CHARLOTTE'S BIRTH STORY- A VERY QUICK BIRTH

In the morning of 27th November I went in to be induced, I was 9 days over my due date and baby was measuring 7lb 14oz when I had a growth scan at 37+1 so I was worrying he was going to be around 10lb by now and as I had a previous 3rd degree tear I decided this was sensible. Normally at my hospital they would insert a balloon catheter to try and start off dilation but I was checked over and as I was already 3cm dilated I was given a good stretch and sweep and sent home with a plan of having my waters broken the next morning if nothing happened before then. This was my 3rd stretch and sweep and just like the others I felt a bit uncomfortable after with a few niggly pains but didn’t get my hopes up as this had happened before and came to nothing. By the evening not much was happening so we went to bed as normal.

1.30am I woke up for my usual night time wee (pregnancy problems!) Shortly after getting back into bed I started getting some pains and they came on quite strong and very regular. I started timing them just before 2am and they were coming every 2-3minutes and lasting around 50seconds. Now being a student midwife I know full well that this means I was in established labour but I was in denial that I was as the pains only just started!

Matt woke up as I was finding it hard not to say ‘ouch ouch ouch’ with each contraction. He persuaded me to call the hospital which I did at 2.40am and sheepishly said ‘I think I’m in labour’ and explained what was going on. I had planned to go to the birth centre but I think that they were full and we were told to come in and go to the maternity assessment unit first of all so that is where we headed. We left the house at 3am on the dot (our ring doorbell recorded it). In the car the pains were pretty intense! And about half way to the hospital (usually about 25minute drive) my waters went, luckily I brought a towel to sit on! As soon as they went I just knew he was coming. My waters went with my other two just before they came out. We called the hospital again and I said that my waters had gone and I thought that he was going to be born in the car!

The lovely midwife stayed on the phone to us the rest of the way helping me through contractions and once we got to the hospital after Matt was driving god knows how fast, we parked in the 20minute parking bay by the entrance. I got out of the car and as soon as I did my body started pushing. I tried to stop it but couldn’t. Out rushed 3 midwives and doctor. I managed to walk towards them a little before my body started pushing again and that was it he was making his way out outside the hospital on a freezing cold night I pulled down my leggings and the next thing I know I was lying on the ground half on Matt and half on a pillow and the head was out. One midwife was telling me to keep pushing at this point and not wait for the next contraction which I definitely didn’t want to do to avoid tearing and I paused for a moment. With the next contraction out came his body straight onto me (still in my coat at this point) wrapped him up, cut the cord and rushed him inside to be checked over. He came out crying so we knew he was ok. He was born at 3.20am so just 20mins from leaving the house.

In the back of my mind through all this was poor Matt who was amazing throughout the whole thing, this being his first baby and quite traumatic for him as well! But he was brilliant

We were taken to a delivery room where I could finally take my coat and shoes off and get comfy on the bed to recover and baby boy was brought to us where we could have some first cuddles and skin to skin. He looked exactly like his dad which I kind of knew already from our 4D scans .

I had a managed 3rd stage, placenta came away easily and I had a few stitches (2nd degree) and all was straight forward. We were left to bond with our baby boy who we have called Harrison James although Harri for short. He was weighed and turned out to be a healthy 9lb 4oz!

We had a 6 hour discharge and were home by 11am with a McDonald’s breakfast

We couldn’t believe what had just happened and couldn’t stop laughing about it for days.

We were very well looked after by some lovely midwives