I found out I was expecting my second baby in the summer of 2014. We were delighted as that would mean Charlie would be a big brother with a 2.5yr age gap. Overall the pregnancy was much easier that my first, although I did have some bleeding around 6 weeks so had an assessment at the Early Pregnancy Unit and was reassured all was well. I had awful SPD after Charlie was born (unusual but not unheard of, and so was referred to the maternity physios at St Peter’s who were brilliant and meant that I was pretty mobile for the whole of the pregnancy.
Charlie had arrived in about 3 hours at 40+1 and for some reason I was convinced that this would be the same, or even earlier. I even convinced myself that my waters had gone at 39 weeks (which wasn’t the case). I’d started getting contractions at 40+1 and Graham rushed home from work in Oxford. I saw my midwife who confirmed from the trace that they were contractions rather than Braxton hicks, but also said that my cervix wasn’t at all favourable and so it was likely to be a while.
At 41+1 I was offered a sweep, which I took up and went to triage one evening as my usual midwife was on an evening shift and offered to see me before she went on call. Unfortunately she said that my cervix was still closed. As was standard, I was then booked in for an induction at 41+6, and really hoped that I wouldn’t need it. I’d heard all sorts of stories about inductions and so really wasn’t looking forward to it.
Over the following few days my contractions continued to come and go but nothing really happened (despite trying every old wives tale). The day before I was booked in, we had a lovely family day out with Charlie as we knew it would be the last time it would be just the three of us.
I arrived at St Peter’s early on the Sunday morning. It took a while to be seen but by late morning I was making myself at home on the ward. After various checks, including what felt like hours on a monitor, I was finally given the pessary. Graham and I went for a stroll around the grounds to encourage things, and all of a sudden my relatively gentle contractions kicked in. By late afternoon I was monitored again and my cervix was still closed. This wasn’t going to be fun.
By 9pm the contractions had really got going but they wouldn’t examine me again, although offered me some paracetamol, which I gladly accepted. Graham had to go home and so we sorted my stuff out and I settled down for what I was expecting to be a long and uncomfortable night.
By about 10pm I really wasn’t enjoying things, they examined me to find I was finally 2cm dilated (!) and I wanted some gas and air but wasn’t allowed it on the ward so was offered some pethidine to take the edge off the contractions. I hadn’t wanted it but as I was expecting things to go on for a lot longer accepted it.
At 11pm I was feeling really uncomfortable and so got up off the bed, when all of a sudden my waters broke, there was lots of blood and I had the urge to push. Not the greatest experience of my life. The ward had 5 other expectant mothers, all trying to sleep and I was in total shock not knowing what to do. I called for the midwife who came running and text Graham to give him the heads up. I didn’t want to get back on the bed to be examined but she was insistent. She found I was fully dilated and all of a sudden about 4 other people descended. They grabbed my stuff, offered me a wheel chair (I wanted to walk to keep active, but made it about 4 steps before almost collapsing into the lift). One of the midwives said she’d grab the emergency delivery kit and another raced ahead to open the doors and call the lift. Within minutes I was on the delivery suite, in the first available room. Lights were turned on, packs of equipment were being opened and the special cot the baby goes into on arrival (Katie – no idea what it’s called so do replace if you know) was turned on. I once again refused to get on the bed so stood leaning on it, begging for gas and air. One of the midwives checked my husband had been called. Before they connected the gas and air, my baby girl arrived! She was scooped up onto the bed in front of me. I was very insistent that her cord wasn’t clamped (partly because of the health benefits but also because I wanted Graham to cut the cord if possible).
There was more commotion and Graham came running through the door (having been all over the place looking for me)! He made it in time to cut the cord and agree on Rebecca as her name. It was 11.50pm and my active labour had been recorded at 22minutes.
After a few hours getting everything cleaned up (including another second degree tear which had to be sutured) we were taken back to the Joan Booker ward. It was so busy that I had a private room to myself. Graham had to go home as soon as we were settled in, and I had a lovely few hours getting to know Rebecca in peace. Several of the midwives who’d seen me earlier in the evening were amazed at how fast it had been.
Graham came back in the morning and we were discharged later that day. We went home and introduced Charlie to his younger sister, our family now complete.
Although the final labour was very fast, and the contractions much more painful than I remember them being with Charlie, being induced was nowhere near as bad as I’d feared it would be.