Archive for the ‘Birth Stories’ Category

My waters broke on Saturday at around 9.00pm. I contacted ‘Triage’ while my husband was putting Luca (two years old) to bed. We managed to get my brother to babysit overnight.

We arrived at the hospital at approximately 10.30pm. The midwife checked me over and confirmed that my waters had broken. However, I was only 1cm dilated and only contracting once in every ten minutes. As I was a GBS (Group B Strep) carrier during my previous pregnancy I had to have swabs taken and was given antibiotics every four hours along as standard precaution along with steroid injections in case my labour continued as I was only thirty five weeks and one day pregnant.

Not long after this I saw a Doctor who estimated that I was now 3cm dilated, at this point we were still awaiting swab results, therefore the Doctor gave us two options: either to wait for the results which could take up till 48 hours or be induced right away. As I was already in hospital and the labour seemed to have already started we decided to go ahead with induction. At 10am on Sunday I was given an epidural and syntocin drip (which increases the hormones produced in labour). Sadly, the epidural failed on my left hand side just as it did during my first labour with Luca.

I started panicking and almost ended up having a panic attack!

 

The Doctor returned and told me that I would be checked again at 2.00pm. I continued to receive ‘top-ups’ for my epidural which made the right hand side of my body so dull and numb that I started panicking and almost ended up having a panic attack! At around 2.00pm the Doctor returned to my room and discussed the babies heartbeat with the midwife. Apparently my babies heartbeat was rather low (under 60 bpm) and there seemed to be little improvement. The Doctor wanted to take the babies oxygen levels by carrying out a blood sample from the babies head. Once the tests were completed the room seemed to suddenly fill with hospital staff…

At this point my husband was taken away and I was asked to sign consent forms, to drink something and all this was happening whilst I was being wheeled through the labour ward into the theatre. Almost halfway through being ‘put to sleep’ the Doctor examined me and found that I was fully dilated, they therefore opted to carry out a forceps delivery rather than an emergency C section. At this point my husband was allowed into the room, it only took three minutes to deliver Jake, Jake was born at 2.36pm weighing 6lb 13 ounces. Jake was born with the cord wrapped around his neck , luckily he was perfectly fine, my husband got to the cord and hold him once the paediatricians had checked him over. It’s quite funny really, Luca was born at 35 weeks and weighed 6lb 14 ounces so the two labours are quite similar.

I laid on the operating table for some time as the medics struggled to stop my bleeding, by the time they had finished I had lost almost 500ml of blood. Once I had been given the all clear, I was moved to a bed but found that I felt extremely queasy and couldn’t stop being sick.

Luckily my nausea passed and I was able to hold Jake. I then returned to the labour room to wait until a bed was ready on the maternity ward.

Two days after Jake was born we went home, Luca adores his baby brother and seems to enjoy winding him!

Ellie Yusuf from Kings Lunn, Norfolk is Mum to Samiel (one month old). Samiel is Ellie’s second child, Ellie opted to go for a home birth, here’s her story.

I started to have regular tightening sensations on Thursday 10th September (my official due date) at about 9pm, the tightening sensations were eight minutes apart but not painful so off I went to bed thinking that it was nothing sinister

Midnight arrived and I hadn’t slept, I had just watched a film in bed, having a nice rest in-between tightening sensations whilst my Husband slept next to me like a log, typical! I suddenly had a painful tightening which I decided was a contraction rather than Braxton Hicks.  Shortly after following the third painful contraction I woke my Husband to tell him labour had started and that my contractions were five minutes apart.

We got up and made a cuppa, we timed the contractions for a while and they remained to stay at five minutes apart, lasting a minute each. I called my mother to let her know what was happening, I also contacted the in-laws to collect my son and finally I called the Midwife to let her know too.

Mum made her way over to the house as did the in-laws. My Midwife decided that she was going to come and examine me as she was only twenty minutes away.
My in laws arrived after about an hour to take my little boy for the night, we had had a cuddle beforehand and gave him some medicine and milk as he was very poorly at the time.

 
The midwife examined me and said that I was four to five centimetres dilated. She decided that she was going to stay with us then but she had to nip back to the hospital to get the Entonox (Gas and Air) for me. 
My Midwife returned twenty minutes later, by then my pains were roughly three minutes apart and getting more intense. 
Whilst she had gone we had set up a nice nest in the front room, water proofing pillows and quilts and we had placed lots of things for me to lean on around the room.

