Birth story - Sophie and baby Toby

*Trigger Warning* - Contraction, Retained Placenta and baby needing some help to breathe.

It’s a long one… Whilst overdue I enjoyed reading these stories so much but could only find one with a Covid positive Mum so was keen to share my story.

Pregnancy

All fairly straight forward, some sickness and nausea up to 14 weeks. Measured around the 50th percentile throughout. Suffered badly with carpel tunnel in the last month.

Due date came and went and I was booked for a sweep at 40+4. I did a lateral flow in the morning and to my horror it was positive. I was feeling absolutely fine and am triple vaccinated. I let my midwife know and obviously this meant she couldn’t see me. It also meant my birth plan was out the window as my 10 days would be at the 42 week mark so I knew I would be giving birth Covid positive.

Day by day went past and I walked round the garden up and down the stairs, had clary sage baths, hot curry, bounced on the ball and nothing! I was wearing a mask at home and trying to keep away from my husband as we knew if he got it he couldn’t be at the birth, this was really the only thing that was stressing me out but I did my best to stay as chilled out as possible.

As the days went by I developed incredibly mild symptoms, a snotty nose and an irritating cough. I have had far worse colds and it really was very mild. I was also worried about going into labour feeling rubbish!

Further chats with my midwife and we booked induction for 40+12 (1/2/22). As more days went by! I was feeling heavy, uncomfortable and sleeping terribly. The night before, I spent hours reading induction stories on here and was feeling very positive about it.

Day of induction

I lost my mucus plug that morning, which just made me laugh after all this time waiting checking my pants and the loo!

We arrived at hospital at midday and were put straight in a room and told we weren’t allowed to leave. I set about making things as nice as possible and was pleased there was at least a bath in the en-suite.

We were monitored for an hour and it was obvious from the monitor that I was having contractions that I couldn’t feel yet. I was over the moon that my body had obviously started labour on it’s own. After an hour of monitoring I was examined and depending on my cervix it would either be the 6hr tablet or 24hr pessary. I was 2cm so in went the 6hr along with an aggressive sweep from the midwife which was not pleasant!

I spent the next 6 hours on the go, bouncing walking round the room and doing everything I could to get gravity to do it’s thing. It worked! Before the 6 hours were up I was having contractions I could feel and was able to start timing.

Examined again at 6 hours and to my disappointment I had only got to 3cm. They put me on the monitor again and, as I was having contractions, this meant I didn’t need to have the oxytocin drip. I asked for some paracetamol and given some dihydrocodeine which I didn’t think did anything!

I was left to it again and told to buzz when I was struggling to get through each contraction. The tens machine went on and I found this helpful initially but 2 hours later I was starting to find it irritating and really struggling to get through each one but I didn’t want to press the buzzer and be disappointed by progress. My husband decided enough was enough and he pressed it. To my delight this time I was now 5 cm and in established labour so out came the gas & air which was such a relief! It was now 12:30am and I couldn’t believe how quickly time had gone!

Things continued to progress and I was stood upright at the end of the bed which I found to be the comfiest position for me. I had the sudden urge to be sick, which my husband caught, the force of which also broke my waters.

Midwife wanted to check me so onto the bed I got and it turned out that only the hind waters had gone and they were still in tact round the head so I agreed for her to break these.

The force of me being sick had sent little man shooting down the birth canal which had caused some drops and spikes in his heart rate so in came a Dr. I started to feel the need to push but was only 8cm so told not to which was very hard! I’m unsure on timings but it didn’t feel like long before I was at 10 and pushing could begin!

My husband started draping me in a wet flannel which was lovely as I got incredibly hot! The feeling of the head pushing down and slowly retracting back is something I will never forget. The ring of fire came and then there was a beautiful baby on my chest!

He decided he didn’t want to do a big cry just some grunts and a poo on my chest! This obviously meant he was going to need some help but my husband cut the cord and shouted it’s a boy! Toby was whisked outside and needed some pressurised air to get his lungs going. I didn’t feel worried at all as he was a good colour and making some noises, I was just so elated I had brought this beautiful boy into the world.

I was given the injection for my placenta but it decided it wanted me to stay pregnant and didn’t want to come out so after an hour it was decided to take me to theatre to get it out as I was continuing to bleed and they also stitched up my tricky 1st degree tear.

Toby was back with me by this point and having a feed. Off to theatre I went and Toby was left to have skin to skin with my husband. I had a spinal which flooded my body with relief and I was so exhausted I just dozed!

2 hours later I was back with my boys and on cloud 9, feeling exhausted but incredibly empowered.

It wasn’t the birth I had hoped and planned for but I feel I was able to take the challenges in my stride due to feeling calm about birth from the get go and incredibly lucky that we are both home and well and life as a family of 3 can begin.