His Story - Birthday

It wasn't an enjoyable pregnancy. I suffered from morning, noon and night sickness right up to Harrison's birth. I also had low blood pressure and was prone to passing out at the most inconvenient times! My diet consisted of plain, boiled penne pasta on its own and later I progressed to fish fingers and peas. If I went out anywhere I always took a packet of Mini Cheddars biscuits and a bottle of fizzy water with lime cordial. My obstetrician was not at all concerned about my condition and my consistent weight loss. He helpfully told me that 'even Biafran women have babies'. There was nothing concerning showing up in any of my scans. In fact, the nuchal translucency scan they did to predict our chances of Harrison being born with Down's syndrome, showed that I was as much at risk as a 19 year old!

At three months gestation I managed to contract chickenpox. I know where I picked it up, even though I wasn't actually in contact with the affected child. I'd somehow managed to avoid chickenpox all through my childhood so I'm assuming that pregnancy had lowered my immunity. In an attempt to rid me of the virus as quickly as possible, I was started on a heavy dose of antivirals. I'm terrible at taking tablets at the best of times, so giving me three massive bullets (which had to be swallowed whole) three times a day, when anything passing my lips was prone to make me gag anyway, it was not a fun time!

When I was about five months pregnant, my parents treated us to a short break in Venice, returning on Concorde. Had it been any other city or mode of transport, I probably wouldn't have gone but I was determined that I would be on that trip! It was an extremely early start to catch our flight, despite staying in a hotel at Heathrow airport the previous night. Usually it took me until late morning / lunchtime before I felt well enough to get out of bed. This was highlighted by me passing out in the toilets at the airport just before the departure gates! I boarded the plane with my husband and mum each propping me up under an arm. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was uneventful (although I did spend as much time as possible lying in a rather magnificent hotel room bed, staring at the ceiling) but I'm still glad I went.

Around 10pm on 7th January 1998, my waters broke. It was a very stormy night and quite a scary drive to the hospital because it was through countryside and the trees were swaying wildly. On arrival, the midwife checked me out and was surprised how calm I was, given that I was contracting. I couldn't feel anything. I was glad that it meant that I had to stay in because I didn't fancy a return journey. She moved me into a side room as there were no beds available on the main ward. A senior midwife came to see me and without even checking, she announced that it would be at least nine hours before Harrison would be born. This wasn't what I wanted to hear so I unfairly took an immediate dislike to her! (Ironically, she ended up delivering Harrison and couldn't have looked after us better). Over the course of the next couple of days Natalie Imbruglia's 'Torn' was tauntingly played at every opportunity on the radio; midwife shifts came and went and I became the prime exhibit for all the student midwives and junior doctors that the consultant was able to find. It was a little intimidating when nine spectators formed a semi circle around the end of my bed! My original birth plan was for no epidural but that went out of window when my TENS machine started causing me more pain than the contractions because I'd been wearing it for too many hours.

Harrison was born near-term on 9th January 1998, following a 44 1/2 hour labour and weighing 2.4kg. We weren't expecting such a little scrap so all of the outfits and nappies that we'd brought to the hospital for him to wear were far too big. There was only a range of two different tiny baby outfits in Boots so with no choice, Bernard bought one of each.

Right from the start Harrison experienced difficulties. He needed resuscitation immediately at birth and scored 4 on his Apgar test (a score between 7 and 10 is deemed normal). He then spent five days on the normal maternity ward because he couldn't keep his core temperature up nor feed. He was placed in a heated cot and cup fed from the second day. Harrison endured regular heel prick tests because he appeared a little jaundiced. He displayed some strange shaking episodes where his whole body would turn purple as he held his breath and shook from head to toe. Rather alarmed, I pointed this out to a midwife who told me, 'all babies do that'. Being a first time mother I had no evidence to disagree with her but it certainly didn't seem right to me! In hindsight, I wouldn't be surprised if these episodes were hypocalcaemic attacks (low calcium levels). This is a common symptom in 22q Deletion Syndrome but at this point nobody suspected that Harrison had this condition. 

Had he been diagnosed antenatally, I doubt I'd have been allowed to give birth at this hospital. Also, I'm sure I wouldn't have been left in the hands of the midwives. Even when they called the consultant for support, he wouldn't come to the hospital! We were extremely lucky that Harrison was able to battle on by himself.

The nurses nicknamed him "Frogs Legs" (which didn't impress me!) because he had such a tiny bottom and the doctors queried his small size. With no apparent explanation, I was sent for a pelvic x-ray. The conclusion was that due to my backward tilting pelvis, Harrison knew that he’d have a struggle to get out so decided not to grow too much!! How on earth did we let them get away with that explanation?! Looking back, there were too many indicators that should have been investigated further, but following an examination by a paediatrician, Harrison was sent home “fit and well” on the fifth day.

Life is tiring!