I found out I was pregnant on the 1st January 2018 and I went into a tail spin, this was right on the back of a miscarriage (my third) in late October 2017 and I was petrified. I had tests done at the time and I had an appointment with the miscarriage specialist from Dr Grey’s Hospital in Elgin on the 10th January. When we went in I was advised I had tested positive for the Lupus Anticoagulant, normally I would have a second test to confirm diagnosis of Primary Antiphospholipid Syndrome (APS) 12 weeks after the first test but this wasn’t an option now that I was pregnant. APS is also known as Hughes Syndrome or sticky blood and this was what was stopping me carrying, so he decided to treat me based on the first test and I was started with blood thinning injections daily and baby aspirin. These weren’t fun, I was black and blue, but they were keeping my son alive which was the most important thing.
I was now on the red line (in terms of my care) and monitored frequently throughout my pregnancy with regular growths scan at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital. I was made aware of additional risks with APS for me and the baby and advised I may require an induction when I reached 37 weeks, but this would be decided nearer the time.
At my growth scan at 36 weeks + 2 they advised my son’s growth had plateaued and he had dropped from over the 90th percentile down to the 50th percentile. This is common in APS babies and I was advised after the growth plateau the placenta would slow down and could stop working and my amniotic fluid level may drop. Unfortunately, they have no way of knowing how quickly those other things would happen, so it was decided safest to book me in for an induction as soon as possible so it was booked for 36+6 days.
I was still working at this time so had to go back and tell my employer that I would be finishing up that day (Tuesday) as my induction was now booked in for Saturday 18th August 2018. I was in a bit of a panic as I hadn’t had the time to do Hypnobirthing as planned and had no idea what induction involved. With only 3 days before I was due to go into hospital I enrolled onto the SONA Mum Online Positive Induction Course, this really helped me prepare mentally and know what was coming.
As the Aberdeen Maternity Ward was temporarily closed I would have to wait until I received a phone call to advise me to come in. This didn’t bother me as I knew I would have to be on the labour ward for my induction due to the APS and had also come to terms with the fact I wouldn’t be allowed a water birth or any time in the birthing pool had it been available as I would be continuously monitored on machines throughout.
Once into the hospital I was set up on the monitors and after a few hours taken through for examination. I was already dilated enough for my waters to be broken but as there was no space on the labour ward they opted to put in the Cook Balloon for 24 hours but I would need to stay in hospital overnight, we had friends who lived just behind the hospital who had invited us to a BBQ, I was told I could go as long as I was back every 4 hours to be monitored. We took a walk across but after being sick and having some cramping I decided to return to the hospital. After an hour or so I was feeling a lot better, the nurse had told me that once the saline warms to body temperature it would be less uncomfortable. We decided in the early evening to go back over to our friends and I managed a hot dog and some home-made pizza and did walks round the garden when I was getting uncomfortable.
On Sunday afternoon I had the balloon removed then I had a few hours wait to be taken through to the labour ward. They broke my waters at 6.50pm which I was grateful for, at 7pm there was a shift change and I had a new midwife, a male! For all the options you go through creating your birth plan, a male midwife was not something I had planned for mentally or expected. I was started straight away on the oxytocin drip and felt contractions were coming thick and fast. I was sick and went through all the emotions of I can’t do this, let me go home. Once I received an anti-sickness injection I felt better but my contractions were one on top of the other and I didn’t feel able to rest between them. I wasn’t able to have the freedom to move around as I was hooked up to the monitor for my baby’s heartbeat. They kept losing it so decided they needed to put the internal foetal heart monitor into his head which really upset me as I didn’t want this. After 2.5 hours in active labour I asked for morphine, by the time they administered it at 9.50pm I was asking for an epidural, I do not handle pain well! The midwife left the room and I told my husband I needed to push. When the midwife came back into the room my husband told him that I wanted to push and he said it’s too early but let me do an exam, he got the shock of his life to see I was fully dilated at 10.15pm.
The labour then progressed rapidly and we could see the head but I pushed and I pushed and I just could not get him out. I wanted to be on all fours but then I was put on my back with my legs in stirrups, I had actively been pushing for over 2 hours and I was really scared I was going to have gone through all that for nothing and be taken away for a C-Section. We were joined by a student midwife and also the head midwife so the room was starting to feel quite busy. The head midwife decided we would try a change in position as I was getting tired and they didn’t want the baby to get distressed. She removed one leg from the stirrup and his head was out, he was all out, I didn’t even have to push him out. Surprise, he was face up, at some point he had turned and was back to back which is why we kept losing his heartbeat on the monitor and I was struggling to push him out. In the end Connor arrived at 00:51am on the Monday morning a healthy 6lbs 6ozs with no intervention, just a lovely cone head from all the pushing against my pelvis.
I knew my dream birth was never going to be on the cards from the start, but my induction was a positive one and I felt more prepared having gone through the Positive Induction Course!