Sevil and Shaun Perry’s firstborn was an early arrival so they were expecting the same with baby number two ... but they hadn’t bargained on some real live action with six weeks still to go!
“My firstborn was five weeks early and was in special care for about two weeks. The labour was very different to what I would experience the second time around.
“I was preparing myself for another premature delivery but it still took me by surprise when my little one decided to nudge six weeks early. My husband, Shaun, and I visited the clinic for our weekly visit at 6.30am – we’d usually go in together and catch a train to work afterwards. During this visit I mentioned to my midwife that I was feeling a little discomfort in the pelvic area. The feeling was coming and going, and I asked whether the baby was engaged already. She checked the baby’s position and said it was fine, that it was sitting on top of the pelvis and hadn’t engaged yet. She told me that what I was feeling around the pelvic area was normal at this stage.
“Shaun and I headed off to work by train but I couldn’t help thinking about this feeling of discomfort. We sat talking about it and Shaun decided to time it to see if there was a pattern. He found the discomfort was four minutes apart and lasted about a minute. It wasn’t painful at all but we were quite surprised about it – we certainly gave the people on the train something to talk about.
“I still arrived at work in time to make an 8.30am meeting. I mentioned to my manager that the midwife had just checked me and that while I wasn’t 100 per cent sure, I thought I was having contractions. She asked me to go home straight away but I wanted to go to the meeting and eat the gorgeous breakfast they had every week. I thought to myself that if I was eventually going to hospital, the last thing I wanted to do was to arrive there hungry. You can imagine the conversation going around the boardroom table by this point!
“By 9am the contractions were more definite and I somehow knew that this was going to be it. However, in denial, I decided to call the hospital to ask their advice. The midwife said not to worry at this stage and advised me to take some paracetamol and get some rest.
“However, I decided to go with my intuition and head to the hospital straight away. Unfortunately, the peak-hour traffic meant I couldn’t risk taking a taxi. So, I decided to take a 25-minute train ride. I sat on the train with one hand stroking my belly. The contractions were now four minutes apart and intensifying, but I tried to concentrate on calming myself rather than getting too excited. I was also thinking about what was ahead of me.
“When I got to the hospital at 10am, they put me on monitors to see if I was in labour. Not only was I in labour, but I was 3cm dilated. At this stage the contractions were getting stronger by the minute.
“As I concentrated on my breathing I quietly watched the midwives all frantically running around to get things organised. A drip was put in my arm and I was given gas to quickly help me cope with the pain, but I had no idea what was going on as the pain was so intense. I asked someone to call my husband, as I needed his support. I kept requesting an epidural for some pain relief but was only given gas. Shaun arrived at 1pm, and by this stage I was 5cm dilated, completely exhausted and in shock from the pain.
“I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t been given an epidural when I’d asked for it half an hour earlier. The gas didn’t do anything for me, except make me say anything and everything that was on my mind, and the pain was becoming more excruciating.
“At 1.45pm a different midwife arrived to see how I was doing. I told her I wanted an epidural and how the other midwife had declined my request, and she said: ‘That’s okay darling, I’ll organise it for you. However, I’ll need to check how dilated you are, and we can go from there. If you’re more than 8cm dilated there is no point giving it to you’. I told her there was no chance of me being more than 8cm, as I was only 5cm dilated half an hour earlier. She examined me and said: ‘Sweetheart, you are 9cm dilated and you’re pretty much ready to push!’ I thought that couldn’t possibly be true – there was no way I was ready yet.
“I gave a little push, however, and the contraction pain slowly went away – replaced by a different and familiar feeling, the urge to push. With one push the head had already shown. With the second, it came out. With a little more my baby boy came out, weighing 2.82kg. I slumped back into the bed as they whisked him away into the special care unit, where he would end up spending two weeks because he was premature. I was exhausted.
“With my first baby, I went through 28 hours of labour with the help of Pethidine, sleeping tablets and an epidural. It was completely different with my second birth – four hours of labour and no pain relief.
“I now look at my son, Deren, who is healthy and strong, and think about what I went through. But it’s all worth it when I smell him, feel him and watch him smile at me. I would go through it all again, and I’m already thinking about having a third baby in a couple of years time.”
