Written by Beki - one of Love Kiddo's lovely brand reps
In summer 2021, my partner and I decided we were ready to make our own little family.
We started trying and we were very very lucky as after just under three months I fell pregnant!
We decided not to tell anyone, even family until I was around 12 weeks. Partly because by this time it was Christmas and I thought it would be the best Christmas present ever for them all!
My pregnancy was quite smooth, other than having a small bleed at 23 weeks which wasn’t anything to worry about! I just had to stay in hospital for monitoring for 24hrs. I also had a bit of hip pain near the end of my pregnancy - other than that I didn’t really have any symptoms such as morning sickness etc.
However, throughout my scans, they told me my placenta was very low down (placenta previa) and pretty much covering the way baby would come out.
Therefore, I may need to have a caesarean. Now the thought of a caesarean may scare a lot of people, as you can hear a lot negative stories. But I kept a positive outlook on it, as I knew if this was the way I gave birth to my baby safely, then that was how it was going to go and I couldn’t change it anyway so why worry!
So I had a few extra scans to see if my placenta had moved at all. At my extra 36 week scan I was told it hadn’t and the Dr would call me to book my caesarean. So sure enough, later that day the Dr called and said they had availability the following week!
Luckily I was already off work as I had used some annual leave before my maternity leave. So we got the date in, 7th June.
The 7th June came around fast and myself and my partner were waiting in one of the labour ward rooms. It was very quiet, apart from one other couple waiting for their caesarean too. I was first to go into theatre, so once I was gowned up we just waited a little while, saw the anaesthetist, a couple of Dr’s and the surgeon to go through things and sign forms.
It was then time, I went into the theatre and had my spinal block. This process was the thing that probably took the longest! They had to use an ultrasound type machine to determine where to put the spinal block so it took a while as they had to be so precise.
I was very chilled throughout all of this and even my partner said he thought I was being so calm.
Once that was done I laid down on the bed and a ‘freeze spray’ was sprayed on my legs and lower abdomen. I was asked if I could feel the cold of the spray each time they did it, over about 10min and when I couldn’t feel the cold anymore, only a blowing sensation…it was time to have my baby.
So they began the caesarean. At 11:28am, weighing 7 pounds 8 ounces, my baby boy, Hunter was born! I had asked for delayed cord clamping and immediate skin to skin. A lot of people don’t know they are able to have this when having a caesarean but if that’s what you want to do, they you can absolutely have it!
So once Hunter was born we waited until his cord went white and then my partner cut it. Hunter also taken to the resuscitation table as standard procedure when a baby is born via caesarean.
I then got to have Hunter on my chest until the surgeon had finished stitching me back up. I laid on the bed, soaking in my newborn baby. Snuggling him, stroking his face and giving him kisses.
This time felt like it went so fast but it was probably around 30-40 minutes. I guess it takes a long time to stitch up 7 layers!
Once this was done, I was taken back onto the labour ward and stayed in there for a couple of hours. In this time we let family and friends know he was born. We also discovered Hunter was grunting, which indicates they need oxygen to help them breathe. From what I remember, they said he may have a little fluid on his lungs.
So he was taken to the special care unit to be looked after and my partner went with him. I was then transferred to the antenatal ward. I wasn’t able to see Hunter for a little while as I couldn’t move, I was then asked if I want to see him and be wheeled down there. So obviously I said yes! However I think the motion of being wheeled down there made me feel sick, so I had to come back to antenatal ward.
There was such a lovely nurse there and although she wasn’t meant to, she brought Hunter to me for 5 minutes, still on oxygen and everything!
He then went back to special care but as soon as the nurse told me I was able to try and walk around 5pm, I instantly said yes because I wanted to be with my baby.
I stood up, very slowly...but in all honesty it wasn’t TOO bad! I began to walk around and felt okay, although very slow.
I then walked to special care to see Hunter. I can’t tell you how many times I got up to go see him, in between going back to my bed to sleep and eat. He was in there for 2 days and on the second evening, he was allowed to come back to my room with me! (They had moved me from the antenatal ward to my own room quite early on as I didn’t have my baby with me they thought I may not want to be on a ward with all the other mums who had their baby and I am so grateful I had my own room! The hospital staff were honestly so kind).
That night we were discharged and allowed to come home to start our lives as a little family.
I’d say it took around 4 weeks for me to properly recover. My scar was still a little sensitive but I was able to do whatever I used to do! And to be honest all I was doing before then anyway was soaking it all in, so I didn’t need to do much!
So that’s my positive caesarean birth story!
I hope my story can put you at ease if you’re going to give birth this way.
Beki x