Birth story - Vicki and baby Elsie

My Instagram tag is @prettylittlehome12

‘It was Sunday 22nd September and I was 40 plus 5 and I had been experiencing very light irregular contractions over the past 48 hours following my second sweep. My husband and I took this time to cosy up indoors, with our favourite foods and films. I tried to nap as much as I could but my contractions would wake me. It got to 5pm on the Sunday night and my contractions stopped so I thought okay this is common with a first pregnancy and a bit annoying but maybe I will take advantage and go to sleep and rest. I sat on my bouncing ball for half an hour before heading upstairs to bed. Whilst talking to my husband I had this big random contraction (wasn’t painful at all but like pressure!) and like that my waters went EVERYWHERE! (I don’t know how I thought I could ever miss my waters going by accident). I also lost my mucus plug and I rang the hospital. They asked us to come in and get checked.

As we drove in I decided that if they were to send me home (which was likely) then I would ask to wait the 12 hours then come back and get a pessary, I did not want to wait the full 24 and have to go straight on a drip.

We arrived at the Maternity assessment unit and began to monitor me and baby. My waters were clear and everything was okay. As I was left in the room on the monitor my contractions started to ramp up, about 2 1/2 - 3 minutes apart. I continued using my up breathing and my husband counted me through every bit of breathing. The midwife couldn’t believe this and assessed me at 3cms. She said things were moving quickly and even though I wasn’t in active labour yet I may as well stay in and go to the midwife led unit. We were made up and moved into the unit around midnight. We settled in. I tried to eat some snacks and drank my water. The room was amazing and across the corridor was our own pool room with mood lighting - it was incredible.

I wanted an active labour and despite the contractions ramping up, I didn’t not want to be laying down. We walked around the dimly lit ward and stayed active and my husband helped me up breathe through every single contraction. (Do not underestimate the power of a great birth partner - if it wasn’t for him I would have struggled)

I was examined at 2:30 and I felt like things were starting to ramp up, they confirmed I was 5cm and could now have any pain relief I wanted but I wanted to wait it out a bit longer. However after the examination this felt like it really kicked things along, I asked the midwife if we could go in to the pool.

We got into the pool and very quickly things started to change, I was definitely in transition. I felt like my body wanted to push, this made me feel overwhelmed for a moment, I started to think, ‘how was this actually going to happen’ and also I felt it was too early as they had just told me I was 5cm. These urges continued and my midwife told me to go with it, I wanted to know if I was close. I thought I can’t continue to push if I’m only 5, she explained I had to get out the pool for an examination, so I agreed.

It took two midwives to examine me (which didn’t really help things) I was 10cms already but they could feel babies ear (baby girl was on her side and not in the right position)

The midwife told me if I got back in the pool my pushing would eventually move her and then she could be born. I then spent four hours in the pool pushing (my husband told me this, I thought it was 30 minutes!) I won’t lie, things got hard and I began to ask for pain relief. However I didn’t want diamorphine to affect the baby, I gave gas and air a go and it wasn’t for me. At this point I was falling asleep in the pool, in between every contraction. I was becoming more and more exhausted. My husband had been giving me constant sips of water as this helped my nausea and the midwife noticed I hadn’t gone to the toilet for a long time. They had to fit a catheter so I could pass urine, they explained that this probably would help the situation as my bladder was likely blocking baby.

After four hours I felt as though I couldn’t continue in the pool, the effect had worn off and I wanted to be stood up again. At this point I could see the morning light through the blinds and this started to affect how I felt. I couldn’t believe I was still pushing. The midwife explained that they needed to do coached pushing on the bed (not my idea of birth) I tried but I was too exhausted.

Things started to shift and they got the doctors in. They examined me and couldn’t tell which way baby was. The senior doctor came in and scanned me to find position of baby, at this point I was having gas and air as I was so uncomfortable. However I knew that everything was going to be okay no matter what happened, whilst we discussed the next steps with the doctor he actually asked if I was an obstetrician because of my knowledge surrounding birth (thanks The Positive Birth company!!)

They prepped me for a ‘trial’ so they would try forceps, then ventouse then cesarean. Unfortunately we had to wait an hour and a half until we went in to theatre as an emergency had gone in ahead of me, I was just thankful for our baby was not in any distress even though I was struggling with the pain. They finally took me down to theatre and they gave me a spinal tap (albeit whilst having severe contractions - my husband was still counting for me bless him!) and our surprise baby daughter was born at 11:24 via forceps and episiotomy. She was placed on me straight away and had skin and skin and the feeling was just overwhelming, every second of that labour was entirely worth it.

The staff at Liverpool Women’s Hospital where incredible and I cannot thank them enough.

Even though my labour did not end how I envisaged, I got to 10cms on paracetamol, codeine and mainly up breathing. The midwives commented on how I must have a great pain threshold and couldn’t believe how well I had done. (I don’t have a low pain threshold at all but I believe the up breathing helped me cope more than I ever thought possible)

Because she was stuck they had to intervene but the knowledge I had gained through the Positive Birth Company book helped me process and cope with the labour. I will be recommending this book to every one of my pregnant friends so thank you Siobhan!