Our Birth Story - finally!

 At 33 weeks (my last update), little one was transverse - sideways across my tummy. We were advised by everyone that saw us not to worry, we had plenty of time for them to turn and it would all be fine, after all only approximately 4% of babies stay in breech and less in transverse.

Well at our 36 week scan baby had turned.. head up! Little Pip was totally in breech now, their little bum was down by my pelvis, slightly off centre to the left and their head tucked up by my right boob resting against his/her placenta, both hands and feet are across my tummy to the right of my belly button. We were referred to the breech clinic at our hospital and advised not to worry, baby still has plenty of time!

At 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant, 7th Dec, baby due in 10 days, we had tried to turn him/her via ECV 4 times, 3 of which with Salbutamol and nu uh! Little one was quite happy where they were. It was time to put a new birth plan in place.

We discussed in depth with the amazing team at our hospital the pros and cons of a breech vaginal birth. Our hospital is one of the leading hospitals for breech research in the country, the head consultant assisted in writing the guidance for the UK on breech births so we feel very much in safe and supported hands. It sounded like something that could really work for us. It is a very hands off approach, no intervention unless you have to move to c section. Breech births tend to be much quicker than head down births but the risk of intervention is that things will slow down so - No epidural, no induction and a 50/50 chance it would end in c section. 

My birth plan had always been to be open minded but ideally I wanted to use hypnobirthing methods and do everything as much by myself as possible so this worked for us. The risk to baby wasn't especially higher than a regular vaginal delivery so this was our new plan.

When I went in to labour I was to give them a call, tell them baby is breech and head in straight away, they'd have a room ready on the side of the theatre and a breech team on standby. The breech team included a obstetrician for me, a paediatric specialist with resuscitaire for baby (just in case - I'm told that breech babies often need a blast of oxygen as they come out a little stunned), two midwives - hopefully one of them being the midwife that assisted in attempting the ECV's  as she was amazing. And a video camera as we had given our permission for our vaginal breech birth to be filmed for training purposes. They would also have a C section team on standby should we need to move to that if things weren't progressing. We were all set with our new plan in place and we were excited!

On the 15th December, 38+6 I was rough, I felt shocking! Killer headache that was so sensitive to the light and my blood pressure was through the roof, we went up to MAU that night, popped us on the monitor and Pip looked great, my blood pressure came down as the evening wore on and they determined it was probably just a migraine and to have a good rest in the dark. My folks  had to race to ours to catch the Tesco guy and popped all our shopping away while we were up at the hospital, nicely organised as ever! Anything to get out of it - I hate that job!

The following morning, the 16th December, I was texting my Mum in the morning still with a stinking headache, I sent an update to say I was 39 weeks pregnant today, baby was the size of a pumpkin and our plan was to stay in bed and get rid of the headache. 

Around 3 that afternoon I was stood in our bedroom texting M but on my way for a wee and I felt a little leak, oh no - that stage of pregnancy - how embarrassing! Went for a wee and once I'd finished the liquid just kept trickling - suspicious! I text M to say "I'm sure I just wet myself but just in case..." as he works 26 miles away. He wanted me to call MAU but I was adamant I didn't need to, there was no pains, no big movie style gush, I'd been up there the day before for a headache I wasn't now going to call them to be told I'd wet myself! Doctor Google told me to lie down for half an hour and if when I got up there was more liquid then it was possibly my waters. Lo and behold! 30 mins later, more liquid, quite a bit more but still not a gush. Clear liquid with a slightly sweet smell, kind of like hay! 

I gave the MAU a call and they suggested we make our way in. As baby was breech nobody was taking any chances. Still no pain other than a bit of back ache but nothing more than I'd had for weeks really, M came home - quick sharp, and we loaded our hospital bags up - just in case, and made our way to the hospital, fully expecting to be sent home to wait. The headache stayed with me, as did the back ache and as the evening wore on some cramping kicked in. The hospital confirmed it was early labour and definitely my waters had broken.

