Our little man arrived super early at 35+2.
I had the most amazing empowering birth anyone could ever hope for, even though I knew he was going to be a very preterm and prem baby.
It was an absolutely crazy couple of days and the birth was the quickest most empowering moment of my life.
I started to get light cramping about 11 am Friday 2nd August 2019. My due date was the 4th of September. They were a constant pain- everyone tells you surges come up and go in waves. This definitely did not! So I didn’t think I was in labour- it was bearable with the breathing techniques I had been practising with and I was still cleaning the house and doing lots of loads of washing!
By 1pm they got slightly more intense and I had to focus on my breathing more. But still manageable. I rang my midwife to let them know what was going on but they said it didn’t sound like labour (the day before I was in for testing as I thought I was losing fluid and the test came back negative for amniotic fluid) So they weren’t too worried. I could no longer cope with my cleaning so I tried to get into any comfortable position I could find and a midwife instinctively called me just to check up to see how I was going about 3:30 pm. I said they were a constant sharp pain by this point and I was telling my husband I’m not sure I can deal with labour if this isn’t the real thing!
The midwife said let’s go in to get checked at 4:30. We left home just after 4 pm to get up to the hospital. By 4:20 we were hitting peak traffic hour for a Friday afternoon in the city and I felt a little trickle leak again- so I checked to make sure it wasn’t bright red blood or anything to be worried about and I felt his head about 2cm from coming out!!
I couldn’t believe it this whole time I thought I was having stretching pains and didn’t think I was actually in labour.
We pulled over on the side of the road and called an ambulance as there was a slim chance of making it to the hospital with all the traffic or I would be having this baby in the back of the car! There were bright lights, loud noises and it was absolutely chaotic and fast to get me to the hospital but I didn’t care less. All I could hear was my husband’s voice telling me how well I was going. My midwife didn’t make it, my student didn’t make it, and I honestly didn’t mind at all. There wasn’t one familiar face during my whole experience but my husband and that’s all I focused on. I didn’t know the paramedics, the midwives, the paediatricians or any doctors around, because I was so focused on a calm and easy birth I didn’t mind who was there. There were bright lights and a million people in the birthing suite and I didn’t notice any of it. I was so in my zone it was surreal. The ambulance got me to the hospital at 5:23 pm and he was born and in my arms at 5:40 pm. We delayed cord clamping which helped his oxygen and blood levels hugely and had a great impact on him being so premature.
I tried to
listen to the tracks to help with my breathing but I honestly turned it off. instinctively I breathed the way I had been practising since we started the
online course at 25 weeks and thinking in my head how I was prepared wherever turn this birth may take. How grateful I am now I have had started the course early enough to finish it and get all the practice as I could in.
It was absolutely surreal and I would do it all over again 100 times over! No pain relief no stitches just up and straight down to the nursery to see my baby 20 minutes after he was born. The girls at the front desks and midwives were absolutely blown away how I walked myself down to see my new baby. I’m even using the visualisations for breastfeeding, closing my eyes and visualising the perfect attachment position and milk flowing through to feed my baby.
He’s doing amazingly, he is home now after spending 10 days in the special care unit being gavage fed, done tests on multiple times a day and put under phototherapy lights to manage his jaundice. He is very prem so hasn’t got the energy to suck like a full term but he is an absolute trooper and we are absolutely over the moon with him!
Thank you for all your help, support and knowledge! I’m so glad I started this course as early as I did!!
It definitely wasn’t the birth we were planning on but what a story and how amazing is the human body!
Our beautiful boy born 2nd August at 35 + 2 weeks weighing 2.9kg 47cm length
