Hello,

I am really excited to share this story and hopefully, you will enjoy reading it.

Eight Days Overdue

Last August I was eight days overdue with my first baby. As you can imagine I was beginning to get extremely impatient and uncomfortable. We were going through a heatwave where we live and I was just feeling so fed up.

My midwife called me to ask if there was any sign of this baby. I explained that unfortunately there was still no sign and that I had still not even had a date for induction. She told me that she would call the hospital and sort something out for me.

About 10 minutes later, I had a call back where my midwife told me to get ready and go to the hospital and they would give me a date for induction.

Stretch and Sweep

My Mum and I arrived at the hospital and waited. I was eventually called in by a Doctor that I have never seen before. She explained to me that she was going to give me stretch and sweep now to try and get baby moving. If he was not on his way by tomorrow I would be induced the next day (I know, it was all so fast I was freaking out).

She asked me how old I was and I explained that I was 18. She went on to say “So, you’ve never even had a Smear Test?” and I said that I hadn’t. She explained that it was going to be very uncomfortable and she went to go and get a nurse to talk to me during to take my mind off of it.

I can honestly say this was the worst experience of my whole labour and delivery story and if you want a whole post on my experience with a Strech and Sweep, let me know.

Beginning to have Contractions

I came out of the Sweep and explained to my Mum what had just happened. She told me not to walk anywhere if I had just had that done so she went to get the car for me. I called my partner to tell him what I had just had done, he was excited and now admits that he was scared. She dropped me to my boyfriend’s house and I was alone. I thought that I would be completely fine. The nurse had explained that I may have some bleeding and that I will probably feel uncomfortable after having the Sweep.

I started to get pains and I told myself that they were Braxton Hicks (P.s. you will definitely know the difference between actual contractions and Braxton Hicks, I promise, you just will). I texted my friend and said that I thought that it was happening.

I waited for my boyfriend’s Mum to get home and explained what was happening. At this point, my pains were quite mild and quite far apart. I then began to (this may be TMI) keep having to go to the toilet, if you know what I mean.

In this time my partner had gotten back to his Mum’s. I began to be sick and remembered that everyone had told me that when it was happening I would begin to clear myself out. I called my Mum to let her know and if I am honest, I think she thought that I was just being a drama queen.

Then, I had my show and I really started to panic. My contractions went very quickly to 2 minutes apart but I refused to go to the hospital until I really could not cope with them anymore.

Arriving at the Hospital

When we arrived at the hospital we explained what had happened to a midwife. She said, “first baby, yeah?”. They really did not believe that I was very far in labour at all. They took me into a room and put me on a machine, the nurse explained that “If I am actually in labour, the spike on the machine would go up and down out of 100”.

I was in real pain now and the machine kept going up to 100. In this time, my Mum and her boyfriend had arrived at the hospital.

After half an hour, the nurse came in to check me and said: “Oh, actually you are having really strong labour, I am happy for you to have some pain relief”. I had Gas and Air and I hated it. It made me feel so sick, like imagine the drunkest you have ever felt in your life. That is how I felt.

At this point, I was only 4cm dilated. My Mum said she thought that we were going to be there for absolutely ages. She was wrong.

“I really need a poo”

Now, for all my fellow mums out there – you know how loopy gas and air makes you. i hardly remember anything from my labour. What I do remember is repeatedly exclaiming that I really needed a poo.

My midwife told me over and over that it was just the pressure of the baby and that I did not need to go to the toilet. She proceeded to leave the room and I then turned to my mum and said “mum, I really do need to come off of this machine and have a poo”. When the midwife came back into my room my mum explained that I was still saying that I needed to go to the toilet.

My midwife went to the foot of the bed and said “poo then”. I proceeded to push as if I was going to the toilet and my midwife told me to do it again – I did. She explained that something was coming, it was either baby or my waters. She asked if I wanted her to break my waters and terrified by all the horror stories of the pain of having your water broken for you – I said no.

Within seconds of this, my waters broke. I went into full on labour and baby was coming!

Delivery

I really do not remember much of my delivery. It felt like it was over in a matter of seconds. All-in-all it took 10 minutes from my water breaking to me having delivered my son.

What I do remember is my partner holding one leg, my mother holding another and that bloody burning sensation. I was told the next day that my midwife told me my baby was in distress and had I not delivered him that quickly, she would have had to get a doctor. I also delivered back-to-back so the delivery was little more difficult than normal and my back is still messed up from it! I am also gutted that I do not remember my other half crying.

All that aside, I delivered a beautiful, healthy baby boy with a head of blonde/ginger hair weighing in at 7lbs 5oz. His name is Oscar and he is now nearly 1 year old.

K xx