A doula helped me give birth

Allison Ellerbrook tells her birth story: 'Although I didn’t enjoy it very much, I had a straightforward pregnancy. This was my first baby and I was very excited but absolutely terrified about the impending labour.

I’m scared of hospitals and was seriously thinking about a home birth, but wanted to have the option of pain relief available so decided to go ahead with a hospital birth in the hope I could use a room with a birthing pool.

As my due date drew nearer I got myself more and more worked up and my American step-mum suggested I might like to think about hiring a doula to help me cope with my anxiety and support my husband and I through the labour.

I did some research and found Rebecca a lady local to me who worked as a doula and had 2 children of her own. From the initial contact by email, followed by phone calls and home visits prior to the big day, Rebecca was friendly, reassuring and understanding and during the never-ending last few weeks she gave me useful advice and tips to help the time pass and put my mind at ease.

My waters broke at 11.55pm on my due date, 13th May 2007, which I was really pleased about as, by this stage, I was fed up of waiting.

Filled with excitement I rang the hospital, but as I only had the odd twinge and nothing resembling a full-blown contraction they told me to stay put until I had regular contractions.

Of course, I found it hard to sleep, but nothing really happened all night and although by the morning I was having mild contractions, my husband Karl went off to work as usual.

By 6pm the contractions were getting more regular and a bit more painful and I called Rebecca. She came straight over to reassure me and calm my nerves. Not a lot was happening and the contractions were bearable so she went home and Karl and I tried to keep busy during the evening.

By 10pm the contractions were about every 5 minutes and were getting pretty bad – I certainly couldn’t concentrate on the telly any more! Karl ran me a bath and Rebecca came back. The rest of that time is a bit of a blur, but by 2am I knew I couldn’t handle the pain any more and contractions were every 3 minutes so we decided to go into the hospital.

The drive was awful, I could feel every bump and the TENS machine was on full! Rebecca held a cool damp flannel to my brow and Karl drove as quick as he could.

I was so relieved when we made it to maternity, but absolutely devastated when the midwife assessed me and told me I was only 1cm dilated, to go home and take parecetamol and to try and last another 4 hours before coming back.

The journey home was worse, and the rest of the night was spent groaning loudly and painfully in the bath with Rebecca and Karl doing their best to soothe and calm me! Our poor neighbours mustn’t have got much sleep either!

By 6am I knew I couldn’t bear a minute more without pain relief – the TENS machine was really not doing much good at this point! Yet again we made the long journey by car and this time it was a million times worse than the first time.

As soon as I got in they gave me gas & air which was fantastic and, on assessment, I was 3cm dilated – I couldn’t believe it was only 3cm! However, they decided I was allowed through the ‘magic door’ to the delivery suite and they started filling the birthing pool.

At this stage, everything was going according to my well thought-out birth plan; the lights were down low, Zero 7 was playing on the CD player, I was chilling in the birthing pool and Rebecca and Karl were enjoying pots of tea and providing me with gas & air on demand!

I felt in control and able to handle things, I got into my zone and focused on meeting my baby. Time is a bit of a blur, but after about 4 hours the midwife asked me to get out to check how I was progressing; to my horror I was only 4cm dilated.

I got back into the pool and she said she would wait and check again in another 4 hours. When I was next checked I was still only 4cm dilated, I couldn’t believe it – 8 hours in the pool and no progression.

 

I was completely exhausted by this stage, it was midday and I couldn’t see how I could last much longer…. It was suggested that to get things moving I should have the oxytocin drip and at this point I decided to have an epidural as the contractions were excruciating (well, I was more moaning for an epidural rather than making a cool collected decision!), so it was bye bye birthing pool!

The lovely anaesthetist administered the epidural, my prior fear of needles in my spine had disappeared in the haze of the pain, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t had it sooner – I didn’t feel anything when it went in and then afterwards I felt no pain at all and actually got a little sleep.

I was amazed by the epidural – sod the birthing pool, this was what I called pain relief! Karl bedded down in an armchair and Rebecca went home for a rest; she had been with me all night and was absolutely exhausted and we felt it best if we all saved our energy for when the real action was going to begin.

It took another 10 hours or so before I was fully dilated. The midwife told me I was fully dilated by about 11pm, but she said it was ‘hospital policy’ to wait 2 hours before I could start pushing. I must say I wasn’t aware of this policy, but did as I was told at this point.

Rebecca came back and was a great support and helped Karl and I to communicate with the hospital staff our concerns. While I was waiting to push, something on the epidural machine started beeping, we had a look and it said it had a ‘low battery’ – that started to worry me a lot! I called the midwife who got the anaesthetist – the anaesthetist didn’t listen to me (think she thought I was just a crazy woman in labour) and decided to up the dose of my epidural.

This was horrendous, I literally went completely and utterly numb from hips down, a lot more desensitised than I had been and totally incapable of feeling anything, which meant pushing was incredibly difficult.

Finally, I was allowed to try and push, this went on for 2 hours and nothing was happening apart from me getting completely exhausted. Rebecca and Karl were both brilliant. Rebecca held my hand and mopped my brow giving me lots of encouragement (I was beside myself at this point) and Karl had to hold my leg up as I was unable to move it at all – he hadn’t wanted to be down ‘that end’ but had no choice in the matter!

Suddenly the baby’s heartbeat slowed and they were worried about the baby being too tired, ‘emergency c-section’ was muttered by someone and loads of people came into the room.

All I know is that a doctor told me they were going to use a ventouse and to push really hard. The worst thing was that I heard the baby crying and thought the head was out, but actually baby was crying inside me and we could all hear it – that was surreal! It took a while, but then Karl started crying and I knew baby had arrived.

Karl said ‘we’ve got a little girl, sweetheart’ and we all started crying. At 3.20am after a 52-hour labour, our beautiful daughter, Isobel Martha was born and she was fine, 6lbs 9oz. A quick check and she was passed to her mummy for skin to skin and a much needed big cuddle. The most amazing moment of my life!

I would recommend anyone scared of hospitals/birth or just who could do with some extra support to hire a doula.

Rebecca was not only fantastic in supporting me, but also in helping Karl – she kept him calm and it meant he could nip to the loo and get something to eat without feeling guilty for leaving me.

Despite the labour being a long haul (and us all being sleep deprived) Rebecca remained cheerful, positive and supportive throughout.'

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