I used the tens machine for as long as I was able to. I also practiced pressing certain pressure points that I had read up on beforehand along with breathing techniques (which really do work!)

At about 4am I decided to start using the Gas and Air as the contractions had become intolerable, and I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t be able to manage much longer. 
My midwife decided it was time to call the second midwife as she was twenty minutes away, my midwife explained that “things were hotting up”…

It was  then that I realised that I was experiencing the transition stage as I suddenly started to feel quite weepy (this is always a good sign). However, I felt defeated and low.

My midwife was fantastic, she recognised my transition and performed some great acupressure on my lower back which helped relieve the pressure of my babies head.

My Midwife became the person whose hand I held onto during the more overwhelming contractions. My Midwife needed to nip to the toilet so my Mum switched to doing the pressure point massage for me and no sooner had my midwife shut the bathroom door than I felt the urge to push, suddenly my waters broke.

My contractions then became almost constant and the urge to push was overwhelming, luckily the Midwife heard me pushing from the bathroom and came running!

Just as my babies head was fully out and we were waiting for the shoulders, the second midwife walked through the door, I believe this to be the perfect greeting! Out came my beautiful baby boy after six minutes of pushing at 4:20am, four hours and twenty minutes after labour had started and only ten minutes before the time that my Mum had guessed that he would be born!

I gave birth whilst on my knees, leaning over my foot stool so that my baby came out behind me, as soon as he was born I asked my husband to take off my night dress and bra so that when my son was passed through my legs for me to hold we could have some well deserved skin to skin contact. This is something I did not have with my first son and was determined to do this second time around. I sat back on my heels and cried with joy at this little bundle that had appeared.

I opted for the placenta to be kept attached to my son until the cord stopped pulsating so I sat and had a lovely cuddle with my son and husband whilst we waited. 
After a while the midwife told me the cord had stopped so I clambered onto the sofa, got wrapped up in a blanket that I had saved for the occasion and cuddled my son whilst my husband cut the cord.

I had already discussed with my midwife my choice not to have the injection which speeds up the delivery of the placenta if we didn’t need it, so I gave my son to his Daddy and I tried pushing a little to see if we could get the placenta out without aid. Three small pushes later and it was out and intact. I was examined and found to have had no tears, no grazes and my son was declared fit and healthy.

At this point I went into a bit of shock due to the short labour and very short pushing stage, also I think the lack of pain relief was a shock to me too!

I laid on my sofa for a while nice and comfy and breastfed my new son a few times, he had three or four feeds which we were very happy about. We all settled down and had a nice cup of coffee and I had a kit-kat as I was suddenly quite hungry whilst Nanny had a cuddle with her newest Grandson. 

My son was weighed and found to be 7lbs 15oz which is the exact same weight as my first born! His head circumference was 35cm again, exactly the same as my first born (and oddly they were both born on a Friday after a four and a half hour labour!).

I then went off for a bath, it was wonderful to be in my own bathroom, whilst I was in the bath, one midwife cleaned up downstairs with the help of my Mother whilst my husband had a cuddle (or should that be the other way around I’m not sure!). Then the second midwife came to me and helped get some water proofing down on the bed and sorted out my outfit to get into bed in. She helped me to get out of the bath and get dried and into bed then my mum brought my son to me in bed…aww, bliss!

  I can’t believe I had such an amazing birth, it knocked the socks of my first by far and I can’t believe I didn’t have a homebirth for my first. I will never go into hospital for any subsequent babies. It took us until the evening of the next day to pick the perfect name ‘Samiel Lou Yusuf’ for our perfect second son.

Mums Baby Magazine would like to thank Ellie for sharing her birth story with us.

Naomi Jane Cooper gave birth to her beautiful baby girl Mia Iris on Saturday 12th September at 6.24am in Kingston Hospital, Surrey. Mia was born weighing a healthy 8lb 2oz. Naomi got in touch with Mums Baby Magazine to tell us her birth story:

I woke up with cramps similar to period pains on the morning of Friday 11th September. The cramps felt different to the pains that I had previously felt and so I called my best friend to tell her that I thought something was happening. Luckily I had a check up arranged for that morning at the hospital as my midwife had been concerned that my blood pressure was high. 

I was five days overdue and this was our first baby.  My husband came home to take me to the hospital and upon arrival I was examined immediately. Tests showed that my blood pressure was very high and that I had protein in my urine, the staff were concerned that I was showing signs of preeclampsia.

