meant that I could start pushing. So, push I did… for 1.5 hours, but baby refused to make an appearance. The obstetrician came to talk us through a forceps delivery which we quickly agreed to. I had never had an assisted delivery before so was surprised by the size of the forceps which were slid in around the baby’s head. By that point, there were five medical staff in the room, and I think the whole thing had caused my anxiety to spike so my body suddenly stopped contracting.
The doctor sat at the business-end for the longest 10 minutes of my life, waiting patiently for the next contraction to come. When it did, the doctor made a small cut and Barney quickly slid out with two big pushes from me. Obviously, there was some stitching to do and the placenta to deliver but, as I still had the epidural in, it was pretty undramatic and we were then free to enjoy our gorgeous baby boy.
Claire, mum to Isla (6), Jack (3) & Barney (7m)
just 4 cm, I wasn’t in active labour yet so it was too early for one. I did my best to hide my disappointment and, as instructed, set off on a walk of the corridors to get things moving. On doing one lap of the stairwell I began to feel nauseous and legged it back to the ward, just in time to vomit into the bin outside the ward door (apologies to any mums-to-be who arrived that night!) Once back in my room, I tried some gas and air, which induced more vomiting but took the edge off at least.
By then it was 1 am, 11 hours after my waters had broken. My husband and I tried to doze - not easy when contracting every few minutes - and we carried on like this until 7am when a new midwife assessed me as being 6cm and ready for the epidural, oh joy! This was probably the scariest part for my husband who had to hold my hands across the bed whilst the anaesthetist placed the medication into my
spine. Once the epidural
is in, you get a special button to press when you need a top up; it took about 45 minutes to completely numb me (bliss!) and then I topped up every couple of hours.
At 2.30pm, the midwife reassessed me and announced that my cervix had gone. At first I panicked as I didn’t know where it could
have disappeared to, then I realised that this was good and