El has kindly shared her positive unplanned caesarean section. I am so happy reading her birth story. I am happy because El’s story is very positive even though she was in labour for 4 days!
Thank you to El for taking the time to write it. It’s so positive and I am so pleased El felt informed and in control throughout her labour and birth because of her classes.
A massive well done to both Jack and El they had a very tiring labour and El with out doubt gave it her all. She should feel so proud of herself. I know that you’ll agree that she can certainly hold her head up high!
‘Hi Emily,
We have had a wonderful whirlwind of a month together as a family since Finn was born on the 29th July.
I was a week over due when I started to get strong contractions in the middle of the night on Thursday. We used an app to track them which was really useful (I would recommend this to any new mums – and dads – in labour! Jack was in charge of clocking the contractions!! ) I used my tens machine (I like this one) to take my mind off things and had lots of hot baths which was the only thing that really helped with the pain at that stage.
By about 10 am on Friday morning the contractions were happening about 2 or 3 times in 10 minutes. This is it we thought… its happening… so we excitedly got in the car to go to the birthing unit. How wrong we were!
As soon as we were in the car the contractions slowed down to about 1 in 20 minutes.
On arrival I was 3cm dilated so we came home and I paced the house, bounced on my ball (this is a great pregnancy ball), up and down the stairs. I couldn’t sit still! My contractions were strong and painful. They were regular but not regular enough to go back to the birthing unit.
This continued through the night and at about 4am on Saturday morning with a mixture of exhaustion and frustration; Jack agreed to take me back to Bournemouth to see the midwife. I just needed some reassurance that everything was alright. I had another exam and I was still 3 cm!! I couldn’t believe it. My waters still hadn’t broken so there was no real reason to stay at hospital.
Home again. My contractions were really painful… the tens machine helped take my mind off them and gave me something to focus on but I was extremely frustrated that all this pain and I wasn’t even in established labour yet!
By 10am on Saturday morning I needed midwife support. Wed done everything we could at home and I just needed someone who knew what they were talking about to reassure me that everything was ok. We went back into Bournemouth and stayed there this time. Because I wasn’t yet at 4cm dilated I was not able to have any pain relief at Bournemouth. However, I was reassured that me and the
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baby were being monitored. I was given a really nice aromatherapy massage and spent some time in the pool. Unfortunately, as the baths I’d been having at home were hot I found the pool in hospital quite cold and it didn’t really do much for me.
My contractions continued throughout the day, very strong and very painful. But I was stuck at 3cm dilated and nothing seemed to be happening. At around 4pm on Saturday the midwives made the decision that I needed some help. I was exhausted, in a lot of pain and together we made the decision to go to hospital, to the Midwife-led alongside unit where they were able to give me some pain relief.
At Hosiptal I was given some Pethidine which allowed me to have a 2 hour much needed nap. It was Bliss!! I felt like I was being hugged by a cloud!
By about 11pm that evening we made the decision together with the midwives to break my waters to try and get things going. Up until now I had really wanted to have as few interventions as possible, I didn’t really want to have any drugs other than gas and air and I wanted to use the pool. Things had changed but I felt like I was in good hands and I was happy to follow advice and do what needed to be done.
After my waters had been broken my contractions continued at the same rate. 3 or 4 in 10 minutes and I was now using gas and air as pain relief.
By about 2 or 3 in the morning there was no change. I was STILL only 3cm dilated, so we went over to the OTHER UNIT (Delivery suite) and I was hooked up to the hormone drip to see if that would get things moving. From this point I was nil by mouth. I had packed a whole bag of delicious snacks to keep me going and hadn’t eaten any of them. I wish I had as I was starving as soon as the midwife said I couldn’t have anything! But as soon as the drip was attached the baby was being constantly monitored. Although I couldn’t move much because of the wires and bands around my torso and attached to my finger and hand, it was very reassuring to hear my babies heart beat and we loved watching the graph showing the rate of contractions which rolls out from the machine on a long sheet of paper. I had another dose of Pethidine to help with the pain and
At 7 in the morning just as the doctors were doing their rounds for the change in shift the monitor lost my babies heart beat, this was a bit scary, but the midwives were quick and calm. They attached a clip onto the babies head and he was monitored that way instead. They think he did a big move at this point which is why we lost him for a second on the monitor. But it was good as I suddenly jumped to 7cm dilated – Hallelujah!!
