Jellycat
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It all began when I was 40+ 5 and given a sweep. I was told that I was 1cm dilated but my cervix was still thick and long but in a central position which is important. Midwife said it all looked promising and that I would be booked for an Induction at 40 + 14 at 7pm.
I woke on the morning of 40+12 and found that both my feet were incredibly swollen and hadn’t gone down as they usually do overnight when elevated. I rang the midwife who said to pop into the surgery at 4.15pm. When I saw the midwife she said the swelling was fine and whilst I was there did I want a second sweep.... as my induction date was only 2 days away I said yes. Since the previous week my cervix had changed to 2cm and short but still thick. I went home and had no cramping or spotting and started to become very disheartened. By the time my DH arrived home I was in floods of tears saying how I really didn’t want to have to be induced as I would have to stay in hospital overnight on my own and be monitored 24/7 and knew that it was likely to be more painful as you haven’t got the gradual build up of contractions as you would going into labour naturally.
By 9pm I had calmed down and sat down on the sofa to have my dinner and had a few sips of my DH lager (first time since being pregnant). During eating my dinner I had three ‘episodes’ where I had to stop eating and concentrate on my breathing as it was quite uncomfortable. I decided not to mention to my DH as we had 5 weeks of episodes which felt like I was going into labour to discover it was a false start. Shortly afterwards as I went to get up from the sofa I felt this strange feeling down below which felt warm and wet.... I then turned to DH and said I think my waters have just gone!
I never expected my waters to go as my sister both times had long labours where her membranes had to artificially ruptured and so I assumed I would be the same. At this point I sat on the loo for 15 minutes DH saying I should call the hospital whilst me trying to get up to find another gush of waters. Within quarter of an hour I managed to get through 3 pairs of knickers and Maternity Pads. Eventually I rang the hospital who asked for me to come in to check that it was my waters and that everything was OK. Within 15 minutes of my waters rupturing I began to feel regular contractions every 4 to 5 minutes lasting 45 seconds at a time.
At the hospital they confirmed that it was my waters and were happy that they were clear. They gave me the option to stay in (it was 11pm at this point) but that DH would have to go home, or to both go home and wait until either .....
• Waters were no longer clear
• My Contractions became more regular and frequent and lasting for over a minute
• I required further pain relief
When we got home I had a shower and washed my hair (this was always my plan) and was managing to breath through each contraction. By 4am my contractions were becoming more intense so decided to then take paracetamol, shortly afterwards I asked my DH to put the pads on my back for my TENS machine which I had hired. I wasn’t convinced how effective this pain relief would be as my contractions didn’t include back pain it was merely intense pain very low down on my bump (where you have period pain) however I am now so pleased I had the TENS to use.
By 6.30 am at 40 +13 I rang the hospital to say that I wished to go in and be seen as the pain was becoming very intense and I felt that I needed to be checked. The hospital said as it was only a few hours since my waters went that I would likely be sent home, but I didn’t care and said I needed to come in. The car journey to the hospital was really uncomfortable and then to have to walk the long route through the hospital and upstairs I was having contractions every 3 minutes and had to constantly stop along the way. When we got to the delivery suite the Midwife said that as my waters had gone they didn’t want to give me an internal due to an increased risk of infection however I said I wished for further pain relief therefore they agreed to check me. They found I had progressed to 4cm and wafer thin cervix, I was in active labour !! Knowing this meant I had the mental strength not to take any further pain relief and continued to use my TENS.
For a couple of hours I continued to walk around the room, sit on the birthing ball or just stand and sway. I said that my plan was to ideally have a water birth with only the use of gas and air, however I stated that I was open minded to this plan as I wasn’t sure what to expect as this was my first birth. Unfortunately the Midwife was finding it difficult to monitor the baby’s heartbeat every 15 minutes whilst I was standing so each quarter of an hour I had to lay on the bed for a couple of minutes. Due to the heart monitoring being difficult the Midwife stated that she didn’t feel comfortable for me to have the water birth. I agreed and said the baby’s monitoring is more important.
By 11 am I had my second internal to find I had progressed to 8-9 cm dilated and now 100% effaced. I couldn’t believe I had done this purely with the help of DH, hypnobirth breathing techniques and my TENS. As the contractions were becoming closer and more intense I decided to start using the gas and air. This initially made me vomit quite violently however this soon passed. My baby’s heartbeat began to become suspicious and therefore asked for me to be monitored continuously, this therefore meant I had to stay on the bed to be monitored as it couldn’t be found when I stood.
