Birth story - Jessica and baby Jason

It's a long one so grab a cuppa and some biscuits...you deserve it!!

I am thrilled to be able to share our positive birth story. This group and the digital pack meant that leading up to Jason's birth, I felt well informed, confident and even excited to have the experience! I honestly don't know how I'd have managed without it. I hope our story can put someone's mind at ease as well... Especially when it comes to breech babies!

I had found out about PBC from my personal trainer and friend who recommended it to me and I'm so grateful she did! Both my partner and I completed the digital pack together and found it fascinating and really informative.

Pregnancy

My pregnancy was low risk and straight forward all the way through. I had a little bit of sickness in the 1st trimester and a fair bit of discomfort and pain around my ribs in the 3rd trimester (little did I know this was because he was breech!).

I stayed very active throughout the pregnancy, doing HITT workouts twice a week (adapted by the amazing @katie) and walking pretty much everyday. I truly believe this made a massive difference to how I coped with the pregnancy, labour and physical recovery in the 4th trimester (so far). I fully recommend staying active during pregnancy!!

As I was low risk, I opted to give birth in the MLU which was agreed by our midwife.

During my pregnancy I had 3 close friends who were also pregnant, 2 of which had breech babies by c section... I was fairly paranoid that we would have a similar situation and so asked the midwife every appointment if baby was the "right way up" of which I was assured he was... Turns out he wasn't

Labour

I had in my head that I did not want an induction and so thought I best get bouncing on the exercise ball daily from 37weeks, so I did. I'm a teacher and so spent my online lessons bouncing on the ball, it was also one of the only ways I was comfortable with the pain in my ribs and back.

From about week 39 I decided to have hot sauce with everything as well, no idea if either of these things brought on labour but they're the things we tried alongside doing workouts right up until the Sunday before.

The day before I had been for a long dog walk and was telling my mum that I was getting the odd "twinge" and a fair bit of mucus had been coming since Xmas eve, but that this could go on for weeks so I wasn't getting my hopes up too high! I was getting frustrated with the fact that because I didn't know what labour felt like, I would know if I was in labour or not... But rest assured your body will let you know!

We went to bed that evening and at around 3/3:30am my dog woke me up crying (odd as he never does that!) when I woke I felt like I had trapped wind and thought I'd best go for a wee before checking on the dog, I went for a wee and then woosh! There went my waters! I was very excited and decided I'd go and check the dog and then let my partner know. (side note-my dog was fine and didn't really need anything, he must have just decided to let me know something was happening! He saved my bedsheets for sure!)

I woke my partner up and called my mum, I stuck on some maternity pads and sat on a puppy pad (must haves!) we then called the MLU and discovered it was closed due to COVID-19 and that I'd need to go to the labour ward no matter what. This was fine with us as it couldn't be helped and I was confident that I'd still give birth my way no matter the situation.

We then packed the car and went to hospital to get my waters checked. All was well so they booked me for induction for 24hours later and sent us home. We got some McDonald's breakfast and went back, I was sure nothing would happen until the following evening but was determined to help move things along. I napped and watched TV for a little while and then got back on the exercise ball (all while sitting on puppy pads) surges had started almost as soon as my waters broke but didn't keep me from napping until the late morning. They were about 10mins apart when I put the tens machine on and it worked a dream!

Very quickly the surges became 4mins apart (the point where we were told to call the ward) and were becoming a little more intense, although manageable, especially while using up breathing. We called the labour ward at about 2pm and they told me to wait until surges were 3mins apart and said I didn't sound uncomfortable enough, so to wait until I couldn't speak through surges. I thought they were a little dismissive but agreed that I didn't need to go in and if I did I would have gone in any way.

As soon as I put the phone down the surges got more intense, still the same time apart but more difficult to speak through, at about 3pm I noticed some blood on my pads and so called the ward again. They recommended that I come to maternity daycare to get checked. We live less than 15mins from the hospital so were there by 3:30pm. Unfortunately at this point my partner was told he couldn't come into maternity daycare and had to wait in the car.

