The birth story...

If I can remember rightly - here goes:

On Wednesday 25th February in the evening I was getting more regular contractions (some every five minutes, most every ten) and rang the consultant ward at Shrewsbury. They said I could come in and be checked (had already had a bath and paracetamol then put the TENS machine on) so I rang my parents, and they came over while I was moving the duvet and pillows from our room into the spare room and getting the bags ready. Husband was busy eating flapjack and necking Nurofen as he was full of cold and half asleep.

We arrived and went to be assessed in a small room on the labour ward - I had the monitor strapped to me, and we were left alone for a while. The midwife who looked after us said that she'd rushed Elizabeth onto the rescusitair when she was born (having read our notes) - husband said she looked familiar. It turned out that the contractions weren't strong enough to call it established labour, and I had a choice to either go back home or go up to the antenatal ward. I decided I'd be no better going home - wouldn't sleep and would still be panicking about when exactly to return to hospital, so opted for the ward.

They took me into a curtained bay, and left me there. By this time it was about 4am? All around me there were women moaning and sighing and snoring - some being carted off to the labour ward... I just perched on the bed crying, still with my contact lenses in and TENS machine buzzing away. I kept having to go to the bathroom to re-apply the TENS machine pads because they kept peeling off, so the machine would work fine then all of a sudden I'd be aware that it was doing nothing! At 5am I walked to the nurses station crying, saying could I go home? They examined me at 5.30am and said I was about 3cm and shouldn't go home. Husband came in at 10am, and stayed with me until 12. I was distraught about missing Elizabeth - felt really sad and worried. He returned at 2pm, and we walked around the corridors (saw Claire's friend Liz visiting presumably for an antenatal appointment). The contractions were really quite painful, and husband kept a note of the times - they were recorded on my tiny notepad as follows:

2.25 (40 seconds)
2.36 (1 minute)
2.46 (55 seconds)
2.55
3.04
3.11
3.16
3.21
3.28
3.55
3.44
3.53
4.04

At this point husband left, and I told him not to come back at tea-time but to concentrate on putting Minky safely to bed and that if anything were going to happen later on he'd be called in (although I was far from believing anything was likely to happen - ever!).

4.10
4.15
4.28
4.35
4.55
5.00
5.08 (at which point I switched the TENS machine off because it was annoying me!)
5.22
5.38
5.45
5.58
6.10

I had tea - chicken and bacon pie, then went back to my cubicle and just cried and cried. A midwife came in and asked what was wrong - I just couldn't understand why I wasn't making any progress and had well and truly had enough. The contractions were bloody painful at this point, and the midwife said how about having some Meptid to relax me. I wasn't initially keen, but felt frankly so dreadful that I thought perhaps it might help. She went and got the injection and administered it into my left thigh, and while she was doing this she felt my stomach while I was having a contraction.

This marked a bit of a turning point. She seemed to think the contractions were really strong, and asked me to shout her (then her colleague as she was going off the ward for a few minutes) if I was having a contraction. I duly did, and they seemed to think this meant something. I felt dreadfully sick and spaced out at this point, and was clutching my sick bowl concentrating like hell on not throwing up. All around me was visiting time, and the lady in the bed next to me had her children visiting and they were talking across to the woman opposite, all really loud and confusing to me...

Before I knew it the midwife said she'd examine me, she did, and said I was 5cm. She was going to ring husband, and they'd get a wheelchair ready to take me through to the labour ward. Someone came with a luggage trolley, and the wheelchair duly arrived for me. I was taken through, still clutching sick bowl.

As I arrived in the little room which was very similar to the one Elizabeth was born in I was literally retching, but wasn't really sick. I was left on my own for a bit. I think it was at about 8pm. I was given the gas and air thing, and started using it, and they lay me on the bed and attached the monitor. Husband arrived, and I was really, really sick - he had to grab another bowl after I'd filled one!

The midwife kept calling me 'Em' and was trying to be upbeat but basically suggested that nothing much was happening. I was confused about why I'd been brought through and she seemed to suggest that it might be for more pain relief as the contractions were still every 10 minutes, and were slowing. They slowed more as I was half dozing, lying on my back with the monitor on. I stopped feeling quite so sick.

Another woman came in to put the 'Venflon?' into my arm - failed attempt, leading to another (successful attempt) in my right hand. It was a bit awkward as I was having to explain that I couldn't make a fist because I could barely move my middle finger (now that the splint had been off a few days).

