Freddie’s positive birth story
Paula and Graham's Positive Unplanned Caesarean
Read how Paula went from having an induction of labour to an empowered unplanned caesarean. Paula took part in one of my corporate Hypnobirthing courses, and she really utilised all she had learned to help her face many different challenges in her birth. She's amazing!
Being offered an induction
At 37+2 weeks pregnant, I was admitted into hospital due to reduced movements with baby and after having CTG monitoring everything looked good, but I was asked to come in two days later for further monitoring.
This appointment was slightly different, in that my baby wasn’t really having any wake cycles so I had to stay on the monitor for a while and then have another scan. When having the scan baby’s heartbeat was strong but there was no movement. I was offered an “emergency induction” or Caesarean but due to stage of pregnancy I’d have to have steroid injections plus insulin which I didn’t want so I chose to go with the induction.
Opting for a caesarean birth
I was admitted the following day and had a pessary inserted at around 9.30pm. The following day I had numerous CTG’s and unfortunately there was no spike in heart rate, so they made the decision to remove the pessary and potentially try again.
Once it was removed his heart rate spiked but not enough, so we were given the option to try again or go for a Category 3 (baby needs to be born early but there is no immediate risk to mother or baby) caesarean. At this point we chose the caesarean as we thought it was the best option and was told it would happen the next morning. However, things rapidly changed, and I was being taken to theatre a couple hours later.
The Magic of Skin-to-Skin
My beautiful baby was born and after needing some help to breathe he was placed on me for skin-to-skin, and it was magical!
I had some complications during and after the birth but at that moment it didn’t matter. Fast forward two days and at my discharge conversation I was told I lost 1770ml of blood, which is classed as a post-partum haemorrhage, and that I might need an iron infusion or blood transfusion. The main cause behind the blood loss was they cut into my placenta during the caesarean, plus two losses after due to sickness.
I was happy knowing what had happened and in hindsight I’m glad I wasn’t told at the time because I think it could have dampened what was the best time of my life.
if I had one takeaway from everything, we learned it was to BREATHE,
if I had one takeaway from everything, we learned it was to BREATHE,
A huge thanks to Claire for all the information provided if I had one takeaway from everything, we learned it was to BREATHE, this got me through most of my journey.
Paula - Corporate Hypnobirthing Course