My birth Story

I read so many of these when I was pregnant to get me in the zone. I LOVE a birth story; induction, cesarian section, first baby, fifth baby, epidural, I really enjoy hearing about other peoples experiences. The Positive Birth Company is a great resource. I honestly didn’t think I’d bother writing my own because it’s just special to me and my husband and a bit boring to anybody else, but if I’m going to be the postpartum physio I probably need to explain how I became postpartum. Put your feet up with a mug of tea and some chocolate hobnobs and prepare for lolz (I hate that word). 

I thoroughly enjoyed being pregnant, we didn’t find out the babies sex, as long as they were healthy we didn’t mind. I trained right up to the last week of pregnancy, the only thing I really struggled with was puffy feet in the last couple of months and an unhealthy craving for halloumi, entire blocks of the stuff. 

Labour started at 0245 on the 1st July. I woke up to some pretty intense back pain and a funny trickling sensation. I just about managed to make it to the en-suite before that trickle seriously increased. I started the Freya app from The Positive Birth Company to time my contractions and surveyed the puddles of fluid for their colour. Nobody said giving birth was glamorous! My waters were clear and contractions were around 1 minute and 20 seconds long and I was getting about 3 every 10 minutes. It took about 20 minutes for me to realise this was actually quite uncomfortable, Freya was telling me I was in established labour. I woke my husband who had been relegated to the spare room because I needed a super king size bed to myself and my pregnancy pillow. I wasn’t too panicked, just a little taken back at the intense discomfort in my lower back. I thought labour was supposed to start slowly and I’d be able to have a bath, watch a boxset and listen to whale music, all those things I’d read about. Midwifery Triage were happy for me to stay at home as we’d planned. They would send out a midwife at around 0700 when the community team came on shift. So my husband put my TENS machine on my lower back and I breathed through my contractions. Just before the midwife arrived I started to feel really nauseous. I convinced myself I was fine but with every contraction it got worse. I ended up projectile vomiting down the toilet in our en-suite. It was reminiscent of my tequila years accept this time no booze or dancing was involved I was just uncontrollably vomiting with my contractions. Horrendous. It lasted for about two contractions then subsided. Thank god! I remember thinking “not ideal but I’m back in control now so let’s just keep calm.” The midwife came out to examine me and said I was 4cm and progressing well. She said to my husband to slowly start filling the pool. Our front room was basically covered in tarp that could handle nuclear fallout (we have cream carpets) with our birthing pool at one end. We had all the fancy snacks from M&S, liquid Yoga jazzy room spray and even my own birthing blend of massage oil, thank you Lydia at Neils Yard! I lit some candles and made a bit of a fuss of our Frenchie Louis. Poor boy did not have a clue what was going on and was pretty stressed. My husband took a photo of Louis and I, I’ve got my eyes closed TENS machine on one side and vomit bucket on the other. Poor Louis knew something was up because he was standing on the bed without me telling him to get off!

Remember that vomiting? Well no sooner had the midwife left at about 0745 it started again. This continued until about 1100 when a second midwife came to see how I was getting on. At this point I was dehydrated and struggling to move about with the discomfort. I was determined to paint a positive picture as I didn’t want to go in to hospital if I could help it. So white as a sheet shakey and struggling with the pain I gave my best “I’m fine!” To the midwife who saw right through me. I suggested an antiemetic and maybe some fluids and was feeling pretty good about my mini clinical assessment of the situation. This was until the midwife said what a good idea that was but that I’d have to go into hospital to have them. So I promised her I was ok and that if I had one more vomit I’d head into the midwifery lead unit. About 30 seconds after the front door closed I threw up again. My husband very calmly picked up the phone and called triage to let them know we were coming in. We promptly left after giving Louis to a neighbour and then returned again 20 minutes later as we forgot the hospital notes. This is basically the equivalent of turning up to a church to get married without the rings. You can imagine my delight as my husband navigated his way around junction 30 back home to get said notes. 

You know those ladies in films who are in labour and shuffling across a hospital car park- that was me. Midday at the Royal Devon and Exeter. In my shortie dressing gown bra and knickers on underneath, husbands sliders and my TENS machine hanging out of my dressing gown pocket. I was now hanging off a bollard whilst my husband fed change into the pay meter. “20, 40, 60p…” That’s right, he’s that guy! The stairs up to maternity were fun and by fun I mean hard. I could feel baby C’s head now and it was super low and super uncomfortable. I had another couple of contractions whilst getting to maternity. That boost button on the tens machine was taking a hammering. By now I’d been in labour for about 12 hours, I was a tired and starting to find the discomfort a bit of a challenge to manage. I had a short wait and started to really struggle with the pain. I asked for pethidine. This was in my birth plan and ideally the only thing I wanted to rely on. I know I needed to rest to get fluids and to stop being sick. I was exceptionally lucky to have a newly qualified midwife who I knew. I always joked with her that I’d wait to have a baby until she qualified. I think she qualified that week. She was wonderful, kind caring and empathetic, making sure I had the pethidine antiemetic and 3 litres of fluid. It was coming up to handover and I was feeling more rested but still experiencing discomfort through the contractions. The pethidine doesn’t actually take the pain away it just lets you rest. The midwife I’d had all the way through my pregnancy was due to come on shift at 2000 I was literally counting down the hours. We had been messaging each other prior to me going into labour she’d done several stretch and sweeps for me. I knew her shift pattern for the next couple of days and was determined to deliver when she was on shift. Anyway back to it, I remember really well, (put down the hobnobs and tea guys) the discomfort in my back and this intense pulsing pain into my abdomen that I had no control over it was a pushing sensation but I needed to not push as I hadn’t fully dilated. With every contraction I lost more of my waters and mucus plug. I know, très glam. I was literally leaking constantly. I remember distinctly needing to pee or thinking I needed to pee but being in discomfort so asking my husband to help me. This is why I love him, I’d just about waved goodbye to every scrap of dignity (I’m literally walking around naked accept for a really pretty bra I purposefully chose) and he said “do you want me to close the door, have you managed to pee?” I replied with “well stuff is leaking out of me, I don’t know what it is!” The hours passed and I continued with my breathing aware the pethidine was wearing off still going with the TENS machine and still hooked up to a bag of fluids.

