#labouranddelivery

February 28, 2022 We got the wonderful surprise welcoming our little boy into the world Everyone meet Kove🤍 Full birth vlog is up on my YouTube channel Link in the bio🤍 #birthvlog #labouranddelivery https://www.instagram.com/p/CaswCvSuBWg/?utm_medium=tumblr

What is labour support all about? Ask us. Tell us. #thedoulagroup #bucketsoflove #duedatemonth #pregnant #labouranddelivery #maternity #motherhood #fatherhood #parenthood #parenting #parentinglife (at Toronto, Ontario) https://www.instagram.com/p/CO_sEbQgyaq/?utm_medium=tumblr

The journey to bring forth a life is not an easy one. From first trimester sickness to third trimester discomforts, you'll totally forget what it feels like to be all right. Labour is the peak of it, as birthing the baby is an experience you'll live to tell. And after going through all that, guess who gets all the credit and attention? Yeah. The baby. The moment they're born, it's all about them. Oddly enough, they even get yours. Am I the only one that thinks so? #childbirth #labouranddelivery #labor #pregnancy #momblog #momlife #momlifequotes #mum #mom #momblogger #momsofinstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CFJ7xu4h1-I/?igshid=1wk1c24pxfew7

Still going... #givingbirth #labouranddelivery (at Fiona Stanley Hospital) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBmmomQDJRk/?igshid=52hfibh74ced

Would any of these be on your list?....Ring of fire springs to mind! 😂 . . . . . #labouranddelivery #givingbirth #music #nubtheory #12weekscan #firstultrasound #firstscan #12weekspregnant #boyorgirl #thenubtechs https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz010ufn28Y/?igshid=51f1e6uvilbr

My Natural Home Birth- Labour Without Medication Or Intervention http://thecrunchycanuck.com/my-natural-home-birth-story/ #birth #naturalbirth #babytime #mystory #ourdaughter #motherhood #nopainmeds #vaginaldelivery #labour #labouranddelivery #givingbirth #goddess #womanhood #primalscream #primal #vaginalbirth

