Tracy-Anne tells her birth story: On Monday December 8th I called the hospital as I had not had any movement for a few days. I had a flu virus for over a month and was feeling really poorly and had been wetting myself with the coughing.
I was told that my waters had gone some time before (a week earlier, in fact!); I had not noticed because of being ill and they had just trickled away.
I was admitted and the next day the doctor said because I was due in 9 days anyway, they would induce me if I wanted. I said yes, thinking great! - I'll be home for Christmas.
At 2pm on the 10th Dec I was given my first pessary and pretty much felt something happen straight away. Then they gave me another at 8pm and within minutes I was having massive painful contractions.
They were coming a minute apart but were not showing on the CTG so the MW said that the pessary can cause pains similar and it may be that. But it wasn’t and then I started bleeding heavily and lost 2 pints of blood, followed by the baby's heartbeat dropping and then I don’t really remember anything other than screaming in pain and seeing flashing lights.
I remember hearing 'c-section', and some shouting.
It turned out the baby was in distress having tied a true knot in her cord. She had to be removed immediately so they rushed me into theatre leaving my poor husband to wait outside as they were putting me to sleep to start the op.
I feel so sorry for him now as he was alone and worrying about both of us. Andrew told me after that some time later they brought Daisy to him saying she had wee-ed everywhere as they took her out and was perfectly healthy.
He then spent 6 hours cuddling her whilst waiting to hear about me and gave her skin-to-skin contact as her body temperature was low and I was still unconscious.
Andrew was then asked to come and help wake me up as I wouldnt open my eyes and my oxygen saturates were low. The doctors though hearing him might help. They'd had to work so fast that there were some complications like a tear in my uterus but it's all ok.
I remember waking up really confused and saying, have i had a baby, is that her? I was then helped to give her colostrum, and spent 6 hours in recovery. I had a morphine drip, fluids and antibiotics in my hands, a catheter fitted and a stomach drain fitted.
After 48 hours all these had been removed but I had to stay in hospital and have injections etc. After a week, I was allowed home with a nice big pile of pills to take and I had to take it easy. The midwife came round a lot and at first gave naproxen injections everyday.
Baby Daisy Elizabeth Rose is perfect and has had no complications at all. To be honest, I would have gone through so much more to have ensured that.
The way she was born is a shame, as I had planned and worked really hard towards a natural birth but now I just feel so lucky that she made it and so did I. I still have some very tearful moments of relief.
Daisy's weight did drop to 5lb 12oz at 10 days old, but at 6 weeks she was 9lb 5oz and at 18 weeks she is 16lb having been exclusivly fed breast milk.
I should also add that the hospital and midwife care has been amazing, I can't thank them enough for the professionalism and the amazing personal care I received during my pregnancy, birth and even now 18 weeks on.
Breastfeeding: When Daisy was 8 weeks old she fed from me for the first time....wooohooo! She had never been able to latch on, for various reasons, and in the first 7 weeks I had only managed to feed her for a total of 34 minutes.
But I did persevere: exclusively expressing and giving her my milk in a bottle and kept trying to latch her on.
I received loads of help, support and advice from my lactation consultant and midwives, and tried all sorts of things, including nipple shields.
Then the consultant gave me some small Medela nipple shields at 7 weeks and Daisy latched straight on and started feeding from me all night and all day. A week later she latched on herself using Biological nurturing, now 10 weeks later we are still happily breast feeding and plan to go on for at least another 8 months yet.
I am now going to train as a peer mentor so i can share all the things I had to learn with others who need help.
