately.

From there it’s all a blur.. but the phonecall to the midwife ended 35 minutes before she was born and that’s what my labour has officially been recorded as My husband called 999 and was told they’d be 30mins. At this point we were all very much convinced I’d be getting IN the ambulance so my husband and mum started dressing me. The moment they’d finished, I took everything off and walked straight to the bath and got in it causing a lot of “what?! What the fuck?! What are you doing?! We need to dry you again!” But the real primal sounds were happening now and I instinctively knew I was going nowhere and this baby was coming NOW. My waters went in the bath with a very loud bang and at this point David called 999 again to beg them to come faster. The operator stayed with us on the phone and started talking him through how to deliver a baby which I remember in the back of my head laughing about as I had been so insistent he would never be allowed “down the business end” as he was of no medical use. Now here we was, catching our baby girl Finally the paramedics and a first responder arrived on the street and David ran to get them (he said they just wandered down the lane so calmly, while he was having an absolute fit). All I remember seeing is that beautiful, beautiful, gas and air being passed to me in the bath and the most gentle paramedic ever talking quietly in my ear and telling me they were going to get me out of the bath now and into the bedroom so they could help me. They told me to kneel on the floor over the bed but I was very insistent I needed to stand. Within seconds of being upright in the room I shouted “the head the head the head the HEAD!!!” and there she was. David said she was out in one push, but I honestly didn’t have to push at all my body and my baby just did it all themselves She let out an almighty roar and just like that it was over, I think the team were as in shock as we were that it all happened so fast. We had some cuddles on the bed (at some point my husbands tshirt from that pile of laundry I’d been putting away was put on me) and then my husband began dressing her as we were told we’d have to be transferred in. I apologised for all the shouting but they all told me I hadn’t really made any noise at all, I thought I was full dragon mode but it must have been all internal as nobody else heard it

My placenta came soon after (The first responder asked me “It is just one baby we’re expecting yes mum?!” To which I replied “I fecking hope so.”) And we got to say a very quick hello to Mum and Charlie downstairs (who were in complete shock, Mum had whisked Charlie downstairs as soon as the guttural noises began and turned the telly up. She says when she heard a baby cry minutes after the paramedics went upstairs, she looked up expecting to see one on telly and nearly passed out when she realised it was coming from upstairs) and then we went straight into hospital in the ambulance where I had a few stitches for a 2nd degree tear (Gas and Air here - we made up for lost time with that bad boy!) and we got all the cuddles and snuggles and had a massive subway because I was suddenly ravenous.

Sisi was a little grunty, so she was checked over by the Paediatric Team (she was just a little cold!) but during the check they observed she was very pink. Bloods were done and within minutes she was off to NICU & it was explained to us she would have to have a procedure to thin her blood as it was too thick, a complication that had happened as a result of delayed cord clamping (she only had five minutes before it was cut, but they said it’s super rare compared to the benefits so that’s why it’s not really spoken about). We were apart from around 8pm-5:30am (I got to see her for ten minutes around the 10:30pm as the first line fitting had failed and they had to replace it). This part was really rough, but we’re so lucky we were brought in and it was picked up so quickly as by the following evening we were back together on the postnatal ward. We had to stay a few nights to let her antibiotics run their course and keep an eye on her bloods but we finally got home on New Years Eve and have been in the perfect Baby Bubble ever since

For the second time, I’m so grateful to the PBC. Without the knowledge of what was happening and without Freya nudging me to maybe call the midwife when I did it would have been a very different 35 minutes Thank you Siobhan and the team for making both my babies entrances into the world beautiful and positive despite both being completely the opposite of what had been planned.