Kat welcomes baby Caspian

The birth was amazing. 59 hours of labour in total, so quite long! The things we learned with you really helped. Surges started Saturday midday (I was out with friends at the time!). I came home, we relaxed and started timing. Spoke to the hospital but at that point no show and no waters had broken so we kept an eye on it and went to bed. We were doing the up-breathing and I felt really in control.

On Sunday, my surges were getting a bit more frequent and a bit longer. We did a few little walks around the block to get things moving and it definitely helped. Also got in the bath for some pain relief. By about 7pm on Sunday night, the surges were about 55 seconds long and every 3-4 minutes, and movement was a bit less than normal, so we decided to go into the hospital and get checked out. It did take a little while (about 1.5hrs) in reception before we were seen, but it was Sunday and they were really busy. When I did get examined, baby (and me!) were both fine and I was 2cm dilated. (Side note: your positive birthing coaching really helped me here - I'd prepared for a small number, and thought of everything above 0 as a bonus! So I felt really good that things were moving at this point!) The midwives recommended I go home and continue to labour if I felt up to it which I did! At her recommendation, I started using the TENS machine at this point - in hindsight I could've used that a bit sooner, lesson learned for next time! That definitely helped.

I didn't sleep much on Sunday night. Around 6:30am Monday morning the surges were about 60-65 seconds, sometimes every 3-3.5 minutes but occasionally 5 minutes apart. We called Triage who advised to wait until they were a bit more consistent. At around 9:30am I had my show, which kept coming for ages across the day! At this point going for a walk was a struggle, and when I went to get in the bath I felt like I couldn't bring myself to get undressed. At that point I decided it was time to go! We got in the car and called Triage on the way to tell them we were coming.

Went through triage about 10:30 and they did more checks and another exam. I was 5cm dilated so they moved me to the birth centre and a room with a pool, at about midday.

We met our first amazing midwife (Mia) and I got straight in the pool. I started using gas and air straight away. I felt like it really helped me manage my breathing, but didn't feel much on the pain relief side.

After about 3 hours (so ~3:30pm) it was definitely getting harder to labour. I had a bit of a wobble at this point, saying I couldn't do it. Luke had been amazing throughout, helping with my breathing, and helped coach me through this point too - noting that this was likely transition, which Mia also said! I asked about more pain relief options and Mia suggested cocodomol (I think - something beginning with c, that was a stronger form of paracetamol but that meant I could be in the pool). At that point I also got out of the pool for an exam, where Mia said I was 8cm, although my waters hadn't broken and were bulging. I stayed out of the pool for a bit, on all fours, and had taken the pain relief. That made me feel so much more in control and I was back in a really positive state of mind.

At 7pm the midwife changed (to Agata). She was also really great. She did an exam about 8pm, and noted that I was still 8cm, but with bulging waters in front of the baby. Around this time, I was also feeling the urge to push a lot more. Agata consulted with other midwives and offered a range of options to deal with the waters - (1) break now, (2) break in 2 hours, (3) wait until they break naturally. Agata said if the waters were meconium-stained, I'd have to go to the labour ward, but that would be the case whenever they broke. At this point I was feeling really tired. Luke and I discussed it (using BRAIN!), and I wanted to have the waters broken now, because I was still 8cm and was worried about becoming even more tired. Agata broke the waters in a simple process, and they were clear. I then got back in the pool.

Agata warned me that my surges would become more severe after the waters broke and that was definitely true! My urges to push were continuing. After about an hour and a half in the pool, I was having another wobble. Agata offered another exam which I accepted because I felt if I hadn't made any progress I would want to discuss other options. Agata did the exam and I was fully dilated and baby was on the way down! I was planning on getting back in the pool, but there was a pause as the water needed changing. Whilst the pool was refilling my surges became really intense and I actually couldn't do anything apart from stay on the bed and push. I was on my side with my legs open. I'd written in my birth plan about wanting a hands-on approach if not in the pool, and Agata offered to help, which I again accepted and really appreciated! She helped guide where i should push towards, and how to push to get baby round the bend of the cervix (big long push rather than lots of short little pushes). As his head came out she was helping get him out with minimal damage. Agata was super encouraging and really positive with her guidance, exactly what I wanted from her. Head came out, and then body came in the next push! Agata placed him on me immediately for skin to skin, and gave him a quick wipe.

When he was coming out, the midwives thought he might have swallowed a bit of fluid as his crying/breathing was a bit gurgly. They left him whilst the cord drained of blood and Luke cut the cord. After that they were a little concerned about his breathing so they took him away to check him out. Both midwives had a look, and so did an obstetrician and nobody had any concerns. They gave him back to us and we had more skin-to-skin!

There was a bit of blood loss (about 550ml) so Agata recommended the injection for an active third stage of labour. I accepted and she helped guide the placenta out. I had a vaginal wall tear which required stitching, and grazes either side, but no perineum tear.

There were no spaces on the post natal ward so we remained in the birth centre until about 8am the following day, when we were transferred to our own room in the post-natal ward (Worcester Ward, Esher Wing). Everybody was amazing we stayed the whole day and night, had help with breastfeeding and checking my stitches and eventually left about 1pm on Wednesday!

Thank you again for everything, all of your teaching made the whole process really positive and I felt very in control because I had much more knowledge of what was happening.