When the doctors came around they were worried about how long this had been going on for. It was now Sunday morning and I had been in labour since Thursday night. We discussed the pain relief options to make this next part as manageable as possible. After our sessions with Talking Babies I really felt like I understood what they were talking about. I was convinced I didn’t want an epidural but after discussing the options with the doctors and midwives it seemed like that was the best option for me. And the process was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. I didn’t feel a thing and the anaesthetist was really reassuring. I did have a weird reflex on my left side which made my whole left side do a kick. And then when the medication went down the tube I had this lovely cold sensation. After that I didn’t feel the contractions any more. There was no need for any more gas and air, the affects of which were rubbing off and I was starting to feel really high from it which wasn’t that pleasant.
We were monitored all day, we tried to watch some tv, did a cross word chatted to the midwives, tried to nap, we felt like wed been there for ever and for no time at all in equal measure
I had vaginal examinations (VE) throughout the day and nothing had changed from my 7cm dilation. Everything seemed positive though so I was still aiming for a normal birth.
By 5pm I reached 9cm. I was quite excited we were going to meet our baby soon, only 1 more cm to go and I could start pushing, however at this stage the midwife asked a doctor to come in and do an exam. She suggested either my pelvis wasn’t the right shape for baby to push down on my cervix or that the baby was very big… she also thought maybe he was looking in slightly the wrong direction and this was the reason for the very very slow labour. She advised a caesarean section but I really wanted to give a natural delivery every chance I could… she gave me an hour… if I could get to 10 cm in an hour we could go for it.
6pm came and I was still at 9cm and now there was some inflammation of the cervix due to so many VEs – I was really disappointed and upset, but the most important thing was to get our baby out safely. Once the decision was made for a caesarean section everything moved so fast! Jack scrubbed up and I was wheeled up to surgery in a matter of minutes. My Epidural was amped up. The C-section was a strange sensation, I could feel movement but no pain.
We forgot to bring a camera up to surgery so a nurse had to run down and rummage through our bags to get one.
Our baby cried as soon as they got to him… He wasn’t even born yet! So he must have been ready!
Our gorgeous giant baby was born at 6.41 on the 29th July – Via caesarean section weighing 10 pounds 1 oz.
The surgeon could barely lift him above the curtain to show us!
Although the birth was totally different to what I had planned I was so pleased with the care we were given. We understood everything that was going on thanks to everything Emily had explained to us in our Talking Babies classes and we are so pleased with our delightful baby boy Finnegan Harry!
Thanks so much for all the information you gave us! and well done on your hypnobirthing qualification… what an excellent extra string to your bow!
All our best
Jack, El and Finn xxx’
Talking Babies Takes a Closer Look:
‘I had Vaginal examinations (VE) throughout the day and nothing had changed from my 7cm dilation. Everything seemed positive though so I was still aiming for a normal birth.’
El’s labour was prolonged. It would have been advised to monitor progress regularly one of the ways to monitor progess is by performing a Vaginal Examination. VEs tell the Midwives and Doctors a lot of things, not just cervical dilation. I discuss this in depth during a Talking Babies Course.
As a rough guide, once El was in established labour a VE would have been recommended to her every 4 hours. This time frame could have changed for varying reasons for example, if El’s baby became distressed. VE’s are only performed with informed consent.
A Midwife or Doctor will only use 2 fingers, no speculum is required in labour (a speculum is the hard plastic device used during a smear test). It takes just a few minutes to perform a VE. Following the examination your Midwife or Doctor will fully inform you of their findings. If you don’t understand what they are saying to you just ask them to explain further. No one will mind.
If you too would like to prepare properly for your birth like EL and Jack please join one of the Talking Babies 5* Midwife Led, Antenatal courses. Click here. You wont regret it!
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