At home

My due date of April 15 came and went which was not surprising to me. My mum had been almost two weeks late with both my brother and I and I had had no Braxton Hicks or signs of going into labour so I was fully expecting to be the same.

However at 10pm on Thursday 17 April my contractions started. They were very mild and about 30 minutes apart so I was able to get a reasonable nights sleep. The next morning they still felt very mild and were still only half hourly. Matt happened to have the day off work so I made sure my hospital bag was fully packed and then we went out for lunch. I ate my entire portion of pasta and a huge piece of chocolate cake which was probably just as well as I had a long labour ahead of me.

I then received a text from Kat my next door neighbour who had had her son Sam on the Wednesday. She asked if we wanted to meet him and as my contractions were still mild and irregular we went over for half an hour. Sam was lovely and meeting him made me more determined to give birth as soon as possible. Kat gave me her raspberry leaf tea which is ment to bring on labour and we went home and I drank copious amounts of it and also ate a large piece of pineapple which is meant to have the same effect.

By about 3pm my contractions were starting to feel stronger and coming every 20 minutes. Matt helped me put on the Tens machine which was helpful in getting me through the contactions. Amy rang at 4 to say she was in the neighbourhood and could she pop over. I said I was in early labour but that it would be good to see her so she came for about half and hour.

At about 6pm I dropped the Tens machine and broke it! I sent a desperate text message to Kat asking if I could borrow hers which she luckily still had. Her husband very kindly brought it over which was an absolute godsend as I was becoming quite reliant on it.

The contractions continued to get faster and stronger and by midnight they were coming regularly every 5 minutes. I rang the hospital and they said to come in so we called my mum and she drove me there. However by the time we got there the contractions had slowed. I was also only 1cm dilated so the hospital sent me home.

By 10am on Saturday morning the contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes. Again mum drove us to the hospital and again the contractions slowed which was very frustrating – apparently it’s quite common for women to get stage fright when they get to the hospital! By then I was 2-3cm dilated but there was no point my staying in so they gave me a sweep to try and move things along and I went home again.

I managed to get some sleep as the contractions had slowed so much. However at 3pm I woke and the contractions were coming really strongly every 2 minutes. Mum dashed us to the hospital for the third time and I was finally admitted. I was still only 3cm but the contractions were coming pretty regularly.

In the hospital

As soon as I was admitted I was given the gas and air which was brilliant – I felt like I was very drunk and it definitely took the edge off the pain. The midwife had to come in at one point to stop me taking so much or I would have been bouncing off the walls! Matt tried the gas and air too but it didn’t seem to have the same effect on him.

After a while the gas and air was no longer working effectively so I had a shot of pethadine which again was wonderful. I had been worried by the stories I have heard of pethadine making people nauseous but I had no bad effects from it at all and it worked brilliantly. By this time I was 5cm dilated.

As the pain began to get stronger and the pethadine wore off I asked if I could get in the birthing pool The effect of the water was brilliant at taking the edge off the contractions which were still coming pretty strongly at this point and I became determined to have a water birth which is not something I had previously considered. However, after some hours in the pool (and two women having given birth in the room next door to me!) I still didn’t need to push and the pain was getting worse so I decided I needed to try something else.

I was reluctant to have an epidural as it would have meant leaving the birth centre and moving to the consultant led unit. I was examined and was nine and a half centimetres dilated so I decided to try another shot of pethadine. However this did not have the desired effect so I asked for an epidural to be prepared.

I was wheeled to the consultant led unit down the hall and given the epidural which was wonderful. However my contractions had slowed signficantly so I was also given syntocin which is designed to speed them up. Shortly afterwards I was asked to push which was very strange as I couldn’t feel the contractions and the midwife had to tell me when to push.

After two hours of pushing and despite the syntocin the baby was showing no signs of coming and my contractions had slowed to about every 10 minutes. The registrar came in to examine me and concluded that the baby was back to back and was not going to come out quickly without intervention. The baby was not and had never been in any distress but as I had been in labour for so long (by now it was 8am Sunday morning and I had been in hospital for 15 hours) she said we needed to get the baby out fast. She suggested that we try a ventouse (suction cap delivery) with a possible cesarean if the ventouse did not work. I consented and signed all the paperwork. Matt then went and put his scrubs on and I was wheeled into the operating theatre.

In the operating theatre my epidural was topped up to ensure I could not feel anything. We then tried the ventouse which involved me pushing when I was having a contraction and the registrar pulling with the ventouse. After three contractions I was told that the head was out and with the fourth, out came his body. I also heard the welcome sound of Dylan crying.

Dylan was shown to me briefly and then taken away to be checked. He weighed 8lb3, was 56cm long and was absolutely perfect.

Although I had a long labour I have positive memories of it. I’m glad I was able to work through the various pain relief methods that were available to me and if I were to do it again I would probably do the same and try for a water birth.

Mum was great, taking me in three times, the staff were all wonderful and Matt was an absolute star – in fact I think it was possibley more of an ordeal for him as for me as he was absolutely exhausted by the end where as my hormones were going crazy and keeping me going. Also I suspect I was pretty horrible to him at times although I’ve conveniently forgotton all the bad bits!