Larissa’s Birth Story

At 41+4 weeks I went into labour spontaneously around 1am. Earlier that day I had agreed to be inducted at 42+1 weeks.

I was woken up by a contraction, got up, went to the toilet. Then after a few more contractions I woke up my husband, Will, at 1:20am, and told him I was having contractions. He got up and we both got dressed. Will put the last few bits in the hospital bag, and I prepared snacks in between contractions. At this point we started recording time and durations of the contractions. They were every 3-4 mins, lasting between 40-60 seconds.

We had already created a calm environment in the living room, so we lit a candle, dimmed the lights and I tried labouring on a gym ball. However, I found the most comfortable position during a surge was to be stood up, leaning against a wall with my hands or hanging off my husband’s neck. 

Around 3:30am we called the Midwifery Led Unit at the Horton Hospital in Banbury. The surges were every 3 minutes at this point and lasting 1 minute, and they suggested we start making our way to the hospital.

We had hoped to make use of the birthing pool at Banbury, but shortly after speaking to the maternity team, they called back and told us the birthing pool was out of action. If we wanted to use a birthing pool, we would have to go to Oxford.

Oxford would have been a 50 minutes drive for us and we had hoped for our baby to be born at the MLU in Banbury. Banbury was more or less on the way to Oxford, so we decided to head there first and see how things were and how I was feeling once I got there.

The streets were empty and we got to the MLU in good time. The contractions in the car, sitting down were a bit challenging but I managed to breath through them.

Once we got to the Horton a very nice midwife led us to one of the rooms, checked my blood pressure etc. and asked me if I wanted her to do an examination. I agreed and she said I was at 3 cm dilation, and if we wanted to go to Oxford there was still time to do so.

Will and I had a chat and decided that we felt comfortable to stay at the Horton.

Will got the ball from the car and the midwife started making the room a bit more comfortable and cozy, putting mats and pillows on the floor so I had lots of different options for different positions. Again I tried sitting on the floor and leaning over the ball. But it did not feel like the right position for me at the time.

The midwife asked if I could go to the toilet and I did, which was a bit tricky in between surges. The surges kept coming pretty strong and regularly every 3-4 mins.

The atmosphere at the MLU was very calm and relaxing. We were the only people there and the midwife just left us to it and came in the room every now and then to offer a cuppa, ask if we needed anything and check baby’s heartbeat.

I tried to have a drink and a snack every now and then. Will had put up some fairy lights and the sound of ocean waves was playing in the background – “Each surge is bringing your baby closer, like a wave carrying it towards the shore” was one of my favourite affirmations.

Around 8am there was a shift handover and we said goodbye to our first lovely midwife and we were introduced to a different midwife.

She turned out to be the best midwife we could have asked for. We also had a midwifery student with us. It was her very first birth to witness – which I did not find out until the baby was born – and she was fantastic as well.

Again our midwife made sure we were getting on okay and gave us a lot of space in the following hours except for checking in with us, offering cups of tea, and monitoring the baby’s heartbeat.

I noticed that my legs looked quite swollen and we asked the midwife about it. I did not have swollen ankles during the pregnancy at all. She did not seem concerned.

At some point, maybe around 9am, so 8 hour of consistent surges every 3-4 mins,  I felt like I would benefit from using some gas and air. So we asked if that was an option and she set it all up for us.

The gas and air really helped to take the edge off and I felt like I could actually sit down for a little while.

Both mine and my husband’s memory is a bit blurry after that. At some point our midwife and the midwifery student started to spend more time with us. 

They encouraged me to sit on the ball and do hip circles, they massaged around my sacrum which helped a lot. The surges were intense. At two points I was sick.

Around 1pm my waters broke. It was like in the movies – like somebody had popped a big water balloon.

After that things seems to slow down a little bit and I was getting tired. 

My midwife encouraged me to go to the toilet, but I could not do a wee.

She suggested putting a catheter in to check whether my bladder was full and empty it that way, which I agreed to.

She inserted the tube after applying some numbing gel, but there was only a trickle.

I remember feeling very tired and sweating a lot. Every surge was quite painful and exhausting and I was screaming.

Again we tried different positions – birthing stool, all fours, standing up and hanging off Will. I also remember a moment where I was staring in my midwife’s eyes and just trying to breath with her. I was still using the gas and air regularly. 

Then the baby’s heartbeat started to drop.

My midwife encouraged me to lie back on the bed and try to rest a little.

The baby’s heartbeat recovered, but I was very tired.

My midwife said that she had informed the ambulance, which was always at the MLU to take women to Oxford if necessary, to get ready.

She looked at me and with a very calm voice said: “We’ll give it a bit longer, but you might need some help with this.”

It felt like that flicked a switch.

Again I changed my position. I was now lying on my left side, with my right leg bent allowing me to hold my thigh, which helped me push in an effective way, as I could pull my leg towards me.

Once the baby was crowning my midwife told me I could feel his head. First I was not sure whether that was something I wanted to do, but I did and it was kind of surreal.

Then my midwife said that she suspected that I had started to tear and recommended an episiotomy because she was concerned I might tear in a bad way. I gave my consent. She asked another midwife to assist and together they injected the anaesthetics.

During one of the following contractions my midwife made the cut and the baby’s head and left hand, which he had against his head were out. The rest of his little perfect body followed and by 3.45pm – 14 hours 45 mins after the first contraction had woken me up – our beautiful baby boy Sebastian was born.

Our midwife laid him on my chest, helped with the first latch and covered him with a towel. Seb latched straight way and suckled, and we enjoyed our first moment together skin-to-skin.

When the umbilical cord had turned white Will cut it.

After giving me the oxytocin injection the placenta followed quickly and easily. Our midwife checked it and we had a good look as well. It was amazing to see what had kept our baby alive all these months.

Then it was just the three of us.

At some point our midwife came in to weigh Seb (10lb/4550g) and do my stitches. I used a bit more gas and air for that.

Then I had a cup of tea and some chocolate whilst Will enjoyed his skin-to-skin time.

Since no other birth had come in, we were still the only people at the MLU. The three of us stayed in our own little room for one night before going home the following afternoon.