a second birth story - part four

You can find the story so far here
but in a nutshell . . .

My waters broke just as I had gone to bed,
but with suspected meconium in the waters
the maternity unit had said I needed to make my way straight there
as it may mean the baby is in distress.

By the time my mum arrived I was starting to get some cramping pains

and they were definitely starting at a more painful level than they had first time around.

I managed to waddle about getting bedding for my mum

and checking we had everything we needed to take to hospital,

while my husband put everything we needed into the car

and took the little guy's car seat out to leave with my mum.

The clock in the car read 12.27am as I got in.

An hour ago I had been going to bed

and suddenly everything had changed.

I had a contraction as we pulled away

and another one at 12.30am.

I focused on the clock the entire way there

and my contractions were coming every two to three minutes.

The severity of the pain of these was coming back to me

and I remember thinking that this was really horrible

and that I knew that it would get so much worse.

You don't have the beauty of ignorance the second time around

and when those contractions during our car journey were at their height

I felt really scared at the thought of what I knew was coming.

We had already made the decision

to use the main maternity unit at the hospital in the next town

rather than the much nearer midwife let unit,

but with suspected meconium in the waters

this was no longer our choice to make.

They would have sent me straight there from the smaller unit anyway,

so we made the 10 mile journey to the hospital

and I thanked my lucky stars that it was the middle of the night.

I had driven that same route every day when I was working

and it was awful at peak times and pretty busy most of the day as well,

but that morning it was clear.

So my husband drove as smoothly and as quickly as he could

while I breathed through the contractions

and gripped the sides of my seat like my life depended on it.

We arrived at the hospital

and while he paid for parking

I walked over to the maternity entrance and buzzed the bell for entry.

We buzzed again and again.

Contractions rolling over me every few minutes

while I stood leaning against the door in the cold night air.

We had been briefed that it could take a little while to be buzzed in

as they could get very busy but were also very conscious of the security of the unit.

So while the husband kept buzzing and got irritated,

I tried to keep calm

knowing that whatever happened now

we were in the best possible place

and that it wouldn't be too long before we met our baby.

It was kind of hard to remain chilled after nearly ten minutes of trying to gain entry,

especially when we knew that there were two more doors to be buzzed through yet

before we made it to the labour ward.

In the end a doctor let us in as she went out for some fresh air,

and fortunately the we weren't left waiting quite so long at the next two doors

(probably because while I followed the rules and buzzed politely,

my husband decided to bang loudly on the door.)


You can read the next part of the story here.