A Tale of Two Birth Stories

I have shared both of my birth stories separately on the blog before, but I am going to talk about them again as they are pretty unique. It will be interesting to see if any of you have had similar experiences. Having had two children I have not had a single contraction! Yes, you read that correctly. No contractions. Here is how it all happened.

With my first born, I was overdue by three days when I was scheduled in to have a midwife checkup. I waddled down to the doctors as luckily it was only down the road. Only to be told that there was no midwife as she was helping at a home birth, so I wouldn’t be having an appointment. I had got myself pretty worked up about it as when you’re overdue, you pretty much want to see some signs of anything happening. I thought I might have had a sweep or be checked to see if I was dilated any. I was upset and called my husband and my mum. My mum was the more forceful one (as neither my husband and I knew what to expect), and she insisted that I went to hospital to be checked over. So I put my hospital bag in the boot and and got in the car.

I was seen quite quickly at the hospital and they did the standard checks. Then I was put on the monitor so they could listen to the baby’s heart beat. The thing is, they couldn’t rally find one. I was beside myself. Then they did, but it started dropping quite dramatically. So after a phone call to my husband to get him to hospital as soon as possible, I was prepped and ready for an emergency c-section in theatre. Within a couple of hours of taking myself off to hospital, I was holding my baby in my arms. I was so glad I listened to my mum and went to be checked at the hospital, as you just never know.

Luckily, we didn’t need to look into making any medical negligence claims but I dread to think what would have happened if I hadn’t gone to the hospital that day. It doesn’t bear thinking about. Interestingly, the fourth most common reason for a claim with the NHS is a maternity case.

With my second pregnancy all things were going fairly well until the last ten weeks of my pregnancy. My amniotic fluid levels kept being measured as quite low, and they were concerned that her growth wasn’t going to be too big. So I was closely monitored for those last weeks with regular scans and growth measurement appointments. In the end, things kind of tailed off so they didn’t take much action with anything really. I was all left a little confused, as I was told another section might be the best idea. Then the next week told I’d be fine to try for a VBAC but it might still end up in a section. So like around 25% of other women, I found that I wasn’t really included in the decisions about my care, and even until the last minute, I had no idea what the consultant was actually recommending.

I was a week overdue and scheduled in to be induced or to have a c-section. That is literally what they wrote in the calendar as they didn’t know. In the end, I decided to choose an elective section as I got a bit fed up of being passed from pillar to post. It turns out that I hadn’t healed very well from the previous section so another section was the right decision after all (a VBAC would have pretty much led to an emergency section so I was told after the fact).

So there you have it, two quite different, but still kind of similar stories about how my two came into the world. Both felt quite rushed and panicky – the first because of medical issues, and the second because no-one seemed to want to make a decision. But I’ve got two beautiful children that are healthy and well.

Have you had any similar experiences when you were expecting your children? I find hearing about other people’s experiences so fascinating!

*collaborative post