Ann's Story

I had a beautiful baby boy at 16.38 weighing 6lbs 13.... on Christmas day! The best Christmas present ever! . My due date of the 11th came and went with some mild indications that I might go into labour soon, I could not have been more wrong.

On the 16th I had the membrane sweep to try and get things moving. At that point I was also booked in for an induction on Friday 23rd. The midwife confirmed i was 1 cm dilated and my cervix was already very thin, and she could feel the babies head. All good signs! Feeling positive after the sweep and determined not to be induced I tried all the tested methods of naturally bringing on labour. I had the show that Sunday, but then nothing happened, the day before the induction date i requested a second sweep but still nothing and the induction date arrived.

They first checked to see if they could break my waters, but my cervix was not dilated enough so a hormone pessary was inserted for 24hrs. This meant staying in the hospital and just sitting around and waiting until Saturday morning. This hormone should have opened up my cervix enough for them to break my waters. On Saturday morning I was checked again and my cervix had opened up a small amount but not enough, this time a different 6 hr hormone pessary was inserted to try and open my cervix further. This was then repeated on Saturday afternoon to see if it would work overnight.

Christmas morning I was checked and my cervix was just open enough for them to break my waters. I was then put on the oxytocin drip. All of this meant I had to be monitored throughout the labour which I was quite upset about as I thought it would prevent me from having an active labour. However, the midwives were great and after moving me to a delivery room were quick to offer a mat and talk about positions I would like to be in. I was a little restricted due to the drip and the monitoring but at least I didn't have to stay on the bed.

Due to the drip the contractions then started really quickly and were very intense straight away. I managed to find a kneeling position i was comfortable in and rocked backwards and forwards against my husband. The breathing and deep sounds helped a lot... I think I sounded like a motorbike but it worked! I also had narissa's music for labour cd playing which i insisted was repeated throughout the first stage which helped me stay focused and half sane.

From there things progressed pretty quickly, I used a tens machine, which worked for the first couple of hours when I moved onto gas and air. This saw me through until I was ready to push 6 hrs later. I spent the second stage with my husband supporting me over a birthing stool and was moved into the bed for the last bit as they thought they may have needed to do an episiotomy. In just over an hour in this second stage baby Joseph was born.