A long, intense and an incredibly euphoric birth journey for Maddie

Maddie & Tom

At 38+3 I went for my regular clinic appointment with my MGP midwife and found that I had a bit of a spike in my blood pressure. From there they monitored me for 24 hours which had it come down but only to a borderline level. So the decision was made to induce me on my due date if I hadn’t already gone into labour myself to decrease my risk of developing preeclampsia.

So, the 3rd December came around and due to not being dilated enough to use a cooks catheter, they induced me first using Cervadil to get things moving. At my 12 hour check I was still only fingertip dilated, but by 24 hours I was 1-2cm. So my midwife made the decision to use the cooks catheter to induce me a little further. When we went to do that procedure my body had dilated another centimetre or so and the catheter wouldn’t stay in so I was sent home to do the remainder of my early labour by myself without needing it. My midwife was so impressed with how quickly my cervix was changing!

Over night I had regular contractions (about 1 every 10-20 mins) that I managed by using my tens machine and attempted to get some sleep between each contraction.

We arrived at hospital on Tuesday 5th December at 7am to have my waters broken and to start the drip. When my midwife broke my waters, there was meconium which freaked me out at first but she calmed me by letting me know it was normal and I remembered talking about it in Calmbirth too. I had managed to dilate to about 4-5cm by myself overnight which I was very proud of. Then we started the drip.

I managed for the first couple of hours, probably until about 12:30ish by using my tens, getting in the shower and changing positions. However I really struggled to get rid of the pressure in my pelvis between contractions which stopped me from wanting to drink fluids because I constantly felt like I needed to go to the bathroom.

Eventually, the drip sent me into a labour that I was feeling was unmanageable. I was saying things that you mentioned people say during transition but I wasn’t anywhere close.

My BP was spiking again and my heart rate was absolutely through the roof with the lack of relief or break I was feeling. Not being able to use the bath was definitely a downfall for me and I think that may have helped me through a little more. After some very careful thinking we tried some morphine but that didn’t help. So my husband and I with the help of our midwife decided that an epidural would help me most and get me through it.

I was very nervous about doing so, but remembered what we had learnt at Calmbirth and made a decision that was best for me and the health of myself and the baby.

I feel so empowered for making that choice and I am so glad I did. I felt so relaxed after and really enjoyed the process of the remainder of my labour. I felt happy and I felt calm and so ready to welcome my baby girl into the world.

Fast forward to 10:30pm, my MGP midwife had finished shift so another MGP midwife took over and I was still only 9cm dilated, absolutely exhausted from such a long induction process. There was indication of infection in my body probably also due to how long I had been in labour and we were coming to the pointy end. I asked my midwife to give me one more hour and if by then I was still only 9cm, then we would discuss moving towards a c-section.

11:30pm rolled around and the doctors were in surgery so we were unable to perform a VE to check my progress. I mentioned that I felt the urge to push and my midwife was happy to let me listen to my body.

I pushed for about 6 rounds of 3 pushes and each time, our baby’s head was getting closer and closer to being born. Before my next push, my midwife told me to listen for her to say stop to help prevent tearing, and I fully understood what she was saying. However that was easier said than done when on my next push the baby decided she was going to literally shoot out of me all, head, shoulders and body all at once at 12:12am Wednesday 6th December. I honestly don’t even think I pushed that hard! She was here and it was amazing, the rush of euphoria is something I could never describe!

Unfortunately due to her rather dramatic and excitable arrival, I experienced a second degree tear, a urethral tear and a cervical tear which caused me to PPH and lose 1.5 litres of blood. I felt fine but was very scared being rushed to theatre with lots of doctors around me. The epidural ended up being a great choice and allowed me to stay awake for the surgery so I could return ASAP to my husband and baby girl.

Despite the trauma I experienced at the end of my birth, there is not one single part of me that regrets anything that happened during the process. I am recovering well and I really enjoyed my labour and birth. I feel so amazing that I was able to do all of that, and I feel that is mostly due to everything we learnt from you during Calmbirth.

I’m now 2 weeks PP and I wish I could go back and do labour and birth all over again. It was such an amazing, rewarding and fulfilling experience for me!

Thank you so much for being a part of our journey of bringing our baby girl Amelia Heather into the world. We are absolutely smitten with her and in so much love!