24/7
Mummy to Sam & Abigail
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- Jun 11, 2009
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Well I'm now 36 hours post delivery and the little man is sleeping, so time to write my birth story. I don't want to forget any of it, as it was such a magical time, despite the pain and I have the greatest gift of all now, my beautiful little Sam.
I had been absolutely desperate for things to kick off since I turned 37 weeks.... After a worrying pregnancy with cord blood flow problems, and then growth scans showed he was going to be a little dot, I was desperate for him to just arrive and be here safely, but despite hundreds of raspberry leaf tea tablets, curries, DIY cervix exams, sex, clary sage baths I barely even had any braxton hicks, no show and baby wasn't even engaged most of the time, so I had almost given up hope of going in to labour naturally and was terrified he wasn't engaging as he was too big for pelvis.
The weekend before I was in hospital with high blood pressure, and various MW's kept bringing up the possibility of being induced if it didn't go down, and I was so upset as I really wanted to be able to give birth at the new birthing centre nearby, and not strapped to monitors in hospital. I was eventually discharged and told to keep my BP down and they would see on the day if I went into labour naturally what it was.
On Wednesday evening in desperation I decided on a clary sage massage, as it was the only thing left I hadn't given a proper shot to, and as OH was at work I couldn't be bothered to cook so just popped some pasta on for dinner, but decided to have sweetcorn with it, even though for the last few weeks I had completely avoided it, through fear of doing a sweetcorn poo during labour!!
I was disappointed when OH got home as I hadn't even had a BH all evening, and was so tired after no sleep for weeks and went to bed feeling very down. I had trouble sleeping that night but finally got to bed at around 2am whilst having a big old cuddle with OH. Suprisingly it was an amazing night sleep, but around 6am I started dreaming about having contracctions, or so I thought anyway, but the more awake I became the more I started to feel maybe they were real, but not exactly like BH's....
I got up and carried on as normal, but did start writing down the time between the contractions as I had done with alot of my BH's, just in case they turned out to be the real thing, but for the first time I felt quietely hopeful it was something more. By about 9.00am I was begining to find I needed to breathe through the pain and wasn't able to speak through them anymore, and by 10.30am I decided to telephone the birthing centre to let them know what was happening, and warn them at some point later I would probably be coming in. I spoke to the MW who told me to have a bath, some paracetamol and keep eating and drinking and see how they go. The contractions continued despite a bath and paracetamol and by now, were been six and three minutes apart.
At 3.30pm I telephoned the birthing centre again and told them I would be coming in, everything was starting to go up a notch and although I was happy at home, I was worried about how I would cope through a journey to get there, so off we went.... I was feeling amazingly calm still and was just excited to be on our way to meeting our little boy. OH said I was very focussed during the journey.
We arrived at the birting centre at 4.15pm and I was examined at 4.40pm and was told I was 4cm dilated and the baby was very very low and he had lots of hair and that my waters were bulging. As the MW said this they broke and the contractions really took off. They took bloods to recheck for pre-eclampsia, and thankfully they came back clear so I was allowed to stay.
The MW filled up the pool and OH went to the car to get my bags, and when he came back I had some biscuits as I was feeling shakey and hungry and got in the pool. I had really hoped to find some relief from the pool, but I found it really difficult to keep a grip on myself and felt very out of control, which wasn't what I wanted, and decided to get out and moved back to the bed. I instantly regained my composure and switched to gas and air, and at the time it didn't really feel like it was helping, but it regulated my breathing nicely and I found counting the breaths I was taking through the contractions really helpful.
At 9.30pm I was examined again and was told I was 7cm dilated. At midnight I was checked again and there was just one small lip of cervix remaining, however the midwife couldn't work out which position the baby was coming down but said he was right there waiting. By now I was having the urge to push, but was told not to, as the cervix lip was starting to swell. It took alot of focus, but I managed to somehow work through the contractions not to push and by 2.00am I was fully dilated and ready for action.
I ditched the gas and air at this point and started off pushing laying on my back on the bed, as by now I was very tired and wanted some support under my head, but baby was going back up after each push so the midwife suggested trying sitting on the toilet to see if baby naturally started dropping lower, but he didn't. I then switched back to the bed but laying on my side but he was still going back up after the contractions so I switched again to a birthing stool, but the same kept happening. The midwife then suggested going back to the bed as it was where I was most comfortable and they would try putting my legs in various positions. Slowly but surely he started to stay down a little with each round of pushing, but was coming at a funny angle and the midwife couldn't work out why. Eventually the midwife put on her sterile gloves ready for delivery and told me to listen to her carefully and she would guide me through when and where to push, and then at which points of crowning to breath through the pain of the skin stretching and she felt confident she could get me through with limited damage.
