Not too posh to push

• There were four big gushes
• I started to flag
• I wasn't too posh to push
• It isn't an easy way out

My birth experience was not what I expected … a long labour and Caesarean section. I was actually due to have an induction, which was cancelled because my hospital was too busy. I was pretty sick and tired by then. I was huge, with a good size baby and a lot of excess amniotic fluid. I felt like I could barely move.

My partner and I heard that sex can help start labour so we gave it a go! Within half an hour, my waters broke, which was my first shock. From what I'd heard, I was expecting a big gush, then a slow, constant trickle of fluid. I had at least four big gushes, and eventually gave up changing and washing and sat on the loo until everything was ready in the car to take me to hospital! I had to walk from the car to the labour room with a towel between my legs!

After 12 hours, when I was starting to flag a little bit, I decided to have a shot of pethidine, as the entonox wasn't helping and the midwife could see that. I would recommend this to anyone! I didn't really like the idea of this, as several people I spoke to experienced a sense of disconnection with it but I had no problems at all. I had two shots in total, and it really took the edge off the contractions. It made them a lot more bearable as I got closer to fully dilated. The only uncomfortable side effects were a slightly tight chest, due to my asthma, and it did make me sick. From what I hear though, a lot of women are sick during labour anyway, so I couldn't say for definite that it was that. I feel the pros far outweighed the cons.

Getting from 9cm dilated to fully dilated took me three hours. Everything seemed to slow down at 9cm. They put a syntocinon drip into my arm to get the contractions going, and seeing the needle go into my vein and the blood gush out didn't really help my state of mind!

Eventually, they decided it was safe to me for push and I was so relieved. I had been feeling the urge to push for quite a while. I had heard that the contractions in labour are worst at 6cm and after that they just get longer. Well, I have to say I think that's a complete lie. The actual bearing down contractions are awful, far more painful. I felt like I was trying to push a house through my birth canal and after an hour I gave up trying to hold my bowels. You lose so much dignity when you're pregnant!

After three hours and ten minutes of active second-stage labour, the midwives admitted defeat and called in the consultant. She was great, talked me through my options and got as much sense out of me as she could. I was absolutely exhausted, as by this time it had been a good 17 odd hours since my labour had begun. I was offered a forceps-assisted delivery, which I turned down. I think I suffered enough for people not to be saying I was too posh to push. Plus, I'd read about episiotomies and their complications, and I really didn't want to have one. So when they decided to give me a C-section I was relieved. I just wanted it over and done with.

I was wheeled into theatre and introduced to the anaesthetist. It was agony getting into the arched position they needed to give me the spinal, as all my bones and muscles had tensed up so much from the contractions. I felt like weeping with relief when the spinal took effect. My whole body relaxed, and I even noticed how cute the anaesthetist was!

They put the screen up and the radio on, so I didn't even feel them making the incision. The look on my partners face at the time was not inspiring. It was sort of a horrified grimace. No one would tell me what was going on at the time! I later found out that the reason I'd been having so much difficulty was because my baby was presenting posterior, in other words he had been lying sideways. My son had got stuck, and they had to really heave to pull him out. Then they had to heave to pull his feet out from under my ribcage. The sensation when they pulled him out of my tummy was so odd, I felt my big taut belly go 'flop' as all the skin loosened up and relaxed.

It took a good couple of hours for the sensation to come back in my legs. The after-effects of the Caesarean were much worse than the procedure itself. Anyone who criticises women for having a C-section for taking the easy way out isn't well informed, as you suffer just as much afterwards as you would do if you'd delivered vaginally.

All in all, it was definitely not the type of birth I was planning for but it was all worth it. I'd do it all again if I could get another beautiful child like my son. It's true what they say - you forget all about the pain when you have this little bundle placed in your arms.

Where to next?

• Read the full birth story
• Read accounts of different types of birth
• Read accounts of other caesarean births