We found out we were expecting a baby boy who was due in November which we were ecstatic about but I had always been quite scared of giving birth. I knew I wanted to do some antenatal classes in order to prepare myself for what was to come and also to learn more about the birth process and what to expect after the birth of our baby.
We booked Karen’s online class which we took in August as I wanted to soak in as much knowledge as I could with plenty of time before the birth. Before taking Karen’s class I assumed that birth was this scary, uncontrollable event and that you didn’t have much choice in what happened to you. However the classes showed me that I did actually have choices and I could make informed decisions about what was best for me and my baby. I eagerly took notes as Karen explained the different stages of labour and pain relief options. After the classes I put together a birth plan with a pretty clear idea of what I would prefer and what pain relief options I wanted. I liked the idea of a water birth (but knew this may not be possible) and decided that I would prefer to step up pain relief, starting with gas and air with an epidural being the last resort. I really wanted to go for a natural birth with as little intervention as possible. I felt pretty confident in my choices and felt that I had learned a lot through the classes about the different options I had so that I could make informed decisions if need be.
Our due date came and went and there was still no sign of baby and so I was getting quite nervous, especially about the idea of being induced as this wasn’t my preferred birth route. However, I knew from Karen’s classes what my options were for induction and felt comfortable with which methods I would be happy with.
At 9 days past my due date and two membrane sweeps later, I was at around 4cm dilated but there was still no sign of baby so I was booked in to have my waters broken. I was delighted at the fact that I didn’t need any other form of induction such as a ballon or pessary and was happy to hopefully get the ball rolling. I was taken down to labour ward to have my waters broken and I thought it might be a bit of a lengthy process before contractions started, but much to my surprise, contractions started straight away and I was given gas and air. The contractions ramped up rapidly and soon I was in incredible pain. As it turns out I had become fully dilated within a couple of hours. At this point I was offered an epidural and before the words fully came out of the midwife’s mouth I was agreeing, I wanted the epidural even though that was my last resort. I knew the pros and cons from when we discussed the epidural in the antenatal classes and knew in the moment it was what I needed.
Shortly after I had the epidural it was time to start pushing. After many attempts in various positions, we discovered that baby’s heart rate wasn’t doing great and also, he was facing the wrong way. The doctors came to see me and told me at this point the options I had were a forceps delivery or a section. I remembered the ‘BRAIN’ acronym from Karen’s classes and I was able to discuss my options with the consultant to weigh up the benefits and risks of my options. We decided that if she wasnt 100% sure forceps would work then we’d go straight to a section. I was nervous about going into theatre but I felt more confident knowing my preferences had been listened to and I knew what the two different delivery types would entail. That evening our baby boy was successfully delivered by forceps after only two pushes. I lost a lot of blood during the delivery but managed to still do skin to skin with our baby boy straight after delivery.
Although my delivery didn’t look remotely like I had envisioned in my birth plan, I definitely felt as if everything went as well as I could have hoped in the situation as I was able to still make informed decisions from what Karen had taught me. Knowing that the decisions I made helped bring our wee boy here in the safest way possible made it all worth it!
