JoJo's story

Hello, Thought I’d send you an email about Rupert’s entrance into the world. It wasn’t my ideal “birth plan” but it was a very positive experience and I felt very confident going into labour after doing the course with you. Monday 22nd we were sat having dinner at 9pm and I felt a ‘pop’ and trickle so went to have a look and had straw-coloured discharge. I rang the Bluebell who asked us to go in to double check it was my waters so off we went. They confirmed it was my hind waters that had gone and popped me on the monitor for half an hour to make sure baby was ok. After that they sent us home and said just wait to see if anything progresses and if not we were booked in to come back in the following night at 9pm to be induced. If things progressed naturally I was able to go into bluebell but if not I’d have to be on Swan ward to be induced. We went home and got some rest and I spent all of Tuesday bouncing on my ball, walking, watching light-hearted TV but to no avail so at 9pm we made our way to Swan Ward. When we got to the ward they were having a really busy evening and the poor head midwife was running around like a headless chicken. There were 5 other women on the ward being induced and I didn’t get my pessary put in until midnight after she examined me and said I’d be re-examined in 24 hours time. Ant was allowed to stay on the ward with me which I was really grateful for. We spent the first couple of hours snoozing and snacking. At about 3.30am I started to get some tightenings coming round from my back into my belly I made sure I kept active and moved around the bed, on top of the bed etc. By 4am they were getting closer together and getting quite painful (I was only on paracetamol at this point) so I popped my tens machine on, started counting the contractions with an app I’d downloaded and called the midwife to ask for some more pain relief. I was only allowed codeine and that would of been at 6am with some more paracetamol. The pain really started to ramp up and I found being on all fours on the bed rocking my hips from side to side with the breathing techniques helped but I kept wanting to change position and keep moving. I called the midwife another couple of times to say the contractions were getting closer and I was in quite a bit of pain so she got me some codeine.

At 5am I went to the toilet and had my bloody show, I told the midwife who tried to put me on the monitor for 10 minutes which I just spent the whole time levitating off the bed! Then all of a sudden I got an urge to push which I told her about so she examined me and said “oh his heads right there, you’re 7cm dilated!” Then it all went a bit fast as they grabbed a wheelchair in for me and whizzed me round to labour ward which I spent the whole time just with the massive urge to push. Once in the room on labour ward as I got off the wheelchair to get on the bed my fore waters went which was a bit of relief. The back of the bed was upright so I leant forward over it as this was a position I knew I wanted to be in. They gave me gas and air which was a massive help and Ant was great at encouraging me to drink lucozade in between contractions and breathe some normal air in. We got into the labour ward room at 5.26am and Rupert was born at 6.06am. I was extremely lucky with my midwife who delivered him as she just took a step back and didn’t intervene - she was actually brilliant and I couldn’t of asked for anyone better. She passed me him between my legs, Ant got to cut the cord and we had skin-to-skin straight away. The ward was so busy it was just my midwife left to deal with stitching me up whilst I held Rupert and she encouraged me to just give breastfeeding a go and see what happened. He latched straight away and fed for about 20 minutes and has been great at feeding since. I had a second degree tear but the midwife said this was purely due to the speed he came as I was excellent at breathing him out and not pushing him out. So a total of 6 hours and 6 minutes between the pessary going in and Rupert making his entrance into the world 💙. The biggest sting about the birth was the room I gave birth in had a birthing pool in it 😫😂! So even though I didn’t get to be in the Bluebell and I didn’t get the waterbirth I would of liked I had a very positive experience. I only used paracetamol and gas and air and had an active labour which were in my birth preferences. And I could not of faulted the care of the midwives and nurses during our stay. We were discharged at 6pm that evening so weren’t even in hospital for 24 hours. Sorry it’s a long-winded email but just wanted to let you know how it went and honestly I felt so well informed about what was happening because of doing the course with you so thank you for all your help! Still in our newborn bubble loving life 💙 Best wishes, Jojo