My Birth Story | Emergency C-Section - The Birth of Emily
When I fell pregnant for the first time, with my daughter, I planned to have a birth just like my Mum did. You can read my Mum's birth story here. However, my first birth couldn’t have been anymore different from my Mum’s. My daughter was undiagnosed, extended breach. Which meant that she was bottom down, legs up and we didn’t find out until I was on a hormone drip for many hours, with very little happening. After visiting my community midwife at 40+5 days, I wasn’t sure if my waters were slightly leaking and I might have been having a hind water leak. My midwife referred me to MAC, who did a vaginal examination and told me that my waters hadn’t broken and asked if I would like a stretch and sweep, (intervention number 1.). I’d be resisting any form of intervention up until then, but as I was nearly 41 weeks and I was getting pressure from my community midwife to get booked in for induction in a few days, I decided to have the stretch and sweep. However, during the stretch and sweep, the midwife said that she could feel hair on the top of my daughter’s head and so this would suggest that my waters had in fact gone. They explained that because my waters had gone, we were now against the clock and labour needed speeding up and I would need to be put on the hormone drip (intervention number 2.). I was devastated by this outcome and I was so upset, but I felt like I didn’t have any other options and so I agreed to the drip. A few hours down the line, the drip kept being increased more and more and I was still not feeling any contractions. Therefore, the midwife decided to do a vaginal examination (intervention number 3.) and discovered that actually it wasn’t a head that they could feel, it was in fact a bottom. I’m still confused to this day, how the first midwife said that she could feel hair on the baby’s head. My daughter definitely did not have a hairy bottom!! It was during this examination that the prodding and poking of the examination, broke my waters. (Intervention number 4.) So, in fact my waters hadn’t gone and hence why my labour wasn’t progressing. The DR was soon called into the room to scan me and confirmed that I was carrying a breach baby. It was at this point that the DR asked me, “do you know what this means?” I replied “an unplanned C- Section?” and the Dr replied “yes!” I did not know at the time that I did actually have options. I realise now, that I’d had options throughout my whole pregnancy and during my time in MAC. If I’d have known more about the maternity system, I would have done things very differently. At the news of having a caesarean, I burst into tears and couldn’t believe how quickly my birth plan had changed. I didn’t even get to experienced contractions or labour. I felt cheated out of the birth that I had planned for, for so many years. I felt like I couldn’t comment on what labour felt like, because I didn’t get the opportunity to experience it. I wanted to see how amazing and powerful my body was and see what it could do and letting my body do what it is designed to do.
The Anaesthetist inserted the Spinal Block
My midwife was really supportive and kept telling me that if I have a baby in the future, there was no reason why I couldn't try for a vaginal birth then. This was a bit comforting, but I really wanted my vaginal birth now. When I arrived in theatre, the anaesthetist inserted my spinal block and I remember feeling so scared. Once it was in, I asked my midwife if it had gone in OK and if there were any concerns about me becoming paralysed. Which of course there were no concerns and it had gone in perfectly. Very quickly, I lost all feeling in my legs and I was laid down onto the operating table. The surgeon soon started making an incision and I remember feeling absolutely terrified. I didn't feel any pain, just a bit of pulling and tucking around my belly. Within a few minutes Emily was born. The surgeon held her up and her eyes were wide open, looking around the room. The anaesthetist said that she'd never seen a baby be born so alert, as much as Emily was. Emily was placed onto my chest for skin to skin and then given to James for cuddles, whilst I was stitched up. I don't remember much during this time, as I was so tired and fell asleep. When I woke up, I had Emily placed on my chest, wrapped in a towel and I was being pushed out of theatre, taken into the lift and moved into a private delivery room. Here, we spent the next 4 hours to enjoy being a new family of 3. The room was quiet and dimly lit. Shortly after arriving in this room, I started to feel very sick. I told James to grab something for me to be sick into. He grabbed a surgical glove, as it was the closest thing to him and I was sick in the glove. The anaesthetic had caused me to be sick and this is something that I now know to warn anaesthetists of, when needing anaesthetic. I always get an anti sickness put into my drip now, whenever I need an operation.
Post Birth Tea & Toast
Once I was feeling a bit better and after having my amazing post birth tea and toast, I was given a bed bath by the maternity care assistants. Why does post birth tea and toast taste so amazing? It really is the best and a little gift from your midwife, after all your hard work! The maternity care assistants changed my bedding, cleaned me up and then placed Emily onto my chest, for more skin to skin and a breastfeed. When it was shift change time, my midwife had to leave and another midwife took over and took James, Emily and me down to the postnatal ward. I was thankful that it was early morning when we arrived on the postnatal ward and James was able to stay with us until 8pm. It really helped having him there, to look after Emily and I. Even though there were midwives around, they were busy looking after other patients a lot of the time and because of having had surgery, I struggled to sit up on my own, change Emily's nappy or go to the dining room for meals. A great tip to help you to sit up after having surgery, is to tie a dressing gown cord around the hospital bed and pull on it, to help with sitting up. Using your stomach muscles after a c-section is very difficult and uncomfortable, so the dressing gown cord can be a game changer. Having James there during the day, really helped too and he could look after Emily and me during this time. Also, because he was able to be around so much, he got to spend a lot of time with Emily and it was him who first spotted Emily's tongue tie.
If you would like to read more about my postnatal period, after having my unplanned c-section with Emily, click here. Alternatively, if you would like to hire me as your doula or hypnobirthing teacher, or learn more about how I can support you, visit my website or email me.
Julia x