My birth story

Charlotte Mia Crompton arrived into the world on the 7th October 2012 at 7.38am weighing in at a whopping 9lbs. I am completely and utterly smitten with her and it was worth every single second of pregnancy and labour. Below is my birth story, sorry if it is long!

I went into Warrington General Hospital on Thursday 4th October to be induced; this made me 38 weeks pregnant, 2 weeks before my due date. Jonathan and I arrived on ward C23 at 3pm; however, they were so busy it was 7pm before anything happened.

I was put onto a monitor to make sure baby was happy, due to the midwife having trouble finding the heartbeat (weight blamed once again) I was sent over to the labour ward to be put on a more sensitive machine. After this I was scanned to check the baby was still head down which it was at 11pm I was given an internal examination and a pessary was inserted into my cervix. I was monitored at regular intervals throughout the night and this time there was no trouble finding the heartbeat.  At 5am I had another pessary inserted. At midday on Friday a registrar examined me and found that I was 2cm dilated and therefore, didn't need another pessary which was a relief as it was quite painful and at that point, one of the most undignified moments of my life. I was told that once there was room on the labour ward I would be taken over for my waters to be broken, this didn't happen for a long time.

On Saturday at 4.30pm I was told there was now room for me on the labour ward, I was again monitored to make sure baby was happy. I then had a cannula put into each hand, well on my right hand after several attempts it was inserted into my wrist. One cannula had the hormone drip to bring on labour and the other had a sliding scale of insulin and glucose. I was unable to eat anything and could only drink water whilst in labour; I also needed to do the finger prick test to check my blood sugars every hour throughout labour. I was then examined and was still only 2cm dilated, my waters were broken and the drips started. I was unable to move during labour which made it really uncomfortable particularly on my lower back as the baby was back to back.

My contractions started at 10.30pm, they felt like bad period pains and were short but regular. My back was still aching and I was very uncomfortable I was given some paracetamol through a drip to ease the pain, however, it didn't work so the midwife suggested that I use gas and air which worked a treat it took the pain away and also regulated my breathing. I was re-examined 2.30pm and at this point I was only 3cm dilated, I was devastated that I still had another 7cm to go before I could even begin to start to get the baby out.

Things are a bit hazy from this point as I relied heavily on the gas and air so was out of it for most of the time. I remember being incredibly thirsty and shouting at Jonathan to get me water. The next thing I remember from being 3 cm was being 9cm dilated, at this point the urge to push was overwhelming but I had to keep breathing through the contractions, Jonathan was shouting at me every time I was pushing instead of breathing as the baby's heartbeat was falling. My Mum arrived back at the hospital at this point and I am glad she was there to see her grandchild being born.


Charlotte got her shoulders stuck during delivery (shoulder dystocia) which meant the alarms were raised and about 20 people rushed into the room to get her out quicker. I have googled it since and it can be fatal and only happens in 1% of vaginal births, so I am very grateful to those who helped deliver my baby safely.

I was in active labour for 4 hours and 43 minutes. I had a 2nd degree tear to my perineum which required stitches and I also grazed badly.

The midwife ran me a bath which Jonathan helped me with whilst my Mum stayed with Charlotte, we were then taken back over to the ward. Once on the ward Charlotte had to have her blood sugars tested 3 times over her first 24 hours, she was also very cold so was placed in a warming cot. We were discharged on the Tuesday afternoon, unfortunately, we ended up back in hospital on the Friday for the weekend as Charlotte was badly jaundiced and had lost 15% of her birth weight (they allow up to 10%), this meant she went down to 7lb9oz. After tests at the hospital it was found she had to have light treatment for the jaundice, she was dehydrated and had raised salt levels. I felt she was breast feeding well however, she wasn't as my milk supply wasn't good enough; I made the decision to switch to formula and expressed as much as I could. I am still devastated about not being able to breastfeed but the most important thing is Charlotte is healthy and she now weighs 9lb 1oz.