Positive Birth Story: Declining Induction for IUGR
After planning a home birth for their first baby, Becca and her partner found that their baby had stopped growing in the womb, something known as IUGR (intra-uterine grown restriction) meaning their baby was ‘Small for Gestational Age’ (SGA). After weighing up their options they decided to hold off on an induction initially. Over to Becca for their positive birth story in full!
Not everything goes as you're planning for it to go, but it doesn't mean that it wont all work out perfectly fine! Believe me, our whole birth plan went right out of the window!!
I was a low-risk pregnancy and had literally sailed through the entire pregnancy, I had been surfing, helping my brother with tree surgery and had been symptom free bar the odd sciatic twinge here and there. I had been using homeopathy throughout my pregnancy and I definitely would not have been quite so lucky symptom wise without it! My homeopath nipped every symptom I uttered in her direction straight in the bud so I was extremely lucky for her support!
We planned a home water birth and had set up the room along with lots of positive affirmations on the walls.my sister is training to be a midwife and was very helpful in educating us both and helping us to plan how the room would work for the birth etc...
Anyway, we had just arrived at the local birthing unit and the fundal height measurement plotted dramatically differently to the curve it had been following, so we were sent for a growth scan to check if it was just an odd reading or if something was wrong. Baby had been following the 50th centile and the growth scan confirmed that baby's growth had dramatically tailed off to the 3rd centile! We were sent straight to our nearest major hospital to have a CTG and further scans by the consultants and midwives there. My heart dropped as we were told that a home birth was no longer a safe option for us due to baby's size and the associated risks with a IUGR/SGA baby. When we arrived at the hospital I was hooked up to a monitor to check blood flow through the placenta as well as baby's heart rate. The monitoring thankfully showed that everything was normal, however the unexplained slowing of baby's growth remained to be a concern for the midwives and doctors. We were basically curtained off from the rest of the room and told in a very blunt fashion that we WERE going to be induced and a diary was opened to book in the time for us... as if it was a haircut or something as mundane as that. I was in shock and noone had said they understood it wasnt what we wanted, noone asked if I was okay, noone said anything comforting or kind. We were now seemingly part of the conveyor belt of care!! Our personalised experience of the birth centre was now long gone! We asked why we had to be induced when baby's heart rate and placenta blood flow was normal and the doctor said because we might have a stillbirth, which seemed incredibly extreme given the normality of everything else about baby! We decided to refuse induction and instead opted to be monitored daily, which involved us driving over an hour every day to be hooked up to the CTG machine, but this was worth it! I had desperately wanted a natural birth and the thought of induction was terrifying to me!! We decided to have an induction at 40weeks if baby still hadn't come naturally beforehand. It took a lot of trust in myself and my body to come to this decision and I'm really thankful that I was able to remain calm and collected and make a decision that felt right for me!
So a week passed of monitoring and all l remained normal and healthy, then at 39 weeks I started to have Braxton Hicks. The pain was quite intense but was sporadic and random, this continued for around 12 hours. I woke up around 1am and knew that things had stepped up a notch! I remember politely asking my partner to get my heatsack as it was quite painful and he moaned at me to try to sleep, I remember then calling the midwives and explaining my symptoms and them saying to head straight to hospital, my partner will never live that moment down haha!!
We arrived at the hospital and after more monitoring and a VE, I was told I was at 4cm!! I was so excited and we were taken into the delivery suite! I asked about water birth but the midwives weren't keen because of baby being small and they wanted constant monitoring which I agreed to, but this meant not being able to move far from the bed at all (about 1m) which meant I was limited position wise! Around an hour of my labour had passed and the midwives and doctors were coming and going, baby's heart rate was halving throughout my contractions so they were worried baby was struggling, I remained calm and focused on what I could control like my breathing. My partner and mum who is a homeopath were there to do the worrying, not me!! I was actually really enjoying the experience, I mean dont get me wrong it's like nothing else I've ever experienced but it was empowering and I am lucky that one of my strengths is to be in the moment and not worry about anything else! My mum had a homeopathic birthing kit with her and began administering remedies to help things to progress because the doctors were literally scrubbing up ready to take me to theatre!! By this point I was then examined again and to the doctors surprise after 4 hours in labour i was 8cm dilated! Pushing was imminent and I felt totally in control, it was so intense but j trusted my body and it was amazing how it all just does its job so effectively! Baby was really struggling by now but the doctors were happy to let me continue as I was so calm and focused. There was about 8 people in the room incase it all went pear shaped but I had no idea! I was offered drugs throughout but I liked how aware of everything I felt which made me feel more in control and allowed me to remain focused so I refused them! As baby's head was crowning I had 2 puffs of gas and air because that was really quite unbearable pain, but I was so close and the final pushes were close!! I have never in my life felt so empowered and strong, I focused on breathing in and groaning out through every contraction and blocked out all of the people around me. Listened to my body and popped homeopathy like there was no tomorrow and at 8:48am our beautiful little girl Olivia Marie Robert's was born into the world! I remember immediately thinking I'd do it all again tomorrow I enjoyed it that much, obviously it was painful but if you can be positive and breathe through it all you can do it and you will boss it!!
She weighed 5ibs 12oz and was perfectly healthy, so trusting myself and also trusting in Olivia was the right thing to do. You know what's best for you, you know what feels right and it's because your instincts are worth listening to. Speak up when you feel you need to and do what feels right for you. I honestly loved every second and I'm so glad I was confident enough to say no to being induced because Olivia knew what to do and so did my body!!