A pregnant mum is live blogging her birth via video on Facebook to 26,000 strangers – despite being induced as medical emergency.
Rebecca Meldrum, 28, has experienced endless problems throughout her pregnancy – including a terrifying Zika-virus scare.
The vlogger has endured high blood pressure, extreme morning sickness and placenta problems and has had to have 19 scans instead of the usual two.
She was yesterday (3) induced at 36 weeks as medical emergency due to fears of her unborn daughter’s small size and lack of growth.
But the brave mum, who already has two daughters, decided to share her “non-sugarcoated” birth to inspire women experiencing difficult pregnancies and births.
The first video to the ChannelMum.com Facebook page shows her being driven to hospital by husband Lee, 32, to be induced at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital.
Talking to the camera – and 26,000 strangers watching via Facebook Live – she said: “I’m not one for getting nervous but goodness me I am feeling all the nerves.
“I’m sweaty and I’m flushed and I’m freaking out just a little bit.”
She added: “We really don’t know how all this is going to pan out.
“We know we are having a baby. We’re not sure how her health is going to be. It’s all a completely new experience for us.
“We’ve had two healthy and beautiful children – a five-year-old and a two-year-old – with relatively straight forward pregnancies and relatively straight forward births.
“This is all very nervous and pretty nerve racking really to get my head around everything that is getting on.
“The aim was to get me to 31 weeks.
“I got to 31 weeks easily with little growth from her and last week they said there is no point in dragging this further and chancing our luck, it’s time to get baby out.
“We were re-scanned a couple of days ago and she’s doubled in size. She went from 3lb 4oz to a whopping 5lbs. I’m hoping that’s correct.
“Because today – hopefully today – she’s coming out.
“It was a last minute decision to live update you but I’ve only got this far – apart from the support of friends and family and Lee – you guys have been absolutely incredible.
“The online community that surrounds mums is just incredible. I’ve been absolutely blown away by how amazing everyone has been.
“If I could help anyone who is going through something similar, that’s having a different out of their comport zone experience, pregnancy, labour or birth, then that’s what I wanted to do.”
Lee and Rebecca already have two daughters, Safiyah, five, and Florence, two, and she feel pregnant with their third girl earlier this year.
She endured 16 weeks of extreme sickness before medics picked up her head was smaller than expected at the 20 week scan.
She was conceived weeks after a visit to Florida – a Zika-infected destination – prompting endless tests and checks for the disease.
Thankfully the disease was eventually ruled out.
But Rebecca went on to suffer with high blood pressure, was admitted to hospital with dehydration, and endured an extremely stressful failed amniocentesis test.
She also had to have steroid injections due to the baby’s delayed growth – a condition called intrauterine growth restriction.
And when the little one stopped growing, doctors decided to induce Rebecca at 36 weeks.
Speaking yesterday (3rd) from hospital said she decided to live-share the experience last minute – despite the uncertainties surrounding the big arrival.
“We’ll hopefully have a happy, healthy baby but we’ll face anything else as and when it arises,” she said.
“The support that I have received has been absolutely overwhelming.
“I think it’s really important to share things that I find difficult as I’m going through them, because I have the platform to share on they could potentially help so many other parents or parents to be going through similar scenarios.
“I’m a very honest person and think it helps to share real life stories that aren’t sugarcoated – be it good or bad, sharing my life is what I do so I didn’t want to stop just because things got hard and difficult.”
To watch the live blogs, visit: www.channelmum.com/parenting/pregnancy/labour-and-birth/live-labour-and-birth/
