Charlotte attended my pregnancy yoga classes in Dartford through her first pregnancy. She went on to have a straight forward ‘land’ birth at Darent Valley birth centre.
Our daughter, Eleanor, was born on the 19th June at 12:14pm, her weight was 7 pounds 12 ounces, at 39 weeks and 4 days gestation. We are all doing well and enjoying being parents. So far, Eleanor has been a dream and little angel and we are so in love with her. Thank you very much for the pregnancy yoga classes in Dartford, and all the support and useful information you share during these classes. I don’t think I would have got through pregnancy without them.
As a healthy, first time Mum, my pregnancy was originally low risk – until I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Because of this, and baby’s tummy measuring large, I was told that I would not be able to birth at Darent Valley birth centre as planned. Instead I would have to go to the delivery suite.
Then, later in my pregnancy, baby’s tummy was back to measuring ‘normal size’ and I was told that the risk of her shoulders getting stuck was now low, so I could go to the birth centre after all.
For my baby shower, we did prediction cards and Luke predicted the 18th June that I would go into labour/Eleanor would be here, and I was going to predict that date too but I changed my mind and put the 16th instead.
Well on the 18th of June at around 11pm, we were in bed laughing and joking about how wrong we were with the date. Then Luke went to sleep and I was up for a bit playing on my phone. Then at 11:45pm my waters broke whilst I was in bed. I woke Luke up and we phoned tambootie ward at Darent Valley Hospital and they said to come in to check if it was my waters.
I showered, made sure we had everything in the hospital bags quickly (by checking the check list we had as Luke had packed them weeks before) and then we left the house. We got to the hospital at about 1am and they confirmed that my waters had broken. They did loads of tests on me and the baby and said to go back home and to come back when my contractions were 3-4 in 10 minutes and 1 minute long. If the contractions hadn’t started they said to come back in at 10pm on the 19th for an induction.
On the way home my contractions started and when we got home Luke put my tens machine on for me and I had the contraction app as well. The contractions app flashed up on my phone telling me to go to the hospital, we were literally only back for 30 mins at the most so I got annoyed with the app and threw my phone and said stupid app.
Luke was also keeping an eye on the contractions on the tens machine and apparently he thought to himself that the contractions are getting pretty close together and that he should probably phone the hospital. He phoned the hospital and they said to come back in.
When we got there they said I was 3cm dilated, so I was a little defeated by that as I wasn’t in active labour yet but in a lot of pain. I asked for Pethidine and got put into a room and given this but it unfortunately did nothing for me pain wise, and didn’t even make me feel sleepy. I kept to my tens machine and breathing while we were in that room.
At 7:25am I was 6cm and being transferred to the birth centre which was part of my birth plan. I was incredibly happy that I was listened to and able to do part of my birth plan. I was asked what pain relief I wanted after the pethidine didn’t work and I said to try a bath and gas and air.
I tried gas and air first and it helped straight away. I decided not to use the birthing pool as the room was so hot that I didn’t want to get in to hot water, I also couldn’t get in the water until the pethidine had worn off. This was fine for me as I didn’t want to birth in the pool, as I wanted skin to skin contact laying down on a bed. I also knew I didn’t want an epidural as I have a phobia of needles, so carried on with just gas and air. Towards the end gas and air wasn’t doing too much as pain relief, but was helping me along with the pregnancy yoga moves, as well as Luke and a student midwife helping me to breathe properly.
I couldn’t wee for some reason so had to have my bladder drained twice – once during labour and the other time when I was trying to push my placenta out.
The first stage of active labour took 4 hours and pushing Eleanor out took 49 mins. So less than five hours over all.
I had a second degree tear because her little hand was stuck underneath her chin but other than that there were no complications. We have a few scan photos with her hand there so I guess I should have known that’s how she would come out. The midwife said if her hand wasn’t stuck then I probably wouldn’t have been torn.
It took 43 mins to get my placenta out, it wasn’t part of my birth plan to use the injection but things change. So all in all it was 12 hours and 30 mins from my waters going until birth. The midwife said that I practically breathed Eleanor out! And that if I should have a second baby that I would need to go to the hospital straight away and not wait around, as I had the first one pretty quickly.
Thank you so much again for all your help, I will definitely be at mum and baby yoga with Eleanor soon.
