Emergency C-section saved baby's life

Hayley tells her birth story: 'Due to pre-eclampsia, I was told that I would not go to 40 weeks. At 37 weeks, I saw my consultant who did an internal and as I was 2cm dilated she did a sweep and then booked me in on the Sunday to be induced.

I then went back to hospital on the Saturday to have my bp checked and while I was there they did a 2nd sweep and I was 3cm dilated. They then told me to go home and rest and they would see me tomorrow at 8pm to start the induction.

Went home and managed to get a few hours sleep, when I had a really bad need for the toilet. I managed to get up off the bed and to the door when my waters broke and the contractions started. This was at 8.30pm.

By 9.30pm they were every 15 minutes so oh called the delivery suite to let them know. They told him if I could manage with no pain relief, to stay at home and call back when they were 10 minutes apart.

At 10pm we gave the hospital a call and told them they were coming every 10 minutes, we were then told to ring hospital back when they were 5 mins apart.

At 10.20 contractions were coming every 5 minutes and were getting quite painful. This time my partner spoke to a different midwife and she said to come in when I was every 3 minutes.

At this point my partner decided to mention the high bp to her and she told him to let me have a bath then get in as soon as I was ready.

His dad picked us up at 10.50pm and took us into the hospital. When we arrived the contractions were every two minutes and lasting for up to 60 seconds.

Got to the delivery suite and was shown into a room. The midwife told me to get undressed and put on what I was planning to wear during labour and she would be back in a while to check how things were going, and if we needed anything, to press the buzzer.

I continued to walk and breathe through each contraction until about 12.00am when the midwife finally came in to check me over. Once on the bed she gave me some gas and air to help with the pain and then did a check to see how I was dilating.

I was roughly 5-6 cm. They then put me on the monitor to keep a check on the baby's heart rate. She then called for another midwife to come in just to keep an eye on it as it was fluctuating quite a bit. It was then decided to put a clip on his head so they could monitor him more closely. I was getting quite anxious now as it was up and down quite a bit.

By 2am the gas and air wasn't working so they gave me some pethidine which made me really sleepy. Managed to have 20 minutes sleep, when I woke up with the need to push.

Midwife checked to see how I was progressing and I was 9cm dilated but she thought that baby was stuck. She then called in the consultant, who then tried to move him. As soon as this happened his heart rate dropped dramatically and the buzzer was pressed.

All of a sudden the room was full of people disconnecting all the monitors and drips and wheeling me down to theatre. Was told on the way that they would try and move him with ventouse, but it was probably going to be an emergency section and his heart rate was now dangerously low.

Got into theatre where I was told there was no way they had time to move him and was given a general anaesthetic, at which time it was 3am.

I woke up at 4.15am to be told that I had a healthy little boy who was born at 3.32am and weighed 7lbs and I was then given the chance to have skin to skin contact with him.

After this my partner was allowed to hold him and give him his first feed.

We then went up to the postnatal ward where I had my first proper cuddle on the way. I stayed in for 48 hours and was let home on the Tuesday lunchtime.'

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