Birth story - Veronika and baby Adenike

*Trigger warning* - contractions, small 2nd degree tear, internal fetal monitoring, epidural, doubting my ability.

My pregnancy was low risk.. strong 24/7 nausea till 13th week but no extra scans, reduced movements, vitamin deficiency, etc.

I declined sweeps and was keen on declining induction as well and was ready to wait for the baby to get things going (if no complications occured of course).

Felt great until last day.

I was really excited to have water birth at MLU and my midwife was supportive of my hypnobirthing journey and preparation.

I woke up to my waters breaking around 4 am with very mild contraction/period pain. I woke my partner up and moved to the shower while he cleaned up and changed the sheets (I really recommend putting some disposable changing mats under your sheets.. glad we did).

I was wearing white underwear so I could see my bloody show and the waters seemed clear/yellowish.

I showered quickly and called the hospital at (4:11am exactly-my baby was born 4:11 pm). I was told to call around 7-8 am and let them know how I felt.

My partner asked me if he should get ready, lol, and I was like, ‘no go back to bed,’ as I wanted to have a bath to relax and focus and maybe use the Tens after.

Once I got in the bath the waters kept coming but changed to light brown colour with little dark bits. I caught one of them and smudged it in between my fingers. I immediately knew it was meconium.

I got out, put a pad on and called the hospital again.

They said to come in.

We grabbed our bags and went. The contractions (still nothing serious) started to be every 5-10 minutes (but I never actually used the Freya app, just my guess).

Drove like 15 minutes and came to triage.

I was taken to a room and attended by very lovely midwife. She examined me and said I am about 3cm and she checked the pad. It was like khaki colour waters but she assured me it is nothing serious and she’d seen worse.

They advised me that given the circumstances they would prefer me at the labour ward as the baby needed to be monitored.

Exactly what I wanted to avoid!

I agreed and tried to stay calm and not get too affected by the news.

We moved to labour ward and were given a room. That was between 8-9am and the contractions had also started coming stronger.

They put straps on my belly and and I was using the yoga ball and breathing through the contractions. I was offered gas and air but wanted to keep it for later.

Later came and I accepted the gas and air and was laying on my side at this point and just kept concentrating on my breathing but started to be quite loud, but it helped me.

The midwife asked my partner if I considered any pain relief such as epidural and he said no.

She then asked me as well, and I refused, she mentioned that she would not recommend pethidine as the baby was a bit sleepy, but I said I didn’t want anything.

At some point they wanted to use internal fetal monitoring. The midwife left to get another midwife to set it up and I started to cry as I really did not want this for my baby but I felt lost as I did not want to put her at risk and in between regular contractions coming every 2-3 minutes I just let them do it.

They could not attach it because of the amount of hair on her scalp (no heartburn at all for me though).

My partner later said the wire was left in me so not sure if they tried later (my baby has two tiny scratches on her scalp from them trying).

After that I was just going through the contractions, loud and clear, but still controlling the breath with gas and air. I was told I would be examined in the next few hours (at 4.15pm) and I am expected to be 7cm. I had no idea what time was.

Suddenly "pushing contractions" came and the midwife asked me if she could check how far I was and announced that I was fully dilated and it was show time, lol.

She told me just to follow my body.

I dropped the gas and air and started pushing.

I was in the ‘classic’ birthing position and I felt like it was not helping. After a few complaints they said (midwife and senior midwife) if I wanted to go on all 4’s I could but I just had no strength at all to make that move.

I kept saying I couldn’t do it but after 1 hour and 46 minutes of pushing she was finally born at 4:11 pm. Put on my chest and my partner cut the cord.

It was a beautiful moment.

I agreed to speed the process up with my placenta and was told I had a small 2nd degree tear so was stitched up (painless). Baby latched on straightaway.

They did some checks on the baby as she might have swallowed some of the waters.

After that I took super long shower.

I could walk easily and felt great.

I was brought chicken roast dinner which I demolished within minutes (last thing I wanted was food during contractions, but kept drinking plenty as the gas and air plus the breathing made my throat dry).

Then we were taken to the ward room with a beautiful sunset to watch and felt clueless of how to take care of my new baby haha.

I am really glad how my labour went even though I did not have my water birth (I know water even if only shower would have been a huge relief for me as I am water sign and I spent my pregnancy going swimming).

I truly believe focusing on my breathing helped me to dilate faster than expected.

I wish you luck all, smooth deliveries and healthy babies, mamas

*English is not my first language so please overlook some grammar mistakes*