The labour and birth of Phoebe Olivia born 15th June 2011 at 10.17am weighing 7lb 3oz
I remember going to bed at around 10 pm on the evening of the 14th June which was quite late for me really as I would normally be tucked up by 8 or 9 watching tv under the duvet. We had had lasagne for tea and I didn't feel like eating much of it, but I put that down to the amount of work that went into it!
My pelvis had become increasingly uncomfortable during the 2 weeks prior to labour day, and it was an effort to lift my legs to walk, and to find a comfortable sitting position. The gym ball definitely proved a source of comfort though! I remember saying for the last few weeks of my pregnancy how low down I thought baby was! But midwife said she definitely wasn't fully engaged as far as she could tell.
Anyway back to the eve of the 14th.
Steve came to bed about half an hour after me and went straight to sleep and was happily snoring away!! So annoying when you just want a good night’s rest! I must have fallen asleep for about a half hour or so because I remember waking at about 11ish with a pain in my tummy. My first thoughts were that I had given us food poisoning as I never was good at lasagne! But it was defo a GOOD one and Steve seemed ok so I just put it down to gripeyness and tried to chill out. About ten mins later I was woke again by a pain... I thought it was a bit odd and took a trip the loo just incase but nope nothing doin there!! I think at this point I knew something was amiss, so I crouched on the bedroom floor and lent on the bed to see if another pain might come and sure enough it did - then my body started the clear out!! I must've gone to the loo about 6 times in the hour I woke steve (yes I thought I'd let him sleep before I frightened him to death). The “show” came during this time and was like a light period really and it continued to come right until I gave birth (normal I guess). My contractions which I had now decided is what they were, were coming maybe one every 7 minutes now so I thought I'd wake Steve up.
I did it as gently as I could - "steve" he woke immediately and I said "I think the baby is coming". I explained what was happening and he went to make tea to wake himself up and had a shower too lol! I called the hospital who said that as it was first baby it was unlikely anything significant was happening, and they weren't convinced my contractions were up to much at the time. It certainly felt like they were up to something!! I have never known pain like it, and I am sure at one point I could feel my cervix "ping" open just that little bit further!! I was told to wait an hour and call back if needed. I did the hour in bed - it was horrendous, the pain was really awful, I can't even begin to describe it. Steve told me to squeeze him etc but I couldn't see the point of causing him pain to ease mine - I aint that kinda girl!!! I just buried my head in the pillows and got on with it as best I could. At one point I started to vomit, I guess part of the clearing out process and the hormone surge, and it was at this point I kinda felt “right this is it woman, you’re gonna have a baby!”
So after the hour my contractions were 1 every 5 mins and I called the hospital to say I couldn't cope and they asked if I wanted to come in! Ummm yep was the answer, so after a lot of panicking and trying to pick up final bits (still forgot pillow)! We headed to the hospital at about 2 ish I guess... A bit vague from this point!! I should say I had a tens machine on right from when I woke Steve and it really helped with my back pain during labour!
I had to get Steve to pull over at every contraction as I was having a lot of bearing down and the movement of the car was not good for pain control! Luckily the hospital is only ten minutes from our house, and the roads were totally empty so we didn't cause any problems!!
Got to the unit and I had to literally hug the walls every time a contraction came!! It took forever for a midwife to come to the door, and I think eventually an anaesthetist led us to our room.
After what seemed like an eternity, and with the tens turned up to microwave level (kidding) a midwife came in and took general notes and watched me writhe for a while before examining me.
I was strapped to a machine to monitor babies heart and my contractions (amazing device) but I had to be on my back, and this is when the pain really kicked in - like majorly!! So much for women having the right to choose positions etc!!!
I was begging for an epidural and the midwife said I was coping fine (ok so I wasn't screaming like the woman next door but boy I REALLY needed the epidural). I explained as rationally as I could that I wasn't coping and then she said she needed to examine me and to burst my waters. I knew this would bring on labour even quicker so I started to panic and expressed my need for drugs asap! THE PAIN oh boy THE PAIN! But as she examined me she couldn’t burst the bag of water because there wasn’t one! She asked when it went and I had no idea! Apart from the “clearing out” episode earlier when I guess it may have gone, I had no recollection of leaking water at all, unless it came as I said earlier on while I was weeing loads so I didn’t notice?! She seemed concerned about this…
She asked what I wanted to be dilated at and I said I really didn't care as long as I could have pain relief soon. She said I was already at 5cm which was wonderful to get that far without pain relief. I kinda felt like whacking her at this point, but I am not the violent type thank goodness and was promptly given gas and air - I threw up pretty much after every toke on it, and it really didn't seem to do anything for my pain at all - RUBBISH drug! I continued to ask for an epidural. But the midwife tended to just ignore me really and kept looking at the tracing of the heartbeats.
It was at this point doctors started coming in saying they were concerned about the baby and myself as our heartbeats were very fast and an epidural was out of the question until they decided what to do.
I remember begging the doctor to give me pain relief and her eyes looked so sad for me, like she could cry, but she said the baby is the main priority so no I couldn't have the epidural yet :( I was so upset.
It was at this point they had to get me on my side into a one sided stirrup to get to the baby’s head to take a blood sample from her to check for acid levels for stress etc - this was also so very painful I can't tell you. But the result was good, but would need to be repeated in an hour. Another hour on my back with no pain relief... I don’t know how women do this without pain relief! I was told baby was slightly back to back to me at one point but had started to turn herself.
