Thought I’d take the time to write down my labour and delivery story whilst it’s still fresh in my mind. Hope this helps anyone who is wondering what labour is like, and as a first time mum I enjoyed reading these throughout my pregnancy. I’m trying to be detailed, if you don’t like long posts... This one isn’t for you!!

Tuesday 24 July started pretty normally, I was 38+4 and my mum had been nagging me to get my hospital bag sorted and so she took me to get the last bits and pieces that I needed that afternoon (Mums intuition maybe??) and I sorted my bag throughout the day.

Dinner time comes and goes uneventfully, I made a pasta bake with lots of veg to try and feel a bit better about overindulging! Anyway my husband fell asleep on the sofa shortly after dinner and my back was starting to ache a little and I couldn’t get comfy so I decided to go and lie in bed for a bit.

Fast forward an hour and I rolled onto my other side and literally felt a ‘pop’. Surely not my waters I remember thinking to myself... Anyway to the bathroom I went and right enough, gush (and I mean a gush!!) of fluid and I thought uh oh, my waters have broken. At this point though I wasn’t contracting so I knew I had to phone triage at the hospital to let them know that.

At this point I still couldn’t move from the toilet as high volumes of fluid was still making its way out so I phoned my husband to come upstairs 😂 He didn’t quite believe me at first but must have seen by my face that I was being deadly serious 🙄

I told my Mum as she was to be with me and my husband when I delivered. It was around this time I started to get contractions, they started out as a dull period like pain, definitely manageable. I phoned the hospital to let them know my waters had broken and after timing a few of the contractions as they got worse. They advised me to monitor them for 2-3 hours and phone back then to update them, unless they were coming every five minutes lasting at least a minute. Mines were around 30 seconds every 3-4 minutes at this point.

Anyway, an hour goes by and they were lasting 40-50 seconds and were every 2-3 minutes so I was starting to worry that I was progressing quicker than I thought I was so I phoned the hospital. They told me to come in and get checked but to be aware that if I wasn’t far enough on then I might have to go home for a while. So my husband packed the car and off we went, at this point they were pretty painful to the extent where I didn’t want to speak during a few of them. They still felt like period pains, but intense period pains.

We arrived at the hospital around 11 and I was checked by the midwife at 11:15 who advised me that I was 2cm dilated (I legit could have cried at this point as I was in a fair amount of pain) so they offered me paracetamol and dihydrocodeine (which did absolutely feck all in terms of pain relief I’d like to add!) and was told I’d be checked again in an hour to see how I was progressing. At this point I was asked if I wanted to try any methods of pain relief such as aroma therapies or using the birthing pool so I took the opportunity to try both (anything for some relief!).

I have no idea if the aromatherapy helped but the birthing pool helped the pain of around 2-3 contractions 🙄 At around 00:30 the midwife didn’t want to take me out of the water to check how dilated I was so I was told if I needed someone to call but I’d be checked in another half an hour.

A midwife came in to check me at around 01:00 and I had a lot of pressure in my bum as well as the intensity of the contractions, properly intense period pains at this stage. Cue a message to my mum telling her to come to the hospital ASAP. I was offered gas and air to try and cope with the pain but within a few puffs I was throwing my dinner back up so I wasn’t going near that again.

The poor midwife said she had to leave for a minute but to call if we needed anything, she had literally been out the room for a matter of seconds and I told my husband to call her back because I was getting such a strong need to push. All the while having no idea if this was normal or whether I was even dilated enough to push 😂😂 I couldn’t get comfy lying or on my bum at this stage because of the pressure and I felt like I wasn’t coping with the contractions very well. So I moved to lean against the side of the pool and stayed on my hands and knees.

The midwife came back and had a wee look and said that if I felt the urge to push, then to do so because my body knows what needs to be done. I started pushing properly around the same time as my mum arrived, roughly 01:20 and our beautiful little girl arrived at 01:46.

The main points that I was interested in pre-labour when reading other people’s birth stories:

Contractions: although very similar to period pains, the intensity is something I’ve never experienced.

Pushing: feeling the need to push, trying not to put too fine a point on it, feels like you need a massive 💩😂. The pressure I felt in my backside was unreal but manageable.

‘Worst bit’: in terms of pain, was definitely her head crowing and pushing past that part so the rest of her body could be born. That felt quite stingy and it burned.

Pain relief: none basically. You can argue with me and say I had paracetamol all you want but they did shit all for the pain.

Being completely honest, I didn’t believe the whole ‘as soon as the baby is born you forget about the pain’. It’s honestly, 100% true. Within a millisecond if my daughter being placed in my arms, I wasn’t in any pain. My mum got to cut her granddaughters cord, as my husband is squeamish 😂 An experience she will likely never forget.

I should add that I had to get stitches as my body hadn’t had a long time to stretch but those really weren’t all that bad and they numb you up before starting.

All in, my water broke at 19:50 and our beautiful daughter made her arrival less than six hours later, so not all first labours last forever. I’m living proof of that 😂 With any luck this long ass birth story can put minds at ease but I mostly wanted to write it all down whilst it was still fresh in my mind.

Rhiannon Taylor Davies, arrived at 01:46 on 25 July weighing in at 5lbs 6oz and measuring 43cm long. Our hearts are so full of love for our precious little girl ♥️