“37 hours in labour, but happier than I’ve ever looked”

Frederick Keith Melling
1st pregnancy
Known Boy from 16 weeks
Due Date: 25.02.2021
DOB: 27.02.21
Weighing 7lb 5oz
Induction of labour on 25.2.21 due to gestational diabetes diagnosis at 35 weeks
Vaginal Delivery
Born at Royal Bolton Hospital
Pain relief: anything they could give me! Ended up with an epidural
Length of labour: 37 hours

I was diagnosed late in my pregnancy as having gestational diabetes and because of my blood sugars being up and down they decided they wanted to induce me on my due date due to possible complications that could occur with developing diabetes. 

I was admitted onto the antenatal ward at 6pm on my due date but told they won’t be starting induction that night because the delivery suite was full! (Me thinking a full nights sleep is just what I need if they are going to kick things off tomorrow) 11pm came just before I was about to go to sleep and I was told they are starting induction and placed me on a monitor. 

I was super nervous with being on my own as it was the middle of the night but I didn’t expect anything to happen. I ended up having strong period type cramps most of the night and not getting much sleep, finally dozed off around 3am after taking some paracetamol to be woken up to my waters having gone in bed at 5am! 

A mixture of nerves and excitement followed as I thought I would possibly be meeting my baby that day! I stayed as active as possible walking around the hospital grounds multiple times and being upright or on a ball. Contractions were at this point very strong having about 2 in 10 minutes and all pain was in my pelvis and thighs which was tough. 

Friday night came and no baby yet still contracting but the midwives wanted me to be contracting more frequently. Got taken down to delivery suite at 3am Saturday morning as the monitor wasn’t fully picking babies heart rate up with the contractions and I was 4cm so classed as in established labour. 

Arrived on delivery suite after walking from the antenatal ward which at this point wasn’t my wisest decision! Luckily my partner Will wasn’t too long after ringing him to come in, seeing him made it all the more real but instantly calmer! The midwives then decided to put me on the hormone drip at around 7am to help progress my labour and bring on my contractions…my god it did! I was hooked up to a monitor for the whole labour which was very restrictive and didn’t allow me to move much from the bedside even to the point when I needed the toilet they wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom and I had to use a bedpan. 

Because my pain was all in my pelvis and thighs this meant I laboured stood up as it was the only position that was bearable. At this point I’d had most of the pain relief they can offer and I was using gas and air like it was going out of fashion!! 

It got to around lunch time and I had at this point lost control, the drip was causing back to back contractions with no down time which meant extreme pain for me but also baby’s heart rate was occasionally dipping as he wasn’t happy either. I managed to get an epidural in as I was 8cm dilated and beyond shattered. It was never in my plan to have an epidural but it was a lifeline that I needed to take in order to see the rest of this birth through. 

After that was inserted I’m told I had a couple of hours sleep which I was glad of as I was about 31 hours into labour and still no baby. My bloods had come back that I had developed an infection and was started on oral antibiotics but told not to worry. Around 4pm I had doctors and midwives all around my bed discussing what to do as baby’s heart rate was still dipping but taking longer to come back up this was because he didn’t agree with the drip so they turned the rate down to see if that improved things and it did. I was examined again and was fully dilated and told we needed to get baby out soon as he was getting tired! I was threatened with forceps and a c-section if he wasn’t to deliver in so many pushes…no pressure!! 

It all got chaotic with 4 doctors and midwives and will all shouting at me to push and breathe saying I can do it, I could not concentrate and felt I’d failed! The consultant then stopped everyone as I was crying and overwhelmed and just said she knew I could do it but we really needed to get baby out so gave me an episiotomy to help deliver his head. 2 pushes later at 18:02pm little Freddie was placed on my chest and all that fear had just melted away! I couldn’t believe I’d done it! Me and will were in floods of tears and it was like magic! 

That magical feeling was soon overshadowed by having to have stitches and suffering a post partum haemorrhage causing my bloody pressure to plummet and I wasn’t fully conscious and aware of my surroundings. Freddie was taken off me and given to Will for his first feed as my lack of awareness meant I was partially suffocating him at the breast! 

I had midwives administering IV antibiotics in one cannula and another squeezing a bag of clear fluids into my other cannula to help bring up my blood pressure. Things seemed to settle until someone mentioned the famous hospital toast and the thought made me gag and wretch! I’d looked forward to this toast everyone seems to rave about and yet if I was to of seen a piece of toast I would have probably vomited endlessly! Freddie needed to be screened for sepsis after delivery as I had developed an infection, meaning it is likely he could have caught it in the womb, a small cannula was put in his hand and he didn’t even make a noise the clever boy! 

Everything did soon settle and around midnight I was transferred to the postnatal ward still numb from the epidural and a catheter in (the most hideous thing!) I remember just being besotted with this little boy who I’d grown and birthed - I was just in awe! 

We ended up having to stay in hospital 5 days due to myself and Freddie needing IV antibiotics and I also required an infusion to help increase my red blood cell count due to losing so much blood post delivery. This was mentally tough with only Will being able to visit us but it was all soon forgotten when we could finally go home and be the family of 3 we had waited so long to be!