Birth story - Selena and baby Penelope

*Trigger warning*- speaking about Induction, assisted delivery and use of forceps.

I wanted to share my birth story with you! My birth didn’t exactly go to plan but overall we had a really positive experience. And after reading all the amazing birth stories throughout my pregnancy which gave me a huge confidence leading up-to my birth, I knew I wanted to share mine whatever the outcome.

I had a pretty easy ride throughout my pregnancy, maybe too easy! I had the usual sickness in my first trimester and tiredness in my 3rd but no major issues throughout and my pregnancy was low risk from the start.

After doing the positive birth company digital pack, which was recommended to me by a friend, I got fully engulfed in hypnobirthing and knew I wanted to have a natural birth. Mine and my partners evening past times consisted of watching home water birth vlogs on YouTube and working our way through the pack! We both felt fully confident and I was actually feeling very excited for the birth!

Fast forward to the 21st of March, Penelope was one week “over due” I was feeling slightly anxious that she still wasn’t here, as my midwife had been talking about inductions and sweeps and we had family and friends constantly asking ‘is baby here yet?!’ We tried all the natural ways to bring on labour.. dates, pineapple, raspberry leaf tea, walks, spicy food & sex. At this point I was kind of prepping myself for the induction that I didn’t want to have. We went to bed around 7.30pm and popped a film on. I must have been in bed for about 10 minutes and then I felt and heard an unusual pop in my belly. I instantly thought wow is that my waters breaking, but I didn’t want to get my partner excited until I knew for sure! I went to the toilet and water was trickling down my legs and I knew it was my waters ! I called my partner in and we both got super excited!

It didn’t take long for my surges to come into force and I thought I was going to have a pretty quick labour. My partner called triage and they told us to monitor the surges and to call back if things start to ramp up. We started timing the surges which were getting closer together and more intense. We called back and they sent a midwife out to us around 1am, she monitored and timed the surges for around a couple of hours and then went to examine me. To my disappointment I was only 1cm dilated. She told me to get some rest and call back in the morning if things seem to be progressing.

Come Monday morning the 22nd March, my surges were becoming very intense, I wasn’t able to sleep through the night at all and I didn’t want to have a bath incase it slowed things down. I worked through my surges by walking around, bouncing on my birth ball and also spent a lot of time on my hands and knees which really helped me to get through them.

At around 10am my partner called back triage and they sent out two midwifes, they monitored me again for a couple of hours and then went to examine me, by this point I thought I must be close as the surges had really intensified. Much to my dismay I was only around 1-2 cm and my home-birth wasn’t looking very likely. As my waters had broken the night before, I had been given a 24 hour window to get into spontaneous labour or there would be a high risk of infection to my baby and the birth would be consult led, which was something I initially didn’t want.

The midwifes left around 3pm, they’d booked me a room at the hospital for 8pm to examine me and this point I still had the option for a hospital water birth depending on how far I’d dilated.

We went in at 8pm and by this point I was extremely tired as I still hadn’t slept and the surges were getting longer, closer together and a lot stronger. I had my final examination and I’d only made it to 3cm.. the doctor came in and gave me my options. She told me that the risk of infection was now really high and the priority was to get baby out as soon as possible, I still had the choice of trying for a hospital water birth but she strongly recommended against it and by this point my dream water birth I’d planned really wasn’t a priority, I just wanted to make sure she was born safe and sound.

My partner got to work with making the room as nice as possible. He stuck up my affirmation cards, plugged in the diffuser, put my birth playlist on and laid out some electric candles. Then mine and babies heart rate had to be closely monitored and I had to be induced with the hormone drip to get things moving along. My midwife could see how tired I was and how I was struggling with the surges, she highly recommended for me to have the epidural as it was likely going to be at least another 6 hours before baby gets here. This was another thing I didn’t want to have, but I had to listen to my body and I knew in that moment it was the best decision for me. After the epidural kicked in I managed to drift off and finally get some sleep. I woke up around 4 / 5am to the news that finally I was fully dilated and I was very close to meeting my baby! The midwifes told me I need to get ready to push, although this didn’t seem instinctive to me so I was mainly focusing on my down breathing techniques. After pushing/breathing through my surges, baby’s heart rate started to slow down a little and the doctor came and said we need to assist you a little and get her out as quick as possible. She told me she was going to have to make a small cut and use forceps, which did panic me and my partner. The doctor assured us this was the best thing to do as she needed to help baby get her head out and that baby would be able to do the rest. After a tense moment that felt like a lifetime, my midwife told me to feel down and touch my baby’s head, I can’t describe the feeling I felt in that moment. It was a mixture of absolute joy, relief and feeling very overwhelmed. Her body came out not long after and she was immediately brought to my chest for skin to skin, she wasn’t making any noise and I started to panic and cry and was just asking is she okay?! I looked down at her little face and her eyes were wide open, she looked just as shell shocked as I did. She was born at 05.54am on the 23rd of March, safe, healthly and my partner and I are both completely in love with her.