Pregnancy & Birth
hospital to be told that my waters hadn’t broken and I wasn’t in labour. I think that did me the world of good as I went home thinking this ISN’T it and that evening we ordered a takeaway and watched banal TV whilst I periodically bounced on my birthing ball.
I had a reasonable night’s sleep for someone in late pregnancy and woke up on Saturday 12th December excited to buy our first Christmas tree in our newly-refurbished flat. Before getting out of bed I remember saying to my partner that I felt as though there were some strong pains in my tummy but it was nothing like the Braxton Hicks I had felt. He joked, telling me it was going to be weeks before I had our baby. He popped out for some bread and I then pretty much spent the entire morning in the bath, which I never normally do. Even at this stage, I think we were both slightly in denial that I was actually in labour. We tried to time the contractions but everything seemed to roll into one without any clear pattern and after speaking to a midwife at the hospital, we were advised to stay at home until things had progressed further. By 2pm we had made our second phone call and as the contractions were becoming stronger, we were told we could come in if we wanted to.
I struggled to get down the stairs from our first floor flat and across the road to the car but once we were in the car, my partner put the seat heater on for me and I felt so relaxed and comfortable that I didn’t have a contraction at all on the way to hospital. We were worried about being turned away if I wasn’t far enough along and we felt slightly ridiculous that I may not be in labour after all but after a 25 minute journey, we decided we would rather be a bit embarrassed so we continued into the car park. From the car park into the hospital I was in a lot of pain, but when I reached the midwife led unit, I relaxed again.
Before I was taken into the examination room, I was asked to give a urine sample. I was handed a small pot which I think I actually laughed at and it was promptly replaced with a bed pan! However, I couldn’t produce anything for them and this led to a doctor being called over from the labour ward, a catheter inserted and being told I may have a urine infection, in which case I would not be allowed to stay in the midwife unit. I had all the other checks such as blood pressure and everything was absolutely fine and then the final check they did was to see how dilated I was and to our utter surprise, I was nine centimetres dilated! In my memory the next part was quite funny. With the urine infection now dismissed, others around me seemed to start to rush and wanted to get me settled in a delivery suite, but all I felt was calmness that I had done the hard part and was now in safe hands.
I was asked if I wanted the birth pool to be filled so I said yes, and the relief when I first stepped into the pool was incredible. I naively thought that having being told I was ready to push, that after a few pushes we would finally meet our baby. I was very wrong about that and over two hours later, with just gas and air, I was still pushing and feeling as though I wasn’t getting anywhere. I stayed in the pool but in hindsight, I believe I should have let gravity play its part a lot sooner and got out! The midwife who had been with us throughout sensed the baby was getting tired and when we heard the heart rate drop on the monitor, I was helped out of the pool - and very quickly too. I took a few very uncomfortable steps over to a bean bag and mat on the floor and after a couple more big pushes, our baby finally arrived.
Ciaran was absolutely nothing like we had imagined he would be – he had a shock of jet black hair and was a bit jaundiced but he was in our arms and safe and I had achieved it… and in the midwife-led unit too.
I didn’t have a birth plan and I think, for me, that was a good thing. I did what felt right on the day, with support around me and I know I was very fortunate. I had what I now look back on as a wonderful experience.