So at 36 weeks my baby was breech. The plan was if my baby hadn’t moved to head down by 38 weeks I would schedule a flip by the doctor and get induced same day...and in the meantime I would try everything under the sun to avoid a manual rotation by the doctor.

So walking to work at 36 weeks + 1 day, about 15 feet from the door I feel the baby move, it’s arse just slightly to the right so that it is snug between my groin and upper leg. Kinda felt like I couldn’t move my leg, so I adjust my weight and footing to compensate then bam! I was falling, I reached my arms out to catch but they skid and I land on my chin and belly. I scream. My work is in a medical center so I change my route, get up as quickly as I can and try to walk to L&D. There is blood everywhere. Some people come and try to help, “sit down we will get the paramedic” but all I can think about is my baby, L&D is close I can walk there. I ignore them and walk. I make it to the front door and the next thing I know I’m in a wheel chair being whirled to the ER, there is a signature then I’m off to L&D. I arrive and get assessed. Possible broken jaw, split chin requiring stitches, scrapes and bruises to knees, elbows, hands and stomach....right where my babies head was. 😭.

They clean and stitch me up all while hooked into a monitor measuring baby’s heart rate...and my contractions. Which apparently were coming every 2 minutes. They check my cervix. I was 1cm and 20% effaced, very normal for 36 weeks pregnant. They wouldn’t know if I was in labor until there was a cervical change, this combined with a fall meant a minimum of 24 hours of observation. Baby is stable for now and I am at minimum pre-labor with my baby in breech. I ask about a manual rotation now but apparently it’s too soon after the fall and dangerous with these contractions. I have to wait. At some point my husband arrives and sits with me in the room. My Face CT comes back great and I don’t need surgery. I ask about my baby’s head and the fall, is my baby hurt? Will there be brain damage? The answer is we don’t know. But that the baby is stable and if the head was hurt the baby wouldn’t be in as good a state as it is.

At about 4pm everything looks good. I’m stable, not in labor but still contracting, baby is doing great so my husband decides to go home, look after the dog, get some sleep and come back at 4am tomorrow. Everything is great until ~8pm, the nurse comes in, adjusts the baby’s monitor, calls the doctor and I get put on oxygen. A desat? There was a dip in babies heart rate? The Dr said that it could just be normal. Panicked, I call my husband to come be with me. After 30 minutes and they are sure the baby is stabilized I get taken off the oxygen..However this happens another 3 more times during the night.

The nurse is optimistic and explains they will probably keep me until noon just to be certain and that I can be back at work tomorrow. My husband who is satisfied with this heads back home to deal with the dog and maybe go to work for an hour before coming back.

I get on my phone, log into my work email and update my boss on the good news. No sooner had I sent the message the nurse rushes in. She has me rolling this way and that trying to get the baby’s heart rate. I’m back on oxygen. Then bam 20 doctors race into the room. The doctor announced “We are prepping you for an emergency c section.” One of the nurses asks where is your husband? I feel myself panicking, I had no idea. I try calling him but I’m so panicked I can’t say anything understandable so the nurse gets on and explains the situation. She gets off and says that he is an hour away. I feel myself breaking. That translates to an hour and a half in my husbands speak. Whilst all this was happening with all the switching positions and oxygen my baby stabilized. Emergency level changes and they say they can safely wait for my husband and that I should be ready for surgery by the time he arrives. True to his word he arrives exactly 1 hour later just as the surgery starts and holds my hand and rubs my head throughout the entire surgery.

At 9:16 am we heard the beautiful cries come from our baby girl. One entire month early. After a few quick moments with her in the OR she gets whisked away to the NICU while they stitched me up. Our baby girl is alive.

So what was causing the drops in heart rate? Turns out that her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and with some of the really strong contractions the placental supply was being cut off due to her awkward positioning in my uterus. It meant this unknown to me at the time, dream delivery of a vaginal birth, would of been impossible with her breech position, rotation would of been extremely dangerous. Unknown to me, I never really had any options available, regardless of the fall I would of had a c section. As for her head and damage, although there was some bruising the doctors said that it was less than the bruises baby’s get with an ordinary vaginal birth. Turns out our baby girl has been extremely lucky!