An Unplanned Caesarean Birth, But A Positive Birth
Hello, I am a little bit sleep deprived (okay, a lot sleep deprived), as little Alistair arrived last Wednesday, the 16th. He decided to be one of those special babys that show up on his due date!
Absolutely nothing went to plan (sigh), but thanks to hypnobirthing I remained mostly calm (my husband may disagree with that, but I felt calm!) and whilst it wasn’t ‘perfect,’ as I hold my son, it was definitely positive.
At 39 weeks, we had our 4th incident of reduced movements and were offered a sweep and a scan. Nothing came of the sweep but the scan showed up that Alistair was in the 95th percentile and was heading for 5 kgs, So an appointment was set up on Friday 18th to discuss our options. I panicked, not wanting to be induced, and contacted my hypnobirthing teacher for help and support. As we waited for meeting, I did my daily birth affirmations and did the fear release mp3.
On Tuesday, 15th, I started to get some surges every 20 minutes. We’d had a few false labours, so I just watched some telly and relaxed. At 11pm, I headed up to bed, joking with my husband of the chances that he’d come on his due date. I woke up a few times through the night to go to the toilet and was disappointed that the surges seemed to have gone. Until 3.30, when I woke up and felt like I was weeing myself. As I got up to go to the loo, it became very clear that it was my waters going. We rang the hospital and they advised us to come in and check there weren’t any infections and that my waters were clear. They checked we were 3cm dilated and sent us home for our planned home birth. My surges were coming every 2-3 minutes for 45 seconds to a minute.
The community midwife rang us and informed us that we had been sent back to consultant care due to baby’s scan size. Apparently we were going to discuss our birthing options on our appointment on Friday, but instead we ended up having them in our living room at 5 am, as I breathed through my surges over a birthing ball. After speaking with the midwife and my husband, we agreed to go into hospital, as long as we were allowed to be under midwife led care.
I was prepared for there to be a slow down in my labour as we made our way back to the hospital, but it didn’t seem to happen at all. By 8.30, we were 4cm dilated and waiting for my heart rate to come down to get into the pool for pain relief. My husband put on a mix of the birth affirmations and some of my favourite songs that I sang to the bump. I had some gas an air, got into the pool, and chatted happily with the midwife and my husband in between surges.
The midwife was happy to let me labour in the pool, but advised that we not give birth in it, in case baby’s shoulder got stuck. So at 1.30, after the intensity of my surges changed, I was checked again and was found to be 6 – 7 cms. Within 30 minutes, I was leaned over the bed, feeling the need to push. A quick exam showed I was fully dilated and ready to go!
We tried pushing in all sorts of positions, over the bed, over the ball, on the stool, on all fours. For two hours. I was definitely not calm at this point and had a few choice words for my husband. As I began to flag, the midwife gave me a quick check and it turns out Alistair hadn’t dropped. The consultant came in and offered us an assisted delivery, though given how high up he was, they did not seem overly positive. I was so tired at that point, and nearly in tears. I just wanted him out and I felt I could not push anymore. My husband asked them to leave and gave us a few moments to discuss our options. Given how tired I was and how high up he was, I knew the best decision was to get him out at soon as possible, so we went with a c-section.
It was definitely not what I wanted before I went into labour, but I when I heard him cry for the first time, I knew that we had done right. He was out and safe. He is definitely not a little boy (over 4kgs!) and had a full head of hair.
Thank you so much for teaching me to remain calm and relaxed throughout my labour. I am happy with my birth because of the hypnobirthing classes, they gave me the ability to trust my instincts. I felt that I was able to make decisions that allowed me to feel happy and at peace with the end result. And my husband was amazing, using the techniques he learned to calm me down and give us a break when the situation got intense.
THANK YOU!