**Disclaimer - I'm gonna be completely honest in this post, therefore some of it may be TMI, apologies if this causes offence to anyone reading..** Sit back and make yourself a drink, get a snack and relax, cause this is gonna be a long one. This is something I've wanted to write about for a long long time now, much because when pregnant I was obsessed with reading about and watching video's on YouTube of other people's experiences, and much because I want to look back and revisit this when it all isn't so fresh in my memory, so here it goes.. here is my labour and delivery story! So I'll start of with a bit of background about my pregnancy seeing as though I have started this blog late and didn't document anything to do with my pregnancy (gutted!). At 20 weeks pregnant I found out that I had a "low lying placenta", this came about because I had started bleeding, quite a lot actually and it had tiny clots in it, fearing the worst I went straight to Maternity Triage at Walsall Manor Hospital, had a Speculum examination (which was absolutely horrid) to try and find out where the bleeding was coming from - luckily they had hooked me up to the monitors and they had found her heartbeat straight away, which reassured me and made me stop panicking as much as I was! anyway after the examination was carried out they decided to admit me onto a ward and keep an eye on me and the bleeding and that my 20 week scan should be pushed forward so that they could see where about the placenta was. The staff on the ward were amazing and the next day I was taken down for a scan, and it was confirmed that I infact did have a low lying placenta which had caused the bleed. I was told that it would move up as my stomach grew, but if it didn't I would have to have a C-section. I was booked for a re scan at 36 weeks to see if there had been any change. There was good news at this scan though! I also found out that I was gonna have a baby girl! (For anyone that may be unaware of what a low lying placenta is - I didn't until I knew I had one! It's when baby lays on top of the placenta, when it should be surrounding baby, it means that if you were to try and give birth vaginally, the placenta would come out first. Which can cause a lot of problems for both you and baby) After about 2 days the bleeding completely stopped and on day 3 I was discharged to go home, I couldn't stop thinking that I could possibly have to have a C-section and it scared the living day lights out of me, I spent hours upon hours reading and watching YouTube videos about it, and more to the point - the recovery from having one and eventually I came round to the idea, although I was hoping and praying that I would be able to have a vaginal birth. Fast forward a few weeks and it was time for me to have my 36 week growth scan and luckily my placenta had moved up and was no longer an issue, I was so relieved that I would have the option of a natural birth - not that there's anything wrong with C-sections, the idea just scared me quite a lot! Onto the actual labour and delivery bit now! (If you've read this far, thank you! its actually taken me about 2 hours to write this far as I've just settled baby for a nap. She's now in her Mothercare loved so much sit me up cosy dozing away). Anyway.. at 40 weeks, I was booked for a sweep at home with my midwife. I should mention at this point that I had been recommended to start taking Raspberry Leaf tablets from Holland and Barret by a friend, you can take them from 30 weeks but I didn't start until after I found out what was happening with my placenta - so 36 weeks - They're not meant to bring on labour but the aim of them is to help your cervix and strengthen everything in that area, to make for a quicker labour/delivery and also help afterwards. My midwife came and explained what a sweep was and did all of her normal checks for 40 weeks, she said that my cervix wasn't doing much and she was going to try and bring it forward as it was still quite prosterior. I will be honest I was starting to give up at this stage, I genuinely believed I was going to be pregnant forever and I would never go into labour by myself. After the sweep I had a tiny bleed which she did tell me to expect, but nothing else really happened after that. I was booked for another sweep a week later, on a Monday and she told me I would also be booked to be induced if nothing had happened by then, I was so ready to have this baby that by this point I didn't care if i was sectioned, induced or what - I just wanted her here! the day before my second sweep I started to have a few niggly pains, I was unsure wether they were the beginning of contractions as I had never experienced them before so I wasn't too sure if I should be excited or not, I had a bath and went to bed and by morning they had stopped, but I had a lot of pressure down below, but today was the day of my second sweep and I was genuinely excited for it, if the sweep didn't work I knew I would have a day that I had to get to where they would start helping me along. She started the sweep and I remember her telling me that there was a massive difference from last time - she said that I had dilated to 2 cm and my cervix had started to thin out, and that the pains I had the night before were things going in the right direction and obviously had started things off, I was booked for my induction that day too and off I went, happy as larry that things had started to progress, even though it was only 2 cm it gave me the boost I needed. I live by myself as I don't have a partner - that's another story for another day - so the last thing I wanted was for something to happen early hours of the morning and for me to be alone and to not know what to do, so I asked my dad if he would mind coming up and staying on the sofa over night just incase - and I'm so SO glad I did. Around 7:30pm I started to have a few pains again but they were irregular, as time went on I noticed them