B is for...Birth

He's here, he's finally here!

Baby B was born on Monday 21st January at 10.32am after what turned out to be a rather traumatic labour.

After the total failure of the sweep on Thursday, I went in for an outpatient induction on Sunday 20th January at 11am. It had been snowing rather heavily all night and due to the fact my blood pressure was a little high, we ended up staying in hospital most of the day. They nearly wouldn't let us (Me, J and my mum) leave for fear we would be snowed in and I'd end up giving birth, unassisted, at home.

As I'd been having Braxton Hick since before Christmas, contractions didn't so much start as continue. When my water's broke at about 8pm on Sunday night, I wasn't entirely sure I was going into labour. I rang the labour ward, who told me to stick it out at home until the contractions became stronger.

I was prepared for a lengthy early labour at home, but this all changed when I went to the loo about 30 minutes later and saw my waters were brown: Meconium.

After calling the labour ward again and being told to come straight in, my mother in law picked us (the three of us) up and we all (the four of us) ended up in triage. I couldn't tell my mother in law to leave and she clearly had no intention of doing so. We are fairly close, so it wasn't too much of an issue and when things got going I wouldn't have cared if the entire England football team had walked in.

We go taken through to the labour ward, and introduced the most grumpy Northern Irish midwife. There was a lot of dicking about with monitors, because of the meconium. Apparently nobody had factored  the roundness of a pregnant woman's bump into the design of the nodes and they kept slipped off, which seriously inhibited my labour positions. All yoga practice went out of the window as I lead on the bed and gritted my teeth.

After a few hours of fairly excruciating contractions it was clear that my cervix just wasn't dilating enough. The raspberry leaf tea, I'd been glugging down for six weeks had done absolutely bugger all to strengthen my womb and the midwife explained they'd need to bring in the big guns: syntocin.

At our antenatal class we'd heard all about syntocin and how horrible and painful it makes labour, so as soon as the word was on the tip of her tongue, another was on mine: epidural. I'd been pretty adamant throughout pregnancy that I didn't want an epidural or any opiates but nothing was like I'd imagined- it was far more clinical- and I couldn't centre myself to deal with the pain, in the way I'd hoped.

When the anaesthetist arrived the fun started. The midwife attempted to inser to cannula for the hormone drip into my left arm, then my right arm and then my left arm again. My mother pointed out, after the event, that she was using an absolutely massive needle and trying to insert it into and absolutely minuscule vein- the would be why that despite all the pain in my wrists (she tried there too) and my hands, she was getting nowhere.

The anaesthetist had a go and finally managed to get the needle in, after the same number of attempts. When she came to inserting the epidural into my back, everybody had to leave the room, except my husband who's job it was to hold me still. The anaesthetist explained, before the procedure, the if I moved in millimetre I stood a chance of becoming paralysed so I think J felt the pressure as somewhere between the me closing my eyes as the needle went in, and opening them again, he'd passed out.

I was left holding myself still as he was propped up against a radiator like a third world hostage.  As the epidural set in and the pain subsided, the mothers left to get some sleep and J bunked down on the birthing mat. It was 3am and I was 2cm dilated.

The night passed in a blur of different healthcare professionals popping in an out and uncontrollable, adrenaline-induced shaking. I didn't sleep at all. I could feel something putting a lot of pressure on my lower back as the syntocin worked it's magic.

At 7am the Irish midwife examined me and explained that due to the amount of time that had passed and the dose of syntocin, I could expect to be about 5cm dilated. During the examination she told me I was actually fully dilated. I replied 'you what?' I couldn't believe it.

The mother's were called and I was told that, providing I was given the go ahead by the doctor, I could start the pushing stage at 9am. At this point I'd like to explain to you that a completely natural delivery is very rare following a hormone drip and an epidural.

Two new midwife arrived and they were absolutely lovely. At 9am I started pushing and, after an hour and a half of J holding my left leg and my mother holding my right, Baby B was born.

He was, and is,  utterly perfect was a button nose and a smattering of dark brown hair.  He weighed colossal 9 lb 13, which explains the stitches. Despite the fact that labour and birth were nothing like I'd imagined,  actually found delivering my son a thoroughly positive experience: and it definitely was an experience.