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30 Oct 2018
The Birth of Ruby
It's taken me a long time to get round to writing this but over 3 months on I seem to have found time to write out our birth story!
We attended Anna's hypnobirthing course last year in preparation for the birth of our little girl who was due 17th October 2018.
My due date came and went with no signs of the baby arriving, as it does for many people. I was huge though and so many people had told me she would arrive early that I had started to believe it!
Time continued to pass, and I ended up having two sweeps in an attempt to get things kickstarted as the bouncing on a ball/gym classes/walking/doing happy things didn't seem to be helping things along. Both times I ended up in hospital for the sweeps as my blood pressure kept spiking. Before the second sweep, the midwife flicked through my notes but then disappeared off and returned with a doctor. The doctor told us that I should never have been allowed to go this far and I should have been induced weeks ago due to the predicted size of the baby. The doctor wanted me to stay in that night to be induced which meant no birth centre and no birth pool. This was a major blow. This wasn't part of the plan at all. I tried to use the hynobirthing tools to help me process this information but i was gutted. I asked if I could go home and return the following day to be induced instead so I could have time to refocus/give the second sweep a chance to work (I was 3cm dilated so I thought I stood a chance!) which they agreed would be ok.
We went away and within a few hours at around 5pm surges had started and were every 6 minutes. I remember thinking Yes!! I wouldn't need the induction after all. I spent the evening bouncing on the ball while Pete timed my surges. We went to bed but I couldn't sleep and by early morning they were 3 minutes apart. I was so thrilled. Then the surges tailed off to 8 minutes by mid morning for no reason. We ended up going in for the scheduled induction at lunchtime but i was still hopeful the surges might pick up again on their own. Unfortunately they didn't.
At the hospital I was told I wouldn't be induced that day but sometimes a pessary would kick start things so I gave that a go. The effects were instant. Suddenly surges were more regular, more intense and lasting about 2 minutes. It was a struggle. I tried to breathe through it all but by 2am I resorted to having a pethidine injection which I had been adamant i would not be having under any circumstances. By morning the surges had started to ease again and it turns out the pessary had fallen out in the night sometime. I won't lie, this didn't upset me in the slightest!
I was starting to worry I couldn't do this. I was completely focussed on the breathing which was helping massively but I had already had 2 sleepless nights and was exhausted. But by 4pm I was told I'd be going down to delivery suite for induction and I suddenly found a load of energy from somewhere. I felt so ready to give birth.
We met our midwife and Pete set up the room with led candles and my music. We gave the midwife our ideal birth plan knowing most of it wouldn't happen. I agreed to be examined and was told I was 7cm dilated already! The midwife disappeared off and read my plan and when she returned she said she'd spoken to the doctor and because I had progressed so far they wouldn't be inducing me and i could labour in the birth pool. I was so happy I practically ran to the birth pool room before they could change their minds!
They released my waters and I laboured in the pool using gas and air and the breathing techniques until I was fully dilated and had a genuinely lovely experience. The trainee paramedic who had been with us the whole time even said this was the nicest birth she'd seen! I then had to get out due to the anticipated size of the baby. This was easier said than done! After about 2hrs (including 30 mins where I pushed with everything I had), nothing had happened and they asked to take me to theatre to use forceps. I was exhausted by this point and agreed. We went down to theatre where I was given a spinal block and re-examined at which I was told she had moved into a transverse position and was stuck. They said they would have to push her back in (how depressing!) and deliver her by c section.
A c section was my worst nightmare but the hynobirthing tools helped me accept it was happening and I was at peace with the idea pretty quickly. Turns out the c section wasn't that bad and before I knew it Ruby was born at 2am on the Tuesday morning.
I couldn't see Ruby straight away and none of the things I had wanted to happen happened but the minute I heard her little moan the past few days were forgotten. It was like nothing had happened! Nothing mattered except that Ruby had arrived!! I waited for what felt like a lifetime (it was about 5 minutes) before having a cuddle while I was stitched up followed shortly after by some skin to skin.
As you can probably tell from this essay, I LOVE telling my birth story, it didn't go to plan, it ended up happening in the one way I truly dreaded but thanks to hynobirthing, I was ok with that. It will always be the story of how Ruby came into our lives and because of that I will always see it as a happy story!