Nastasya and Tim's Birth Story
My birth story, it's very rambly but I loved writing it down so thank you!:
On my 41+ 4th day of pregnancy I was getting rather anxious about baby's arrival, as I was planning on having a home birth which is only permitted up to 42 weeks. That day I had a midwife appointment, and made the decision to have a membrane sweep to try and increase my chances of going into labour before 42 weeks.
I had some good news from the midwife who told me I was already 2-3cm dilated and that labour should start in the next couple of days. That put my mind at ease and when I got home, I decided to go for a walk. During my walk I was getting cramps, but didn't give them much stead as I had been getting lots of Braxton Hicks over the past couple of weeks.
An hour or so later my husband and I sat down for dinner and I was still getting cramps. I wasn't sure if they were just an effect of the membrane sweep or actual contractions so we decided to time them. They were coming every 3 minutes and lasting around 1 minute, the cue to ring the midwife; although I still wasn't sure if they were the real thing as they weren't very intense at that point.
Contacting the midwife wasn't as simple as it sounds, I couldn't get through! By the time I had spoken to the midwife I was more certain that this was in fact labour, and once the midwife arrived she examined me and confirmed I was 4cm dilated. The contractions had built in intensity and I was feeling quite sick during each contraction. However I used the breathing techniques and body positions I'd learnt at yoga to get through them.
A couple of hours later the contractions had ramped up again and my husband suggested I try gas and air to help. I was worried this was going to make me sick but it actually quashed my queasiness and helped me to maintain the breathing techniques, as part of using gas and air is to breath deeply and slowly.
I was taking feeling tired and had taken to lying on a duvet on the floor, when suddenly my waters broke. My husband got the midwife and she asked if I needed to bear down. I said no and got in the shower to clean off. However in the shower I changed my mind and it felt like I needed the loo, so I told my husband to tell the midwife.
She asked if I wanted another internal examination, even though it hadn't been the recommended 4 hours since the last one. I said yes as I wanted to know if me needing to push was the baby actually coming. It took me a while to get the strength to move onto the bed, because at this point I was stood up leaning on my chest of drawers.
By the time I got onto the bed for the examination the head had appeared! Because of the quick progression of my labour the second midwife had not yet arrived. After a while of pushing the midwife decided that the head was stuck so called an ambulance. She told me to stand up and got ready to do an episiotomy. However on the next contraction, the baby flew out into the midwife's arms! I was bleeding so she got me onto the floor and we had skin to skin while the midwife sorted me out and my husband cut the cord. I was planning on giving birth naturally to the placenta but because I bled the midwife gave me the injection, however at that point I really didn't mind! From being 4cm dilated to the baby appearing was around 4 hours.
My husband went downstairs to hail down the ambulance and was met by the second midwife and two sets of ambulance crews (what entertainment for the neighbours!). The second ambulance crew was for the baby but wasn't needed so was sent away.
At this point it got very busy in the bedroom, with my husband, 2 midwives and 2 paramedics and me sprawled naked on the bedroom floor! However it didn't phase me, and I didn't care.
My husband and the second midwife took the baby to be weighed while the first midwife examined me. She said I would need to go to hospital to get stitches. I put some pjs on and travelled in the ambulance with baby and the midwife to the RUH. I think being stitched up was as painful as the labour, so I definitely made use of the gas and air. I was kept in hospital as they were worried my bladder was damaged, so my husband went home to catch up on sleep and me and baby were transferred to the ward.
That day I managed to get baby to latch on and start breastfeeding and we were able to go home in the afternoon.
I am so happy that I chose to have a home birth, I couldn't imagine anything else. I felt so safe in my own surroundings and there was no interruption or worry about travelling to hospital during labour. The midwife was amazing, she stayed downstairs and only came up to measure baby's heart rate, so it was just me and my husband. She let me go through my contractions without interrupting and it was clear that she had paid attention to my birth plan from what she did and said. I was pleased that I had a short labour as it meant it was over and done with, although next time I will have to make sure to ring the midwife promptly!!
Nastasya
xx