"The birth of my first child"

I went in to QMC to be induced on in the middle of July and the pessary did very little for the first 24 hours. Once it was removed contractions began but when I was taken to the delivery suite on Thurs night it all stopped! By Fri morning (term plus 14 days) the doctor decided to break my waters at 3cms and put me on the IV drip to kick start labour.

Paracetamol and a Swiss ball got me through the first part, it was difficult being hooked up to monitors and the IV drip. After 4cms and intense contractions I used gas and air and I was 8cms by 6: 30 pm and soon had a diamorphine injection to help with the contractions.

Midwife suggested I tried a push to see what happened at about 8pm and at 10: 02 I managed a normal delivery! They helped me see and feel his head coming out which was incredible, we had skin to skin straight away, husband cut the cord and after the injection the placenta was delivered. I also needed a suture for a small tear.

It all went a little wrong then when after a feed my baby was sick bright green bile. Within 30 mins he was admitted to Neo natal ICU so next time we saw him he was in an incubator with various wires and tube hooked up to him. Really scary stuff but staff were fantastic, they thought it might be an infection so he had antibiotics but also needed an abdominal trace to rule out twisted intestine.

Even though I could see him whenever I liked it was pretty rough going and we found feeding tricky as I couldn't breastfeed him until Sunday. Fortunately though, he was given a clean bill of health and we were discharged late on Monday night.