more and they became consistent and strong, I had an app on my phone that could time contractions so I started using it and it worked out that my contractions were about 7 minutes apart lasting 45-60 seconds each. I went to bed and expected them to subside again, but they didn't - they were getting stronger by contraction and at 12am I rang the maternity ward. I was told it was too early for me to go in and that I should wait till they were 3-4 minutes apart and to have a warm bath and a paracetamol for the mean time. Which I thought was ridiculous by the way as a paracetamol barely gets rid of a headache! I did as she said and ran myself a bath, the water was honestly the best most soothing ever and if I was to ever have any more babies I would 100% consider a water birth. It was like I was in a massive hot water bottle lol! Whilst in the bath the pains eased and kind of slowed down which led me to believe it was another false alarm, so I got out of the bath - well attempted - I had one leg out of the bath and I had a contraction, and it was stronger than the ones I had before I got in, I then had a "bloody show" and from then onwards the contractions were back to back and very strong. I told my dad to ring the ward back as by this point I was leaning over the bed crying, barely able to string a sentence together and I heard the lady on the phone say to bring me up but they "may have to send me home" which really annoyed me. Its like you almost have to be pushing before they'll see you, which funnily enough was basically my case. We waited for my aunt to pick us up and take us in which felt like forever, I threw up and I couldn't sit down, with every contraction I was lifting myself off of the seat in the car. When we got there, it was around 3:15 am.. there was a random wheelchair outside which my aunt grabbed and sat me in to wheel me down to Triage. There was two rooms opposite eachother that were "assessment rooms" and then some double doors leading to the delivery rooms. I remember clinging on to my birthing partner - my good friends arm and telling her I felt like I needed to push, it felt like everything around me was just going too slow and I needed them to see me NOW! the midwife came to me and told me she was just going to take me to be assessed to which my reply was "No, I need to push" and I think she could tell by the way I was reacting to each pain that I wasn't over exaggerating, she took me into Delivery Room 5 and gave me a gown to put on, she checked me and told me I was 5 cm dilated and my cervix had completely thinned out, she offered me gas and air which I didn't like at all - it didn't do anything for me whatsoever except for make me giggle and go a little light headed, it came in handy for pushing though, purely to bite down on! every contraction I had I felt like the only relief I was going to get was if I pushed, there was so much pressure that my body just started to do it itself.. it's amazing what your body can do isn't it? The midwife looking after me told me she was going out of the room to get something and if I needed her to just press the buzzer, the second she left the room I had another contraction and found myself trying to push, so I pressed the buzzer and she came back in, she was amazing - she really listened to me and encouraged me to keep going. She checked me again and pressed the orange button on the wall, which scared me because on TV that means something is wrong! another midwife came in and I heard her say to her that I had gone from 5 cm to 10 cm in one contraction which I was completely amazed (and relieved by) although baby's heart rate had been lost as she had gone so far down into my pelvis that the monitor was no longer picking it up, they attatched something to the top of her head to be able to trace it and I started pushing, the midwives were great as they really encouraged me with every push and told me I was doing amazingly - which when you're in a situation like that you do really need, so I was very grateful to both of them. They told me that they would have to cut me slightly to help baby come out as quickly as possible due to how fast it had all progressed. I was given an injection of anesthetic which I was told I screamed more at than the actual labour/delivery part lol! I carried on pushing and before I knew it her head was out, which I did look at - It was like a big prune! - She was born at 3:58am and she was and still is absolutely perfect, I have never felt love like it until I held my baby for the first time. I was shown how to get her to latch on and she fed on me, we had a lot of skin to skin all whilst I was being stitched back up. It was the most positive, amazing experience I've ever had and I will always cherish it. I was so lucky to have such an easy, fast birth. And I do definitely think that those Raspberry Leaf tablets helped with that, and definitely with healing afterwards. I would highly recommend them to anyone that's pregnant and wondering wether or not to try them. So that's about it! there's my positive labour and delivery story. I write this whilst my baby girl is in her bouncer babbling away and smiling back at me! I am so beyond words in love with her and I wouldn't change a thing. So please welcome to the world my now nearly one year old baby girl.. Esmae Olivia born on the 10th of May 2016. Weighing 5lbs Thank you if you've read this and shared my experience with me, I would love to hear yours!

It was love that created you... It is our endless love that will greet you into this world and surround you FOREVER! Xoxo Mommy & Daddy 💖👶🏼👶🏼💙 #Twins #TwinMom #TwinBump #TwinBirth #labouranddelivery #Labour #Babies #PreggoPrincess #FitMom #FitParents #FitPregnancy #HealthyPregnancy #TwinPregnancy #FraternalTwins #BabyBoy #BabyGirl #McIntyreTwins #HealthyTwins #Summer2016 #MomSwag #Family #Love #MomLife #Twinning #countdown #McIntyreElite #WOYL #ShawnMcIntyreFitness (at South Health Campus)