Sorry for the radio silence for the last 10 weeks. I've been busy adapting to being a mum of two.
I wanted to blog Winnie's birth story, as I love reading these and thought someone, somewhere, might like to read mine. Be warned, it is long...
So...Winnie's due date (14th May) came and went. I had a check up with the midwife booked in for Tuesday 16th. I had discussed with her that I really wanted to avoid being induced, because I was induced with Matilda. She said the two things known to actually work to bring on labour are nipple stimulation (an hour 3 x a day - ain't nobody got time for that!) and sex. So if anyone reading this is overdue - go try these things!
Wednesday morning, around 1:30am, I felt a gush and instantly knew my waters had just gone. I nudged a snoring Andrew and told him I was going to go downstairs, call the birth place and have some toast. The midwife on the phone at the birth place advised me to call back at 8am to see if my contractions had started. 8am came, nothing had started so I called anyway and I was advised to call back at midday, again to see if anything had begun. Needless to say, absolutely nothing. Just constant waters leaking and no twinges. When I called at 12, she asked if I could come in to be examined, as I was now at a higher risk of infection.
When I arrived, I was assessed and told my options. Either go over to the delivery suite and be induced immediately, or go home and wait until 9pm to see if I could go into labour naturally.
I decided to go home, I would have kicked myself had I not given myself the extra chance.
We went for a nice long stroll along the beach with Matilda in the sunshine, soaking up the last few hours of being a family of 3. By this point I was pretty tired too, having been up since 1am.
As you can probably guess, no contractions so off we headed in the pouring rain to Medway hospital to be induced. We were put on a ward to wait for a midwife to come and chat to us. Along she came and gave me a choice - be induced now or try and get some sleep and be induced in the morning. I jumped at the chance for some rest! Poor Andrew though had to sleep on a chair and we were sharing the ward with a serious snorer!
Now it's Thursday morning, 18th May. A midwife came round to us, at about 7am to take us to the delivery suite to be induced. I was so calm. 10:30am and Shani, our midwife, started with the drugs. We had the radio on, I was walking around (as much as I could given that I was attached to two monitors). At 2:30, my contractions started but they were mild and spread apart so I carried on eating wine gums and playing games with Andrew to pass the time.
Fast forward to around 5pm, with the contractions having built slowly over the last few hours, they were getting strong enough for me to not be able to talk through them anymore, but I just continued to breathe through it and use the birthing ball. I hadn't been examined at all as I was at a higher risk of infection. However, I knew deep down something was happening so I asked if I could be examined, and was happily told I'd made it to 8cms with absolutely no pain relief. I cannot tell you how amazing that felt!
At that point I knew I needed gas and air, and instantly felt that weird woozy head rush from the first inhale of that stuff! I love it. The back of the bed was fully upright and I leant against that on my knees, it just felt like the most natural position to be in. I told the midwife I needed to push and aside from the gas and air, visualising the baby made it so much easier to manage. I'd read about this in my hypnobirthing book which you can buy here.
At 6:02 Winnie's head was born, I felt her head and demanded Andrew look - God knows why I did that, poor bloke is probably tortured for all eternity now! Then at 6:06 she was out!
The rest of the story is just gross birthing of the placenta etc, which no one needs to read about!
WINNIE BLUEBELL STEPHENSON - 18TH MAY 2017 6:06PM 8LB
I didn't fully go for the whole hypnobirthing thing, I am too cynical. But I found some of the techniques so useful, I really recommend Sophie's book for any pregnant women. There are some excellent tips on dealing with late pregnancy and what to expect in labour. I want to tell my story as it is so positive. Some people are hell bent on sharing nightmares and scaring women, but it doesn't have to be that way. It is an absolutely remarkable and extraordinary experience.
