Birth story - Sophie and baby girl

**Tigger warning** : previous GBS meningitis, previous traumatic birth, reduced movement, pregnancy anxiety.

Previous birth

Our first daughter was born in 2017 with an emergency c-section. I had 3 days of latent labour (which at the time I had never heard of), I was exhausted by the time things actually progressed. I had privately tested for GBS and knew I was positive, I had the antibiotics as soon as my waters broke but little one still managed to get unwell. Unfortunately we were left too long by midwife and it wasn’t picked up as quickly as it could have been. Once DRs were called (midwife hadn’t actually noticed temperature she called them for baby’s position) they were incredible and baby was out within 30 mins. We had an extended hospital stay on special care after this to treat her.

We are extremely lucky that our little (now big) girl is 100% fine with zero meningitis complications

Pregnancy

We had a relatively straight forward pregnancy. Once I started doing the Positive birth company course I realised that the hospital we gave birth to our first daughter would not be the right place for us to go again. Coupled with the fact they had messed us around with consultant appointments / bad experience with sonographers we used our BRAIN and decided to change hospital at 21 weeks. From then on we had exceptional maternity care. Our little girl didn’t have a regular pattern for movement so I was up VERY frequently being monitored, all always showed baby as absolutely fine. We also had to have a few extra growth scans as baby had a two cord vessel, again everything always shown completely on track.

We were 99% sure we would be having an elective section (the day was even booked) but when my GBS results came back negative at 37 weeks we used BRAIN and with help from our wonderful consultant changed our mind to trial a VBAC.

Birth

We went in for reduced movement (again) on Thursday evening. As I was over 39 weeks they offered to book induction for next day which we agreed to.

I was already 2cm so didn’t need any assistance dilating before waters could be broken.

They broke my waters at around 10am they said they will leave me for 4 hrs to see if I start contracting on my own, this was wonderful we got to get up and walk around the research park where the hospital was to get things moving along. Had a good few laps around the lake chatting and sat and had lunch with the ducks.

I lost more waters and by 1pm I was getting very mild contractions, regularly, but very mild. We headed back to our labour room where the wonderful student midwife had shut the blinds and set up our fairy lights, tea lights, and put on an amazing starlight projector. It was very cosy and special. We also had some laminated drawings that our 4 year old had drawn for me and put them on the wall. This all really helped to have such a positive environment I felt so calm.

I was examined again at 2pm and still only 2cm dilated so drip was started.

Laboured with drip for around 2 hours moving around hospital room - contractions building to the ‘3 in 10’ at about 4pm I was still only 2cm I asked for pethidine. The drip was ramped up a fair bit now which made contractions very strong and regular. The pethidine allowed me to get some rest as I was aware I needed to conserve my energy for the pushing part. My husband was wonderful helping with using my oils and checking if I wanted change in music etc

About 30 mins into using pethidine and with using gas and air I knew I would want an epidural (the drip had been ramped up fairly high by now). I asked to be added to list. My husband ensured that was what I wanted by checking my birth preferences and reminding me of other things I could try. I knew with using the drip the contractions were so intense I would need the epidural to ensure I had enough rest for the pushing.

The epidural was administered around 6pm - the epidural was different to to my last hospital, it wasn’t as strong but took the edge off (I could still walk around etc) - I also still needed to use Gas and Air during some of the contractions. I could ask for top up of the epidural every hour. I had top up at 7pm and 8pm. At 7pm I was 7 to 8cm dilated.

The drip was making the contractions come around 5 in 10 so they decided to stop that at around 7/8pm. Once it was back to ‘my own body’s’ contractions the pain was a lot more manageable and I didn’t need to ask for top up of epidural at 9, 10 or 11.

At 10.45ish they realised that baby’s heart rate was dipping slightly during contractions and they wondered if this was her coming down the birth canal so they did an examination 30 minutes early, it certainly was, and at 11pm we started to push.

I hadn’t had an epidural top up for a few hours but was still ok, I used my head as I knew it was a possibility that I may need a cut so I asked for HALF a top up at 11.30pm which I got. We did pushing for an hour before getting Doctors in (VBAC policy).

Doctors were extremely happy with my pushing but baby had twisted completely to face the ceiling but her back still sideways. They confirmed this with a scan. They tried to use a suction cup to gently twist her and coach her around but she had too much hair and it wouldn’t suck .

Luckily she had somehow managed to twist herself though in those last few contractions to a good position so doctors were happy to use the forceps spoons in the labour ward (didn’t need to go to theatre) to keep her in position and coach her out. The spoons weren’t used to ‘pull’ at all.

Once in position everything moved super quick which surprised the doctors - her head was out on the next contraction at 00.29am then she literally fully shot out on the following one at 00.32am.

She was bought up to me straight away for (very) gunky cuddles and we got to stay like that for an hour while they stitched me up (I had episiotomy and 2nd degree tear both absolutely fine and manageable).

We had delayed cord clamping and she didn’t need to be taken away for any checks straight away which was the best feeling ever

I had lost a lot of blood somehow (1.5litres) so we had to stay on labour ward for 6 hrs until they could check my iron levels, these came back so high the doctors couldn’t believe them so they repeated them again at 12 pm (still high) so we got to leave hospital when baby was just 15 hrs old.

The positive birth company helped us so much during pregnancy and the birth. We were able to keep positive in every situation, we were fully ok with whatever decisions needed to be made as long as baby was healthy. The midwives and doctors at our new hospital fully respected this and monitored us so closely I felt so safe and looked after.