Birth story - Paloma and baby Drew

*Possible triggers* - C section, epidural, long labour, repeat miscarriage.

I wanted to share my story as I never thought a delivery unit birth ending in c section could have been a positive birth!!!

My pregnancy went well although it was our 5th pregnancy. We had been trying to conceive for 3 years and had 4 losses. We were investigated and diagnosed with unexplained infertility.

The first few months pregnancy were a little nerve racking but once I could feel movement and started the hypnobirthing course I was super chilled out and looking forward to giving birth.

I stopped working on Friday 9th of July, I changed my mat leave date 1 week earlier as I was getting too tired and wanted to focus on me and baby earlier.

On the Saturday I decided to have a chill day at home. I had a long shower, expressed colostrum, listened to music, had a massive nap (4 hours) and did some nice cooking. In the evening my husband gave me a lovely massage and we had sex and a lovely walk to watch the sunset with a super dramatic sky. I remember thinking, “this would be a lovely evening to give birth.”

At 3 am on Sunday morning I started having cramps in my sleep. I did not think anything of it, however, at 4am I went for a wee and my water and mucus plug went and surges became stronger.

I woke up husband and asked him to put some nice candles everywhere in the flat and told him not to panic as we had lots of time before baby would be here. I started counting the surges on the Freya app, they were every 3 min for 40 to 50 seconds.

I decided to have a nice hot shower with candles and music to relax and told my husband to go back to bed and sleep.

At 9 am I called the Birth Center and told them everything that happened and how the surges were. They said to come and get assessed, which we did, we arrived at 1 pm.

We checked in our room and from there they kind of let us get on with it. Surges were not super intense at that point and did not need anything more than breathing exercise. I told my husband to go home and get some rest and I spent the night at the Birth Center trying to get some sleep between each surge.

In the morning, because it was more than 24 hours since my waters broke I got transferred to the delivery unit and got monitored. I told them I did not want to be sat down and they let me move around with the wires.

My surges started to get closer and stronger at that point but the midwife started to talk about induction. I asked them if I could have a vaginal check to see if I was dilated at all before making a decision.

They checked and were surprised that I was 4 cm dilated, a little bit of waters were in front of her head and they asked if they could break the waters, I agreed.

From that time, Monday 4pm, I was in active labour. I got naked, asked for a yoga ball, birthing stool and a floor mat and breathed through every surge. I told them that I would keep the monitor but that they would need to move around with me when I changed position, and they did. (The wires really did not bother me)

It was so intense, powerful and primal but I was in control. I asked for gas and air to help a little and it took me to another dimension, I was in my zone.

At 8pm the night shift started they assessed me and I was 7cm dilated. The midwife was fantastic. She read my birth preferences and asked my husband if I had lights and music to make the atmosphere a bit more like my wishes. They set that all up and she suggested a few different position on the bed to help me rest a little as I have been on my feet or all fours or squatting for the last 10 hours.

At around 1 am she assessed me again and I was 9 to 10cm and this went on until 3am where I got assessed by a consultant who suspected her head was sideways and therefore would make it difficult to progress any further.

At this point we discussed delivery with induction drip, epidural and probably forceps or c section.

I used my BRAIN and asked for a gentle c-section. I asked the surgeon to let her head out and then gently the body. I asked for delayed cord clamping and to have her on my chest straight away. All these were agreed and executed.

They confirmed that her head was 90 degrees side ways and would have never been able to get down naturally.

The midwife took the music with her in theatre as well and the atmosphere was kept calm and gentle. I then was transferred to recovery with my baby girl on my chest. I was exhausted but it was a nice feeling like I had done four marathons or 10 kick boxing matches and won all of them!!!

We were transferred to the ward and little baby girl had jaundice so had to stay there with light therapy for a few days.

We went home after 3 nights and are now both healthy.

At no point was Drew in distress. She was super chilled inside waiting patiently to be born.