Pregnancy & Birth
It seems that Maries’ ‘birthing positions practice’ was a little too efficient as less than 3 hours after the NCT class on Sunday, when Bushra and I were relaxing at home Bushra jumped out of bed and what can be best described as a full hot water bottle held between her legs was emptied directly on the floor. “OMG my waters have broken – but it’s only 34 weeks and 4 days. This should not be happening.” We phoned the hospital and due to the ‘pre-term’ were told to come in straight away. Bushra had prepared all the cases. No time to call a cab, so we drove over to Chelsea and Westminster. When we got there a consultant was waiting for us and she confirmed that Bushra’s contractions had started and she was at 1 cm.
We were taken straight to the delivery ward and got excellent 1:1 attention from a fantastic midwife. The midwife attached sensors to monitor the baby’s heart rate and strength of the contractions. I was able to see the screen, so could warn Bushra that the next one was about to come. The contractions continued throughout the night. Once the midwife was satisfied that things looked OK, she disconnected the sensors so that Bushra could move around the room and try to find a comfortable positions, the ball, the bean-bag the chair – she tried them all, and at each contraction more water onto the floor. All I was able to do was to try and hold her at each contraction.
At about 10.00 the next morning a doctor came and explained that due to the pre-term Bushra should be given antibiotics which would help to protect the baby from infection as the baby no longer had the protection of the waters, and steroids to help the baby’s lungs as they would not be fully developed. So from then on Bushra was connected to drips. At this stage there were still about 2 contractions in 10 minutes, and getting stronger and more painful.
The midwife advised her to try the ‘gas and air’ which really helped. All I could do was hold onto her at each contraction and keep hold of the mouth piece for when it was required. By now it was noon, and Bushra had been having contractions for more than 16 hours and was now at 2 cm. Still only 2 per 10. The Doctor returned and suggested that we should consider speeding things up. He said that they should give her Oxytocin to increase the strength and the speed of the contractions.
The doctor also saw that the effect of the gas and air was reducing and told Bushra that she should expect to have 4 or 5 per 10 really strong contractions for at least the next 4 hours! The midwife again gave us the choice, but advised us that an epidural would be wise, so we went for it. The effect of the epidural was dramatic. She could still feel the contractions happening, but now no pain. The epidural finally allowed Bushra to rest and me to sleep – the first time in 30 hours.
My birth story
Jim Oakley shares how his son Timothy decided to come early but not very quickly!
"the ball, the bean-bag the chair – she tried them all, and at each contraction... all I was able to do was to try and hold her"