Birth story - Giulia and baby Alberto

*Trigger warnings* - use of word contraction, pre term birth

I had a really straightforward pregnancy, with just a tiny little bit of nausea in the first trimester and a whole lot of heartburn in the 3rd but no other complications - I kept really active, walking and swimming throughout.

Pre-labour

At 35+2 weeks we had a weekend away planned to visit family in Yorkshire so I packed my hospital bag, just to be safe. Just before leaving home I had some watery discharge while I was putting my shoes on, so spent the car ride researching whether it could be my waters. As it wasn’t a gush but just a small amount, and it wasn’t regular, I gathered from the NHS website that it was just increased watery discharge due to the baby being low in my pelvis.

The weekend went by, and for the rest of that week I had occasional watery discharge that didn’t worry me, so I didn’t notify midwives or hospital, but decided I’d discuss at my 36 weeks midwife appointment, which was scheduled for 36+6 and was when I was meant to discuss my birth plan too.

The following Sunday (36+2) I headed to Liverpool to see my friend’s new flat and hang out. While I was there I noticed my watery discharge seemed to be a bit more than before, so I went to the toilet and noticed I seemed to have lost a bit of my mucus plug- just the tiniest bit! I changed my panty liner and went back in the living room, but as I sat down I felt another little gush and my new panty liner was completely wet! I asked my friend for a sanitary towel, and thought to myself that this is a bit weird.. but didn’t think too much of it, finished our catch up and my husband drove us home. Once we got home after 5 pm I called triage to report what had happened, thinking they’d just ask me to monitor it, but they asked me to go in to be checked. Naively, again, we thought they’d tell me to keep an eye on it and send me home, so I went on my own by taxi, taking only my maternity notes and a book, as it was a Sunday night and my husband had work in the morning.

I got to triage for 6:30 pm, and was seen about at 7:00 pm. At this point a doctor examined me, and as he inserted the speculum there was a gush of water… “I can confirm your waters have broken” he goes “so we’ll have to keep you in for observation”. It still hadn’t clicked at this point though that I was about to have a baby!! I called my husband to come over with my hospital bag, and mentioned I was starting to have some tightenings (these started immediately after the examination that confirmed that my waters had broken!)

Labour

My husband, Sam, arrived at Triage at 9:30pm, and at this point my contractions had really stepped up, they were already 3 in 10 lasting about 30 seconds!! We were obviously already in hospital, so all my plans of a relaxed early labour at home went out of the window, but we put on my relaxing music and hung out in our little triage room for a couple of hours, breathing through contractions together; Sam was counting for me, however I didn’t quite manage 4 in 8 out and we settled on a rhythm of 4 in, 6 out. From then the rest of the night is a bit of a blur, but I requested my birth notes, so here are the timings as recorded by the hospital:

10:25 pm, admitted from Triage to labour ward. Continued up breathing with the help of my husband, and the staff left us to it.

01:00 am first VE- 3 cm + dilated, partially effaced- transfer requested to delivery room

01:20 arrived in delivery room and attached to continuous monitoring – however allowed to change position as much as possible. At this point I got started on Gas and Air. At first it seemed to me like it wouldn’t do anything, but I quickly got the hang of it and here is when I really went in the zone, using my breathing techniques with gas and air. All we had with us in the delivery room was a relaxing playlist on my phone and my water bottle with a straw! My snacks were still in the car! And I hadn’t even got round to buying tea lights or essential oils as I was “only 36 weeks”!

I kept labouring in a variety of positions, asked for a birthing ball, laboured lying down, on all four on the bed and on the floor and bent over the bed. The mooing was real!!

My next VE was at 04:50 (4 hrs after the previous at 3cm dilated)- and was found to be at 6cm! This is when the hospital recorded the start of first stage of labour.

The last bit of up labour was the hardest for me- thankfully I knew about transition as soon I was on the floor saying I wanted an epidural ahah my husband was amazing reminding me throughout that we were about to meet our baby! Apart from transition I didn’t really lose focus throughout, the gas and air felt amazing- I think I was fairly high but felt very much in the zone!

At 06:10 am, after my transition, I had my third and final VE which found me 10 cm dilated! First stage of labour was recorded as 1hr 34 minutes, and I started pushing at 6:26 am. I was coached to push as at this point contractions became really short! The midwife suggested an episiotomy to avoid tearing, which I accepted. 17 minutes later Alberto was born at 6:43am!

He was put on my chest straight away and it was the most unbelievable feeling!! He looked really squashed and purple and yet was the most beautiful human I had ever seen!! We requested delayed cord clamping, however the cord was quite short so it was left for 11 minutes, then Sam cut it. We had amazing skin to skin for 45 minutes, the midwives were very discreet and left us to it! I then took a shower and left Albi with Sam for more skin to skin after the midwife examination.

I was on cloud 9 and couldn’t believe I had such a straightforward, amazing and quick birth, despite it being so much earlier than expected!!

After delivery I was put on antibiotics and Albi was diagnosed with jaundice and put under the machine, so we had to stay in hospital for 6 nights. I was dying to go home but in hindsight this period in hospital really helped my establishing breastfeeding and sleep/feed routines, and I was really well looked after by staff.

I look back on my birth story with a lot of positivity and I am so proud of how my body handled it all!