Obstetric Cholestasis Birth Story
My First Birth
I signed up to The Bump to Baby Chapter course when I had my first baby. We used the EBRAN when they wanted to induce me at 39 weeks due to episodes of reduced movement. I was terrified of induction as you hear so many horror stories! But I listened to the doctors and decided that my body (and daughter!) would know when they were ready. I ended up having to go into the hospital to be induced because my waters had gone and it had been over 24 hours My girl decided right at the very last second she was ready and I went into spontaneous labour while waiting for the induction to start!
I’m so glad I waited and listened to the guidance through the videos. The labour, as most do, didn’t go to plan! And I was asked repeatedly to move into different positions when my body couldn’t. When they checked and I was 10cm. I said I needed to push and my midwife told me to wait another hour. When they did say I could push, my daughter was distressed and her heart rate dropped significantly. The resulted in an episiotomy and a ventouse delivery! I had a catheter and they forgot to take it out when I wanted to push too. It was all actually a bit of a nightmare and as a first time mum who had no clue what she was doing. I hoped my midwife was going to guide me a bit more.
My Second Pregnancy
Getting pregnant the second time, we didn’t want that situation to happen again. This time however, I had a few days of itching, had bloods done and it turned out I had Obstetric Cholestasis! Something we had never heard of, the hospital said they wanted to do some more bloods and observations to check me and the baby. She was perfect and doing well!
Obstetric Cholestasis and Pregnancy
They told us about Obstetric Cholestasis and explained that its caused by bile acids in your body and the function of your liver. Where the normal limits of bile acids are anything below 30, mine were at 150 and my ALF (liver functions) were at 326 and rising.
They suggested inducing there and then but using EBRAN, I decided I needed some sleep before going into labour.
Obstetric Cholestasis and Birth
I had been up at 2:30am, and it was 10pm when this discussion was had. The next day after some scans they sent us down to the delivery suite. They spoke through the induction and explained every step. It began with breaking my waters. Luckily I did start contracting but not quickly enough and after a few hours hadn’t progressed much. I was hooked up to the hormone drip and they really ramped up. At one point I used my EBRAN again and asked them not to turn it up as I felt I had progressed and asked them to wait an hour – which they listened to.
I managed to get through 10 hours of labour with just a tens machine and the breathing techniques in your videos, the pushing stage lasted 15 minutes.
I ‘breathed’ the baby out with 3 pushes.”
No tears or stitches required and only 100ml blood loss. The midwives supporting us said it had been a long time since they saw someone breathe the baby out!
Thank you so much!
The advice, guidance and information in your videos/blogs/course made my labour (particularly 2nd!) Really easy and just knowing that my body can do it and knowing that I have full control of what I want and need in labour was amazing.
