Gorgeous little Lewis, you really kept Mummy and Daddy on their toes! I felt the title ‘Emma’s Positive Up And Down Natural Birth With An Episiotomy’ very fitting!
Thank you Emma and Andy for letting me share.
‘Hi Emily,
We are so happy to introduce you to baby Lewis, born a week ago today (on his due date!) at 4.56pm, weighing 7lb exactly. 
We were expecting to meet him the week before, because he was breech and so we were booked in for an elective c section. However, on the day when I was all gowned up and ready, they did a scan and we found to our surprise that he’d turned head down at the last minute! So we went home to wait for things to kick off naturally.
Last Monday, contractions started about 5am and my waters broke at midday. There was meconium so we were seen for CTG monitoring. The trace was abnormal and the baby’s heart rate was also dropping during contractions. They found I was progressing fast, 2cm dilated at 2pm and 7cm at 3pm. Gas and air and cold flannels become invaluable during this time!
When I started pushing, the baby’s heart rate dropped worryingly low and the doctor decided a cat 1 c-section was required and so I was rushed off to theatre leaving poor Andy alone in the delivery room. I was told to keep pushing while the theatre team prepared. Somehow before they could administer the general anaesthetic, I managed to make enough progress to initially change the plan to a forceps delivery and then to a normal delivery with just an episiotomy – hurray! Andy was also called into theatre in time for the birth, so was great he didn’t miss it. 
One look at our beautiful boy and we were in love and all the previous drama seemed unimportant! However, we are very grateful to the brilliant team that looked after us so very well.
Your Talking Babies antenatal classes were invaluable in preparing us for labour and in our case for what going to theatre would be like. Knowing what to expect made such a difference. Thank you!
Emma and Andy x’
Talking Babies Takes a closer look
‘…a normal delivery with just an episiotomy – hurray!’
In Emma’s story this was such a happy, unexpected ending! Her body was clearly progressing very quickly that Emma’s baby couldn’t keep up and was getting quite distressed.
An episiotomy is a cut into the perineum (the bit between your lady area and bottom). You’ll be pleased to read that episiotomies are performed with your consent, under local anaesthetic (the area is numbed) and they are not routinely performed for a NATURAL birth in the UK. The two main reasons why it would be highly recommended in a NATURAL birth are:
- Your baby is very distressed and it will speed up the birth which will help your baby and ensure their safety. We can tell if your baby is distressed from listening to their heart beat.
- Your baby’s presentation. For example if their face is presenting first as apposed to the top of their head. This part doesn’t mould as well when these babies birth and therefore you are more likely to be left with a deeper tear down below.
Episiotomies are more common in instrumental deliveries. They are performed only with consent from you but are highly recommended to prevent you from having a deep tear to your bottom. This type of tear is more likely in these births due to the instrument being used and the fact that the birth is being sped up.
If you too would like to prepare properly for your birth by attending the same 5 *, Midwife led antenatal course please click here.
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