ITS A LONG ONE SORRY!

So as I’m sat here with my newborn daughter lying in my arms, 5 days after birth and feeling incredibly emotional and down I thought it might help for me to write out my birth story.

My due date was 20th March 2019 - my Mum’s birthday - id always expected that I’d go over this with it being my first baby and also would be just my luck that I’d end up being induced so this is what I prepared myself for.

However, come 6am on my due date and my fiancé leaving for work I start getting cramps. I’m thinking “hmm could this be it or do I just need to poop for the 10th time?” So I decided to start timing the pains just to see it there was any consistency. They were pretty consistent from the beginning at 2-3 minutes apart for about 30-40 seconds but definitely bearable. I stayed in bed for a few hours just timing each one and then decided I’d get up and head to my mums house so I wasn’t alone.

Contractions carried on all day, I just kept an eye on them as I was unsure of how long to wait before heading to the hospital as I didn’t want to get sent home. I waited 13 hours in the end until my fiancé finished work and we headed up to the hospital at 7pm. Once I got there, they said they would wait and see how i progressed before doing an internal exam as the contractions were still quite short and they thought I was just in the early stages of labour and that it could last a few days.

A few hours later they examined me and I was at 3cm so they decided to get me to stay. I used gas and air and got in the pool for a little while. This definitely helped me relax but it also made my contractions slow down so I got out and returned to the bed. I was examined again 4 hours later and was still at a 3! I had the decision of staying in the local hospital for another 4 hours to see if I progressed or being transferred to a hospital a bit further away so that I could be given more pain relief. I decided I couldn’t cope on just the gas and air as the pain was already too intense so was transferred to a different hospital. The ambulance actually initially took me to the wrong one in the wrong direction which was very stressful but was okay in the end when I eventually made it to the correct hospital.

Once I’d got to the correct hospital they gave me diamorphine so that I could sleep as I’d already been awake for 24 hours and was exhausted. The next morning the contractions were still the same intensity and length so they said they would leave me to progress for a bit but they took away my pain relief as they didn’t think the contractions were strong enough for it (I beg to bloody differ!). About 4pm in the afternoon they examined me again and said if I was still at a 3cm then it would be best for me to go home but anything over that they would keep me in. To my surprise and joy I was at a 5 so this Mumma was staying and having a baby! Since I’d got to a 5 they started doing regular checks on the baby every 15 minutes and I carried on with my gas and air. When I was next examined I was at a 7, still coping with my gas and air. At about 9.30pm the midwife said if I hadn’t progressed further or my waters hadn’t gone by midnight then they were going to break my waters and put me on oxytocin to ramp up the contractions. An hour later i asked if I could have the diamorphine again in preparation for my waters breaking

and so she said she would go ahead and examine me to see where I was at now. She ended up breaking my waters at 10.30pm and started me on the drip. Over the next few hours I knew I wouldn’t have much longer to ask for the epidural so I asked for this and got it put in. It didn’t work on one side at first but luckily after the doctor came back to fix it it was working. I was so exhausted by this point that I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew it was 3:15am and they said we were going to start pushing at 4am.

I couldn’t feel my contractions so once it was time to start pushing the midwife had to tell me when. I’ve got to be honest, when I was pushing I felt like I wasn’t doing anything and that I wouldn’t be able to push the baby out. They were a bit concerned about the babies heart rate as it kept dropping and this just made me more anxious. In the end they had to cut me to get the baby out, but after only 23 minutes of pushing she was out and placed on my tummy. I couldn’t believe she was out as it all just felt so surreal. After 47 hours in labour I finally had my baby in my arms.

Thank you so much for reading this far. I feel like writing this down has definitely helped

me feel a bit better. Mia Grace born 22/03/2019 at 4.23am weighing 6lbs 10oz.