Birth story - Sarah and baby Jude

Pregnancy:

I was very lucky to have an uneventful and easy pregnancy. I experienced some nausea in the first trimester but was never sick. I had a couple of growth scans, two for measuring small and one for a growth spurt. But otherwise it was a very smooth ride which I’m super grateful for!

I completed the PBC hypnobirthing course twice through (with my husband the second time), having had the course recommended to me by a friend. I also attended pregnancy yoga to help find comfortable labour positions and optimum positioning for baby.

Labour:

Sunday 2nd April, I went to bed at 21:30ish with mild cramping and tightening (after a relaxing day, bath, and the first time I’d attempted colostrum harvesting). A few hours later, I woke up around midnight (Monday 3rd April) feeling cramps, lower back ache, and noticing tightenings. I laid there wondering if it was all in my head and did some googling, until I got up about 2:30am to go downstairs and attempt to time them/figure out if anything was actually happening! Timings were irregular and random but I felt assured that they definitely came and went. My husband had got up with me as he was too excited to sleep 😂 around 4am we called triage and they asked us to come in because I was only 36 weeks 2 days. Just before we were about to leave, I went for a wee and noticed some of my mucus plug had come away. This made me really believe that this could actually be happening!

We arrived at hospital around 5am. We were monitored for about 40 minutes and the midwife confirmed I was experiencing tightenings. I was offered a cervical check in order to try and visualise my cervix and determine whether I was dilating or not, which I agreed to, and this was performed with a speculum and a swab to determine whether my waters had gone (swab was positive but dr didn’t seem to think they’d actually broken). I was also offered a vaginal examination which we declined on the basis that the doctor said from speculum check cervix was closed so zero dilation and therefore no active labour. The VE felt pointless after that hence declining. We had a pre-booked growth scan at 8am, so we hung around at the hospital for this. The scan was all good, and they predicted baby was weighing approx 6lb 12oz.

We headed home (around 9am) not really knowing what was going to happen next, with my cervix being closed we thought maybe it was a false alarm and the tightenings would subside. But as the morning went on, the tightenings continued and became more intense. Having only slept for two hours the previous night, I went to bed around 11am to catch up on the lost sleep, and I napped for about 1.5 hours.

When I woke up, the tightenings were stronger and I started using the Freya app up breathing to breathe through them, although I could still talk during them at this point. I was getting convinced this must be labour. The Freya app was pretty much on non stop from this point, flicking between the relaxations, positive affirmations and up breathing. Around 4pm, my husband and I walked the dog around the block, and then headed to Tesco after to pick up our snacks for labour. I had three contractions in Tesco, and had to stop in my tracks to breathe through them. We got home and I went back to bed after a period of feeling overwhelmed (I think really it was me going through the realisation that this was really happening and I was scared).

I listened to the Freya apps positive affirmations in bed, had some food and found relaxing helped me settle back into a relaxed mood. Once I felt calm, I went downstairs to the fireplace, candles and low lighting whilst leaning on my birth ball.

The contractions became more and more intense and closer together, until I was having to shut my eyes and couldn’t talk through them, and they were occurring around 2-3 times every 10 minutes lasting for around 40-70 seconds. We went back to hospital around 9:30pm, after more monitoring, it was confirmed via a vaginal examination at 11:20pm,that I was 4cm dilated. I remember saying “yay!!!” And I was so happy because it confirmed that everything I’d gone through already was infact labour as I thought it had been, and the contractions I’d had were productive. Because we were only 36+2, my “plan A” of a water birth in the midwife led unit was not going to happen, as the hospital wanted to monitor baby for the duration.

Fortunately, thanks to hypnobirthing I knew we could still make the experienced personalised and conducive with the Labour I wanted to have.

The doctors also wanted to put a cannula in to give me antibiotics as a standard practice pre term precaution, and this was to protect baby against Group B Strep just incase I was a carrier. This is where BRAIN really came in useful. We asked for some time to consider this, and came up with a number of questions we wanted answering before we made a decision. We weighed up the risks and benefits, what it meant for my labour and what I felt in my gut, and we decided to decline the antibiotics.

