We had originally planned a homebirth and had purchased our birth pool, attended hypnobirthing classes and planned our birthing space and we were excited. Unfortunately corona virus meant all home births cancelled and we would now need to attend hospital; we adapted our plans and decided to use the midwife led unit which would be closer to our plans and we remained positive.
40 weeks cane and went, 41 week check and as I had gestational hypertension (which was controlled with medication) I was advised that I ought to attend a consultants appointment to discuss induction; my heart sank. All reading I had done indicated that induction may result in a cascade of intervention and that’s induced labour was more painful and that epidural use was more likely. I had back surgery previously and wasn’t keen on having an epidural. I attended the consultant appointment and was advised that due to my age (39), high blood pressure and IVF pregnancy induction was advised. I had researched risks of not having induction and I knew that whilst the risk increased post 42 weeks it was the doubling of small number but I decided continue with the induction and was induced at 42 weeks.
We decided to start with the balloon to soften the cervix as my hospital had good success with this method and I wouldn’t need to stay in hospital and could go home. Whilst at home waiting for something to happen I read more about induction and found positive induction stories and the positive induction course which I completed. The course made me feel I had control and built on what I had learned in my hypnobirthing classes. I continued to listen to the course on my way into hospital the next day – we were excited and nervous.
I had artificial rupture of membranes and we went for a walk outside and danced in the labour suite to try and get labour took to start without the drip but unfortunately after waiting three hours nothing was happening and so the drip was started at 5 pm. The drip worked and contractions started – the midwife advised that the first exam would be around 11:30pm and that we shouldn’t be too disheartened if there wasn’t too much progress as they wanted to take it slow.
I lost track of time as I was focused on breathing through contractions. The contractions were coming fast and my partner asked if they should be coming so quickly as there was little respite between contractions. I didn’t realise but the drip was turned down and continued to be reduced throughout the rest of labour. I heard the midwives complete a hand over and they referenced the fact that the contractions were early contractions as they weren’t lasting long enough – I’ve felt disheartened by this but refocused and listened to hypnobirthing tracks.
I was using TENS machine and I was struggling I requested gas and air. More time passed (I have no idea how long) and I became scared as I was finding the labour difficult, my back was really hurting and I needed the loo. I told my partner that I needed to go to the toilet and we made preparations for an escorted toilet trip – the drip was unplugged and I was trying to walk to the loo but the contractions were too close together and there was massive pressure and back pain.
The midwife said I couldn’t go to the toilet and asked if I felt I needed to push and I said I did but that I couldn’t as I needed the toilet. I was asked to get back onto the bed to allow for an exam to be completed – it was found I was 9.5cm dilated.
The midwife kept telling me not to push and I was trying not to. I practiced the breathing techniques from the positive induction course and tried really hard not to push (it was difficult). When I could no longer avoid pushing I just let my body do what was needed. Unfortunately baby’s heart rate was decreasing with each contraction and I was distracted by listening to the heart rate. The midwife told me not to worry about the heart rate that was their job and I was asked to lie on my side to try and help baby’s heart rate. Baby arrived at 11:15pm and I was delighted to be holding our baby boy. We had discussed the need for a managed third stage due to being induced prior to the arrival of baby and I had agreed to a managed third stage.
This was the right decision as I did have PPH and was losing blood, the uterus was not contracting and the placenta was not coming away. I was oblivious to the concern of everyone in the room
as I was staring at and cuddling baby. I was asked to give consent to be catheterised and agreed and traction applied to the cord and told to push some more. I was exhausted but did as I was aware that I did not want to have to go theatre to get the placenta out. Thankfully it worked.
Whilst the birth was not as planned and was probably as far away from plan as possible I found it very positive. We did our research, made decisions based on available evidence and maintained as much control as possible. I avoided epidural and felt empowered and felt like a warrior when baby was handed to me. The positive induction course helped as it gave me information and control and hypnobirthing was fantastic. The research and reading I had completed during pregnancy gave me the ability to make decisions and gave us control of our labour and birth.