By 1pm I was at the 2nd stage of labour fully dilated and should be shortly be feeling the urge to push, however as I had been laying on the bed now for an hour to be monitored I found the urge never arrived. The midwife recommended that I go to the toilet to see if that helped. I was able for the monitoring to be temporarily stopped and to go to the loo as soon as I stood up the contractions started to come back stronger by the time I got to the loo I had an immense urge to push. The midwife asked me to go back to the bed and I pleaded I could stay where I was just for one more contraction. Got back to the bed and stood and swayed and really could feel the pressure and urge to push it didn’t hurt it just felt normal. The midwife and sister at this point requested I got back onto the bed to monitor the baby. As soon as I was back on the bed the urge to push stopped and contractions slowed down. My midwife asked for a birthing stool to be told this hospital didn’t have one so bed it was.
Between 3pm and 5pm things all became very confusing... I had a number of different midwives and doctors coming in and checking on me. They decided that it had been too long in the 2nd stage without progression that they said I needed an epidural and Syntocin to increase the intensity of my contractions. I couldn’t believe after all my hard work of wanting a natural labour I was being told that I had little option but to have the epidural and Syntocin. I can’t put into words how disappointed I feel that this step had to be taken, if only they could have left me to stand and move around I and the midwife are convinced that my babys birth would of been different.
By 6pm the contractions had increased but due to the epidural I still wasn’t having the urge to push. By this point I had around 7 people in the room 3 doctors, 2 midwives and others looking like they are not doing much. I was told by the doctor that Id my baby was not delivered within the hour then I would need to be taken for c-section as it had been too long in 2nd stage and that the baby is likely to become distressed.
By 7pm I was told I had two options 1) to continue pushing for another half an hour and if not c-sec or 2) try assistance with Kiwi Ventouse. By this point I was willing to try anything to avoid the C-sec. I was given an episotomy to assist using the suction cap and was told to push hard with each contraction whilst they used suction. Within 3 contractions the head had been delivered and at 7.15pm I found that we had a son James Douglas born with Apgar score of 9 at 1 minute and 10 at 5 minutes. He weighed in at a healthy 8lb 13.5oz . Even though my baby’s birth didn’t go to plan I’m thankful every minute of the day that he’s healthy and delivered safely and wish to thank my DH for being by my side throughout supporting me.
I woke on the morning of 40+12 and found that both my feet were incredibly swollen and hadn’t gone down as they usually do overnight when elevated. I rang the midwife who said to pop into the surgery at 4.15pm. When I saw the midwife she said the swelling was fine and whilst I was there did I want a second sweep.... as my induction date was only 2 days away I said yes. Since the previous week my cervix had changed to 2cm and short but still thick. I went home and had no cramping or spotting and started to become very disheartened. By the time my DH arrived home I was in floods of tears saying how I really didn’t want to have to be induced as I would have to stay in hospital overnight on my own and be monitored 24/7 and knew that it was likely to be more painful as you haven’t got the gradual build up of contractions as you would going into labour naturally.
By 9pm I had calmed down and sat down on the sofa to have my dinner and had a few sips of my DH lager (first time since being pregnant). During eating my dinner I had three ‘episodes’ where I had to stop eating and concentrate on my breathing as it was quite uncomfortable. I decided not to mention to my DH as we had 5 weeks of episodes which felt like I was going into labour to discover it was a false start. Shortly afterwards as I went to get up from the sofa I felt this strange feeling down below which felt warm and wet.... I then turned to DH and said I think my waters have just gone!
I never expected my waters to go as my sister both times had long labours where her membranes had to artificially ruptured and so I assumed I would be the same. At this point I sat on the loo for 15 minutes DH saying I should call the hospital whilst me trying to get up to find another gush of waters. Within quarter of an hour I managed to get through 3 pairs of knickers and Maternity Pads. Eventually I rang the hospital who asked for me to come in to check that it was my waters and that everything was OK. Within 15 minutes of my waters rupturing I began to feel regular contractions every 4 to 5 minutes lasting 45 seconds at a time.
At the hospital they confirmed that it was my waters and were happy that they were clear. They gave me the option to stay in (it was 11pm at this point) but that DH would have to go home, or to both go home and wait until either .....
