Jade's Story

In this week's birth story, Jade beautifully shares the ups and downs of the birth of her first baby, after a 41 week pregnancy.

From dealing with different advice from different health professionals, to ultimately discovering a breech presentation, Jade's story will resonate with so many of you, I'm sure!

 

Thank you Jade for sharing these wonderful words with us...

What Was Life Like Before Your Pregnancy?

My partner and I have been together for 10 years and decided we were ready to add a baby into this crazy world!

We'd been renovating our house, both working full time jobs, just having a few adventures away camping, or drives to see friends living in little country towns. 

 

Tell Us A Little About Your Pregnancy...

My pregnancy went along really well!

I enjoyed being pregnant and had a great time. I still did most things, although I was tired so my 5am gym-going life went by the way side! 

I still managed to keep active, went for walks every second day when I got home from work.

We renovated 2 rooms in our house, completely gutting them, and I was planning our wedding. I worked basically right up to 39 weeks. 

All of our appointments went cruisey, we were seeing midwifes at the local hospital. And because I didn't have any issues or concerns, I wasn't really bothered by much, I didn't have much to ask during appointments.

I leaned on a few close people who had been pregnant to talk through issues, but I didn't worry about much. 

 

How were you feeling in the lead up to birth?

I was getting a little bit nervous about birth, just because it was our first baby. I had no idea what to expect or what the experience was going to be like.

Everyone can tell you about birth, but you don't really know what to expect or what will happen until you are in that moment!

I was excited to meet our baby. But on the other hand... just nervous about it all. 

Tell us about the birth...

In the end, our little baby decided that life on the inside was way better than coming out!

So I was 10 days overdue by the time we had our baby.

We had a midwife appointment at 40 weeks 6 days.

She checked everything, it was all good, had a feel of my belly, told me that the head was down and that the butt was up, and said "yep we'll book in your induction this week".

So on day 9, we were booked in to start our induction, and the midwife recommended using the gel method.

We made the arrangements to go to the hospital, and arrive at the arranged time. We head up and are greeted by a midwife who tells us they basically don't have enough staff and to go away and come back in 2hrs time!

So, we left, went for a drive by the water, got dinner, went home and my partner called the hospital to get a time to go up again.

Then we head up again.

This time - success!

We go in, get a room, get assigned a different midwife (thank goodness, the other one made me cry!). This midwife tells me that the gel is not good for first time mums and that I will need the balloon catheter.

Alright... slight change again!

I think "Thats fine, I can handle this!".

I get hooked up to the monitoring machines and away we go.

They come back to check everything and it's all good to go, she mentions she'll just go get the doctor before we start and do a double check.

The doctor comes, checks me over, feels my belly, gets the ultrasound machine out and turns and says...

"Ah... so we're not going to start the induction. That's actually your baby's head at the top of your belly, your  baby is breach,".

She looks at my chart, saw I was 9 days overdue and said "Well good news, you're still having your baby tomorrow because you're overdue".

She made some calls to sort it out, came back and told me I was now classed as an emergency caesarean that we would have tomorrow.

Then - the waterworks happened.

They didn't really stop until I went to sleep!

I got all my bloods done, signed my life away and was told to go home get some sleep and come back in the morning at 7:30am.

The next day rolls around... we go back to the hospital. We were even a bit early, go to the nurses station check in.

We get moved around 3 times before they set us up, because they were that full apparently.

Ended up in the room where they do iron infusions and take bloods etc.

Then, if that wasn't bad enough the chaos begins: our midwife comes in and is in a bit of a huff because she couldn't find us. Everything's going on, theatre were waiting for us, we had to get down there asap.

We make it to the theatre, go into the first room, and meet the anaesthetist. 

He and his nurse/assistant were the best thing about the whole process - so chilled and relaxed and explained everything way more than anyone else did. The assistant was really calming, she ended up taking pictures in theatre for us. She even rubbed and held my hand during surgery and was extremely comforting.

I got all hooked up, epidural in and lay down and away we go.

Wheeled into theatre, told what was happening, my partner comes in, and it all starts!

I think I was given fentyl at this point and I basically threw up straight away. I've never ever had any kind of surgery or needed to take any kind of strong medication, so I wasn't expecting that, or how I would react to drugs.

I needed the oxygen mask on a few times during the operation, I was shivering.

Our anaesthetist told us to play music on my phone and he kept telling me to look at my partner, while he  was monitoring the whole thing.

Then our little girl was born at 10:02am.

It went well, she did need a little bit of extra assistance but afterwards my partner had her and brought her back over, saw her properly for the first time.

They had been a bit forceful my whole surgery, which I'm not sure is normal or not but seemed excessive really.

It got to a point that our anaesthetist told them to stop pushing on my stomach and this and that, and by the end he was telling them to hurry up and finish it off (i believe we had a training surgeon in with us as well, and from what my partner said that they were kind if fighting slightly arguing with each other while they were stitching me back up).

My partner and baby had gone into recovery and he said it was another hour or more before I was wheeled into recovery as well.

I got my epidural at 9:30am, baby born at 10:02am and I was wheeled into recovery around 12:30 or maybe a bit afterwards.

The team in recovery were lovely and could probably see I was overwhelmed. One of the ladies put her arm on my shoulder and said "It's ok, you're safe, it's all good now".

Then I got wheeled up to our ward and that was that. 

Can you share the positives of your birth?

• We got to meet our baby girl - a big surprise because we waited 10 months to find out what we were having. 
• Our anaesthetist and his nurse/assistant, because they were the best team to have. They helped us stay relatively calm and explained things. Just what we needed in that moment. 
• The strength of my partner to see all that during surgery and the aftermath. 

 

Was there anything unexpected or surprising about your birth?

Unexpected I guess how kind of 'emotionless' a few people were at the hospital. I understand they have a job to do, but some of the midwives were not that great. Bit rough on someone who is having their first baby! It was quite an emotional experience the whole thing. 

How was your physical recovery?

I was rather slow getting back up and about afterwards but I have an extremely supportive partner and he helped a lot. I also think he wanted me to be slow and steady at getting back into the swing of things and not tear myself open at my wound. I haven't really gotten back into my normal pre pregnancy exercise routine but thats ok for now I think. 

What advice would you give your 'pre-C-section' self?

It will be ok, and even though you can't handle hard drugs, you don't need them after the first day really.

I managed a lot without the strong pain medication, I don't like how it made me feel.

Whatever the outcome, you have a healthy baby in the end because I did not want an epidural and ended up having one so... what birth plan?!

Also, get some fresh air because it definitely soothes the soul (even just get out of your room in the hospital, a walk down the corridor is healthy).