As the evening wore on the pains become more intense and come midnight they were definitely contractions. As baby was breech the hospital advised they would give us approximately 24 hours before the risk of infection to baby means we would need to make a decision about whether to move to C section. At 3am they moved me to a ward, contractions were quite strong and quite regular but sitting around 10 minutes apart. Due to covid they sent M away as he wasn't allowed on the ward. Poor guy had to drive the 12 miles home at 3.30 in the morning whilst petrified that I'd have the baby without him but the hospital were adamant that I wasn't in established labour yet and he would have plenty of time to make it back up, and they were right. He wasn't allowed back until 9 the following morning.

I spent the night in a little side room, on my own, having contractions every 7-12 minutes. The pain was across my back and in to my bum and my bump would go rock solid with each wave. I practiced my breathing techniques, I spent a lot of time rocking on all fours or bent over the bed and hated that I was alone so so much. This was definitely the worse part so far. 

The overnight midwife came in at 7.30 and did her checks, all looked fine, keep going, you're doing great, the doctors will be round later. At dead on 9am M appeared and I could have cried with relief, he arrived at the same time as the consultants. They said we could go and grab some breakfast and then I was to be nil by mouth. If come 3.30/4pm baby hadn't arrived and I wasn't having 3 or more contractions in 10 minutes we would move to C section as this would be safest all round.

After breakfast we spent the day pacing the hospital, bouncing on the exercise ball, giving my boobs a good squeeze and timing contractions - they seemed to be varying, the strength seemed to be getting stronger but the length of time would differ, at one point we were getting strong contractions every 5 minutes and it looked like things were really starting to move, then they would drift apart again and we would go back to every 10 minutes or so - incredibly frustrating. At around 3.30pm we had a good chat with the midwife, she was liaising between us and the consultants and after some lengthy discussion the 3 consultants thought it would be better to move to a C section, this would be less risk to the baby of contracting an infection and hopefully less exhausting for me as it had been 24 hours since my water broke and I had been up all night and all day having contractions.

I distinctly remember once we agreed to move to caesarean asking the midwife when it would happen, expecting them to say later that evening or the next morning and her replying - now, we have a theatre ready for you from 5pm, let's go meet your baby. Both M and I looked at each other, a C section wasn't the plan, it was actually the one thing I had wanted to avoid and new territory to M completely and we couldn't have been more terrified/excited/sad/happy all at the same time. Suddenly after an entire day of waiting we were Go Go Go! All while contracting every few minutes! We rang our parents, text our friends, grabbed all of our stuff and were whisked down to a delivery room. 

Once we got down to delivery we were introduced to our new team, everything was rushed, a cannula was forced in to my hand, we were gowned up, the new team were introduced to us and consent forms signed. I was still contracting every 5 minutes but they weren't progressing any closer together than that and they didn't want to examine me further for risk of introducing infection - and then an emergency was brought in - some poor woman who couldn't wait and we were asked to hang fire as Pip was well and I was coping. Happy to oblige we waited. Both of us a little giddy - stunned we were going to meet baby so soon, nervously anticipating what was to come, trying to think of all the things we hadn't prepared for with a pending caesarean! Laughing over his scrubs and crocs and my sexy compression stockings. A general buzz of excitement sat over both of us.

A couple of hours later, still in the delivery room, still contracting regularly but again not more frequently, I wasn't progressing but Pip was well, they did a staff change and we were introduced to our new team. Our midwives were a young girl - Gemma - who was training from another hospital and an older Irish lady, Patricia/Trish who absolutely was a stern but kind woman, kinda scary but reassuring at the same time, generally lovely people. They came and did my observations and explained another emergency had come in, popped me on the monitor again to check babies heart rate and my contractions, all looked fab, just keep going, they'll have us in as quickly as they can. By this point it was late, I hadn't eaten or drank anything in over 12 hours, I had been contracting for more than a full day and I was starting to struggle, M was absolutely my rock - stroking my hair, rubbing my back, helping me pee - which I did a lot, holding the wireless monitors in place so I could stand, walk and be on all fours, reminding me how to breathe, calming my panicky moments - I couldn't have asked for a better support and then it was time...

