Imogen Jones - Baby GIrl - 9lb

Born 1st Aug - Due Date 6th Aug

My Rainbow Baby

I’m from the UK.

I was told I had to be induced at 39 weeks if baby didn’t arrive naturally due to polyhydramnios, high expected birth weight & baby having a right aortic arch.

Being induced was the last thing I wanted after reading so many horror stories about them. I had 2 sweeps before reaching 39 weeks and bounced on my birthing ball at every opportunity! Nothing made a difference and before I knew it the date of my induction arrived.

I checked into the hospital at 11am on 30 July and was given a pessary which was expected to work within 24 hours. I was checked several times throughout and remained at 1cm. My first contractions arrived around 10pm and hit me hard. I couldn’t get comfortable and panicked thinking if this is what 1cm feels like what would 10cm feel like?!

It took until 3pm the next day for me to get to 3cm and dilated enough for them to break my water and move me to the delivery suite.

From here things progressed quickly and I kept being told we were on track for baby to arrive that night. We were so excited to find out if we would have a July or Aug baby! At 6cm I decided to get an epidural because I was so scared I wouldn’t cope with the pain and didn’t want it to be too late to get one. Prior to this I was managing well on gas and air. I’m not sure if this is what slowed me down but it took until 11:30am the next morning to reach 10cm. The epidural worked well however I had back labour and the pain in my back remained throughout.

I pushed hard for 1.5 hours. I honestly thought my head would fall off the effort I was putting in. The machines were not picking up my contractions so a doctor had to feel and tell me when to push. Eventually multiple doctors came to tell me my baby was stuck behind my pelvis and no amount of pushing would let me deliver without intervention. I was devastated but just wanted my baby out safely.

My epidural was topped up and the doctor tried to pull the baby down with their hand so that they could use forceps or suction cap to help baby along. Every time the doctor let go of the head the baby moved back so it left no option but to have a c section. Again something I was terrified of but my partner remained by my side throughout.

My baby arrived safely at 13:24. We were team yellow and over the moon to find out we had girl.

I’m not 10 days pp and recovering well. I definitely underestimated how painful a c section recovery would be and also trying to exclusively breastfeed but we’re getting there it’s the most rewarding thing in the world.