Sunday 15 April 2018

My Labour Story

Hey! 
I wasn't sure about writing a blog post about my labour but I did a poll on my Instagram and everyone who voted, voted yes that you would read it so I thought why not? Don't worry, I won't go into too much detail.
I also don't have any pictures from my labour that I would like to share as I want to keep them for myself to look back at but I'll share some photos of Poppy moments after she was born that I feel are appropriate to share. 
This will probably be a long blog post so grab yourself a cuppa!

So, where do I begin? I guess I could begin with the lead up to when my labour started. My due date was the 19th October but surprise surprise Baby Petrie was happy enough to stay in there a little bit longer....10 days longer haha! The day before my due date I attended what I hoped would be my last Midwife appointment where she did her usual checks such as checking my blood pressure, feeling my tummy and listening to the baby's heart beat. She also discussed the possibility of having to be induced if I didn't go naturally and so she got me all booked in for that. I was due to be induced on 1st November at 12pm. I was also offered an aromatherapy massage which I agreed to have. This was booked for 27th October.

On day 6 of being overdue I had to go to see my Midwife one last time.  While I was there I asked her to do a sweep to hopefully get things moving but it wasn't successful. I remember walking to the doctors surgery from my house, which isn't very far but when you're 9 months pregnant it feels like miles haha! I was hoping the walk would help get things going.

Two days later I attended the antenatal clinic at the hospital for my aromatherapy massage. I was able to choose from the options of having a foot, neck or back massage. I chose back. It was soooo nice and very relaxing. The oil that the midwife used had ingredients in it which are supposed to stimulate contractions and hopefully get the baby moving. I can't remember exactly what ingredients were in the oil but I think I remember clary sage being one of them and it definitely had oranges in it because it smelt amazing. 
The massage lasted about 15 minutes and I was given the bottle of oil to take home with me and was advised I could add a few drops of it to a warm bath if I wanted to...so I did later that night.

The day after I went for a nice day out to Broughty Ferry with my sister Susan and my nephew Jack...again hoping the walking would help get this baby out of me!! Haha! We went for a nice walk and then stopped off at a little cafe for some hot chocolate and cake and then headed back to the car to go home. 
As it was around 5pm and tea time, I decided to treat myself to a Chinese because David (my fiancé... I always feel posh saying that ha!) was going out for his tea with his pals. When I was standing waiting for my food, this is when I began to think "hmmm things might be starting" but I wasn't sure because in the weeks running up to my due date I had some little false alarms.

I remember taking my Chinese home and not even eating it straight away. I text my mum to let her know that I thought things were maybe starting. The only way to describe what it feels like is it's like having strong period pains...at that point anyway. My mum and sister came over to my house to sit with me for a bit seeing as David was out. I called triage to let them know that I was getting these pains (I say pains but they weren't sore at that time) and to get some advice from them. I was told to eat lightly, so like a piece of toast. I was gutted because I had just bought a Chinese haha! Anyway, I was silly and I had a little bit of my takeaway because I thought "it's fine, it'll be a long time away anyway if it turns out I am in labour"....nope! Listen to the advice haha!

The night I went into labour. Cosies from my nephew Jack <3
My mum and sister went home and I remember sitting watching TV thinking "hmm these period pains are starting to get stronger" so I text David telling him that I thought he should maybe think about coming home soon. I got into bed and I remember David coming home about 11:30pm and by then I had started to get contractions. You know the difference between dull period pains to a contraction. We were lying in bed trying to watch TV when thought the contractions were coming too regularly and this is when it it all changed so fast! I moved ever so slightly and my waters broke! I remember shouting "ahhh my waters!!!" and then ran, well more like hobbled, straight to the bathroom hahaha! This all happened around midnight.

I phoned triage again to let them know what had happened and was advised to go to the hospital to be assessed by one of the midwives. I also phoned my mum to let her know we were going because she was one of my birthing partners so told her we were on our way to pick her up.
The contractions were coming on stronger and were so painful. Oh my god the car journey...I am so glad it was late at night and the roads were quiet because when you're in that much pain the journey feels like it's lasting for ages!

