My Childbirth Story preterm labour
I thought I would share my preterm labour story. Going into preterm labour can feel super scary and you have to deal with weeks or months of life in NICU. I just want to share my story so anyone that gives birth early knows they aren’t alone because it is a tough journey.
Waters breaking
My nephews were with us for the entire day. We took them home about 8/9 p.m. and then once we got back home, we got in bed and watched an episode of Band of Brothers.
Jokingly, I said to Bill, imagine if we didn’t tell anyone about our birth and just surprised everyone. Then I turned over to go to sleep when all of a sudden, I felt the baby kick, and I felt a weird pop when all of a sudden, a massive gush of water came out of me, and Bill woke up to me shouting ‘no no!’ at first I panicked and thought it was blood, but it wasn’t. This was around 11:30pm.
The frantic rush to the hospital
I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom, then ran downstairs. Still, in a panic, I ran all over the house while more fluid continued to come out. It was like something out of a movie, I had never witnessed anything like this with my sisters, and I’d been with them both when they had given birth.
We jumped in the car and phoned the hospital. I was so panicked that I phoned my big sister to tell her what was happening. She reassured me, telling me to ‘not worry until there’s something to worry about.’ As we were arriving at the hospital, I lost even more water all over the car seat. I was basically sitting in a puddle! I was absolutely petrified never did I think I would be going into preterm labour!
Arriving at the hospital
We arrived at the hospital, and I got taken straight in. They put me on a monitor. They reassured me and said this kind of thing happens, and it’s nothing they haven’t seen before. I would have to stay in the hospital overnight and would be given medication to prevent labour. I should leave in the morning, but I would have to have weekly checkups. They did a cervix check and confirmed my cervix was closed, so labour didn’t look like preterm labour was happening, which was a good thing.
They took me to a ward, so Bill had to leave (he really didn’t want to. We were both upset and a bit scared). He left me around 4am with an overnight bag. After he had gone home, I started having bad cramping pains, and by 5am, they were getting worse and worse and almost unbearable.
Am I having contractions?
I buzzed the buzzer a few times to explain to the nurse how in pain I was. One of the midwives wasn’t taking me that seriously. She didn’t think they were contractions. Luckily, another midwife came and saw me, the one who saw me as I arrived earlier that night; she got me a birthing ball and was rubbing my back. I tried to sit on the birthing ball, but it was uncomfortable and felt like I was sitting on something. I told her I felt like I needed to push to stop the pain, which is when she gave me a concerned look.
She went and got me a wheelchair and told me to phone bill, so I did. Then I turned to her and said sorry, why am I phoning Bill? And she said, ‘Just tell him to meet us at the delivery suite, room 8’. 🤯
He’d just about fallen asleep, and I woke him up to tell him to come down to the delivery site, so as you can imagine, it was all a bit scary. How terrifying must that have been for him?! He rushed to the hospital and made it in about 15 minutes.
While waiting for him to arrive, I got wheeled to the delivery suite. It was like the Santa Clause 3 intro (iykyk). There were so many nurses and midwives in the suite already. They introduced themselves, but I couldn’t remember anyone’s name. I was so scared. I always had childbirth as the biggest fear in my life, and I was so afraid to do a ‘natural’ birth, and I desperately wanted a c-section.
Active Labour
All of the midwife team were great. They were getting everything prepped. I was so scared Bill wouldn’t make it. I had every worst-case scenario buzzing around my head. What if something happened to me, and the baby got taken away? What if something happened to the baby and he didn’t get to meet him? But he did, and he made it in time! He held my hand and helped the midwives amongst the chaos (he’d be a great midwife 😂) .
As I was only 31 weeks pregnant, I needed medication on an IV to help the baby’s lungs. My body was already pushing, and I needed to stop pushing for the medicines to reach the baby. I tried my hardest to stop pushing, and I was breathing through the contractions, but it was so hard. It is true when people say your body takes over and pushes for you!
I was so scared that so many people were in the room, but they were all encouraging. Telling me how well I was doing. Bill was saying he was proud of me. I was trying to breathe and listen to the midwives, and I remember how painful it was. It felt like it was hard to push him out, but Bill said I did it in 2-3 pushes!
The Big Push
Apparently, I said, I can’t do it, and the midwife said yes, you can!, and I just went for it 😅 I did one big push and got him half out, and then I kept pushing and breathing, and the rest of him came out. He let out a big cry, and I looked up at Bill. His eyes were full of tears. It made me so emotional and so relieved.
It broke my heart to not have skin-to-skin straight away, but he had to be looked after because he was so small; while they were helping him with oxygen and things, I had to give birth to the placenta, which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought I was so scared about it, but it ended up being fine. I barely felt anything. She then told me I had a small tear, so she stitched me up and put a catheter in; by that point, I didn’t bother having anything numbed; I did the entire birth unmedicated, and I didn’t have any pain relief at all. I had a little bit of gas and air during the stitches, but I stopped because it made my mouth so dry!
They let me have a quick kiss and cuddle with Bobby before he went, and they snapped a quick photo, but it was so fast that it felt horrible not having him with me. I was still in such shock at what my body just did, and I ended up getting through my biggest fear—my baby was here so early!
NICU
They brought round tea and toast, and I felt tingly everywhere. I managed to have a shower 2 hours after birth, and Bill got me some food, and I got to visit Bobby in his NICU, which was out of the maternity ward and down the hall; he was in a little incubator, so tiny and so cute, he looked so fragile.
What was happening didn’t quite hit me until I saw him all wired up. I don’t know what I thought happened with premature babies or preterm labour I knew they stayed in an incubator, but I wasn’t expecting so many wires and needles in him.
When we got back from the NICU, we were moved to the maternity ward, which was hard because we were the only ones who walked in without a baby. All the new mums had their babies in cots next to them, and I struggled with that. Our midwife ended up getting us our own room with our own bathroom and TV so we could settle without seeing other families, which I was so grateful for.
We went down to see him again for a few hours, and we managed to get some skin-to-skin finally 💛
He felt like velvet. Everything was so soft and precious. All the levels on the monitor, heart rate, breathing, etc., got better when he was lying on me, which made me feel so good. It shows how vital skin-to-skin is, even if it is delayed.
He’s so sweet, and we are besotted by him; welcome to the world, little Bobby. 💛💛💛
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♡