So, on the 24th my waters broke. It’s not as dramatic as they make it out to be in the movies / on TV. I genuinely thought I’d peed myself, except it didn’t stop!
I was due a stretch and sweep that morning, so I checked with the midwife who confirmed that it was definitely my waters. I was booked in for an induction for 24 hours later in case my contractions didn’t start.
2am the following morning I was having painful but irregular contractions, by 4am they were every 3 minutes. So we went to the hospital.
I was determined to have as natural a labour as possible; minimal drugs, use water and breathing techniques, maybe gas and air if it got bad. I’d been having Braxton Hicks for weeks and they hardly hurt at all. Real labour couldn’t be much worse, right?
How naïve I was! That is by far the worst pain imaginable. And I’m talking worse than having a filling when the anaesthetic didn’t work. Worse than the HyCoSy. I genuinely felt like I was going to die. I think at one point I told husband I wanted to die, it was that bad.
I got to 5cm doing it “naturally”. And then I begged for an epidural. Now these things scare me because I know they can prolong labour and there’s an increased risk of having a C-Section; something I absolutely did not want. But it hurt so bad I begged for one.
It took about an hour to get it in and working as I had to be transferred from birthing suite (fancy hotel-like room) to labour unit, then the anaesthetist had to be available. I was screaming with every contraction at this point. But eventually it was in and the pains had dulled. So had the feeling in my legs but I would have happily chopped them off to end the pain.
I still had gas and air, which had been making me sick in the birthing pool, but now that I was accepting needles in the spine I was sucking on that gas and air like it was keeping me alive. I grew to love it. A lot! It made me very silly.
By about 2pm I was fully dilated (so much for an epidural slowing things down!) they gave me an hour to let baby’s head drop down a bit further and then I was allowed to start pushing.
Imagine being told to push as hard as you can, but having minimal sensation below the waist... it’s really difficult. I couldn’t tell easily when I was having a contraction so that midwife had to guide me in when to push. And then when I was pushing I really didn’t think I was getting anywhere.
As it turns out, I wasn’t. Bug was head down, but facing the wrong way! He was getting squashed every time I pushed and his heart rate was slowing. So a doctor was called. She informed me that if I didn’t get him out myself they would have to consider forceps and of that failed, the dreaded c-section. I had to fight back tears. She gave me an hour and I pushed my hardest.
But no joy. His heart rate dropped again and the doctor prepped the theatre for forceps delivery and c-section. Husband was rushed off to get changed for theatre. I was given a proper spinal block and introduced to about 10 people who would be delivering Bug! Husband sat by my head and as the consultant tried to turn Bug the right way round I focused entirely on his hand.
The consultant was amazing. He got Bug turned the right way, meaning no need for the C-section! If I thought trying to push with an epidural was hard it seemed nigh on impossible with a full spinal block. But push I did. And pull the consultant did, with forceps. At 4:55pm yesterday, Bug arrives, crying immediately! Slightly bruised on his face from the forceps, but perfect.
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