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My name is Emily and on 20th November 2020 I gave birth to my perfect baby girl, Alice. Whilst my pregnancy was low risk, my pre-existing condition made for a pretty wobbly journey. It’s a long story, so please bear with me.

In May 2018 I was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease which is a vestibular disorder of the inner ear with a long list of symptoms including vertigo, dizziness, hearing loss, tinnitus and vomiting, to name a few!

With medication, diet and lifestyle changes I managed to get my symptoms fairly under control. Triggers vary from person to person but my main triggers are lack of sleep, stress and fluctuation in hormones.

In August 2019 my symptoms started to flare up a little and I discovered I was pregnant. Unfortunately, in November 2019 I had a miscarriage at 10 weeks. The flare up continued and I put it down to my hormone levels still being off. The Obstetrician informed me it can take a couple of months for periods to settle down following a miscarriage so I wasn’t too concerned when I had a period in December but then not in January or February but I thought I should make an appointment with the GP just to get checked over. On Sunday 15th March, before booking an appointment I took a pregnancy test just in case and we were shocked to find out I was pregnant again.

I work as a domestic cleaner and come into contact with a lot of customers in close proximity so I worked for one more week then chose to self-isolate for 12 weeks from when the first UK lockdown began.

With Meniere’s, everyone’s pregnancy experiences are different; some find symptoms go away, some develop it during pregnancy and some find symptoms get worse. Up until this point I usually had warning signs of a vertigo attackbut over the 12 weeks of isolation my symptoms worsened and I found I was no longer getting warnings. As you can imagine, this made things quite scary. Basically, every action I took had an additional list of risk, even something as simple as carrying the washing basket up and down stairs came with the potential of losing balance or having a sudden attack and falling. Every day I had some sort of symptoms, mostly just unsteadiness with a bit of dizziness where I could generally carry on and cope but then there were other days where the dizziness would be too intense and I would have to lay down until it passed. There were also quite a few days which left me bedbound with diarrhoea and vomiting. Needless to say, I ended up being signed off sick for the rest of the pregnancy and voluntarily stopped driving.

In terms of usual pregnancy symptoms, I had nausea, a low iron count and SPD (Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction) so nights became quite uncomfortable but it felt manageable. However, with all of this combined I lost a lot of independence and with the pandemic restrictions as well it became quite lonely and felt as if I had been robbed of this wonderful, magical experience that the media and so many women talk about and I needed to adjust my expectations.

Surprisingly, I didn’t have any worries about the general process of labour, the only thing that weighed greatly on my mind was “what if I have an attack during labour?”. In normal circumstances I would be bedbound and in the recovery position until the attack finishes but I knew this wouldn’t be an option when giving birth! I discussed my fears with the midwife but they couldn’t really suggest any sort of plan so we would need to play it by ear.

I reached 40 weeks but baby had still not arrived so I was booked in for an induction on 19th November at 41 weeks and 5 days. At this point in the pandemic our hospital allowed partners on the ward for induction for the first 2 hours but then they had to leave and come back to either collect their partner or join them in the delivery suite if they were in established labour. I had the pessary inserted at 2pm and had severe period-like pains to start with but then contractions started at around 6pm. I was discharged at 8:30pm and told to phone when I felt I needed to come back in rather than just show up. My contractions increased in severity and were getting closer together very quickly so by midnight we had phoned and my partner dropped me off at the doors so that I could be assessed to ensure I was in established labour. 45 minutes later and my partner came to meet me and the midwife to be taken to a delivery suite. I had planned to use a birthing pool as a method of pain relief but unfortunately the midwife led unit was closed due to the increased cases of COVID-19 so there weren’t any available. I wanted to avoid pain medication as much as possible because I wasn’t sure how my Meniere’s would react to it, however, I took 2 lots of paracetamol and 1 dose of Oramorph as I had taken them before and knew they don’t affect me but mainly tried to power through as much as possible. At about 1am the midwife could tell that the pain was increasing so really pushed that I give gas and air a try but annoyingly this brought on dizziness so I had to stop.

At 3:15am I gave my one final push and my baby girl was here. The midwives couldn’t believe it as I am a first-time mum but was only in established labour for 3 hours and the entire labour was roughly 9 hours long. We were all relieved that my Meniere’s luckily stayed at bay.

I had some natural perineal tearing so they stitched me up before taking Alice’s measurements and getting her dressed. I had a shower and got myself dressed then they ran through everything we needed to be aware of, gave us her red book along with a lot of very useful handouts and then by midday I was discharged and we were on our way home. Our hospital’s COVID policy meant that officially my partner was only allowed to stay for 2 hours past birth but the midwives happily turned a blind eye and allowed him to stay until I was discharged as he hadn’t left the room.

While the pandemic and government and hospital restrictions made for a very interesting pregnancy and birthing experience, one thing that is for sure is that the care I received was brilliant from start to finish, I still had all my necessary appointments and all staff did the utmost to try to make the whole process and experience as normal and enjoyable as possible.

The prospect of giving birth can be a daunting one at the best of times, let alone with suffering from a chronic condition and a pandemic in tow but with the help of these amazing midwives and your own determination, it is possible and will certainly make for an interesting story once your baby is grown up. To anybody pregnant right now, please know that you are never alone in this journey and remember, you can do this!

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