Thank you to Olivia for sharing her honest story of her unplanned caesarean birth experience.
"I was induced at 39 weeks because I had a condition called obstetric cholestasis which can increase the risk of still birth. Before knowing this, my choice would have been to labour at home and then have a natural birth in a midwifery unit, although realistic that I might want more pain relief. Learning I would have to be induced and deliver on labour ward with continuous monitoring was far away from my initial birth preferences.
I went in to hospital on the Sunday and had the cooks balloon (mechanical induction method). However after having this in for 24 hours they weren’t able to break my waters. I then had prostaglandin gel and the pessary which led to my waters breaking spontaneously.
My body didn’t like the induction process, I had a lot of tightening's and was sick which made it hard to rest or eat much. By the time I got to the labour ward I was fairly exhausted. After being on labour ward for a number of hours I hadn’t progressed through the labour and I was developing some other complications that meant the obstetric team recommended an emergency c section.
Despite being an “emergency” we had plenty of time to make the decision and my baby was being monitored and was happy throughout.
Half of me felt sad about moving further away from the birth I had wanted and the other half of me was so ready to meet my baby I didn’t care.
I was taken to theatre and the anaesthetist who had done my epidural did a spinal injection to make sure I wouldn’t feel any pain.
They allowed us to play our own music and performed the final checks with Shania Twain playing in the background. The two midwives who had been with me all day were also in theatre, they were reassuring and comforting and even brought in my pillow!
Everyone was so friendly, introduced themselves, asked if we had decided on names or knew what we were having - it made us both feel at ease and so excited knowing after a long induction process we were finally going to meet them.
I heard him before I saw him and my first thought was “oh my god, there’s actually been a baby in there”, before that it didn’t quite seem real. They lifted him up and brought the screen down so we could see and my partner announced “it’s a boy!”.
We’d asked for delayed cord clamping and immediate skin to skin and since he was perfectly well they did both and brought him straight to me. The rest of the procedure he lay on my chest and then on my partners chest, I wasn’t really aware of the ongoing surgery. When he came back to me he was nuzzling and head bobbing my chest and with some gentle repositioning started breast feeding whilst the stitching was still going on.
Afterwards I was taken to recovery and my parents were allowed in to come and meet him. All the staff were so friendly and caring, one of the midwives showed me how to do lie down breastfeeding which I was so thankful for as it was more comfortable on my scar and I still regularly feed that way now.
On postnatal ward they helped with breastfeeding, moving around and even took him overnight for a couple of hours so I could sleep. It was lovely.
Although a c section was never in my plan, 6 months on I rarely think about it and am just so grateful for the happy, healthy little boy I gained from it."
Read more... J's positive caesarean birth story