Due date: 20 July

Birth date: 22 July

Birth weight: 3.040kg

Birth length: 50cm

The basis of my birth plan was to have a natural, drug free waterbirth. I was part of the MGP program at Flinders so my plan was very much supported by this group.

I had a stretch and sweep at my 40 week midwife appointment on Sunday 18 th July.

I started having surges around 6.30pm on Wednesday 21 July. Whilst eating dinner, they were coming and going and it was then that I realised this was early labour. After dinner, I jumped in the bath for an hour or so and put on my hypnobirthing tracks and LED candles to try and relax before the surges got stronger. After a bath, I wanted to try and get some sleep (it was around 9pm by now) but the surges started getting stronger and I was very uncomfortable in bed, so I got up and put on my TENS machine and I sat on my exercise ball over the bed. The TENS machine was a god send! I am so glad I hired it and will definitely get one again for the next birth. My surges were getting stronger and closer together by the minute and by 11.30pm they were at 3 in 10 mins, lasting between 60-90 seconds each so we called the hospital to let them know I was in labour. I was comfortable at home in my own space so when the lady on the other end of the phone asked if I was happy to stay at home I said yes. I spent the next 5-6 hours labouring at home and by about 4.30am I was ready to head to the hospital.

By the time we got to hospital, my surges had completely died off and were only at 2 in 10 I started at the hospital by labouring on the exercise ball over the bed bed with my TENS machine before jumping in the shower after a couple of hours. The midwife offered me gas and air to help relieve some of the pain from the surges but I already felt sick and felt like that would only make it worse, so I declined and continued labouring without any relief aside from the TENS machine. Evie was asynclitic and my surges were not getting any closer together so the midwife tried some spinning babies exercises to see if we could get Evie into the right position.

After approx. 4 hours in hospital, 16 hours labouring and being awake for over 24 hours, I was completely and utterly exhausted. The midwife said that if I wanted to continue natural labour, it would like be at least another 8-10 hours until my body was ready. She could see how exhausted I was and I Knew I couldn’t keep going all day so she suggested I have an epidural and they break my waters to see if this would speed things up and get Evie into the right position. I agreed and had this around lunch time. I felt so much weight and pressure lifted off my shoulders once I had the epidural and I went from 4cm to 8cm dilated within another 4 hours and Evie had moved herself into the right position for birth. Another hour or two later and I was fully dilated, The midwives gave us another hour to allow Evie to move a bit further down the birth canal as they said the process can be a bit slower when you’ve had an epidural. I started pushing at around 6.15pm and was pushing for somewhere between 45-60 minutes before the doctors came in and suggested a forceps delivery as Evie’s heart rate was getting very high and they were worried about how stressed we were both getting. I agreed to the forceps as I just wanted to get her out safe and sound. I chose to have an episiotomy to avoid the risk of a large tear and only ended up getting a small graze and a small tear from the delivery.

Once the doctors started the forceps delivery, it was only another 3 pushes and 15-20 minutes before Evie had arrived Earthside. The pressure from the forceps was very intense but it’s true what they say…. You forget about it all as soon as they are on are your chest We wanted to do delayed cord clamping and have a natural placenta delivery but the doctors advised against this due to the trauma from the forceps delivery so hubby cut the cord straight away and the doctors gave me an injection and pulled out the placenta. We did almost 2 hours of skin to skin and our first breastfeed before the they started checking Evie which was really lovely, and one of the only things from our birth plan that actually went to plan! Although I was a little sad that I didn’t get the natural, drug free water birth I wanted; I am very grateful that Evie arrived safe and sound and I still got to deliver my babe vaginally.

Evie was born at 7.19pm on Thursday 22 July after almost a 25 hour labour (approx. 10 hours active labour from what I can recall). She was born on my mother’s birthday and has my husband’s late mother’s name as her middle name; so she has a piece of each grandma with her forever

Post birth recovery took a lot longer than anticipated and we were stuck in hospital for 5 days. I was very swollen and sore after the forceps delivery and was unable to complete the test and void after my catheter came out Thursday night, so they put one back in at 3am Friday morning and said they’d take it out after 24 hours. The doctors came to check on me the following day and found I Had a haematoma so I had to go to surgery to have that drained and was put under general anaesthetic for this. The post surgery recovery was tough, I remained sore and swollen for another 2 days after surgery and the catheter stayed in until Tuesday morning. It came out at 8am and we did another test and void. It was getting close to the 6 hour mark and I hadn’t been able to do my first wee so I was really worried that they would have to pout it back in and we’d have to stay another night or two. By this time I was sooooo ready to go home as I was feeling a lot better and getting sick of the four walls in that tiny little hospital room! The midwife came in and agve me a brochure with things I could do to try and help me wee. I sat on the toilet with the shower running, frank water on the toilet, poured water over my perinium, did everything possible to try and get that first wee out and finally, with about 20 minutes to spare.. it happened! It was such a relief, I called the midwife in to let her know and was so excited I put my hands up and yelled “I WEED!!!” Another midwife who had been looking after me a few of the days we were in overheard and came into the room super excited to hear that I had managed to get this out Normally they only make you do one more wee before they let you go but because it had taken me so long and my bladder was so full, they asked me to do another 2 which I managed to do in a another couple of hours and we were finally able to leave the hospital at 5.30pm Tuesday night.

I was grateful to have been in hospital during this time as I don’t think I would have managed very well at home due to the pain I was in.

It was great to have so much support and assistance from all the midwives in the post natal ward, especially whilst trying to learn to breastfeed.

We had a rough start to breastfeeding. I was finding it difficult to get Evie to latch and found it hard to figure out how to shape my boob and support her head at the same time. My milk came in on day 4 and this was very painful, I had some blocked milk ducts but managed to get rid f these within a day or two after some advice on what to do from the midwives. By this time, Evie had learnt to latch quite well but she had a really strong suck which was hurting my nipples and I ended up with cracked and very sore nipples! Breastfeeding became a lot easier once we were home and in our own environment and she is now feeding like an absolute champ! She put on 100g in 2 days and a further 160g in 4 days of being home.

Newborn life has been a bit hectic as you'd expect! Thank you Megan for the tools and techniques of the Hypnobirthing Australia Course. They helped me get through a large portion of my labour and make informed decisions relevant to our journey.

Thanks Jessica, Ryan & Evie x

Attend our childbirth education classes in Adelaide - Book here