This is Lucy's birth story, the daughter of QueenBee Pure Founder, Helen Watson.
A routine scan at 38 weeks revealed there was very little amniotic fluid around my baby and an induction was in order. After a restless night’s sleep, I had a small breakfast and then it was off to the hospital for an induction at 8am. An assessment was made and the gel was put in as close to the cervix as possible (to ‘trick’ it into softening and going into labour).
I then waited and waited. Hours passed and nothing – no contractions, just some minor tightness in my tummy, which felt kinda like really bad period pains. Fortunately, our baby was happy and safe, so there was no need to speed things up. In the meantime, I tried everything to put myself into labour by walking and stretching. Nothing worked, so more gel, more tightness and … no labour!
Night fell and I had a very uncomfortable sleep. The morning broke and we tried more gel, which just produced the same tightness. This went on all morning until just after lunch, the doctor came to put a drip in with stronger induction drugs. Finally, we had some regular contractions, which became strong, long and felt completely different than before. I was finally in labour!
I was transferred to the delivery suite where the contractions continued to become stronger. A few hours into this, the doctor suggested I have an epidural, which made me throw up but I was then pain-free, and so promptly fell asleep. The plan was to let the epidural wear off so I could have any sensation to push my baby out. A few hours later, the doctor did an examination to find I was only 6cm dilated. Added to that, my baby was lying in a posterior position and making no effort to grace this world!
At midnight, the doctor decided to perform a Caesarean section. At 1.30am, some 40hrs since I was given the gel insertion to begin the induction, I was handed my chubby little baby girl with a shot of black hair, screwed up little face and the sweetest little hands I had ever seen.
The instant love I felt for this human being was something I had never felt before and was an experience that changed our lives forever.
