my birth story

 

Saturday 26th November 2005 - Day 0

• 7.45 am - Mummy woke up and realised she was having some slight 'waves' of pain - very low down.
• 8.00 am - Mummy went to the bathroom and suddenly realised that her cervix was dilated. She called Daddy and they picked up my sister Emma and drove to the hospital. Poor Emma had packets of raisins & biscuits for breakfast.
• 8.20 am - at the hospital they looked for my heartbeat. I was wriggling around so much that it was difficult to keeps tracks on it - but it was a very strong beat when they found it.
• 8.20 am - 10.30 am - Mummy kept dashing to the bathroom and was telling Daddy that she really thought her cervix was dilated, but she hoped that it wasn't. The midwives said that only the doctors were allowed to check this - but that they were very busy. They monitored Mummy's contractions, but none showed. As time went on Mummy was starting to get more pains - Daddy was getting rather worried and kept asking the nurses to hurry up with the doctor. My sister Emma was such a good girl. She started playing with the big round birthing ball - she had Mummy and Daddy in hysterics as she loved pushing it away from her, but then got very frightened when it rolled back towards her - they think Emma thought the ball was human and was coming to get her!
• 10.30 am - the doctors came and saw Mummy. They said that Mummy's instincts were correct, and that she was going to have me today. They said they were going to try and stall things so that they could get some special medicine called steroids into her to be passed on to me to make my lungs work when I was born since I was going to be a very premature baby.
• 13.30 pm - Mummy had done very well in stopping things happening, but the drugs weren't doing much good now and she started to have feelings of pushing. The doctors had a look at me and said I was breach with the umbilical cord between my legs (I move around a lot as I am very small).
• 13.45 pm - they decided I was going to be born by Emergency Caesarian Section, and everyone went off to change into their scrubs - including Daddy, who accidentally put on a 'dress' scrub instead of trousers and a top (obviously he had never been in a scrub room before and just grabbed the nearest thing - everyone was in a big rush). Poor Mummy had a terrible 20 mins where she was being told 'don't push'. She was very frightened as she knew that if I was born normally I would have lots of problems with the cord getting stuck and stopping my oxygen supply.
• 14:16 - I was born at 26 weeks gestation weighing 1lb 14oz and whisked off to the Consultant Pediatrician to check me over and help me with my breathing. As soon as I was stable I was shown to Mummy and then transferred straight to an Intensive Care Incubator in the Special Care Baby Unit. Mummy's tummy was closed and the surgeon noticed that her placenta had a slight abruption in it, this must have started to happen when she came to hospital three weeks previously with some bleeding, but they were unable to find the cause of it at that time.

Positive things about my birth

• A Saturday birth - Daddy usually leaves the house at 6.45 am during the week, and he sometimes travels abroad. It was so lucky that he was with Mummy that morning when she knew she had to get to hospital quickly. Also, Mummy and Daddy were supposed to be going away for a nice weekend in a hotel that weekend leaving on the Saturday morning - it was very lucky they weren't away at the time and were near the hospital they knew and where my sister was born.
• A Second Child - If I had been Mummy's first child I may have been born at home, which would have been very difficult for me being only 26 weeks gestation. They say that maybe my Mummy labours silently - this means that she does not have pains whilst her cervix dilates. If I had been her first child, she may not have recognised the signs that she needed to get to hospital quickly.
• A Little Girl - as I am a little girl I have much more of a chance of a positive outcome - as generally we little girls tend to be that bit stronger than little boys.
• My weight - I weighed 1lb 14 oz when I was born. Although this is very small it is bang on average for my gestation. Both the Consultant Obstetrician and Pediatrician said I was a very good weight, they said that Mummy had such a small bump they didn't think I would be such a good size!
• My Intensive care bed - Mummy, Daddy, Emma and I are very lucky as the hospital (which is 5 mins from my real home) had a spare intensive care bed for me. They only have 2 intensive care beds and if one had not been free Mummy would have had to come with me to another hospital which could have been anywhere in the country. Now that I have my place I won't be moved until I go back to my real home. This makes life much easier for Mummy & Daddy who are looking after my big sister Emma too.
• Infections - Luckily Mummy's water's hadn't broken, so I was removed straight from that special sack, which meant that I was not exposed to any infections.
• Mummy's consultant obstetrician - Mummy had a superb skilled team in the hospital to look after us - the surgery went very well and Mummy only lost a very small amount of blood and didn't need a transfusion. The doctor found it a bit difficult to retrieve my head, but despite having to make an extra little cut in Mummy, they removed my head very safely and a brain scan after my birth showed no bleeding. Mummy now has the neatest scar going - you can hardly see it.
• Placental Abruption - The fact that Mummy had possibly had 2 slight abruptions of the placenta and then gone into labour was very good. If her body hadn't gone into labour, she may have then had a very serious larger abruption which would have been dangerous for us.

 

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