My birth story... by Linzi Abraham
Ok, so I’d been having loads of Braxton Hicks, was fed up of being pregnant and had been in hospital on the 3rd 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
