#11: Helen’s painless, speedy and empowering hospital birth…
Labour doesn’t always follow the pattern we expect it to: as Helen’s incredible hospital birth explores, sometimes we need to trust the process as it unravels and let ourselves be amazed by just how much our bodies can achieve when the time comes.
Trigger warnings: please note that this birth story discusses bleeding in late pregnancy.
Before we get to birth, let’s start at the beginning. How was your pregnancy?
Easy pregnancy on the whole but I got a pregnancy rash* which I couldn't shift for ages. Scratched myself raw, up having cold showers in the middle of the night. Hell!
Learning point: due to the increased hormones and the stretching of your skin, itching is a common experience for many pregnant people. However, excessive itching can be caused by a pregnancy-related liver condition (intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy) and so it’s always wise to get any itching checked by your healthcare team.
And, before the event, how did you feel about giving birth?
I'm a midwife so didn't do much extra preparation. I was very relaxed about birth. I trusted my body and accepted that I couldn't control it much anyway. I knew how to optimise my labour and birth if needed, I stayed fit and active during pregnancy and was very chilled out. What would be would be!
I planned a homebirth but knew that statistically there was a high chance I would need to go into hospital as a first time mum, but thought I would stay home as long as possible. Homebirths are linked to lower rates of medical intervention and higher rates of vaginal births.
Then the big day arrives. How did it feel when you realised your baby was on their way earthside?
I went into labour at 37+4 but didn't know what was happening. I'd been at an aqua-natal class when suddenly I had a bleed at home and had to go into get checked over. No signs of labour at all!
So, how was your birth experience?
I went in to have the bleed checked and my cervix was shut, however on the monitor some tightenings were picking up which I couldn't feel. The plan was I would stay overnight for observation.
I went down to the ward and ran a bath to get cleaned up. I was still bleeding and started to become more aware of these painless tightenings. All of a sudden I had to jump out of the bath and dash to the loo, I had awful diarrhoea and then all of a sudden I couldn't stay standing up whenever I got one of the tightenings.
Every instinct in my body told me to get on my hands and knees on the floor. I was able to talk and had no pain but I HAD to kneel on the floor. The midwife came and asked the doctor to come and reassess me and I was 8cm... Just one hour after my cervix had been shut!
I was taken to labour ward and short story even shorter, my son was born another hour later. The doctor had advised that they break my waters but I declined but not long after the midwife was struggling to monitor my baby's heartbeat so she broke them to attach a clip to his head* to monitor him directly. I felt incredibly in control the entire time, squatting down on the floor, no pain, and eventually his head was resting in my hand...
At that point the midwife asked me to lay back slightly into my partner's lap and she put a lovely hot compress on my perineum as he was crowning. Heavenly! I had no tear and my blood loss was normal. Just very fast! Total time from closed cervix to birth... 2 hours 2 minutes!
Glossary: a fetal scalp electrode (commonly called a clip). It is a small sensor within a screw shaped, which a midwife manually attaches to the baby’s head and allows direct monitoring of their vital signs (eg: heart rate). The cable connects to the machine via a wire that ‘hangs’ out of your vagina. Because it is directly attached to your baby, the readings are more reliable than CTG readings however it is invasive and carries a risk of infection.
Do you remember what you said to your baby when you first met them?
We didn't know what we were having but I was convinced he was a boy. I sobbed "I knew it was a boy! I knew you were a boy!"
Looking back, what was the best part of your birth experience?
How just bloody awesome and animalistic it was. My body just did it and I just went along for the ride!
And on the flip side, if you could, what would you have changed about the way your baby entered the world?
Nothing!
If you could give parents-to-be one piece of advice about preparing for the birth of their baby, what would it be?
You can't control it. Accept it. Learn when to say yes and when to say no. You know your own body. Trust your instincts.
Think about it: how much do you do this in every day life? If you are used to going inwards and trusting your gut instinct, or reading your body’s signs, then the likelihood of you doing this comfortably during labour is high. But if your first instincts are to rely on others to help you figure things out, or to interpret symptoms for you, or to listen to others over your own instincts, that may mean it’ll be harder to do during labour. Antenatal classes, hypnobirthing and active birth courses can all help you get started on reading your body.