We were transferred into room 3 on labour ward, and my husband set the room up with our lighting (led tea lights) and an aroma diffuser. The hospital also had a relaxing projector visual on the ceiling which made it a nicer atmosphere. Once we were set up, I tried to sit on a birth ball for a while but I felt I needed something more stable. I moved to the bed and was on all fours leant over the head of the bed which had been raised up, and started with my tens machine at this point. I had another VE and I was 6cm at 2:15am. Really started to struggle at this point and was frustrated I wasn’t further along. It felt like I’d been in labour for a long time at this stage. I started on gas and air after this to help cope with the intensity. I had another VE and was 8cm at 6:20am. Around this time I started questioning whether I could keep going for much longer. Also around this time I started labouring on my sides and trying to rest between contractions because I felt so exhausted. Approx 8:30am I requested another VE because I felt like my contractions were changing and I could feel pressure in my bum a bit like I needed a poo. They did a VE and confirmed I was 9cm. My waters broke in a huge pop and gush about 20 mins after the VE. Around this time things did start to feel quite relentless, I had the Freya app on counting me through constantly, I found this was the only thing keeping me focused and by this point I really couldn’t feel the tens machine anymore! The contractions were essentially constant, although I think I experienced the rest and respite phase for about 20 minutes, both my husband and I fell asleep (albeit for about 15 seconds at a time 😂).

The pushing phase started around 9:30am, with my husband and at least two (more were in the room at different times) midwives encouraging me to push. I started on all fours but one of the midwives suggest I turn over to see if it gets baby moving. So I turned on to my back for the last part to push baby’s head out (a position I NEVER thought I’d give birth in!). I used my husbands head and body as a stress ball throughout this 😂 the pushing phase felt long and incredibly exhausting, but I built motivation once baby’s head started to crown. At one stage a doctor came in to the room and said they were considering an episiotomy and an assisted delivery, and that gave me ultimate push to do this! I managed to get baby’s head half way out but then the contraction went away so had to sit like that til the next one (ouch - although I don’t have any distinct memories of a “ring of fire” as such, just intense pressure and feeling like I’d pushed my body to the absolute limit). With the next contraction baby’s head came fully out. Next push body was delivered and we had our baby put straight on my chest.

We cried and laughed and I kept saying “it’s a baby!” for a couple of minutes, until we decided we were ready to find out whether baby was a boy or a girl! I moved the towel and the umbilical cord out the way and we saw at the same time we had a beautiful baby boy. We had skin to skin for a good hour after.

I had a second degree tear to my perineum - I can honestly say I did not feel this happen and tearing should not be something to be scared of. When you’re in labour you are focused on getting your baby out with every cell in your body, nothing else matters and you just won’t notice! I had stitches for this after and this was also fine (I was on gas and air and I didn’t even feel the local anaesthetic).

The most notable things about my experience were:

- First of all, I feel incredibly positive about it and I’m unbelievably proud of myself

- My legs were trembling quite violently and constantly throughout my labour, not sure what that was about but assume it was probably adrenaline.

- I had to physically push a lot more than I expected to. It was very intense and exhausting, but also what I’m most proud of. I’m so much stronger than I ever thought I was!

- It really did feel like a major workout and now I don’t think I’ve ever even tried in the gym 😂

- I was sick at about 9cm and then pretty much straight after giving birth. I think this was shock and exhaustion!

- The up breathing kept me focused and really got me through. I found gas and air gave me something to focus on and gave me a “reason” to follow the breathing. The tens machine was also a great distraction from the contractions between 4-8cm.

- Birth partners have such an underrated role. I couldn’t have got through it without the constant encouragement from my husband.

- Delivering the placenta (I had the injection) was absolutely fine and painless. I had to push once and the midwife guided it out and that was it!

In total, I had 21 hours of early labour and 14 hours of establish labour, including one hour and a half of pushing. Baby Jude Robert born 11:01am Tuesday 4th April 💙