Birth story - Tash and baby Ruel

My pregnancy was what I considered to be straight forward. It was deemed to be low risk. Quite early on in my pregnancy, I decided on a water birth in a midwife led unit which I was very excited for. My Midwife did encourage me to consider a home birth but that option was a bit daunting for me. My scans at 12 weeks and 20 weeks were positive and they got us very excited to meet our baby.

I came across the Positive Birth Company on Instagram and ordered their book when it was on sale. I had a pre-conceived notion of giving birth as being a negative and horrible experience but this book taught me that it could be the opposite! Especially as most people insisted on sharing their traumatic birth experiences with me. They couldn’t believe that I had such a positive attitude.

When it came to measuring my bump, my results were skewed so I ended up with two growth scans which showed our baby following the correct centile. I went on maternity leave at 34 weeks which was such a good decision. I indulged in a lot of self care. My due date came and went. I accepted that I wouldn’t give birth on this date as I didn’t really experience labour symptoms apart from looser bowels. I decided to put my phone on ‘do not disturb’ from week 39 in order to shield myself from people asking if I was in labour/had given birth! I downloaded the Freya app to use when it time came.

I had my 40+2 midwife appointment and I was offered the sweep which I declined. We began to speak about inductions but I didn’t want to discuss this at this point and wanted to see if my body could labour naturally. However following this appointment, I ended up in a negative mindset and doubted my ability. I cried every morning upon waking up to see that I wasn’t in labour. My Husband was much more positive than me and would say that our baby will arrive when they’re ready. We began to read the positive affirmations provided by the positive birthing company before bed.

I had my 41+2 midwife appointment and following a lot of internal discussion and discussion with my Husband, I decided to have a sweep. The sweep however couldn’t be completed in its entirety as my cervix was 0cm and my cervix was posterior. Baby was 2/5th’s engaged. I also decided to have an induction booked at 42 weeks but was clear that if one induction method was unsuccessful then I would want an elective c section. I wanted to feel as though I had some sort of control over the birth of our baby.

After the appointment, I broke down and had a panic attack in my Husband’s arms. It was probably the most vulnerable I’ve ever felt my entire pregnancy. I cried for hours as I felt that my body had failed and wasn’t capable of birthing my baby. I then accepted that, whatever the birthing method, I would be meeting my baby. I decided to meet up with the other expectant Mums to be from the NCT class I attended and we had coffee and cake. I definitely needed some oxytocin and company as I had found the post-due date days to be the most isolating.

I watched a comedy on Netflix and also went on a late night walk with my Husband. We then went to bed at midnight. Two hours later I work up to wetness between my legs. I went to the toilet and was surprised to see my mucus plug! 30 minutes later, the surges commenced and they were coming in every 10 to 18 minutes. This carried on for a few hours with the surges then coming in every 10 minutes from 7am. Up until this point I had used up breathing through my surges but felt as though a shower would help for some relief. I stayed in the shower for 20 minutes and had two surges.

Once dressed, I continued to labour in the living room and was finding it increasingly hard to concentrate on watching TV. We decided to put up our Christmas tree 3 days prior so we kept the blinds down and curtains drawn and just had the Christmas tree lights as a light source. Any time I had a contractions, I would say “pressure” and that was my Husband’s cue to apply pressure on my lower back. He also gave me hand massages, water and snacks in between surges.

I had breakfast but a strong contraction meant that I vomited it all back up. We had our diffuser on with a “fireside” fragrance oil but it made me feel sick! Occasionally I would go and sit on the toilet (where I opened my bowels and also experienced surges) which offered some relief.

I decided to call the delivery suite at 10:50am to advise that I was in labour with surges coming in every 6 minutes. They advised that as it was still early, I should carry on managing labour at home. I agreed and carried on. The surges continued with their intensity and I had another shower. With each surge, I would visualise our baby and water birth and kept repeating “every surge is bringing me closer to my baby”. I also would say, “you’ve got this girl!!”

I called the delivery suite again at 1:30pm to advise that my contractions were now 3 in 10 minutes but they said that because I hadn’t yet tried a bath and didn’t need pain relief that I should continue at home. They advised I have a bath for an hour and call back afterwards. We ran a bath and I lasted 40 minutes before the Freya app said I was in established labour. With my last two surges, I felt a downward shift in my birth canal and I knew that baby was on their way!

I told my Husband it was time to go and he helped me get dressed and off we went to the hospital. I called them whilst we were on our way just so that I couldn’t be kept at home again! They asked if I had taken paracetamol and I told a white lie and said that I had when I hadn’t lol.

We arrived at the hospital and I was ushered into our suite. When we arrived I felt a trickle down my leg and said that I had pissed myself but it was actually my waters breaking. I was checked at 3:35pm and I was 4cm dilated!! I was so proud that I had gotten this far. We waited for the pool to fill up which took an age and I had gas and air whilst leant over the bed.

At 16:59, I was checked and I was 10cm dilated!! I couldn’t believe it. Off I went into the pool and at 18:28, Ruel was born weighing 6lb 1oz. My Husband announced that he was a boy!

Ruel was a little blue when born and his cry was weak so the emergency buzzer was pushed and in stormed 10 health professionals. A Midwife tried to cut the cord but I insisted that my Husband cut it which he did. When they were satisfied with his obs, we had around an hour skin to skin and he latched for his first feed. My Husband also had skin to skin.

We stayed in overnight as Rue had pooed in the womb and my placenta took over 2 hours to be delivered via active management and later manual management (this was worse than the birth) and needed a 4 hour oxytocin drip. I didn’t have any tears and did not require stitches.

Never did I think I would have the power to have a birth like the one I had. For months I had visualised the birth of my child and during each contraction I would visualise the final moments before he was born. This helped immensely. The Freya app was a GODSEND!! As my labour progressed, my breathing was faster than the voice in the app haha but I was still doing in for 4 and out for 8. Thank you to PBC for transforming how I view pregnancy and birth.