Birth story - Verity and baby Delilah

*Potential triggers* - Photos of surgery, talk of antenatal blood loss and Postpartum Hemorrhage.

I thought I would share my birth story, which was an elective c-section due to placenta previa. It wasn’t the birth I had initially hoped for but it was very positive indeed, and I want to share it for anyone else in my situation struggling with the necessary change of plans outside of their control. It’s a long one but as someone who was searching for placenta previa experiences, someone may find the detail useful!

My first birth was fantastic. It wasn’t perfect, as I had a retained placenta that required manual removal, but the birth - apart from being a bit long - was a wonderful hypnobirthing-led, drug free experience in our MLU, very much thanks to PBC. I’d hoped so much for a repeat of it this time, but hopefully without the surgery afterwards!

However I had always joked that considering my first birth went largely very well indeed, that my second would end in a c-section, and it turns out my prediction was correct!

At 20 weeks I was told my placenta was low lying, but that it would likely move. I was buoyed by the number of people here and elsewhere who had seen theirs move, so I tried not to worry.

However at 30 weeks, I had a private scan which found it to be still low, which was a massive blow. And that’s when things started to get a bit scary - as is the risk with placenta previa, I had a small brown bleed at 32w, then a big, fresh red bleed at 35w that required me to call 999. I was away from home, with my daughter and without my husband. I had to leave my daughter with my childless friend (who got to experience changing her first nappy! ) and my husband got a lift from Surrey down to Poole (I had the car!) so he could be around if baby was going to come early.

I was taken to delivery but thankfully the bleeding stopped - I was given steroids as a precaution for baby’s lungs but after two nights in the hospital I was allowed home, and told to take it easy. I had a scan before I left and was told that my placenta was now a complete placenta previa, ie. covering the os (cervix) entirely.

I contacted my hospital once home and was told I would still have my scan at 36w to check on my placenta position, and a plan made from there. The scan showed it was now just approaching the os rather than covering it, but still too close for a natural delivery. I was booked in for a last scan at 38w and a c-section at 39w.

My 38w scan came around, and my placenta had moved to be a marginal previa, but still only 6mm away from the os (RCOG recommends 20mm for vaginal birth). At that point the consultant recommended me to bring the section forward to that week. I found this confusing, having been booked in for 39w when my placenta was in a “worse” position and having had no issues since 35w, my husband and I used BRAIN to decline and wait for 39w as planned.

That was until I had another small bleed after I got out of bed a bit awkwardly two days later. I was checked over and all was well, but using BRAIN again, we reassessed and to avoid more worry & any chance of an emergency situation, we decided to bring the section forward. My hospital helped me do this at very short notice to two days later (38+4), booking me in for an elective section on a day they would usually only have emergencies.

I had spoken to the consultant midwife at the beginning of the week about a gentle c section as is discussed in the course - it’s something my hospital are hoping to introduce as standard but they are only in the early process of doing so at the moment. Due to my anterior placenta previa making my birth high risk for heavy bloody loss, it was likely I couldn’t have the full experience (the “crawling out” of the baby probably wasn’t possible due to the bleeding I was likely to experience) and I had to accept that I could only have as much delayed cord clamping as was safe (again, due to haemorrhage risk) but I had everyone involved in the process at the top level visit me and talk through my birth plan on the morning, and explain any concerns or limitations there might be. I felt heard, and like my birth plan was really respected and understood, not simply written off because I was high risk.

We went down to theatre, and all the staff were incredible. I listened to PBC’s hypnobirthing MP3s as I couldn’t decide what music to listen to so Siobhan’s marathon journey kept me calm once again! The spinal all went smoothly, and we had the best anaesthetist who kept me calm and informed at every stage as requested, and who also took photos for us.

Baby was born before I knew it, the drape was lowered and she was put directly onto my chest as requested. She remained there for nearly three hours, with all weighing and checks done when we were ready, in recovery. She was a healthy 6lb 12oz and absolutely fine, in need of no extra help whatsoever, which had been my worry.

She had well over a minute of delayed cord clamping before I started to bleed fairly heavily so the decision was made to cut it for the safety of both of us, which I was made aware of and was happy with. I lost 1100ml of blood, much less than they were anticipating and I didn’t require a transfusion (though they did give me 280ml of my own blood back). I lost 1300ml with my first daughter so it felt like something of an improvement!

While I’m still a little sad my second, and likely last, birth wasn’t what I’d hoped at the beginning (and I didn’t get to use Freya!), I am so happy that I was still able to take control of the situation and make it a positive birth to remember for all the right reasons. A big thanks to PBC and Siobhan once again for being a brilliant birthing companion!