
I booked a #birthafterthoughts appointment today and it nudged me to look back at the photos from Rory’s birth and decided to share the story of his arrival… Who doesn’t love a good birth story eh?
After a few weeks of frustrating latent labour (which I’d never had with the others) I went for my third sweep at almost 41 weeks at 9:30am. My waters were bulging and I was 1-2cm. The sweep was so painful that I cried and before the end of the appointment I was having very mild contractions, and so was sent up to Day Care to be assessed. They decided I was about 4cm and in labour and admitted me due to the fact that I have had such quick births in the past. After an afternoon of not much happening, a different midwife decided I was actually only 1cm and said that I should be sent home. Not going to lie, I was absolutely fuming, exhausted and tearful. We were all set with our Mums at home with the kids and I’d been back and forth from the hospital for weeks on end with reduced movements, sweeps, extra growth scans, placenta checks…
Basically I was not leaving without a baby 😂
The midwife and ward manager took pity on me and said that the only thing they could do was transfer me to a different hospital (45mins ish away) where they would induce me that evening. It seemed insane but the contractions had almost stopped and so I agreed. As we left the hospital the midwife joked, ‘don’t have the baby in the car now will you?!’
So we called the Mums, grabbed a quick nandos burger (priorities) and set off for the hospital. About 5 mins into the journey I had a really strong contraction. Then another. Then another. You get where this is going.
Mark put his foot down whilst I dealt with the contractions (FYI, don’t recommend a bumpy car journey for labouring) and we arrived at the hospital just after 7pm. They looked at the state of me and seemed utterly confused, “Aren’t you my lady coming here to be induced?!” Errr yes that’s me but no, I appear to be in full labour.