Sophie’s unplanned cesarean birth

Sophie hoped to have a water birth, but following a long induction process opted for a cesarean section and was still able to have a calm experience whilst welcoming her baby into the world.

At 2am I woke up with a funny feeling and jumped out of bed and felt a trickle of water so went straight to the bathroom, it didn’t feel just a wee so decided to put in a pad and head back to bed to see how things went. Before I managed to even pull up my underwear it started again and the pad was soaked through straight away so we got my notes out to call the delivery suite for help and I was asked to go in to be assessed. 

I got to hospital around 2.45am and the midwife confirmed my waters had gone and explained due to the risk of infection I may need to be induced the next day if contractions did not start or I could be induced now, I really did not want to be induced so asked if I could go home and see how things progressed naturally and the midwife agreed. She asked if I would like to be examined to give me an idea on if I had started to dilate which I was happy about to help with my decisions. On examination my cervix was still very long and far back so the midwife said she would speak to the doctor about getting me back the same day to start an induction if I was happy to do so to give me a better chance of getting things moving. I left hospital expecting to return at 4.30pm, this would mean I would have to be in over night on my own which I was nervous about but tried to stay positive and calm.

At around 10am I got a call from the hospital to say there was an option to go in at 11am to start the induction process if I wanted to do so. Because my waters had gone they would only give me one pessary before moving to the drip so going in sooner meant I would be moved to delivery suite at 6pm and my husband could come to be with me from then so no overnight stay alone. I spoke to my husband and I decided to go ahead because I had a feeling things weren’t going to happen on there own and this way I could have him with me which is what I wanted. I went in at 11am, the baby’s heart rate was monitored for half an hour before I was given the pessary.

From then I listened to my playlist, read magazines and tried to relax. As the day went on I had a small amount of backache but very little else.Just after 6pm I was moved to delivery suite and rang my husband to come in. When I got to the room, I tried to make it homely and changed the lighting and put on some music and soon my husband was with me. The midwife started the drip and all was calm, we even did a crossword! I put on a Tens machine at this point before I started to feel any contractions.

As time went on they started to increase the drip, I tried to keep mobile but baby’s heart rate kept dropping when I was stood up or sat forward so I got back into bed; not what I had planned but baby didn’t like me moving around. After a few hours I was getting 4/5 contractions every 10 mins and decided to try some gas and air. I was examined again at 12am and had progressed to 3cm, I was disappointed because although the contractions were now much stronger I wasn’t progressing very quickly and had now been awake for almost 24 hours. I decided at this point to have an epidural so I could get some rest as there was still a long way to go and the contractions had definitely ramped up. Within an hour I had the epidural and this meant I could get some sleep. 

By 8am I had progressed to 7cm and felt more confident things were moving in the right direction however when I was examined again at 12pm I was only at 8cm despite 4 hours of contractions. At this point a doctor came into the room to discuss my options as my waters had now been broken for well over 24 hours and things had not progressed well which was becoming dangerous for baby. The doctor said I could wait 2 more hours max before I would need intervention of some kind, or I could go to theatre for a C Section now. I was given time to decide on what I wanted to do, I was quite teary at this point as I had not expected this would be the route I would end up going down but talked it through with my husband.

I had a strong feeling that things weren’t going to change much in 2 hours and I did not want to wait to just end up in theatre anyway and did not want to distress baby anymore so I decided the best option for us was to go for it and get baby out! From here everything went very quickly and before I knew it I was in theatre ready to go, I tried to switch off from everything going on around me and kept my breathing going as I had throughout to keep me calm and focused and kept saying to myself “come on Pip” which is what we had called little one throughout pregnancy. 

Our beautiful baby girl Autumn Ivy was born at 1.50pm on 20/01/2021 – we had a fantastic experience in theatre and the whole team were brilliant. We were moved to recovery and then had another night stay in hospital. I had been on an antibiotic drip during labour so we were monitored for 24 hours after birth. Not the water birth I had hoped for- but I can honestly say I felt supported by the midwives throughout and everything was my choice! This course gave me so many technics to keep me calm no matter what was thrown at me and overall I am happy and proud of how well I coped!

Click the link for more information about The Bump to Baby Chapter’s Hypnobirthing and Antenatal Online Course. Know what you can do to stack the odds in your favour for the birth that you want. Videos, checklists, audios & a support group all created by a midwife to get you feeling excited, prepared and confident for birth.