Then the anaesthetist who had let us in earlier came in and said she was going to do the epidural and I have never felt so happy in my life! She was amazing and quick! And coached me through contractions as they came and went and explained the electric shocks I was getting in my right legs as she inserted the needle etc - I remember asking her if she had job satisfaction as I sure hoped she did - I honestly think so highly of this woman it’s untrue!! Thank you x. Within 20 minutess I was PAIN FREE and the only hint I had of a contraction was when the bands on my tummy holding the monitors shifted with each contraction. I never felt so good – well you know what I mean!!
It was time for another procedure to get blood from the baby’s head, this time painless and they could see I was up to 7 cm by the time the epidural went in. I think the test came back ok, but our hearts were still way too fast...
THEN more doctors came in and examined the heart traces and said they were very concerned and needed to do an emergency c-section asap and to prep the theatres.
I was staggered, no one had told us just how worried they all were and I remember crying pretty much from this point until Phoebe was born - in fact I'm welling up now. I rang mum and cried and she cried and she told me she loved me and I hung up without saying it back - doh, so texted her sharpish! And texted dad and Rebecca my sister what was happening and was then whisked off while Steve got dressed up as Dr Doolittle :)
I remember being wheeled to theatre and them topping up the epidural, inserting cannulas, telling me loads of stuff about blood pressure dropping etc and I explained I get nauseous so they got meds ready for that.
There was so much hustle and bustle and people introducing themselves to me, all this as tears rolled down my face - where was Steve? I just wanted him with me, with me and our baby asap! The lights were so bright above me and the surgeons soon had me legs up in stirrups to check my cervix - I was fully dilated!! This meant the c-section plan was put to rest and I could have emergency forceps instead and push her out myself with help!
I was overwhelmed by this point, it all became a bit too much, and I was so glad that Steve had arrived by now and just held me and told me he was there for us and that everything would be ok. I remember the anaesthetist Kate I think she was called, coaching him how to help me push by lifting my head to my chest for me. It wasn't long after this I felt the forceps go in - I say felt in a loose manner as I mean I could feel the metal knocking on my pubic bones and I remember feeling them encasing the baby’s head or at least a feeling kinda like that.
My midwife was stood to my right and explained she would keep her hand on my tummy to feel for contractions to tell me when to push.
Before I knew it the surgeon with the forceps was telling me to push like I was having the biggest poo ever (ok matey), so I did push with all my might, 3 contractions total I believe. I remember after the second contraction looking into the light above me, it was switched on, and I could see the reflection of what was happening down below, Phoebes head was out, I couldn’t believe it, and told Steve that if he wanted to look at what was happening “look up” lol. More tears and one more push, and I remember this screaming, bloody bundle being plonked onto my tummy, bottom facing me. I grabbed her as best I could, and Steve said after that he held her hand for a while until they took her off me. This bit felt like ages, I remember thinking “are they going to take her then?”. (There were no waters behind Phoebe when she was born either which was really unusual they said, so she had have an cannula put into her tiny foot, and Steve had to take her to special care every day for antibiotics. I too had to have the drugs via IV just in case of infection due to no waters).
But things were afoot down below, the surgeons were very busy and I remember starting to feel really ill, really dizzy and weak and I had to be sick again – sideways sick is really difficult to do!!! Kate had moved to my left side to talk to the surgeons and I could see them in the reflection starting to sew and “pack” to stop the bleeding – I asked Kate to move the light so I couldn’t see what was happening anymore – that was enough for one day thanks.
I remember looking to my right and seeing Phoebe being seen to by the paediatrician man, she was screaming and seemed fine, and they soon brought her over to Steve. I remember blubbing that I had wanted him to hold her first, which I had secretly wished for all through my pregnancy, don’t know why. She looked all weird “alien like” I remember saying he he he. She was wide eyed and calm and Steve later said she looked like Homer Simpsons dad at that point – sorry Phoebe, we love you really!
I wasn’t told until I was back on the ward that I had lost 4 pints of blood! And it wasnt until after we were back home that Steve told me my blood pressure was down to something like 50/30 during theatre, the epidural, combined with the heavy blood loss did that. I collapsed on the ward when they tried to get me out of bed 2 days later and had an unreadable blood pressure due to the blood loss, so had 2 bags transfused back into me. I felt instantly better, but it was another 2 weeks until I started to feel like me again.
During the 2 days post birth I couldn’t do anything for Phoebe as I was bed bound so I was helped to express my colostrum to give to her in syringes and she was topped up with formula until I was taken to the ward on day 3 where I could properly practice breast feeding! It took forever to figure it out and Phoebe would scream and scream bless her, but we got there in the end!
The drugs I went home with made me really weird, I was having hallucinations and was in a bit of a daze for about 2 weeks until I was taken off of them…I kept waking up and seeing my arms and hands as children’s arms and hands and quite frankly it freaked me out!!!
I am sure I have missed loads, but that in a nutshell is the labour and birth of Phoebe Olivia.
We were told that we would never conceive naturally by some doctors (that’s a whole other story, and my husband is an amazing man), and it was a week before we were to start IVF that we found out we had created our little miracle…
No matter how hard it gets, and how tired I am, and no matter how stressful her birth was, I will always be grateful for the little girl that has graced our lives. Thank you god xx
