You will be delighted to know that baby Linsell beat the induction deadline by 9 hours so she cut it fine!! We were due to go in on Saturday at 11am and I woke up at 2am with mild pains. At that point i didn't pay too much attention to them or get excited as id had similar the week before and it had all stopped. Well it didn't stop this time and by 8.30 was getting pretty intense and we were finally convinced that this may be it! I called the hospital and they said to still come in to be checked.
A quick shower later (holding onto the wall!) I threw some clothes on in between one but no time to make myself into the glamour labouring mum I'd hoped to be, so off I went with wet hair and no make up. I was having contractions every minute so it was the hardest car journey I'd ever had with 2 even before I got in the car!
Anyway...arrived at the hospital at 10.30 and went to be checked in antenatal where my waters went...they were right about there being a lot! There was some meconium but they weren't so worried based on the amount of fluids. We went straight to labour ward where I was scanned and checked. I was 6cm although for a second she thought I was fully. They questioned her position on the scan but confirmed head down on her side. Using my breathing, affirmations, lavender oil and the relaxation track on repeat and some gas and air I progressed pretty quickly to second stage.
They rescanned at that point and confirmed she was back to back but I went ahead and tried pushing. I never really felt her moving down despite the midwife saying i couldn't have been more effective in technique. After 2.5 hours and no real progress we made the decision to go to theatre to try ventouse. One attempt and the consultant said 'there's so say she is coming out this way! Her head was moulded and just couldn't get under the pelvis so had to move to c section. Again had relaxation track on repeat in the theatre and Paul took me through a visualisation. I knew what was happening but stayed calm - hypnosis was even recorded as pain relief on my labour notes in theatre.
Lucia Sophie Emilia was born at 20.06 weighing exactly 8lb at 8 days overdue so just like my gut told me, I wasn't having a big baby! I stayed in hospital until today and have been trying to come to terms with how things ended up. We have a beautiful healthy daughter and that's all that really matters but being the person I am, still question if I could have done anything different to change the way she was born. As the doctor said to me, there were no issues with power or process, I just had a passenger keen to come out of the sunroof!!
Paul is being brilliant and wanted to thank you for everything you did to prepare him to be the birth partner I needed and cope with the stressful theatre environment in a calm manner.
Thank you again,
Laura & Paul xx