The midwife and the student that was with her suggested I lie on my side to try to get things moving again, and the student eventually suggested taking the monitor off and trying to mobilise. This I did - they highered the bed, and I tried to move around as much as I could. At 10 o'clock the midwife and student changed shift, and a new midwife (Jan) arrived. I was getting tearful again, saying it was going to be like before and that the previous midwife had been muttering about the syntocinon drip being needed (although she'd read in my birthplan that I didn't want it). Jan said that the contractions were getting better, and that she thought I should ignore what had been said previously.

I was now on the right hand side of the bed, leaning onto the bed, with husband behind my applying strong pressure down onto my spine with each contraction, and the midwife leaning across the bed and looking at me. I had to breathe really deeply through each contraction, and with each one felt over-whelmed with the pain. I found it particularly hard when they 'wouldn't go' - i.e. the contractions lingered on. After a while Jan suggested the TENS machine so we strapped that back on, and that helped somewhat. My back hurt really badly apparently because the baby was back to back.

We carried on like this, with the midwife saying take each contraction as it comes, don't think ahead or it will be over-whelming. She told me she was working until 8am, and we'd definately have a baby by then! I remember cottoning on to this ressuring thought.

After a while I asked if there was any reason why I couldn't go into a bath, and was told there wasn't, apart from the fact I'd have to take the TENS machine off. Jan went off to run the bath, and we made our way, with me walking along with a sheet tied around me. For some reason I left my knickers and t-shirt in the delivery room, and ended up going into the bath with my bra on. I got in, and instantly my body just sort of seized up (well, I say body - more like my bottom!) It felt like I needed the toilet, and sure enough there was poo and blood and everything all floating in the water. There was a cannister of gas and air and I was sucking away on that like crazy, while the midwife did an internal examination and said there was a last lip of cervix left. I was disheartened, but she said would I like her to get rid of it? So at the next contraction she kept her hand there, and that was that. I had to get out of the bath quickly and get onto a wheelchair where I was hastily pushed back to the delivery room. I had to leave the gas and air and was screeching like a banshee as we made our way back. When I got to the room I was aware that I was literally pooing on the floor and was saying to husband to stand out of the way! I leant over the bed, but the midwife said it would be better if I got onto the bed, on my hands and knees and leant over the back of the bed. I did this, and felt the most incredible urge to push. So much so that I couldn't really take in the gas and air although I was trying! I had several really strong contractions where I was really pushing and felt like something was 'there'. Jan said that if I put my hand down I could feel the baby, and would feel its head turn as it made its way out. I tried to do this, but was beside myself with pain. The midwife and husband both said they could see the head, and I pushed again and the whole baby sort of slithered out and was put down on the bed underneath me. I was absolutely incredulous about the size of HIM - a boy. I had expected given the feel of what I had just delivered that it would be something smaller ironically, but seeing him lying underneath me was just incredible! She asked if husband wanted to cut the cord and he did, then he just lay there under me while she injected me and I delivered the placenta into a sort of silver bowl. Eventually he was wrapped in a towel and given to husband, and I was left lying on the blood-soaked bed, shivering and feeling like I coudn't move. Really weak, and really odd. She brought in a cup of tea for us both, and I breast-fed him - he didn't seem to latch on on one side but was fixed on straight away on the left hand side and had a good feed. I had to be stitched - the episiotomy scar had torn, and the midwife said she was unsure which bit went where so she called a registrar to look at it. There was mention of me having to go to theatre, but this came to nothing. I did have to have gas and air while I was prodded and poked, even having been given the lignocaine to numb the area. I was then stitched up by the midwife, and given a sort of bed bath. I was desperate for the toilet and was wheeled through to the bathroom on the wheelchair, and was somewhat amazed that I could stand up and get onto the toilet myself. We had to wait a while again (during which time I think I phoned Dad and husband's Mum) while the midwife attended to other things. He was born at 1 minute past midnight, it was getting on for 4am by the time we were ready to leave. My bags were loaded onto a trolley, I kissed husband goodbye, and my entourage (me on wheelchair, baby in cot and luggage x 3 bags on trolley) were wheeled out of the corridor. The icing on the cake was when the midwife said "Midwife led unit" I couldn't believe that's where I was being admitted. I was shown to my bay, and lay down in bed. I remember thinking that I didn't recognise my own baby's cry and was a bit worried that I wouldn't hear him, but I did have a couple of hours sleep and fed him again when I woke up in the morning at about 6am.