Lydia’s Birth Story

I’m sitting in my hospital bed reflecting on my pregnancy and wanted to say thank you so much for your help and advice. 

I ended up developing pre eclampsia and have decided to go for a c section (hopefully later today!). As you can imagine, this was not in my birth plan at all, and after an otherwise straightforward pregnancy, it’s been an adjustment to being considered more high risk and to letting go of my hopes to give birth on the birth centre. 

I only found out I had high BP at the 37 week routine midwife app, where it was recommended I go straight to the hospital for further monitoring. That was on Thursday morning and since then I’ve been in hospital receiving lots of attention, but with the pre eclampsia continuing to develop and have a greater effect on my body. Blood tests revealed that it had started to cause damage to my kidneys and therefore it meant that early delivery of the baby at 38 weeks was best.  I found the BRAIN tool that we ran through with you to be so helpful when working through the options available to me and to making decisions that suited me best. 

At times it’s been a bit scary, especially being on the pre natal ward with other women at varying stages of labour and in different levels of pain. But having a greater understanding of what’s going on has helped make it seem less daunting. 

I’ve also found the info you provided on the course and your own positive c section story to be really reassuring when I was choosing between induction and c section. It helped to break the decision down into steps. I had a scan to determine if the baby’s head was in the pelvis, and a vaginal examination to determine if my body was preparing for labour at all. Knowing about things like the bishops score, and the changes that need to start happening on the cervix was really helpful. It transpired that although the baby is head down, I was 0 on the bishops score with a very tight and closed and long cervix – with this info I decided that an induction would likely be a long and stressful event as at 38 weeks my body and baby was clearly not ready for labour.

As a result, choosing a c section seemed like the sensible option that would put my body under less stress. I was therefore able to decline the option of Propess, and instead go straight for a c section. Although I’m disappointed not to be able to experience what it’s like to go into labour, I think the prospect of a long and painful induction makes me feel I’ve made the right decision for both of us. BRAIN was so helpful in this decision as it can be difficult to have conviction when discussing with senior doctors – its quite daunting speaking to them! 

Who knows what the next day holds in store, but I feel so much more confident knowing that you’ve had a successful and positive c section experience and after having learnt so much more about my body and labour during your course. You are a wonderful and caring person and this shines through in the course.

The attention to detail and structure each week made the 2.5 hrs fly by and helped the huge amount of info feel manageable. I also really appreciated the catch up call, which was a great help to run through the birth plan (even though I didn’t end up using it)! I’m going to make sure that delayed cord clamping is requested for as long as possible and feel more prepared for the surgery thanks to your preparation. 

I would highly recommend your course to anyone. My experience has made me realise that you just can’t plan for birth and going with the flow is the best strategy – for a control freak like me, this has been made much easier with the knowledge and confidence your course provides. 

Thank you so much Esme, you are wonderful!!