Emily Rose—A great VBAC birth despite ‘special circumstances’!
Hi Dany
Our second addition to the family, Emily Rose, was born on 12 December at Farnborough Hospital at 10.40pm. She weighed 7 lb 12 oz and was born at just over 41 weeks.
The details of the birth are: My waters broke at 6am which woke me up! I didn't start feeling any surges until later in the morning and was able to carry on as normal, writing Christmas cards and wrapping presents. At about 1pm, the surges were about 5 mins apart. As this birth was to be a "VBAC", ie natural birth after a cesarean, the hospital wanted me to go in to check there were no issues etc, which I was reluctant to do. But I went in some time after 2pm, as they were very insistent.
At that point, they checked the baby's heart beat and wanted to check it again regularly to be sure it was ok, so I stayed in. They did let me sit on a birthing ball whilst being monitored, so I was able to relax.
However, the baby started moving quite a bit and they were concerned over it's positioning and then were concerned with her heart rate. But everything was very calm and time passed quickly.
Towards the end, my surges rolled into one and lasted for 45 minutes with no break. During this time I was told that I had gone from 5cm to 9cm. Unfortunately, it caused the baby's heart beat to drop too low and they were getting very concerned. It was at this point that we had to allow their help as her heart beat was not good. Also, her arms were not tucked in, but were over her head! So I ended up with an episiotomy cut and forceps assisted delivery. But thankfully no drugs were required during the whole birth, apart from a local anaesthetic to numb the cut area.
Paul was wonderful throughout and kept me as relaxed as possible, despite the special circumstances. I am really pleased I was able to give birth and was able to avoid another caesarean.
Emily is well and I am able to breast feed, which is also new to me, as I was not successful last time. My stitches are also healing well. The hypnobirthing techniques have really helped me and made the pregnancy and birthing experience enjoyable.
Thank you very much for all your guidance. Best wishes and have a happy new year.
Petula and Paul.
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