One midwife held one leg up by my head, and OH the other, and a few contractions broken into periods of pushing and breathing our beautiful son entered the world and was placed on my chest. Finally the difficult and prolonged pushing stage was explained.... He had come down by both hands by his face, and had then tucked them into his chest, stopping his chin from being able to drop down for delivery. At 4.34am Sam entered the world and OH cut the cord.
As one midwife took Sam off as he was struggling to clear some mucus, another checked me for any tearing, and expressed her suprise that I had managed to come away with just a couple of grazes, despite him coming down with his hands by his face and chest, so I was very very lucky.
After giving birth I had a shower about 5.30am and we then moved accross to the ward to wait for the baby check for Sam, and for our rhesus blood results to come back. OH was allowed to stay with us, and we enjoyed our first few hours as a family of three, and a little while later we were joined by my Mum, Nan and brother. After hours of waiting we finally left for home at 2.30pm, only 10 hours after Sam was born, which was absolutely what I wanted and would have been much sooner but for the Centre being busy with two other new mums and three just coming in.
I have been incredibly lucky with my birth, and am so enternally greatful to the wonderful staff at the birthing centre who quite literally made all my dreams come true, and helped us to bring our little boy into the world in exactly the way we wanted. I can look back already and say it was an amazing experience and they were a real credit to NHS staff eveywhere as they put everything in to making it perfect for us, listened to everything I wanted along the way, and encouraged me to believe I could do it. My OH was an amazing support, and I couldn't have done it without him, and so far he has shown himself to be an amazing father and I couldn't be more proud of him.
I had a sweep previously booked for the Friday, and was absolutely terrified, but once labour started everything just disappeared and I didn't care about any of it, and thank goodness I didn't with the array of wonderful position my legs had to go into to try and move the head around. Thankfully my sweetcorn poo worries didn't materialise, as despite leaving my dignity at the door I think that may have been one part of the labour that would have haunted me. 
So after 23 hours of labour and two and a half hours of pushing our beautiful little boy Sam was born, weighing a lovely 7lbs8oz with a huge amount of very dark brown hair and we couldn't be more proud.
If anyone is going to Farnborough Hospital and has the opportunity to use the Oasis Birthing Unit, I can't recommend it highly enough.
I had been absolutely desperate for things to kick off since I turned 37 weeks.... After a worrying pregnancy with cord blood flow problems, and then growth scans showed he was going to be a little dot, I was desperate for him to just arrive and be here safely, but despite hundreds of raspberry leaf tea tablets, curries, DIY cervix exams, sex, clary sage baths I barely even had any braxton hicks, no show and baby wasn't even engaged most of the time, so I had almost given up hope of going in to labour naturally and was terrified he wasn't engaging as he was too big for pelvis.
The weekend before I was in hospital with high blood pressure, and various MW's kept bringing up the possibility of being induced if it didn't go down, and I was so upset as I really wanted to be able to give birth at the new birthing centre nearby, and not strapped to monitors in hospital. I was eventually discharged and told to keep my BP down and they would see on the day if I went into labour naturally what it was.
On Wednesday evening in desperation I decided on a clary sage massage, as it was the only thing left I hadn't given a proper shot to, and as OH was at work I couldn't be bothered to cook so just popped some pasta on for dinner, but decided to have sweetcorn with it, even though for the last few weeks I had completely avoided it, through fear of doing a sweetcorn poo during labour!!
I was disappointed when OH got home as I hadn't even had a BH all evening, and was so tired after no sleep for weeks and went to bed feeling very down. I had trouble sleeping that night but finally got to bed at around 2am whilst having a big old cuddle with OH. Suprisingly it was an amazing night sleep, but around 6am I started dreaming about having contracctions, or so I thought anyway, but the more awake I became the more I started to feel maybe they were real, but not exactly like BH's....I got up and carried on as normal, but did start writing down the time between the contractions as I had done with alot of my BH's, just in case they turned out to be the real thing, but for the first time I felt quietely hopeful it was something more. By about 9.00am I was begining to find I needed to breathe through the pain and wasn't able to speak through them anymore, and by 10.30am I decided to telephone the birthing centre to let them know what was happening, and warn them at some point later I would probably be coming in. I spoke to the MW who told me to have a bath, some paracetamol and keep eating and drinking and see how they go. The contractions continued despite a bath and paracetamol and by now, were been six and three minutes apart.