We arrived at the hospital and we went to the DMU which is the Dundee Midwifery Unit. This is where you go if you plan to have a water birth and I was so lucky this was available for me as of course sometimes your birthing plan might not go to plan.
I was taken into one of the rooms where I was asked questions from the midwife and she was timing my contractions. After a while, because my contractions were coming regularly (every 2-3mins) but only lasting 30 seconds she told me to go home and to time them. She said she would like to see the contractions lasting about 1 minute. She also advised to get in the bath and pour the warm water over my tummy to soothe the pain. I was gutted to be going home. Oh, she also booked me in to go back the following night at 10pm if things had stopped and weren't progressing. Because my waters had broke they obviously can't leave you for longer than 24hours so that's why I had an appointment to go back. I knew I would be back way before then though...and so did the midwife haha! She said "I'm sure I'll be seeing you soon".

Back in the car we went which was awful :( The pain of having a contraction sitting down was the worst ever! Poor David had to drive while I'm screaming in pain the whole way home again. We got home, mum went back to her house and I got in the bath as told to. About an hour had passed, David was timing my contractions and right enough they started to last longer and then I just remember having this one contraction that was so different from the others and hurt so bad! I was like "nope we have to go back!!" David called the midwife back to let her know and she advised us to go back. He phoned my mum to tell her...she was just getting back into her bed, what a shame haha!

We arrived back at the DMU where our lovely Midwife greeted us and her words were "that's much better" because this time I wasn't smiling and saying thank you, I was nearly crying and bent over in so much pain hahaha! So funny. 
I was taken back into the room where we were before and again she timed my contractions. Now this is where I should have taken the advice on I should eat something light because with the contractions I was quite sick so yeah....do as you're told :P.
My Midwife then examined me and she said I was only 3cm dilated. When I heard that I wanted to cry because I didn't know how much longer of the pain I could take.
She took us through to our room where the birthing pool was and it was already being filled with water. I was quite sick again with the contractions I'm sure. I got myself ready to get into the pool while screaming like a banshee haha! Now that I think of it, I'm so glad the DMU was empty. I think there were maybe 2 other women who had already had their babies so they were in the ward bit so let's just say they couldn't hear me...haha!

Before I got into the pool I asked the Midwife if I could get the gas and air but she said she wanted me to get in the pool first to see how I do. I remember thinking "oh my god what?" Anyway I got in the pool which was nice and warm and very relaxing. There was a point where I was screaming loads with the pain and my Midwife said to me "Gemma! I need you to stop putting your energy into shouting and to just breathe, you'll need your energy for when it comes to pushing" hahahaha! And from then on, my mum said I just changed and didn't scream again and didn't ask for any pain relief which I'm not bragging about but I'm proud of because my pain threshold is terrible!

My midwife kept trying to get me to drink this drink that tasted like really bad lemonade, which was very lemon-y and sugary, because my energy levels were dropping but it was gross! Something funny was she asked if my mum and David wanted coffee and mum was like "oh yes please" but I said "NO! Not coffee" so she had to settle with tea haha! The smell of coffee would've made me sick again though. 
Another funny thing that happened was when the Midwife went out the room to get the tea for my mum I just remember getting the urge to push and so I shouted to David "PUSH THE BUZZER!!!!"...I've never seen David move so fast before hahahaha! The poor Midwife came running in with her tray of tea to find out what was going on haha!

And then yeah not too long after, our lives changed forever. On 29th October at 4:27am, Poppy was born weighing 7lb 3oz. Seeing her under the water looking up at me with her eyes wide open is the most amazing thing I have ever seen and I will never ever forget that moment. I think about it every night before I go to sleep and I feel so so lucky to have experienced that. 


Mmm look at all that toast
Proud parents <3

Proud Grandad and Nana

And here she is 6 months on...




I was honestly so so lucky to have had such a good labour and I am so thankful everything went ok. I can't thank the Midwife enough who helped deliver Poppy, she was so lovely. The aftercare I received from the staff in the DMU was also amazing. I was so lucky to have the whole ward to myself which meant the staff didn't mind how many visitors I had and also David got to stay longer than usual with me at night time. I would've been able to go home later that day but I decided to stay over just the one night for peace of mind.
So yeah, if you are pregnant I would recommend having a water birth.

Well done to you if you've made it this far and thank you for taking the time to read my story! 

1 comment:

  1. I was waiting for you to post an article like this for quite some time now, this article would be really helpful for me in completing my faculty assignment. Great work.
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