Birth story - Shannon and baby girl

Did a private test for group strep b which came back positive when I was 37 weeks, I was told I wouldn’t be able to give birth in my local MLU but that I could go to one 40 minutes away so I accepted that as it was the best option for me I was devastated but I wish I had of realised it was ok as it all worked out for the best!

At 38 weeks I had just had 3 days of my maternity leave and I decided to drop some clary sage oil in my evening bath, shortly after I got into bed and I felt and heard my waters pop. I phoned the maternity unit and made my way there even though I wasn’t having contractions as I needed to be given antibiotics every 4 hours to prevent the spread of infection to the baby. Once I got there they checked me over and said I might have to go to the labour ward if the contractions didn’t start and as if by magic they started coming 2 minutes apart and 50 seconds long. I used my up breathing throughout and they checked to see how dilated I was and I was shocked that I was already 3cm, they admitted me to the MLU (home from home).

Once in the home from home it was explained to me that because of the group b strep there was a time limit on when my baby had to be born before intervention for her safety, my hubby set up the affirmations, sprayed the room spray and got the music going while I stayed in UFO position and breathed through my contractions with my tens machine. Once I got to 5cm I started using the gas and air (it made me vomit a lot so my midwife suggested an anti sickness injection to stop this and I accepted it as it meant I could continue to use gas and air and not other means of pain relief that I may of been moved to the labour ward to get)

I spent the rest of the night in what seems like a blur using my gas and air and moving about the room in different positions on the ball, crash mat, leant over the bed, in the birth pool and on the toilet doing my upbreathing alongside the gas and air. When my midwifes were swapping over in the morning I had a bit of a wobble and cried but they checked me and much to my delight I was fully dilated and I didn’t need to worry as the other midwives were amazing. I got back in the pool and they got me in different positions and I breathed my baby out (well mooed her out lol!!) at 9.04am.

I had skin to skin and delayed cord clamping and then moved onto the bed for stitches while I snuggled my baby and sucked on the gas and air - definitely not as bad as I expected and wish I hadn’t of worried so much about tearing! I’m so happy that I was able to have a water birth and a relatively quick and straight forward labour from start to finish roughly 12 hours which isn’t bad for a FTM! I just hope that others who discover they have group strep b realise that you can still have such a fabulous birth.