Chloe: First Birth, Positive Emergency C-Section After Water Birth 48 Hour Labour and Succenturiate Placenta

From British Birthing Stories by Georgia McGivern

May 5, 2026 · 59 min · Episode 31

About this episode

Chloe shares her experience of a challenging first birth that led to an emergency C-section and the discovery of a rare placenta type.

She pushed for five hours. Her baby kept getting stuck. And when she finally made the call for a C section, the medical team tried to talk her out of it before admitting it was probably the right idea all along. Chloe is a veterinary neurologist from West Berkshire and a first time mum who went into birth as prepared as anyone could be. Hypnobirthing, research, a birth pool, a TENS machine, and a very clear birth plan. What followed was 48 hours of labour, a cervical lip that nobody had spotted, and a pushing stage that lasted five hours before things came to a halt. Chloe trusted her gut, held her ground with the team, and consented to an emergency C section. Then came the moment that reframed everything. Her placenta turned out to be a rare succenturiate type, meaning a vaginal delivery could have had very serious consequences for both of them. In this episode we talk about: How Chloe combined hypnobirthing with a research driven approach and what she took from each What a cervical lip is and how it can stall even the most established labour Why Chloe asked for a C section herself and had to fight for it The rare succenturiate placenta discovery and what it meant for her birth…

People in this episode

Host: Georgia McGivern

Guest: Chloe

Topics covered

first birth
emergency C-section
hypnobirthing
labour experience
placenta types
birth planning

Keywords

first birth
C-section
hypnobirthing
labour
succenturiate placenta
birth plan
vaginal delivery
cervical lip

Mentioned in this episode

Places: West Berkshire