I was then given an internal examination and to my amazement was told that I was already 3cm dilated! I was given a ‘stretch and sweep’ and told that I was not going home, I was going to be getting induced! By the time I got to the car park to call my family and friends I started to have mild contractions, I was so excited that we were finally going to meet our baby.

 
I was admitted to the labour ward at 1pm to wait for a delivery room to become free. By 6pm they had a room for me so my husband, Mother and I were taken down the corridor and I just remember thinking ‘When I leave the room I will have my baby!’

My waters were broken manually, it was very quick and painless. Within half an hour I started having stronger contractions, I was on the birthing ball and watching the soaps at first. I found the pain bearable at this point but I was then given a syntocinon drip to increase contractions.
At about 9pm I got onto the bed to rest a little and asked for Gas and Air as the contractions were getting stronger. My husband was watching the contractions coming on the monitor and would tell me when one was coming so I could start using the gas and air, it was a great help!

By about 2.30am (Saturday morning) I wanted to get off the bed and move about to try and help ease the pain as the contractions were becoming intense due to the drip. Once I stood up I had the most overwhelming urge to push, but was told not to as I was not ready, it was so hard as it was all I wanted to do!! I got back into the bed and was again examined and was told that I was now 8 and a half cm dilated and that soon I would be able to push, I was so pleased to hear those words!

I started pushing at 4.30am and continued to push for a further two hours with no pain relief, apparently the gas and air was stopping me pushing as hard as I needed to. I was getting so tired and really struggling, I thought that I would never get her out, her head was coming out and going back in so many times and I was so exhausted but finally at 6.24am after a twelve and hour labour our beautiful baby girl, Mia Iris Cooper was born weighing 8lb 20z at 6 days overdue.

All the waiting was so worth it and I am amazed that I did it without an epidural as I was convinced I would need one…so it can be done.

My husband was amazing, he was such a brilliant support and backed me all the way. My Mum cut the cord as my husband did not want to, I think it was all a bit much for him, He cried so much when she was born, it was an amazing time.

Mia is a very content little baby, we are very lucky. I love being a Mummy, it is the most amazing thing in the world and so worth every little bit of pain you go through, and it’s true, the second you get handed your little one, you forget it all!

Mums Baby Magazine would like to thank Naomi for sharing her story with us and wish Naomi and her family all the best for the future.

Melanie Cook from Kendal, Cumbria wrote to Mums Baby Magazine to share her dramatic and speedy birth story with us.

I woke up at 4.00am on the morning of Saturday 26th September with what I thought was wind pain. I got up to go to the loo. I didn’t think too much of it as I was six days overdue and had had no twinges up until then. I went back to bed but woke again at 5.00am desperately needing the loo again with slightly worse pains.  I started getting the pains more frequently so I thought I’d better go and let my other half know that this might be the start of it.  He got up and I made us a cup of tea.  

By about 5.30am I was having to breathe through the pain whilst pacing around the flat. I asked Brian (my partner) to use ‘Contraction Master’ to time each tightening as I didn’t want to ring the maternity unit if it was a false alarm.  I was pacing around the house with every contraction as that was the only thing that made me feel comfortable. We first thought that we must have made a mistake, or that we were timing the contractions incorrectly as most of them were about 3-4 minutes apart and lasting between 50 to seventy seconds. 

I tried to phone the maternity unit but the phone just kept ringing and ringing… I later found out that they had another four ladies delivering and only two midwives on duty! Finally on the fifth attempt of ringing someone picked up and told us to come in and get checked out if we wished.

I called my Mum to let her know as she was coming to the birth with me whilst Brian was staying here to look after our two year old Daughter, Freya.  I told her just to have her breakfast before getting a taxi up here and not to rush…

 
I decided to have a shower at about 6.00am as the pain was getting a lot worse by then, so Brian rang my Mum again and told her not to get out of the taxi and that I would be jumping straight in to catch a lift to the hospital.  The taxi arrived at 6.45am and luckily the roads were quiet. We arrived at the maternity unit at 6.55am at which point the pain became almost unbearable. I asked for the pool as I’d used it in my previous labour but it was in use.

