Hannah's Story:
After a rushed, emergency section with my Daughter, Imogen who is now 6, I knew I didn’t want to have that experience again. Imogen also spent a few days in neo-natal so I didn’t get to see her straight away and I only met Imogen 12 hours after giving birth. I felt quite detached from what had happened and I don’t think my mind engaged with the fact I had just had a baby.
I did always think I would have a vaginal birth for a second baby and I had originally planned a VBAC in early appointments with the consultant team but after deciding to research a planned caesarean I completely changed my mind. I found podcasts really helpful and booked an extra appointment with my midwife to talk it through. My husband was really supportive and he just wanted me to feel relaxed and calm about this birth.
I had a 36-week appointment with the consultant and she booked me in after a positive discussion about having a gentle caesarean which would allow the baby to mostly wriggle out with minimal intervention. Luckily my consultant was extremely enthusiastic and made sure she noted that she would carry out my caesarean.
On the morning of my caesarean birth, we excitedly made our way to the hospital, we were made to feel relaxed and waited in our own room. We were fully informed of what would happen at each stage and introduced to everyone who would be looking after us. The consultant made sure she could do our caesarean so we were put second on the list so she could deliver the baby. We also didn’t know the sex (I would highly recommend not finding out as it’s extra magical when the baby arrives!). After a couple of hours, we were shown to the theatre and the theatre team immediately set to chatting to us and making us feel happy and relaxed. We were also allowed to put our own playlist on, which I had put together in the weeks before. It felt like forever when we were waiting for the baby to appear and when the baby did he was held up above the drapes so we could see if we had a boy or a girl - it was a boy! He was born to Songbird by Oasis :) He was immediately placed onto me and Dan was able to cut the cord. We had requested skin to skin so after he was rubbed down he came straight to me and we said hi and had those valuable cuddles that I completely missed out on with Imogen. This was the part I knew I didn’t want to miss out on this time and it felt surreal to have it.
The next day we were discharged and able to go home and Imogen met her baby brother. The whole experience was so positive, relaxing and empowering and we both loved everything about the day and how it went.
コメント