My original plan was always to have a home birth, and I was lucky enough to

have the support of the home birth team at Homerton throughout my whole

pregnancy. Unfortunately towards the end of my pregnancy my ‘low risk’

status changed; I had incredibly low iron levels, I had excess amniotic fluid

and finally I found out I had Strep B.

Meeting a consultant for the first two reasons we were pretty keen on staying with the home birth team, with our midwife agreeing that she felt confident delivering our baby, however when I found out I had Strep B I felt I needed to go to hospital for my birth. The consultant we met after this decision discussed how she felt an induction would be best for us considering my excess amniotic fluid, I felt safe with herand I’d finally come round to surrendering my visualisations of home birth and the pool which we’d had for all of one night, and agreed. I felt happy knowing we had a date in place, and reassured from our discussion.

It was hard for me to change my visualisations of birth to a hospital setting, especially as I hadn’t been in to visit the ward, but I did my best using Anna’s recordings.

I went into the hospital at 9pm on our selected date more nervous than I expected, however we were told that the delivery suite was full and we’d have to wait until the morning, I instantly felt more confident and used this time to visualise my birth in these new surroundings. In the morning I received a dose of the gel to induce me, very soon after this I started feeling contractions and lost my mucus plug. I was keen to move around and my partner suggested we get a coffee and went outside, we walked around the park, and the outside of the hospital, pausing with each contraction. I’m so glad that we did this as it was wonderful to get some fresh air, and each time I walk past this park now I smile with the memory so clearly etched in my brain.

When we got back to the ward I was examined (2cm) and left to continue, told I wouldn’t not need any more of the gel at that point, and that the delivery suite was still full. My contractions continued to progress and I started to use the comb I’d got in hypnobirthing classes to help me with the pain. Hours passed and I was in a lot of pain, I asked  partner to find out my options, but to ask the nurses not to directly talk to me about pain relief as it had not been in my plan, I later had gas and air to help me at my request, although I didn’t feel like it helped apart from offering a little distraction.

Finally the delivery suite had space and I was taken down there. I remember being given the option to walk or be wheeled down there, I chose to walk, and noticed how much stronger each contraction was now, but I knew being more mobile would help me. I was pleasantly surprised at how lovely the room was, it was much larger than I expected, with more than enough room to walk about, and there were fairy lights set up (this was lovely as I’d wanted to set up my room at home with candles and lights, and not got round to packing any for the hospital birth). I had not been examined for a long time, and I was happy with that, however I felt a lot of pain and the midwife said that I still had a long way to go (I didn’t), I requested an epidural. The anaesthetist was lovely and managed to make me laugh, as soon as I received the epidural I felt so much better and I could talk freely, on examination I was found to be at 9cm.

My agreed to breaking my waters and I was given antibiotics (for the Strep B) I then rested. When the doctor came round and examined me (about 5 minutes later) I’d progressed to 10 cm and was told to prepare for birth. The doctor was looking at my stats on the machine and wasn’t happy with my baby’s heart rate, he said I needed to deliver my baby quickly so they could make sure he was ok. As I had an epidural I was coached on how to push, after a couple of pushes my midwife told me that she was calling in the emergency team ‘just for help’, when they came in there were seven members of staff in the room. I was amazed at how well they worked together, but starting to get worried despite the calmness they portrayed. I was told I needed to push him out right away or I’d have to have a c section, which might be difficult since he was so close to coming out.

Although this was never part of my plan I felt safe and new he had to arrive quickly to avoid any more intervention. The midwives were amazing in coaching me to push, and said I was doing well but they wanted to use forceps. I agreed as I could sense the urgency in the room and my baby boy came in a matter of minutes, he was placed on my chest but I was told they’d need to take him to ‘check him’, but 10 minutes later my partner asked if and when they needed to check him and they said he was fine. I had the injection to help me deliver the placenta (something I’d always agreed to even on the home birth stages of my plan due to low iron levels and risk of bleeding out due to a blood condition I have). 

We were left in our room for about an hour to settle and rest as our new family of three before being transferred over to postnatal. Although this was far from the birth I wanted I felt positive about my experience, with wonderful and caring staff the whole way.