Through in to theatre, the coldest, whitest room, M gasped at the realisation this was the room his first born was born - they didn't need to go to C section for her luckily. M was ushered in to a seat in the corner, I was ushered to a bench seat in the middle and suddenly there were people everywhere. The vein in my hand had blown and I needed a new cannula putting in, Trish was running the show and pointing several different people in several different directions. Wires were being added to me, needles put in, solution on my back to clean for the spinal block and I felt the panic start to rise, there was lots going on and while everyone was nice it was a lot to take.

 I looked at M in the corner and he had my eye, too far away to talk at that point he gestured to remind me deep breaths, blew a kiss, cheeky wink - it was all ok. The younger midwife Gemma knelt in front of me too to hold the monitors in place and must have seen the tears brimming, she was great, I can't tell you what wonderful, kind, reassuring things she said exactly but I did calm down, got my breath back and everything seemed to slow to a more manageable pace. I was introduced to everyone and the excitement came back, and a huge dose of adrenaline and fear - we were all getting ready to meet our baby. We agreed that M would tell me what we had and they would drop the curtain to show us him/her, and if possible bring Pip to my chest immediately for skin to skin and delayed cord clamping then for M to cut the cord. Our anaesthetist Sam was the kindest woman, she talked me through the spinal tap as she was doing it, paused to allow me to have the contractions and they held me in position to keep me still. Once I was laid down they brought M over to my head and Sam did a role call where everyone was introduced to us and their role in the procedure and she assured me she was with me, at my head and would keep us up to date at every stage. The operation would take approximately an hour and baby should be out in first 10-15 minutes. I would feel lots of tugging and movement but no pain. She took M's phone and said she would take care of pictures so M didn't have to worry about that, M had my hand and they made a start. A very young girl was cleaning my belly, I couldn't feel a thing but she had the kindest face - then the doctors stepped up and they began, Sam was chatting to me, talking me through bits, talking about what they were doing and also entirely unrelated things - keeping us level and calm, explaining the different noises and beeps. I felt the oddest sensations like being tugged at and pulled and then the sort of feeling you get when you go over a hill too fast, the curtain was lowered and baby was here, "It's a girl!" said M in the most choked voice "Ez we have a girl" - 10 weeks on I can see her and hear him perfectly. The tears were flowing from both of us.

It gets a little blurry for me from there, baby wasn't brought to me, Trish brought baby straight to the resuscitaire, she hadn't cried yet, it may have been only moments but felt like a lifetime, and then the quietest of cries filled the room, it felt like everybody took a breath, they brought M over to her, this tiny little thing with her legs up by her chest as is common with breech babies, they were rubbing her down and she went a little blue so they popped the oxygen mask on her. I was still on the table and felt the most distinct tugging and pushing up under my ribs which Sam explained was perfectly normal and they told me later was them putting everything back in - gross! 

I had turned my head as much as possible and could just about see where people were stood but not what was happening, Sam was telling me that all was ok, just baby a little stunned. I heard the words placenta and Trish bringing M to look at something (there was 2, and pretty poor condition, she really is a miracle but that's another story) and a few minutes later the word thumb a lot, I asked what was happening and a lady on her way past - I was pretty drugged so not sure who exactly said "Oh not to worry - everything is fine she just has two thumbs on one hand" - sorry what! 

Next thing you know, M was back at my side and Gemma balanced her on my chest, the most perfect little scrap with the biggest, darkest eyes and a scrunched up little face - the tears poured, our baby, our beautiful little girl, was here and well and I was just totally in awe of our little daughter.

Eleanor - born 17th December 2021 weighing 5 pounds 14 and three quarter ounces.