I then sat in the corridor to wait to be seen (it was very busy) and whilst I waited my surges became their most intense and were 3mins apart. I'm unsure of how long I waited but could feel myself becoming stressed as I was on my own. I reassured myself that I could do this no matter what, that I am in control of what happens in this situation (to some extent) and kept using up breathing and my tens machine. After some time (no idea how long anything took at this point!) I went to the midwife office and basically told them to put me in a room somewhere as I'm not going through labour in a corridor. They then put me in a room and monitored me and baby. The midwife said I was very calm judging by my heart rate, I believe this was because I was still doing my up breathing and knew that soon I'd meet my little one! The midwife left the room and the surges continued to rise in intensity so I got on my knees on the floor in order to remain as comfortable I could. This interfered with the monitoring but I really didn't care! The midwife came back and said she was going to see if labour ward could take me now... I knew I was going to be pushing very soon!

I then walked to the labour ward, still having surges on the way, pausing and breathing through them. I was told to call my partner and was put in a room on the ward. At this point the surges were so powerful I didn't know what to do with myself. I was also going into action mode and had decided that I was going to have this go as much my way as possible.

My partner arrived and I told him to get someone as I felt baby coming (although I don't think I said it so politely!). 2 midwives came in, took my birth preferences, gave me gas and air and told me to get on the bed on my back to be examined. I refused and said I was absolutely not giving birth on my back no matter what and demanded that they examine me on all 4s, they agreed begrudgingly and said they needed to double check on my back to which I agreed but said that I felt I needed to push and to hurry up (I was at no point friendly in the process! Apparently there was a lot of swearing but I knew that I needed to be assertive to keep what I could in my control). The midwives agreed that they could feel the head and that baby was on their way.

To begin with I was pushing and making a lot of noise, the midwife reminded me that making all that noise wasn't effective which really helped me get "in the zone" I then continued to push using down breathing and it really worked! Although I knew straight away that I didn't want to be doing this for long!! This was the point that the gas and air felt like it was hindering rather than helping so I practically threw it out the way.

My partner was amazing, stroking my arms and encouraging me all the time. I could hear some confusion from the midwives... Asking each other if that was the head or not. This is when things got even more exciting, I could hear the midwives saying baby was breach and that they could see testicles and a leg (this is how I found out I was having a boy! ), I didn't register much of what was being said as I was focusing on the job at hand and I was facing the other way. My partner said that at least 8 staff members entered the room, including senior midwives, a consultant and a couple of staff who wanted to watch!

I then started thinking and saying that if he's breach I can't do it, the midwife and my partner quickly reminded me that I could and I agreed, of course I can do this… I'm already doing it!!

I continued to push with each surge and was told to push as hard and long as I could as one of baby's legs was stuck up by his head, this scared me but also spurred me on. It felt like I was pushing forever but before I knew it, my baby arrived and was apparently already very alert. I had very little knowledge of what was going on at this point, but my partner told me that he got to cut the umbilical cord (I don't know if it was delayed). Jason was taken off to be checked due to him being breach and having his leg stuck but all was well.

I was given the injection to help deliver the placenta and this worked very quickly and easily whilst I was having some skin on skin time with our new arrival I was then checked for blood loss and tearing and much to my surprise and delight there was no tearing and no major blood loss, I attribute this to exercise but mostly to willing each surge and labour in general on. Never fighting the surges and staying relaxed, I was only able to do this through what I'd learned from the hypnobirthing course.

After some cuddles, a tea and a bath, we were transferred onto the ward to stay the night (again due to having a breach birth). The next evening we went home safe, sound and overjoyed!

If you've read this far, thank you! I am so proud of my birth story and see it as a wonderful experience! My main takeaway is that no matter what happens there are still elements that you can have control of. This is your birth, so do it your way, you can do it.