Emily & Baby George
My Birth Story – 3rd December 2020
I woke at around 7am feeling excited for my penultimate day at work. Twenty minutes later, lying in bed and scrolling through my phone, I felt a pop and shot out of bed to discover my waters had broken. After calling the hospital I went downstairs to make some breakfast reminding myself how important it is to rest and eat well in the early stages. I didn’t manage to finish my toast before my contractions started, they were intense and fairly close together from the start. I used the 5,4,3,2,1 breath lots to keep my body relaxed and after a quick check in with Caron I decided to trust my instincts and get myself to hospital; in my mind it felt like things were progressing pretty quickly. I called mum to get me over to the hospital, Elliott was still miles away working and now desperately trying to get home! I played the wise hippo music on the way to the hospital and asked mum to distract me in between contractions with talk about Christmas! Arriving at Lister I was sent to triage and asked to sit in the waiting room; by this point I was feeling lots of downward pressure so, as politely as possible, I explained that I didn’t think I could face the waiting room! So, a few minutes later I found myself hooked up to the monitor to check on baby, I lasted 15 minutes before I pushed for an examination; now very convinced that I was quite far along. At 10.20 I was 5cm dilatated and taken to my private room. I just had time to grab and position my anchors board and get my room spray out in between contractions. Elliott was still trying to get back and mum didn’t know her way around the bags let alone how to connect my phone to the Bluetooth speaker! I found a ‘comfortable’ position kneeling on the bed and alternating between sitting back on my heels with mum behind me for support and leaning forwards onto the head of the bed. It wasn’t long before I got the urge to push, again I trusted my instincts and my body and did exactly that! I kept my focus on my anchors board as a constant reminder to breathe through the contractions and get back to my relaxing place in between. George arrived just after midday at 12.28 weighing 7lb 11. His speedy arrival sadly meant that Elliott arrived just as I had cut the cord and George was being wrapped up ready to meet his Dad. Despite being naturally sad that Elliott hadn’t been able to experience it all with me I look back on the day with fondest of memories, filled with pride and pure amazement at how I delivered my beautiful baby boy into the world.
