Just wanted to share my story in case it helps someone else...
I had a very straightforward pregnancy, all my checkups and monitoring were fine. I did get pelvic girdle pain in the 3rd trimester, and was pretty miserable with it by the last few weeks. On my due date, I was offered a sweep, which I accepted as I was ready to not be pregnant any more.
Nothing happened the next day, but two days later I started to produce a lot of mucus (which I think was my show). I also noticed that my baby's movement was less vigorous. The baby was still moving, but where previously this had made my belly visibly shift, now I had to concentrate to feel the movement. I tried drinking a pint of cold water, eating a sugary snack, lying on my left side, and even sat next to my husband using the hammer drill to see if the noise would stir baby up, but there was no change. Although I thought I was probably worrying about nothing, I decided to go to be checked over. We had a CTG which was completely normal, and the baby did a couple of proper kicks while I was on it, so I was reassured and went home. The midwives at the hospital were lovely and reassuring, and said I should never hesitate to come in if I was concerned again.
Through the night I had a constant pain in my back, which started to be intermittent by the early morning. I wondered if it might be contractions, so phoned up for advice about 7.30am. The midwife asked about the baby's movement, and I explained it was just the same as the day before, but not as vigorous as previously. She said we might as well come back to be monitored again. By the time we got to hospital, at 8.30 my back pain was definitely coming in waves and so I was pretty sure this was early labour. The midwives clearly thought I was an over-cautious first-timer, and I fully expected to be sent home after the CTG, and told not to come back for several hours when labour had progressed.
This time though, the mood changed as soon as they put on the monitor. The baby's heartrate was slowing down too much in between contractions, and a consultant was called for advice. They decided that I was definitely in labour, and should have my waters broken to see if this would help the baby's heartbeat recover. I was taken to labour ward, and had my waters broken but this actually made the heartbeat even worse. The consultant was called back, and she advised that I have an immediate emergency caesarian under General Anaesthetic. I agreed because I knew that general anaesthetic is only suggested when it is too urgent to wait for a spinal anaesthetic. They started to prepare for theatre, when I felt a strong pressure low down in my pelvis. The consultant re-examined me and found I was 8cm dilated so decided to do an episiotomy and ventous delivery instead. My baby was born less than 2 1/2 hours after I'd arrived at the hospital, in a room full of midwives, obstetrician, paediatrician etc, all ready to resuscitate him. Thankfully as soon as he was born, he recovered and he didn't need any support at all.
During the third stage, the cord snapped off and the placenta came out in bits. It turned out that we had Velamentous placenta, which makes the cord very susceptible to compression from contractions, and has a high rate of stillbirth.
My beautiful baby boy is perfectly healthy. If we had stayed home for a few more hours it could have been very different. I just wanted to repeat the advice from the Kicks Count campaign. Babies' movements do not slow down at the end of pregnancy, and any reduction should be checked over by a midwife. I genuinely think that we had a narrow escape, and hate to think someone else might not be so fortunate.