Birth story - Papari and baby girl

Second time Mum

Hospital

VBAC

Group B Strep

*Trigger warning* - hyperemesis, c-section, contractions, GBS, cannula, induction with syntocinon, mention of assisted delivery due to fetal distress which wasn’t needed, episiotomy.

Backstory

After an initially rough start to the pregnancy with hyperemesis, at 20 weeks the vomiting finally started to ease and I decided to download the positive birth digital pack.

I’d used this during my first pregnancy and it really helped me adjust my expectations when, at 36 weeks, my first child was breech and, despite an ECV, stubbornly remained breech leading me to have my positive elective c-section. Although my recovery from this was straight forward I decided I would really like to try for a vaginal delivery this time as opposed to opting for a second c-section. Mainly due to a quicker recovery time allowing me to deal with an active toddler as well as a new born and wanting to experience the labour I never had the first time round!

I had a few growth scans and when, at 36 weeks, it was confirmed that baby was head down I was really pleased I would be able to use all the techniques from the positive birth pack during labour.

I was told baby would be monitored throughout labour due to my previous c-section and that I would also need a cannula for antibiotics because I was Group B Strep (GBS) positive. I was ok with both these things. I also decided that I would be happy setting an induction date at 41 weeks if baby had not made an appearance by then after weighing up information from various sources including discussion with my obstetric consultant and midwife.

At 38 weeks having never been in labour before I started getting some back aches and period type cramps which I put down to braxton hicks, they appeared during late evening but stopped by bed time and were quite irregular. I was also harvesting colostrum and found that this would sometimes cause some light tightenings.

Labour and the birth

A week later at 39+4 weeks I started to get regular contractions about 5-7 mins apart early on Saturday morning. I continued about my day having called my parents to look after my older daughter just in case things speeded up. At around 4pm Saturday afternoon, with contractions around 3 mins apart, I rang delivery suite and was told to stay at home as I appeared to be coping with the contractions. This was thanks to up breathing, keeping active on my birth ball and relaxing while listening to my affirmations and visualisations. By 2am on Sunday morning I was unable to keep still and couldn’t get to sleep as the contractions were coming every 2 mins so decided to go into hospital.

In triage the contractions slowed down, as I thought they might, but on examination I was 4cm so I was taken to delivery suite.

There I was cannulated and given antibiotics, via a drip, for the GBS. I then went about trying to transform my room into a cosy, warm, inviting space and worked on getting my oxytocin flowing again to try and get my contractions to pick up. I was allowed to eat during labour and given regular meals which I felt really helped me with my energy levels. One hour later, as my contractions hadn’t increased I decided I would have my waters broken and after a further two hours of contractions that were not as regular as they had been, they offered me the drip to speed up my contractions. After using BRAIN I decided that I would accept this as I could still be mobile with my drip and I’d had wireless monitoring of baby from the beginning. My midwife was brilliant and had really taken note of my birth plan and left me and my husband alone to concentrate on up breathing during my contractions and trying to relax in between. This was challenging as they were now coming more frequently and with greater intensity but I found the affirmation ‘they cannot be stronger than me because they are me’ really helped at this point along with being able to walk, bounce on the ball while leaning forward and listening to my labour play list. After a further 4 hours I was checked and had made some progress but as I was tiring I decided now was the time to ask for an epidural. I was told the anaesthetist was in theatre so I accepted some diamorphine while I waited and tried gas and air but didn’t feel it helped very much. The anaesthetist arrived after about 45mins and it was at this point, in retrospect, I think I was going through transition. I suddenly had the urge to go to the toilet to do a poo, I was falling asleep in between each contraction, had the urge to push and my up breathing had turned into a strange guttural almost mooing type sound. I accepted an examination at this time and I had gone from 6cm to virtually fully dilated in 1 hour. After some crazy talk from me about whether I still wanted an epidural despite being fully dilated now I eventually came to the conclusion I didn’t need it! Now thinking back it was so strange as my body just took over and almost knew what to do and when to do it.. I still can’t quite believe it was just like some of the positive birth stories I had read about while following the PBC pack.

The second stage was bit of a blur. I was very tired and all I wanted to do was sleep and even after being told baby’s head was visible I felt like I didn’t have the energy to push baby out. It was at this point I was told that baby was ok but having some fetal distress because she was tiring and the doctor was called in case an assisted delivery was needed. I think this was the wake up call I needed and at this point the midwife helped me into a good upright position on the bed and I pushed our beautiful daughter out. When Siobhan said it’s like doing a poo it really did feel like that which I didn’t expect and I really didn’t feel any discomfort not even the ring of fire that everyone talks about. I think this was probably down to the diamorphine and the oxytocin high of having given birth. I had my uninterrupted skin to skin while my placenta was delivered and had some stitches to a very small episiotomy which again I didn’t even feel as I was completely enveloped in my little cosy post birth bubble while breast feeding my beautiful baby girl.

In total I was in active labour for about 15 hours having been in latent labour for the 20 hours previous to that! I am still a little bit in awe of the birth of my little girl and getting the experience of having a positive VBAC despite requiring a few interventions during labour. I want to say a big thank you to the PBC for allowing me and my husband to have the amazing experience that we had during the birth of both our children.

I feel because I felt so well informed by surrounding myself with positive VBAC stories and repeating my affirmations daily the recovery both mentally and physically has been much quicker this time round.

Now almost 2 months down the line we are enjoying our life as a family of four!

I hope my positive birth story helps anyone who is considering a VBAC and using the PBC. Xxx