Birth Story: Creedence Jay

This is my birth story with my firstborn Creedence Jay who is now 7 months old!

He was due on the 22nd of November 2022, I hadn’t had the best pregnancy I was very very sick for the first trimester and relied on anti nausea medications to get me through, as soon as I rose in the morning until bed I was fighting off nausea and constantly running to the bathroom. The second trimester was a lot easier but I did find out I also had gestational diabetes. I planned to work up until 37 weeks and that Monday at 36 weeks I was telling all the patients at the dental surgery I worked at how excited I was to have some time off to just rest and settle into our new home for three weeks before Bub arrived. That morning at work is stood up and felt like I had peed my pants and I thought ok don’t stress this happens when you’re this far along but it wouldn’t stop!! It started spilling out everywhere I ran to the staff room and one of my colleagues with three kids took one look at me and said go to the hospital now!! 

I starting driving and calling my midwife and my mum and husband in a panic, the midwife was not too stressed and said don’t worry just come in and we’ll do a quick check. But I knew it was go time as I started getting some light contractions instantly in the car in my way home. So I quickly went home jumped in the shower and my husband met me at the hospital. 

The midwife  checked me and did an internal check and sure enough my fluid started flowing out and she said yes your waters have definitely broke and I’d say you’re going to have this baby today or tomorrow. I was in shock but accepted the situation and thought well let’s do it. However the doctor on shift wasn’t so sure and wanted to just see what happened and give me a drip of antibiotics and hopefully send me home and wait until I hit 37 weeks to safely induce me. I wasn’t too keen on this idea as contractions were starting to ramp up and fluid kept spilling out intermittently, I didn’t know how I could just sit at home and wait until the end of the week like this. 

So this went on for quite some time, the midwives and doctors just monitoring me and they decided to keep me in overnight to keep the drip going. I had contractions quite constantly and was in a lot of pain but I wasn’t dilating or in active labour so I just had to stay in the birthing ward with my husband. I was starting to get very irritable as the contractions weren’t stopping. The next morning I was hopeful they may say they were going to induce me but once again doctor said they’ll keep monitoring me and try and push out the delivery to the end of the week and I’ll stay in for another night on the drip. I felt very defeated as I was getting very exhausted from no sleep and the pain of contractions. My mum and husband said if they decide the same thing tomorrow morning we will tell them we don’t want to leave and want to stay here as there was no way I could go home at this point and try and relax with the amount of pain I was in.

Finally  we get to Wednesday morning, the doctor comes in and says we’ve decided that because my waters broke on Monday the risk of infection is quite high now so they want to induce me, so we made our way down to the birthing suite at 10am on Wednesday and began a drip of Syntocinon. This was my only labour to compare anything to but anyone who has been induced this way will tell you the contractions come on hard and strong instantly and after two days of intermittent contractions I was so exhausted already I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. I may mention before all of this happened my birth plan was to have a water birth which instantly went out the window after my waters broke so I spent most of the time in the shower and my husband and mum took turns running the hot water over my back. I went back and forth from the bed to the shower and at times was on the ground writhing in pain. I was so sleep deprived I was falling asleep standing up in between contractions and my midwife decided I should try some gas and air. 

This initially helped take some of the intense pain away but I just didn’t think I could do it any longer. My midwife suggested how about we give you a shot of morphine to knock you out and give you a couple of hours rest. She gave me the shot and almost instantly around 8:30pm, yes after 10 hours of induced contractions I started feeling an intense feeling of needing to poo. I told my midwife and she said that’s good that means the head may be close, I said no I definitely need to go to the toilet but she said hang on let me do a quick check and sure enough she could see a head!! 

I felt so relieved, in my mind I thought ok its done now the easy part just push him out. 2 hours later of intense pushing and I was getting no where I was so tired and my baby just kept sliding in and out and he was starting to get quite stressed and his heart rate went up. My midwife started getting quite stern with me telling me if I can’t push him out in about 10 minutes the doctors will intervene. My first thought was c section, the one thing I wanted to avoid at all cost. I tried my hardest and once again he would just keep bobbing in and out and before I knew it there was about 10 people in the room. Adrenaline definitely took over at this point the doctor said he was astounded  as I didn’t display any signs of pain but I was in complete shock and wanted them to do whatever they needed to to get my baby out. My contractions had started to slow down and weren’t regular anymore so they drained my bladder and gave me an episiotomy. An instrumental birth was the only option at this point so they attached the vacuum and asked me to push as hard as I could while they pulled my baby’s head out. Once his head was out they told me to stop and they pulled Creedence out and onto my chest at 10:30pm 2nd of November 2022. 

I’ve never been more exhausted, shocked, elated, happy and in disbelief in my life!!! There is no better feeling then all the pain subsiding and knowing your baby is in your arms!! I think any mother will agree those first few months are an absolute blur to my husband and I. But now that we’ve made it through the trenches and starting to get some long lost sleep back, I can say what an amazing gift I’ve been given to be a mum and I’m so so grateful everyday that Creedence chose me to be his mother!! There is no other love quite like it. 

My name is Jadie and I live in a Brisbane QLD with my husband, our 7 month old son Creedence and our blue heeler named Scout.