The midwife suggested going to the ‘nice home from home room’ which had a big bath which was free.However, she explained that it needed cleaning and so could take some time. She saw how much pain I was in and started barking orders at my Mum who leapt into action and cleaned out and filled the bath for me!  I went to the loo and thought ‘Oh my god, I think I need to push here…’ at which point the midwife told me to get on the bed so that she could examine me. I expected her to tell me that I wasn’t that far on and thought I’d have to ask for some pain relief as I didn’t think I could cope with the pain for the next few hours.  I didn’t need to worry about that though as I was fully dilated! 

The next thing my waters broke and I remember the midwife saying "If you want to have this baby in the water its now or never, you’ve got to go into the bathroom!" so once the contraction had finished I leapt up and ran over, which I’m sure was a hilarious sight!

I had enough time to kneel down in the bath and I kindly asked the midwife if it was ok to start pushing!  It took two pushes for the head to come out and then I had to  wait for another contraction and give one more push for our baby to be born.

Kara Mae Gibbard was born at 7.15 am on September 26th. Kara Mae weighed 8lb 13oz and looked exactly like her big sister did when she was born! It was a pretty speedy labour and I didn’t even have time for gas and air thus my labour was pretty hardcore!

Mums Baby Magazine would like to thank Melanie for sharing her birth story with us! For those readers wishing to use contraction master, this piece of software can be found at www.contractionmaster.com and is FREE!

It all started on the Sunday morning (19th April) when I got my show. I felt tired and really uncomfortable all of Sunday. I’d phoned my husband to tell him that it could be any time now and to be ready to come to Adelaide.

Monday morning (20th April) I woke feeling like I’d wet my pants. I wasn’t sure if it was heavy discharge or not. I went to my chiropractor appointment as planned, still had that leaking feeling so called Kay’s rooms and spoke to a midwife. I went straight there and was seen by Kay, she confirmed my waters had broken but not totally. Kay then had to break my fore waters, not the most pleasant experience. This was at 11.30am, I was 1cm dilated. I then phoned my husband and told him to get down here as we were having our baby today. My poor husband was in shock I think as he went very quiet.

I then drove to my Mother in laws to grab my bag and my friend was there waiting for me to drive me to the hospital. I got to the hospital at 12.30pm, they monitored bubs for about 30 minutes before starting the Oxytocin drip at about 1pm.This is when I started to really feel the contractions and with one of them the rest of my waters gushed, it was like Niagara falls. Not long after this a midwife came into discuss pain relief and we ordered my epidural then. I made it through the first hour or two on my own then I decided to use the gas and air. At about 4.45pm I had my epidural put in. I did have a reaction to one of the drugs in the cocktail and couldn’t stop scratching. I almost broke skin from scratching! I was confined to the bed at this point as they had to put the monitor on me.

Thankfully my husband got to the hospital at about 5.30pm, he was great, anything that I needed he did for me. I felt so much more relaxed as soon as I saw him. At 6pm Kay came to check on me, I was now 3cm dilated. I was to be checked again at 10pm to monitor my progress. By 8.30pm I had to call the midwife as the epidural was no longer working and I could feel the contractions again rather strongly. The midwife did an internal examination and told me to push with the next contraction as she could feel my babies head. They then called Kay and gave me the option of having a half top up on the epidural, I decided to take it.

So I began pushing with each contraction, I felt like I was going to  pop a blood vessel in my head. My husband kept a comforting hand on my shoulder and was offering me water between contractions. As much as I pushed I didn’t feel I was getting anywhere. Then they told me they could see the head crowning, they put a mirror there so that I could see for myself. After about ninety minutes of pushing Kay suggested maybe using the ventous as my baby just wasn’t getting over the ridge. I agreed as at this point I was exhausted. I could now feel my baby coming out and as my babies head was half way out I was told to stop pushing or I would tear. I have to say this was the most excruciating pain I have ever felt, I was in tears at this point from the pain. As soon as they said to push again I pushed like a demon to get my baby out.

My baby came out screaming at 10.02pm and was placed on my chest The hospital staff covered my baby in towels to keep her warm. It was at this point my husband then said "It’s a girl!". My husband cut the cord. My baby girl was so beautiful and perfect, I cannot believe that we have a daughter! I ended up with a small graze that needed four stitches. After she was weighed (2.920kg/ 6lb 7oz) and cleaned up we were left alone for some family time while I recovered.

On the Wednesday we were transferred to the Hilton as they have a floor set up with a midwife. It was fantastic, so peaceful and it gave us some quiet time together as a family before heading home.