Jazz’s Birth Story: A long latent phase

She is here. and she is perfect.

The birth was unconventional in a sense. Perhaps every birth is though. No two births are alike. So… here we go:

Wednesday: I had a sudden intense pain at 1:30pm followed by the bloody show. I then continued to have intermittent mild tightenings for the rest of the day. As you can imagine we were naturally very excited thinking that this was the kick off. Little did we know there was still some way to go.

Thursday: The surges seemed to get stronger. Some were hard to breathe through but it was broadly bearable. The main issue was the lack of sleep! We had a midwife appointment. The intention had been to do a Sweep but my Cervix was still too far back, so she was unable to. She did comment that it was nice and soft at least; 'favourable' as she put it. The rest of the day passed with intermittent light cramping and period type pains.

Friday: Mild intermittent tightenings continued. What I was struggling with at this point was, less so the pain, but more the fact that these cramps had been going on for days. Why were they not increasing in frequency nor intensity? I try and tell myself that all of this won't be for nothing. My mental health was starting to struggle to be honest. It's the fatigue that gets you. With each passing day of this 'false labour' I felt my confidence, optimism and calmness slowly ebbing away. I questioned how I would be able to give birth in such a tired stage. I questioned if there was something wrong. At this point I was overdue and I worried that my baby would now be excessively large and difficult to birth vaginally.

Saturday: Contractions continued to every 8 minutes. I felt as though I was managing them very well, practicing my hypnobirthing, mediation, and breathing exercises. Whilst i'd been contracting for several days, the contractions were relatively painless. Given this false labour seems to be going nowhere, and getting a bit stir crazy in the flat we decide to go to the cinema. We get the 6pm viewing of "Insidious - the red door'. I sit through the viewing having intermittent contractions, steadily breathing through them. At times I'm not sure it was a good idea coming to the cinema - it feels like a very open, public space. At one point in the movie I popped to the bathroom, hoping for a moment of peace, to find a pair of teenagers in there filming a TikTok - not quite what I'd hoped for.

Sunday: The contractions were regular (every 15 mins) but bearable. I'd say the pain was a 3/10. At 2am My waters broke. Contractions to get more frequent. They remained however, bearable. I breathe through them using my hypnobirthing techniques. When contractions reach every 3/4 minutes we decide to call the hospital. The hospital told us to come in, primarily because my waters have broken so they like to check for infection. As I enter the hospital the contractions become less painful.

The midwives came in to perform a vaginal examination. Here was the gutting news - only 1cm dilated. They suggested we go home and return in 24 hours. 24 hours??? At this point I was knackered and deflated from the days of contractions. The midwives left the room to give us some time and as soon as they stepped out the room I felt a 'pop' and a massive loss of fluids, followed by a contraction unlike any other. This contraction was the need to push, alongside an involuntary loud howl. I don't remember if it was painful to be honest. I felt like I'd gone into a trance. At this point the midwives quickly stepped back inside the room. On second inspection they confirmed that I was now fully dilated. Yes. Fully dilated, in about 90 seconds. They asked me to get into a wheelchair and asked me not to push whilst in the wheelchair. This was an impossible request, but luckily the room was only about 10 metres away. Once in the room, I came forward out of the wheelchair immediately onto my hands and knees on the floor. In around 3 pushes, my baby girl was born.

My fiancé stayed by my head, with us cheek to cheek, him whispering words of encouragement in my ear whilst I screamed ferociously into his chest. I remember his warmth feeling distinctly comforting. I've never screamed like that before. Just every ounce of my howling like a wild woman. I had no active labour, no transition - just a leap from 1cm to pushing. I had read anecdotally that women who experience a long latent phase often have shorter active stages...

I managed to get away with no tears. She immediately latched and breastfed well. We enjoyed skin to skin for around an hour. The whole thing felt incredibly intense but never got more painful than 6/10.

Then came the placenta…

…or not… I had a retained placenta. It didn't come out so I had to go to theatre to have it manually removed. This felt a bit unfair - I'd done the hard bit! When I had been thinking and planning for birth, the placenta had never concerned me; I assumed when the time came it would just flop out. Still, it had to be done, and went well. I lost total around 900ml of blood and felt fine.

The midwives I had throughout were brilliant. Fantastic, knowledgeable, comforting, encouraging women. The NHS is indescribably brilliant. It almost baffled me that I was able to turn up, give birth, be cared for so brilliantly, be fed, stay overnight, have people hold my hand and wash me... and then just leave without paying. It truly is magic.

She is here. and she is perfect.

Jazz (London, UK)

Brood Graduate