Positive Birth Story: a positive ventouse birth of a back to back baby
Let me begin with saying, I never was afraid of giving birth even before I was pregnant I never understood the scaremongering that surrounded it. I was very lucky, I had a very straightforward pregnancy, no sickness, no feet swelling and not even that much weight gain! But one thing I did suffer with ... heartburn every.single.day! My whole pregnancy I was convinced my little one would be here early I was also convinced we would be having a boy ( we decided not to find out the sex) but there I was at 41 weeks thinking how wrong was I ! I hadn’t even had any signs of labour at this point and I was beginning to think I would need to be induced ! But 3 days later I woke up to what I can only describe as a “pop” (but this wasn’t my waters in fact the midwife couldn’t determine at what point my waters did break in the end) and that’s when I knew today would be the day. I didn’t see the point of rushing around so I ran myself a bath and relaxed for a while , I had been practicing hypnobirthing throughout my pregnancy mainly focusing on the breathing techniques associated with it.
I’m not going to lie I started off fine but 20 minuets into the bath I thought oh no I’m just going to have to ring the hospital I called my partner through and told him I was about to ring ,they told me to come in as soon as I could and not long after we arrived at the hospital.
I always joked around whilst I was pregnant saying I bet I will get to near enough 10cm without even realising and I honestly thought that was going to be the case . The midwife examined me and I was 3cm ... I said “is that it” I had literally only been awake not even 2 hours and I assumed I would of been further Along by then for some reason , she sent me home and told me to ring if I needed anything.
We arrived back at home and I thought well I might aswell have another bath, well not even half an hour later my contractions where coming thick and fast they where coming every minute and a half and lasting around 50 seconds, so I rang the hospital back and told them I needed to come back in, I really got the impression they didn’t want me to come back in just yet, don’t get me wrong I can see why they didn’t, they had literally just sent me home at 3cm and I’m not a screamer when in pain so I probably sounded ok on the phone, but I know my body and I knew it was time to go back in, so I did.
We arrived back at the hospital and got back up to the labour ward and this time I had a different midwife , this one I clicked with instantly and was so happy it would probably be her delivering my baby ! She brought us to a room and examined me , she looked at me dead in the eyes and said “ you’re 10cm’s you’re ready to push “ that’s right in the space of just over half an hour I had gone from 3cm to 10cm and was ready to have this baby ! Throughout my pregnancy I was so determined to have a water birth with no drugs what so ever it’s the only way I wanted to give birth but things don’t always go to plan and at the time you honestly don’t care you just want to meet your baby !
Because I had dilated so fast there wasn’t any time to get the birthing pool ready and I decided to have gas and air to help with my breathing techniques , my baby was back to back still and after nearly an hour of pushing baby was getting slightly tired! The midwife explained to me I might need some help having my baby and that was fine, I didn’t plan for this to happen but whatever made sure my baby would have a safe arrival I would accept. With that 5 other people where in my room they decided a ventouse birth would be the best solution,everything was in place and luckily they only needed to do it once along with me pushing for our baby to be born !
12:48pm weighing 8lb 3oz our incredible Ruby Bloom Bench was born ! A girl ! I could not believe that she was a girl I was in shock ! The most wonderful shock you could ever feel, I didn’t even have a name set in stone if I was to have a girl but Ruby had always been on my list and i loved the way Bloom sounded with it and had never herd of a name quite like it !
So 2 and a half hours of active labour and I finally had my little girl in my arms after being 10 days overdue .
Birth doesn’t always go to plan, but that does not mean it can’t still be a positive experience, although I didn’t get my water birth and I had to have an assisted birth I still see it all as a very positive experience and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
If I could give any advice to any mums to be please do not listen to the scaremongering, birth is what you make it and as long as you remember your body was made to do this then you will have the strength to get through!
Thankyou Chloe Buckley for sharing your special birth story with us! You can follow more if Chloe’s motherhood journey here…