This week’s birth story comes from one our very own instructors the lovely Sarah Johnstone. Sarah, currently on maternity leave, teaches in and around Sunderland, UK and can be found here at Your Birth.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful, positive birth story of the beautiful Norah!
“Our little lady arrived on 22nd July at 2.24am weighing 7lb 13. We’ve called her Norah Isabelle
I thought I’d share my birth story with you all! I loved reading other people’s birth stories, it’s really helpful to get real life perspectives when you’re approaching your own labour!
This was a slow build up compared to labour with my first born! She had me on my toes for a good week thinking this is it, only for it not to be. I’d been getting period like cramp on and off in my lower belly and back along with trips to the loo and I started to gradually lose my mucus plug! Every night I went to bed thinking it’s got to be tonight, but nope!
Fast forward to Friday morning, I felt crampy again but nothing more, we went to the cinema to see Barbie on the afternoon, laughed all the way through! I could feel the odd mild contraction but still didn’t think it was starting. After we’d picked our little boy up from nursery and had gotten him to bed the contractions ramped up and they started to come every few minutes! After an hour I started timing them and they were every 3 minutes or so lasting about 40 seconds on average. I was planning on having a home birth but when we rang the hospital unfortunately there weren’t enough midwives to attend. I went in and requested the pool, which was available, so I was happy.
They examined me at 11.15pm and I was 6cm, the midwife started to fill the pool and she brought in little LED tea lights and put the projector onto the ceiling. The pool even had Bluetooth, so I was able to connect my playlist! Every contraction was still manageable using a tens machine and just focusing on my breathing. I paced around the room, bounced on the ball or leaned over the pool for a few hours. I then got into the pool around 1.30am-ish I think. I was still so relaxed I felt sleepy! Right up until my body started to bear down, once the pressure changed my waters went with a huge pop! Then with every contraction that followed I started to push down, and soon could feel her head crowning! I couldn’t believe how quickly she was coming and within half an hour she shot out into the water, and I lifted her up for some skin to skin. I started to bleed straight away, and the cord was fairly short so it was cut after it had stopped pulsating and I got out so they could monitor the blood loss easier. Unfortunately, I started to lose quite a lot of blood and the placenta still wasn’t coming away! I had the injection, and it came away shortly after but because I’d lost more blood, I felt quite shaky and was sick. Once I’d had some toast and a cup of tea though I started to feel ok, and Norah came back to me for a feed!
Apart from the blood loss and feeling quite weak afterwards I had a very positive experience!!”
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