My Birth Story...by Zoe Abraham
Ok, so I’d been having loads of Braxton Hicks, was fed up of being
pregnant and had been in hospital on the3rd August thinking it had
started but it was a false alarm. I was resigned to the fact that
I was going to go to term despite everyone saying twins always come
early. So it was a total shock when I turned over in bed at 00.30
on the 12th August and my waters broke
. I didn’t know what to do and panicked a bit as that hadn’t happened
in my other labours. I was 35+2 weeks pregnant so didn’t know if
they would deliver me or hold off for a while. Contractions hadn’t
started so dh phoned the hospital and my Mum. We got ready to go
in and decided that Mum would come with me as Asher had been having
nightmares and Al had been cuddling him up till then. So we got
a taxi in and I was monitored until 6am. Nothing was happening so
mum went home to take over childcare and dh was going to come in.
10 minutes after mum left I started having contractions and by
7am I was feeling them! The next couple of hours are a bit of a
blur. Anaesthetists and Doctors kept coming in to see me and wanted
consent me for a section as the babies were both breech, the midwives
swapped shifts and dh hadn’t arrived. By 8.30am I was in a lot of
pain but couldn’t have anything except gas and air as the babies
would probably be born within the hour. Eventually dh turned up
(he’d taken his time, read the papers etc as thought there was no
rush!) and we were taken off to theatre.
The relief as the spinal block took effect was amazing. I was shaking
and shivering in reaction to it all and felt sick as a dog but excited
as well. Then there seemed to be a bit of a delay and whispering
amongst the staff and I demanded to know what was going on. It turned
out that my bladder had adhesed to my uterus wall and the Consultant
had to be called in to deal with it, so that added to the time it
took and also worried me. I started shaking and panicking and was
afraid that something might go wrong when I remembered to pray.
I’ve been a Christian for many years but I can honestly say that
I have never felt God’s presence so near. I managed to calm down
and kept praying and before I knew it dh told me they were about
to deliver the first one. Zoe Anna was born at 10.12 and Layla Margaret
at 10.13 (although we didn’t give them middle names until they were
3 weeks old!), both cried on delivery and were healthy babies at
5lb 11oz and 4lbs 10oz. They were a bit cold and were in an incubator
for a few hours but I got to hold them after 1 hour and was overwhelmed
with love and joy. We were all in hospital for 9 days as the girls
had to be tube fed until they were able to feed from me, but there
were no other problems and all has gone well since we came home.
The boys love them, we’ve lots of help from family and friends
and I’m loving feeding them myself. I didn’t think I’d be able to
so that’s been an added bonus. I’m pretty knackered all the time
but every day I give thanks that I’m blessed with such a fantastic
family. Who knows, that might not be it………………..:)
Linzi, Mum to Zoe and Layla
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