"A really positive birth despite a twist in the plot"
I wanted to share my birth story as it was not what I had expected and thanks to Hypnobubs we were able to have a really positive birth despite a twist in the plot.
At 1:49am Saturday 12th December, Felicity Nanette came into the world via emergency C-section.
My waters broke just before 1:30am the previous morning after I got up to go to the loo. My husband and I live 130km from town so we rang the hospital and packed our bags then headed into town. I was confused at first that I didn't seem to be having surged, thinking if your membranes released that meant you were in labour. My amazing body was working on dilating my cervix before I went into labour and I was 4cm when I started labouring around 12:30pm. I used aromatherapy, acupressure and all the other hypnobirthing tips and tricks to help my body go into labour on its own and was very glad I didn't need to be induced. At 4pm we were admitted to the hospital. I used the TENS machine to help with my discomfit and later used a little bit of gas. As my labour progressed the gas just didn't cut it and I was breathing so deeply I couldn't get enough air through the mouth piece and was getting a funny taste in the back of my mouth so I stopped using the gas and went without anything. I laboured really well and my emotions were up and down but I had my wonderful husband supporting me and my midwife was amazing.
By 8pm I was starting to get run down and had had enough. Felicity should have made her appearance by 9pm since I was fully dilated apart from a lip on the cervix. By 10 when she still hadn't arrived I was beyond exhausted and we started to think something might be wrong.
We called the doctor in and decided to have an epidural so that I could rest and let the swelling go down on my cervix (as the lip had become enflamed). This meant we had to wait for another doctor to come in to do the epidural. By 11 however the doctor came to me and said he thought it was best we went for a C-section. I knew he was right as I felt if the baby was going to be born naturally she would have arrived by now. Something was wrong and we needed to get her out before she became distressed.
I never in a million years thought I would need a C-section! I had always concluded I was built like my grandmother who had 8 natural births. I was built to birth. I'm tall, robust and in good shape. But all that was going through my head at the time was "I am prepared to calmly meet whatever turn my birthing takes". And I did.
In theatre I was beyond relieved to have everything go numb as the surges had worn me down and I'd cracked and wasn't handling it anymore. I was so lucky to have an amazing team in theatre who were so supportive and wonderful. My amazing midwife finally went home since I was in good hands (she finished at 9:30 but stayed with me until 1am when I went through to theatre). I was afraid but I knew that I had to do what was best for the baby. The doctor gave it 3 good goes with the kiwi cup to try and get her out, the doctors and nurses gathered around me enthusiasticly cheering me on, to push when each surge came (a challenge as I could no longer feel anything) and telling me I did really well. I was so grateful that they had tried to avoid a C-section but we'd given it our best shot.
I later asked the midwife who had been in theatre and was told bub had deflexed her head before decending through the spines in my pelvis and the circumference was just too large for the space. And because there was so little amniotic fluid left around her she had no room to move so ended up wedged against my spines.
Birth is a wonderful thing in that it is such a perfect process. Its a miracle because everything is so perfect. So it doesn't take much to interfere with that. I had a very hard time in the following days adjusting to the idea that I had had to have a C-section as I felt as though I had failed. That I wasn't good enough and I still desperately want to experience a natural birth which means I will have to travel to Perth for a VBAC for the next one. But even with all that we still achieved a positive birthing experience because I was calm and in control, and was able to do what needed to be done so that my baby remained calm and untraumatised. Had I not done the hypnobubs course I'm not sure I would have achieved that.
My husband John was with me the whole time and was a spectacular birth partner thanks to the hypnobubs course.
3 weeks on it all seems like a faded dream somehow. I completely understand how women say you soon forget it. My body is amazing. It grew a precious life, from a tiny cell into a perfect human being then laboured for over 12 hours to bring that life into the world, then somehow recovered from major abdominal surgery while producing milk to nurture that life further. She was 3.72kg and 50cm long (which some people seem to think is a big baby and have the gall to tell me I'll never have a natural birth).
Everything was perfect and we did everything right, we just hit one little speed bump.
Right now I am enjoying my precious little girl and learning how to be a mum but I'm excited to try again. Because I know I can do it :)
Thank you Hypnobubs.
Rhiannon, Western Australia.