• Waters were no longer clear
• My Contractions became more regular and frequent and lasting for over a minute
• I required further pain relief
When we got home I had a shower and washed my hair (this was always my plan) and was managing to breath through each contraction. By 4am my contractions were becoming more intense so decided to then take paracetamol, shortly afterwards I asked my DH to put the pads on my back for my TENS machine which I had hired. I wasn’t convinced how effective this pain relief would be as my contractions didn’t include back pain it was merely intense pain very low down on my bump (where you have period pain) however I am now so pleased I had the TENS to use.
By 6.30 am at 40 +13 I rang the hospital to say that I wished to go in and be seen as the pain was becoming very intense and I felt that I needed to be checked. The hospital said as it was only a few hours since my waters went that I would likely be sent home, but I didn’t care and said I needed to come in. The car journey to the hospital was really uncomfortable and then to have to walk the long route through the hospital and upstairs I was having contractions every 3 minutes and had to constantly stop along the way. When we got to the delivery suite the Midwife said that as my waters had gone they didn’t want to give me an internal due to an increased risk of infection however I said I wished for further pain relief therefore they agreed to check me. They found I had progressed to 4cm and wafer thin cervix, I was in active labour !! Knowing this meant I had the mental strength not to take any further pain relief and continued to use my TENS.
For a couple of hours I continued to walk around the room, sit on the birthing ball or just stand and sway. I said that my plan was to ideally have a water birth with only the use of gas and air, however I stated that I was open minded to this plan as I wasn’t sure what to expect as this was my first birth. Unfortunately the Midwife was finding it difficult to monitor the baby’s heartbeat every 15 minutes whilst I was standing so each quarter of an hour I had to lay on the bed for a couple of minutes. Due to the heart monitoring being difficult the Midwife stated that she didn’t feel comfortable for me to have the water birth. I agreed and said the baby’s monitoring is more important.
By 11 am I had my second internal to find I had progressed to 8-9 cm dilated and now 100% effaced. I couldn’t believe I had done this purely with the help of DH, hypnobirth breathing techniques and my TENS. As the contractions were becoming closer and more intense I decided to start using the gas and air. This initially made me vomit quite violently however this soon passed. My baby’s heartbeat began to become suspicious and therefore asked for me to be monitored continuously, this therefore meant I had to stay on the bed to be monitored as it couldn’t be found when I stood.
By 1pm I was at the 2nd stage of labour fully dilated and should be shortly be feeling the urge to push, however as I had been laying on the bed now for an hour to be monitored I found the urge never arrived. The midwife recommended that I go to the toilet to see if that helped. I was able for the monitoring to be temporarily stopped and to go to the loo as soon as I stood up the contractions started to come back stronger by the time I got to the loo I had an immense urge to push. The midwife asked me to go back to the bed and I pleaded I could stay where I was just for one more contraction. Got back to the bed and stood and swayed and really could feel the pressure and urge to push it didn’t hurt it just felt normal. The midwife and sister at this point requested I got back onto the bed to monitor the baby. As soon as I was back on the bed the urge to push stopped and contractions slowed down. My midwife asked for a birthing stool to be told this hospital didn’t have one so bed it was.
Between 3pm and 5pm things all became very confusing... I had a number of different midwives and doctors coming in and checking on me. They decided that it had been too long in the 2nd stage without progression that they said I needed an epidural and Syntocin to increase the intensity of my contractions. I couldn’t believe after all my hard work of wanting a natural labour I was being told that I had little option but to have the epidural and Syntocin. I can’t put into words how disappointed I feel that this step had to be taken, if only they could have left me to stand and move around I and the midwife are convinced that my babys birth would of been different.
By 6pm the contractions had increased but due to the epidural I still wasn’t having the urge to push. By this point I had around 7 people in the room 3 doctors, 2 midwives and others looking like they are not doing much. I was told by the doctor that Id my baby was not delivered within the hour then I would need to be taken for c-section as it had been too long in 2nd stage and that the baby is likely to become distressed.
By 7pm I was told I had two options 1) to continue pushing for another half an hour and if not c-sec or 2) try assistance with Kiwi Ventouse. By this point I was willing to try anything to avoid the C-sec. I was given an episotomy to assist using the suction cap and was told to push hard with each contraction whilst they used suction. Within 3 contractions the head had been delivered and at 7.15pm I found that we had a son James Douglas born with Apgar score of 9 at 1 minute and 10 at 5 minutes. He weighed in at a healthy 8lb 13.5oz . Even though my baby’s birth didn’t go to plan I’m thankful every minute of the day that he’s healthy and delivered safely and wish to thank my DH for being by my side throughout supporting me.
