Baby N is our 4th child, and having had 3 pretty positive birth experiences before I wasn’t too worried about giving birth this time around.
My birth with my first baby nearly 9 years ago had been quite difficult, with a very long induced labour, but the care we received couldn’t have been faulted so despite it not being easy I was still left feeling positive about how everything had gone and how we’d been looked after. We were both unwell after the birth so had to stay in hospital longer than usual in the transitional care ward, and over the week saw countless doctors, nurses and midwives – all of them helpful and kind. I’m particularly grateful to the nightshift staff who spent time helping me establish feeding, which I didn’t find easy the first time around as a new mum.
My next two babies came along without too much trouble, the 2nd a week late, and 3rd a couple of weeks early. My due date with N was the 18th of December, so I was mainly concerned with whether she would be born on T’s birthday as he’s also in December just a couple of days before that, so I didn’t think too much about her being a Christmas baby, but as her due date came and went, the boys all started to hope that maybe she would be born on Christmas day.
Luckily for them, they got their wish and baby N ended up arriving just after 8am on Christmas morning, which is of course the best present I could have asked for!
As Christmas day is the biggest national holiday, you might be worried about the hospital being short staffed, or whether everything will be running as normal within the maternity and delivery wards. In the hospital that I had baby N in, routine midwife appointments were affected by Christmas as the antenatal clinic closes for a couple of days but everything else was be up and running as usual to deal with any emergencies, or of course with the Christmas births. This should be standard everywhere, and you shouldn’t have to expect any closures or any problems on the delivery ward. We actually got the added bonus of being plenty of parking spaces right outside the maternity hospital, whereas normally its very busy and hard to park there – so there are a few little Christmas bonuses like that!
Considering she was my 4th baby, N’s labour was quite slow moving, as I started off with some mild pains on Christmas eve morning, but didn’t really get properly into labour until the late evening. I took the kids to the park on Christmas eve to have a good walk and hopefully get things going more, then went in to get checked in the evening but was only a couple of centimetres so was asked to go back home and see how I got on. Once I got back home, the pain started to increase a bit so I wasn’t able to sleep at all. I was just pacing around and by 5am decided to go back to the hospital so that I could hopefully get some gas and air (fantastic stuff!!)
It hadn’t been too busy with Christmas babies on the delivery ward, as none had been born yet when I went back in at 5am, although some had in the birth centre of the hospital. One of the midwives had prepared a little present for the first Christmas baby to be born in the ward which I thought was a really sweet idea. Another baby was born first though, so baby N was the 2nd Christmas baby born on the ward.
It was really nice to get a Christmas dinner delivered to me down in the postnatal ward that day, to feel a bit festive even though we were in hospital. We were hoping to get her newborn check done and get home that day but unfortunately there were some delays with that so only made it back the next morning, I was glad we didn’t have to stay in any longer than that though.
I’ve been really lucky that all of our births have gone pretty smoothly, and we’ve had a good experience each time. Having a baby on Christmas day was quite special, especially as the boys had really wishes for that, and now the festive season will be just that bit more special and exciting for us each year as we look forward to little N’s birthdays on that day too. I can’t believe that time has come around already and she’s almost going to be one!
If you’ve not had a positive experience, and have suffered medical negligence then you may want to consider getting in touch with medical negligence experts such as Your Legal Friend
Anna Marikar, mum of four and seasoned blogger, has spent over a decade sharing her parenting journey and passion for kid-friendly crafts and free printables.
Her easy-to-follow craft ideas and practical parenting advice have transformed In The Playroom into a cherished resource for parents.
What a beautiful and precious gift to receive on Christmas day, I have three children and my 1st was 5 weeks early my 2nd was on her due date and my 8 month old was 8 days late, then arrived before her daddy got back from a ten minute drive to drop our 13 and 5 year olds to my sister who was waiting in the car park for them, he always says to our daughter you made me wait 8 days for you and you couldn’t wait 10 minutes for me, I’ve waited in a Mcdonalds queue for longer than that, my brothers 1st baby is due on the 27th December we’re hoping he comes two days early xxx
Aww good luck to them! I hope they get a Christmas baby, it is very special 🙂