Maria’s Birth Story

Birth story Maria and Liam

Hi Elaine,

As promised sharing my birth story with the group. Please stick with me until the end. I do not want my story to be discouraging for me it is actually encouraging because we faced more problems than I could have imagined but it was all fine. 

- My contractions started late night / early morning on Saturday 

- I kept in touch with the coombe and on Saturday evening when contradictions were 4 mins apart they wanted me to come in. 

- I went but as I was only 1cm I chose to come home again. I just knew I would do much better at home than being stuck in the antenatal ward.

- Advise: I loved my tens machine, would highly recommend it. It completely took the edge off.

- I went back in on Sunday morning when I was 3cm and went straight to the delivery room.

- Everything was progressing great.

- Advise: our Yoga mantra I can do anything for 1 minute stuck with me and it is true even if it is bad it is going to pass very quickly.

- Unfortunately when I hit 7cm the frequency of my contractions fell off.

- Then they discovered that baby was looking up rather than having chin to chest.

- This being the case they really needed to start me on an oxytocin cocktail to increase the strength of my contractions which would also help turn the baby.

- Policy is that with artificial contractions they really recommend an epidural. I was never keen on an epidural because of bladder issues I have but in the situation felt I had no choice.

- Unfortunately the epidural was not done correctly so the artificial contractions hit fast and furious without pain relief.

- My midwife was great though and when she realized what was happening to me she pushed so hard on the anesthetist and Dr. who did not think anything was wrong. She really put her neck on the line but I really appreciated that she was in my corner.

- They then had no choice but to repeat the epidural which took a really long time as each stage had to fit around the strong contractions.

- When we thought we were getting back on track the baby started getting into distress (contractions were restricting the cord) alarms went and the room filled ready for emergency section.

- Everything was moving to theatre when the heart rate came back and the team started questioning going ahead with the section.

- Hospital policy is very focused on ensuring that they are not too fast to move to a section especially on a first time mum.

- The approach taken was to take me off the drip and start back gradually seeing how far they could go without impacting on baby.This also involves taking blood from babies head and monitoring oxygen levels.

- After a few hours of the same routine; cranking up drip, losing heart rate, alarms going etc I asked the doctor to stop. Asked midwife and doctor what the options were, it just felt as though we were going around in circles. Drip was too low to get me to 10 cm but any higher was impacting on baby. They agreed that although there were trying and trying to avoid a section there really was not any plan B. At that point I made my first decision as a mammy and said enough was enough a section does not matter if it means that my baby is delivered asap and avoid anymore risks.

So Liam (named after his granddad) was born on Sunday night weighing in at exactly 8lbs and oblivious that day had been full of such drama.

We had to stay in longer getting ourselves sorted but we are home now and this email is the final stage of putting it all behind us.

Advise: for post birth rather than maternity pads I used incontinence pants. I know not attractive but I am delighted I did. I got Tena brand, bought them in Tesco. They were just 2 euros more expensive than pads but I was so glad I had them. Pads simply do not work you end up sitting in a pool being caught by the pad they put on the bed. (and I had a section bleeding is way less than a natural birth). Post birth there are much better things to be doing than managing leaks!

Re: section, I am finding recovery absolutely fine. I cut back the pain killers really quickly and the wound is beyond tiny. 

So there you have it, there were challenges but honestly it was just one day. Overall my lesson learnt is don't panic, just go with what happens, deal with it step by step and before you know it it is all over anyway. 

Sorry to be signing off with you all. It was so lovely to get to know you. Especially as a first timer it was crazy how much I learned from the pregnancies and births shared in class. All the very best to each of you, take care of yourselves and your babies. Hopefully see you back for baby massage

Elaine - keep up the great work, your dedication and enthusiasm are huge support and makes this class a whole lot more than straightforward yoga!

Every good wish in the world to each of you.

Maria x