(Click to read Part 1)
At 1pm on December 2nd I was examined by the midwife at the UCLH birth centre. I was definitely in labour but the progress was literally painfully slow. After 15-hours my cervix was only 3cm dilated and my waters had not yet broken, but the contractions were getting very painful and more frequent.
My birth plan was to use gas and air and the birthing pool for initial pain relief, and potentially move to the labour ward for an epidural if/when the pain would get too much to cope with. I was prepared to be flexible since labour is not something you can really plan for, but the only thing I’d written down as a “definite no” was the use of diamorphine injection as pain relief. The drug would enter my blood stream and also impact my baby, potentially causing temporary drowsiness and/or breathing problems for my baby after her birth. Despite being commonly used, neither I nor my partner liked the sound of the potential side effects.
Well it turned out our birth plan flew out the window pretty quickly… The birthing pool was available but the midwives would only prepare it once I’d be well into active labour (at least 4-5cm dilated). I felt no relief from gas and air, on the contrary I felt a bit claustrophobic breathing in and out through the mouthpiece. I was told I’d be examined again in four hours. I was in tears – another four hours of this??!! After 15-hours of contractions I was already exhausted. That’s when the midwife suggested the diamorphine injection to help me cope with the pain, relax and regain energy – it’d still be hours before our baby would be born. I said “no thank you” as I really didn’t want the injection.
About an hour later (?) I gave up. If I thought I knew pain, I had no idea… After I caved in it took what felt like an eternity to get the drug prescribed and then injected. Soon everything became hazy apart from the contractions and my fiancé’s voice which I focused on. I felt really nauseous but the drug took the edge off the pain and sent me somewhere in between sleep and wakefulness. Despite the side effects, in our situation the diamorphine injection did the trick and I only wish I’d had it earlier so the post birth impact both on the baby and myself would have been shorter.
I was examined again at 5pm when the midwives started talking about filling the pool but then I really felt the need to push! Suddenly I was 8-cm dilated and there was no time for the pool anymore. Or epidural for that matter!! No one knew when the membranes had broken (there definitely had not been a gush of amniotic fluid at any point) but they had and the baby was well on her way. About half an hour later, Maia was born (5:44pm) after two pushes!
I’d like to say I found giving birth an empowering and magical experience. Or even that I was really brave and persevered like a champ. I didn’t. I thought it was awful. It was the worst pain I’ve experienced in my entire life and it just kept getting worse and worse. I persevered only because it all meant my baby was coming to us (I definitely cried and screamed ungracefully). The only reason I didn’t panic was because my fiancé was there to hold my hand and to calm me down when I got scared (bless him).
But of course she was worth it all! Words cannot describe the feeling of holding your own baby for the first time! I remember thinking how small and fragile she looked as they passed her on to my chest. We got a bit concerned because she was slightly blue in colour and quiet but the midwife assured us she’s fine and just in a shock. Sure enough it didn’t take long for her to let out a little cry! I held her little body in amazement – our tiny but perfect daughter… Soon I felt a wave of nausea hit and passed the baby on to her father for skin-to-skin cuddles while I vomited what little I still had in my stomach (I had not been able to eat for hours). Otherwise I was actually doing well – I had only lost 200ml of blood and there was no tearing or any other trauma in my body from the labour.
Maia Olivia was born at 39-weeks and 2-days of gestation but she was a bit small for her weeks weighing 2550g and measuring 47cm in lenght (almost exactly the same size as I was at birth!). Otherwise, 5-minutes after birth, she received an Apgar score of 10!
We were transferred into another room in the birthing centre for the night. We were the only patients in the centre and got both full privacy as well as the midwives’ attention for the first 24-hours which was great.
The first hours after giving birth are a bit blurry to me, thanks to the diamorphine. I was drowsy and nauseous until about 10pm. Maia was also a bit drowsy which made breastfeeding on our first evening and night impossible. The midwives helped me hand express colostrum and feed it to Maia with a syringe… Poor little thing.
I didn’t sleep much that first night, simply because I kept getting up to go over to the crib to admire her and to pick her up for cuddles. It was so difficult to comprehend that she was finally here, my baby! ❤️
Her dad had gone home to sleep but he was back in the morning. He had also gone to buy “tiny baby” clothes as little Maia would disappear into the newborn-size clothes.
On Sunday Maia was examined by a specialist midwife, had her hearing checked and was vaccinated against TB. She was doing great and I felt nearly back to normal as well. I have to say I’m absolutely amazed by what the female body is capable of! And how quickly it’s possible to recover from childbirth! It felt so funny to put my shoes on without the bump getting in the way – it had just disappeared!
We stayed at the hospital for one more day and night to practice breastfeeding (more about this later!). Walking out of the hospital on Monday night with Maia in her car seat dressed in a giant pink jumper, I started crying. It was just so overwhelming (in a good way!) and unbelievable that we were on our way home with our daughter!
< lt; lt; lt; iving birth was not a pleasant experience, to say the least, but I can't help but to feel incredibly blessed and lucky for having gotten through it as well as we did without any complications. And more than anything, that Maia is well and healthy! xoxoxo, Sini<<<< gt;<<< ><< p>< /p>