Second time mum; Small Graze

Second time mum Lily gave birth to her beautiful baby girl on her due date! She used a birth comb, gas&air, water, and pethidine for pain relief during her labour. Lily followed her midwife’s advice and support during labour and had a small graze not requiring stitching. Love reading positive birth stories? You’re in the right place!

I spent the last 3 weeks of my pregnancy trying all natural induction methods and anticipating another earlier arrival due to my first arriving bang on 38 weeks. There were no real signs of baby girl’s arrival. Since 20 weeks she had been head down and ROA. However up until labour started she hadn’t been engaged either which drove me insane thinking she would never drop! My 39 week appt came and went when I had been offered a sweep. Due to her head not being engaged it couldn’t take place leaving me feel a little deflated. I was so ready to get the show on the road and be over this constipation I had been struggling with! Ha! Having mentioned I had ‘no signs’, I lost my mucus plug at 38 weeks which had got my hopes up, silly me!

Booking an Induction

Over the next few days I resigned myself to letting whatever will be, be! I booked myself for an induction at 41 weeks as my first was 8lb8oz at 38 weeks. I didn’t want to go too far over my due date with a possible big baby.

Waters Breaking

On Sunday 4th Feb at 22:21, I’d just gone for my last wee of the night and said good night to the dog. When I stood back up I felt my pants soaking wet. I looked down to find a trickle down my leg! Having never experienced my waters going with Bodie, I woke my husband and we both thought ‘ah! Here we go’. Within the next 20 minutes I started having small manageable contractions. We called Nanny to come and stay at ours with our toddler who was fast asleep. I then called triage and they asked me to come in due to how fast I dilated with Bodie when my waters were manually ruptured in his labour!

Heading to Hospital

Once Nanny arrived we hopped in the car and made the 30 mins drive. We arrived at around 12:30 where my contractions were now 2-3 mins apart and lasting around a minute. I was triaged and we waited for room on the birth unit upstairs. Whilst waiting for just over an hour I had dilated to 4-5cm and finally a room with a midwife became available. Our lovely Midwife Dawn! An absolute angel and a lady I’ll never forget!

Now things got intense quickly once settled in my room. I asked for Gas and Air as I had been using my birth comb and breathing up until now and needed something to take the edge off.

Contractions Intensifying

Around 4am I hopped in the pool and tried to get comfy as the contractions once again ramped up and were coming a minute apart. I was still fairly ‘with it’ between and could hold a conversation. After about an hour I was struggling and it felt too intense. I asked for the next optional pain relief, which was pethidine. I hopped out the pool and tried to find a semi comfortable position on the bed whilst I was administered the injection. Now, I don’t personally feel this did a great lot for me as we soon found out I was probably a bit far gone for it to take full effect. After about half an hour later I asked Dawn to examine me again as i was losing hope that i wasn’t progressing. Thank god though I was 8-9cm and something in me started to take over!

Hello Baby

Now at this point it must of been around 06:30. I crawled up the bed on all fours and felt my body start taking over. Gripping onto my husband’s hand, Dawn told me to go with what my body was feeling. So I followed my body’s natural cues and felt myself bearing down! Arwyn began crowning and very very slowly made her way out. Now it got a little tricky due to her getting a little bit stuck whilst i was bent over the bed. Dawn very authoritatively told me I needed to MOVE and so my husband and her manually flipped me over and shoved my knees and feet up into a squatting frog and told me to push with everything I had.

Thankfully due to a long crowning Arwyn flew out of me without tearing! Not noticing the scene I had caused when Arwyn had gotten stuck, Dawn had banged the red button and I had opened my eyes to find about 6 other people in the room with us! They were here to assist Arwyn taking a little longer than usual to breathe. She soon let out a big cry and all was right in the world.

Small Graze

Thanks to lovely Dawn for coaching me and reassuring me to go with my instincts. I didn’t need any stitches and had a small graze! Arwyn was soon placed on my chest and latched straight away with Dawn’s help. The famous tea and toast was brought out and we enjoyed the next few hours with our newest arrival before going home as a new family of 4💜

Forever thankful for the midwives at Treliske hospital, Cornwall and all those in the NHS. Inspirational angels🩷