At 3.30pm I telephoned the birthing centre again and told them I would be coming in, everything was starting to go up a notch and although I was happy at home, I was worried about how I would cope through a journey to get there, so off we went.... I was feeling amazingly calm still and was just excited to be on our way to meeting our little boy. OH said I was very focussed during the journey.
We arrived at the birting centre at 4.15pm and I was examined at 4.40pm and was told I was 4cm dilated and the baby was very very low and he had lots of hair and that my waters were bulging. As the MW said this they broke and the contractions really took off. They took bloods to recheck for pre-eclampsia, and thankfully they came back clear so I was allowed to stay.
The MW filled up the pool and OH went to the car to get my bags, and when he came back I had some biscuits as I was feeling shakey and hungry and got in the pool. I had really hoped to find some relief from the pool, but I found it really difficult to keep a grip on myself and felt very out of control, which wasn't what I wanted, and decided to get out and moved back to the bed. I instantly regained my composure and switched to gas and air, and at the time it didn't really feel like it was helping, but it regulated my breathing nicely and I found counting the breaths I was taking through the contractions really helpful.
At 9.30pm I was examined again and was told I was 7cm dilated. At midnight I was checked again and there was just one small lip of cervix remaining, however the midwife couldn't work out which position the baby was coming down but said he was right there waiting. By now I was having the urge to push, but was told not to, as the cervix lip was starting to swell. It took alot of focus, but I managed to somehow work through the contractions not to push and by 2.00am I was fully dilated and ready for action.
I ditched the gas and air at this point and started off pushing laying on my back on the bed, as by now I was very tired and wanted some support under my head, but baby was going back up after each push so the midwife suggested trying sitting on the toilet to see if baby naturally started dropping lower, but he didn't. I then switched back to the bed but laying on my side but he was still going back up after the contractions so I switched again to a birthing stool, but the same kept happening. The midwife then suggested going back to the bed as it was where I was most comfortable and they would try putting my legs in various positions. Slowly but surely he started to stay down a little with each round of pushing, but was coming at a funny angle and the midwife couldn't work out why. Eventually the midwife put on her sterile gloves ready for delivery and told me to listen to her carefully and she would guide me through when and where to push, and then at which points of crowning to breath through the pain of the skin stretching and she felt confident she could get me through with limited damage.
One midwife held one leg up by my head, and OH the other, and a few contractions broken into periods of pushing and breathing our beautiful son entered the world and was placed on my chest. Finally the difficult and prolonged pushing stage was explained.... He had come down by both hands by his face, and had then tucked them into his chest, stopping his chin from being able to drop down for delivery. At 4.34am Sam entered the world and OH cut the cord.
As one midwife took Sam off as he was struggling to clear some mucus, another checked me for any tearing, and expressed her suprise that I had managed to come away with just a couple of grazes, despite him coming down with his hands by his face and chest, so I was very very lucky.
After giving birth I had a shower about 5.30am and we then moved accross to the ward to wait for the baby check for Sam, and for our rhesus blood results to come back. OH was allowed to stay with us, and we enjoyed our first few hours as a family of three, and a little while later we were joined by my Mum, Nan and brother. After hours of waiting we finally left for home at 2.30pm, only 10 hours after Sam was born, which was absolutely what I wanted and would have been much sooner but for the Centre being busy with two other new mums and three just coming in.
I have been incredibly lucky with my birth, and am so enternally greatful to the wonderful staff at the birthing centre who quite literally made all my dreams come true, and helped us to bring our little boy into the world in exactly the way we wanted. I can look back already and say it was an amazing experience and they were a real credit to NHS staff eveywhere as they put everything in to making it perfect for us, listened to everything I wanted along the way, and encouraged me to believe I could do it. My OH was an amazing support, and I couldn't have done it without him, and so far he has shown himself to be an amazing father and I couldn't be more proud of him.
I had a sweep previously booked for the Friday, and was absolutely terrified, but once labour started everything just disappeared and I didn't care about any of it, and thank goodness I didn't with the array of wonderful position my legs had to go into to try and move the head around.
Thankfully my sweetcorn poo worries didn't materialise, as despite leaving my dignity at the door I think that may have been one part of the labour that would have haunted me. So after 23 hours of labour and two and a half hours of pushing our beautiful little boy Sam was born, weighing a lovely 7lbs8oz with a huge amount of very dark brown hair and we couldn't be more proud.
If anyone is going to Farnborough Hospital and has the opportunity to use the Oasis Birthing Unit, I can't recommend it highly enough.
Im SO glad that we weren't labour twins, because this is amazing xxx
thanks for sharing hun x
what a lovely story and a fantastic calm and natural birth, well done 
