I had my boy 2 weeks ago tomorrow and had an amazing induction experience 💗
I have always been into positive thinking and mindset so would recommend The Positive Birth Company digital pack as it’s super insightful & informative amongst other things which I believe helped me during the labour and delivery :)
I’d had a few episodes of reduced movement with baby during the pregnancy and Thursday was the 5th time I had been in. After being checked and monitored the consultant advised we should go ahead with the induction if I felt comfortable doing so since I’d had so many episodes.
I felt it was the right thing to do and I was almost at 38 weeks so quite in the safe zone if there ever is one!
Went home & packed my bags and hubby came in with me.
They put the pessary in at 8:30pm right before hubby left and shortly after, I felt changes in my body ie the cramping started from back to front.
As it’s my first time I didn’t know what was going on but thought yeah this is probably the surges / contractions!
Come midnight I requested pain relief - wanted to keep it minimal so had paracetamol. Around 4am I could feel the surges or contractions getting stronger and more frequent and was given a form of codeine which helped.
Come morning time the surges or contractions were definately more but still manageable.
I was monitored again at around 9am and the pulse rate was scatty still for baby and myself.
The doctors were in with nurses etc and they did another cervix check and was advised it’s best to remove the pessary as the surges were coming in frequently but not consistently.
This was the worst part of the whole process - cervix being checked whilst having surges- not going to lie I was in tears during this.
As soon as the pessary was out, I was taken downstairs to the delivery suite.
Queue the gas and air! Oh my god it was heaven as soon as I was on this 😂 I could have a proper conversation between surges! It was funny 😂
Turns out I was already at 6cm dilated.
They said they’ll observe me after 4 hours - I laughed and said there’s no way the baby will still be in me in 4 hours 😂 just knew it from the way I was feeling. Amazing what your body knows!
Shortly after, my waters were broken by docs & it felt amazing 😂 I remember saying to hubby and midwife ‘OMG this feels amazing I feel so light’!
Soon as waters were gone they did more checks and I got off the bed and was moving around using the exercise ball on the bed to lean on and get me through the surges. Yoga really helped me through pregnancy and the exercise ball was absolutely the best thing ever during labour too! I used it on the bed to lean forward onto. Baby had been head down since 20 weeks or so 💗
I can’t explain how important breathing techniques are during the surges. Upbreathing and downbreathing was absolutely what got me through it all!
Soon as the waters had gone the surges were more intense of course as there’s no barrier.
Shortly after, my body was telling me to get the baby out - midwife had to of course do the checks to make sure it was time and I was right into it!
There was a few surges I had to breathe through and not breathe baby out which was challenging to control because my body was saying ‘let the baby out’ but soon as the midwife gave me the ok - my god the surges and breathing the baby out felt amazing!
I was on gas & air through the whole thing although doc offered pain relief I almost said yes to pethadine but my midwife said you don’t need it you’re doing amazing - this greatly helped me stay focussed and I passed on pthadine and stuck to gas & air.
The baby came into the world around 2pm so 1.5 hrs from being taken to delivery suite. I literally squatted him out and he almost went flying into the floor - thankfully midwife was ready and waiting 😂
I’ve had stitches but to be honest by that point you’re like ‘whatever I just breathed a baby out so do what you want 😂’
Honestly trust that your body is capable and knows exactly what to do and you will be fine.
Wishing you all the best for your labour and delivery 💗