Positive Birth Story: a First Time Mum's induction following transverse lie
After a 5 day stay in hospital due to my baby being transverse/unstable lie I was finally induced when baby moved back into the correct position!
Baby and I had been monitored throughout the hospital stay and all was well - I was 40+2 on the day of induction (27th October at 11am). I was told that I would be examined after 24 hours of having the pessary put in place and if I was 2cm dilated then my waters would be broken.
After reading a number of negative stories about induction I was not massively hopeful.
However, my contractions started within a few hours, mild at first but ramped up by 3-4am (28th October) - I was alone at this stage, my wife was not able to stay at the hospital until I went onto the labour ward. My waters broke around 4am and I was uncomfortable but managing on a couple of codeine and LOTS of controlled breathing. By 6.10am I was able to move to the labour ward and my wife joined me - yay!
It was great to have a positive familiar voice with me as the labour progressed.
At this stage I felt like I needed more pain relief but was told that it was going to get worse and to hold off if I could, shortly after this I told the midwife I felt as though I needed to push - I don’t think she believed me as I was relatively calm and coping very well, but she examined me anyway. She could feel the baby’s head and I was fully dilated :) The staff we amazing and it all happened very quickly (I had an episiotomy as baby was coming quite fast!) - my beautiful baby girl was born at 7.37am.
We did not know the gender of the baby so it was even more amazing finding out it was a girl!! They were all very shocked that she arrived so fast! Don’t get me wrong, it was painful, but it was manageable.
With a positive attitude towards the birth throughout my pregnancy (I was actually looking forward to it) I managed to stay calm and listen to my body.
I did not resist the urges and just let my body do the work. My wife said I only needed to do 5 pushes and our baby was born. I was supported in getting my baby to feed and she took to it like a dream. It really is an amazing experience and something we shouldn’t fear.
I can’t wait to do it again one day :)
Thankyou to Katie for sharing her birth story!