At 1950 my midwife arrived, I swear she kicked open the doors to my room and said something like “let’s have a baby shall we?!” I could have kissed her and almost cried with relief. She’s an incredible lady and made the entire experience for me. I met her at my first booking appointment. I remembered telling her how I was going to tell my husband I was pregnant as I found out a couple of days after he went on deployment. It’s not lost on me just how incredibly lucky we were to have our midwife! She opened up my fluids and ran them through quickly so I could get into the birthing pool. She knew everything I ideally wanted and we got on like a house on fire. The pethidine had worn off now and I obviously had to take off the Tens machine. Water and controlled electric shocks are not a good mix. I swear the pads that were stuck to my back had literally welded themselves to my skin. I had been listening to the Freya app and pushing that boost button for almost 19 hours! I turned off the app and my husband sat in front of me holding my hands when I was in the pool. The pool was my happy place. It was bliss. I’ve always been happy in the water. My husband talked me through some relaxation scripts and counted my contractions. This was the first time I was allowed to push. I could feel how low her head was. There was no back pain instead it had all shifted to my front into my lower abdomen. I could feel my body trying to push. I remember reading about letting your body push and breathing the baby down. Now I’ll be honest that was not the case for me! I had to push and I mean PUSH. It turns out baby Caulfield didn’t like being in the pool as their heart rate was dropping with each contraction and push so I had to get out of the pool. Those pools are big and had huge steps I had to clamber down with the help of my husband. Any discomfort had completely disappeared now and I was just focusing on the pushing. I tried so many positions! Birth stool, side lying, standing, walking. It got to the point where my contractions had slowed slightly and baby C’s head was right there being pushed out with the contraction and my pushing and bobbing back up when I stopped pushing! We weren't too far off the two hour mark when my midwife asked a senior midwife to have a look and consider an episiotomy. I had my preferences but to be honest after nearly 22 hours I just wanted to get the baby out and for us both to be safe. It was decided an epesiotomy wasn’t necessary and my midwife asked me to move onto my back as this gave me the best chance of pushing. All the while she was putting a warm compress on my perineum to try and help it stretch. There are lots of thoughts on birth positions and what’s good/not good but this clearly worked for me. I had some really big pushes in this position. My husband was right next to me encouraging me through 20 seconds of pushing snatch your breath, 20 seconds pushing snatch your breath 20 se… who am I kidding that third push was 5 seconds max. Exhausting. I had been pushing with everything I had, I cleared her head with no issues listening to all of my midwifes instructions and finally at 0006 baby C entered the world! 

I can not tell you the mix of emotions, pure joy and total relief and then the disbelief that I actually did it. Our midwife passed baby C to my husband who told me we had a little girl, I’ll never forget the look on his face as he passed her to me for skin to skin. I think those 10 minutes or so were the most incredible minutes of my life. I watched my daughter take her first breaths lying on my chest. We had delayed cord clamping and my husband cut the cord. I had the injection to facilitate the delivery of my placenta which I never thought I’d have to push for but you do. I thought I’d done all the pushing. Being a bit of a biology geek our wonderful midwife gave us a mini biology lesson and we got a tour of my placenta and umbilical cord! I’d had a bit of a bleed which they estimated as approximately 1.1 litres and I sustained a 3b tear. It was one of those unfortunate things. So I met the obstetrics registrar who briefed me on the surgery I was about to have after having a pretty intense examination down there. I’ve always been quite easy breezy with regards my birth preferences but I was slightly gutted to have delivered my daughter and now I was having a spinal block. My husband took our daughter and was shown to a room whilst I was in surgery. I’ve worked for the NHS for the last 10 years but I still find it amazing to be lying in a theatre with an anaesthetist, surgeon, nurses and an operating department technician at 0200 on a Tuesday morning! Once I was stitched up I was wheeled back to my husband and daughter. The midwives gave a little help to my husband who did brilliantly but let’s be honest had just been left with a newborn. He was singing Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and cradling her. So many precious memories I’ll never forget.

So there we have it. There were  some real stand out moments for me during labour. The biggest one being just how incredible the female body is. I genuinely really loved giving birth I feel incredibly lucky to have had the labour and birth that I did. Granted a third degree tear was far from ideal but in all honesty I didn’t feel a thing. The incredible mix of hormones and rush you get when you first hold your baby far outweighs any pain I might have been feeling. That first pee before I went in to surgery though. SWEET JESUS!! That stung a bit! I remember looking in the full length mirror (ideal just where I needed one), at myself in the en-suite bathroom still wearing the pretty bra but nothing else. I was covered in blood and meconium super swollen, pale, bruised, sweaty and shaky. I literally looked like I’d been in some sort of battle. My body was unrecognisable but I’ve never been so proud of it. The following days of establishing breastfeeding whilst dealing with sleep deprivation and encouraging healing from the surgery were hard but y’know what, I made and birthed a human. Both my husband and I proceeded to spent every waking minute just staring in amazement at our girl, Theodora you are adored. V x