Birth story - Olivia and baby Sebastian

*Trigger warning* - Use the word contractions as it’s not a trigger to me

Pregnancy;

I had a really good pregnancy apart from getting PGP and sciatica around 32 weeks but it wore off around 37 weeks. Apart from this my pregnancy was amazing and I loved it. At 40 weeks I had a sweep which didn’t do anything as my cervix was too high up. I then went on to get a second sweep at 41 weeks and was told my cervix was still high but soft which was promising. I asked the midwife what her opinion was on babies weight and she said she thinks I have a 7 and a half pound baby as I was very neat and in proportion. (How wrong she was )

Induction labour;

I personally asked for an induction as I was so uncomfortable by 41 weeks and was having lightning crotch every half hour so I got booked in as an outpatient for 41 weeks & 5 days. I turned up at 2:30pm and was examined at 4:30pm when the pessary was inserted, I was told that my cervix was very very thin and the pessary should do the trick to kick start my labour and my baby would be with me by this time tomorrow (woooo).

Two hours went by when I started to feel contractions like period pains, I had some food and relaxed with my partner watching a film on the laptop. At 10pm my contractions were a lot more intense but I was still ok breathing through them and walking around helped.

At 1am (ish) I asked for some paracetamol and an hour later had codeine along side it, which just took the edge off. I was up all night, walking around the room and bouncing on my birth ball, I tried to relax as much as possible between contractions, they was coming in every 20 mins so I had some time to try and relax. By 5/6am I asked for some more paracetamol and codeine. At 7am the contractions were definitely ramping up and the midwife offered me a bath, my husband and I went down to the bathroom and I relaxed in the bath for an hour whilst my husband then timed my contractions on the Freya app, contractions were coming in every 5 mins lasting 1min.

At 8am my mum turned up and I had some toast and a cup of tea for energy whilst walking around my room and using the birthing ball. I lay down for the midwife’s to check babies heart rate and my contractions and my waters went with the next contraction. After being examined the midwife told me I was 3cm but she didn’t think it was my waters that went, I told her it definitely was, the midwife then told me it was time to go down to the delivery suite but advised against me having a water birth as with one contraction my babies heart rate dropped. However, after asking for a second opinion they think it was my own heartbeat that was picked up not the babies, I was happy to not have a water birth at this point because I would rather they track my babies heart rate throughout my labour.

When getting to the delivery suite (around 10am) I was now 5cm, I asked for pain relief and they gave me gas and air, I didn’t like the gas and air so asked for pethidine which I was told would only last around 2-3 hours which I was ok with.

For 5 hours I was breathing (and moo’ing) through my contractions on all fours and was in the ‘zone’. My husband was rubbing my back and giving me constant sips of water and my mum was encouraging me through it.

Come 3pm I got the urge to push so I stood up and crouched down as I felt this was more comfortable, I was told I needed to wee by the midwife’s but I told them I didn’t need to, I was trying to have a wee whilst mid pushing. I couldn’t tell my brain I needed to wee so had a catheter inserted which I agreed to, and a full large bucket was filled (I deffo needed that wee).

My contractions then wore off a little and was only coming in every 10/15 mins, I felt the babies head and knew it was close, so I powered through. Breathing through it. After two and a half hours pushing I used BRAIN and I asked the midwife’s for some help, I said to my mum I know he’s not going to come without any help and felt he was stuck, the midwife explained that I was starting to bruise so I would need a episiotomy, so I jumped at this and said do it. Then with my next contractions after the episiotomy his head came, one more pushed after then the body and I had my gorgeous big baby boy in my arms.

The midwife explained given his weight that if I didn’t have the episiotomy then I could have torn so I’m glad/happy with my decisions. I absolutely LOVED my birth and I said to the midwife wow I want to do that all over again!!! It was amazing and I already can’t wait for my second baby.