Aimee
At 39 weeks and 4 days I had a pre-labour rupture of membranes, meaning my waters broke before labour. My midwife Marita was supportive of my choice to have daily check-ins and monitoring until the onset of contractions. My husband and I discussed our cutoff time and when we’d consider next steps as we did not want to give up on our plan to birth at home. The next day I decided to request a stretch and sweep in the comfort of my own bed where we discovered my cervix was sitting at 2cm dilated and fully effaced (thinned out). I felt cramping begin while Marita conducted the sweep. We then went for a short night stroll to keep the momentum going.
I woke to contractions the next morning at 3am, which I managed to ignore and go back to sleep until 4am. I started having intense and regular contractions from 4:15am, around three every ten minutes, with some lasting two or more minutes. I had a small breakfast and tried to distract myself with shows, dancing and moving on the ball. This phase lasted about 30 minutes before I was deep in ‘labour land’, with my TENS machine on and turning completely inward. I rested in an exaggerated side-lie, though I started to become nauseous and vomited repeatedly – I couldn’t keep water or hydrolyte down. I needed some relief, so I sat in the shower for an hour which thankfully helped with my nausea.
By this time my amazing doula Alice arrived, and I tried to rest on my bed with my TENS on while my husband and doula tickled and massaged my body. This went for about 7 more hours. Our secondary midwife, the lovely Bridget arrived and sat with me through my contractions, reminding me of how capable I was and that my body was strong. Bridget, Alice and my husband, Sheldon sat beside me and held the space and provided me with supportive words and affirmations of safety and trust. I was essentially nonverbal except for a “what the f*** is this” every few contractions. Every time however I was met with softness and love and told that I was safe and strong and that my body was working really hard for my baby. This grounded me and was just what I needed.
When I was told the bath was ready, I moved the fastest that I did all day to get in the water, I didn’t move from the pool for about 4 hours. I immediately melted into the warm water and even though the labour did slow down, I managed to have a wonderful ‘rest and be thankful’ period and even snored between contractions!
When I woke from my nap, my amazing primary midwife Marita had arrived and was sitting next to me smiling. It wasn’t long after this that I could feel myself starting to move into my transition. All I wanted was for the pain to stop even if that meant transferring for an epidural which was something I avidly wanted to avoid. Though because I knew I was in transition, I didn’t want to give those thoughts any fuel, so I didn’t even say them aloud. Instead, I opened my eyes and for the first time in hours I spoke and said to Marita “I’m really fatigued. Can we have a plan?”. She replied, “would you like to try and pee on the toilet?” I was reluctant to move but wanted to try something, so I moved onto my hands and knees, had a big contraction and then lent over the side of the pool. I thought about what I’d need to transfer: stand up, turn a light on, get in the car, talk to people at the hospital and deal with all of that. Then said to myself, “girl you’re here till this baby is out, we’re not going anywhere”.
A few contractions later, I felt an audible thud of baby beginning to descend. I pushed for just over an hour. I didn’t force anything; I breathed through the sensations until my body took over, having about 2 pushes each contraction. I softened everything and then softened some more. I unclenched my jaw, held my hands in a praying like position, opened my mouth to ensure softness and bowed my head down. I could feel his head descending slowly and stretching everything beautifully. My team was so calm during all of this, and the room was silent for me to do my thing.
As I got closer to ‘the ring of fire’ I reached down, felt his head and spoke to him, telling him how excited I was to meet him and that it was so close. In my next contraction I breathed for as long as I could and then like a sneeze, my body took over again and I experienced the fetal ejection reflex where his body was born in entirety. I didn’t tear, I had a very minor internal wall graze. Everything was perfect. My husband sat with me in the pool meeting our perfect son for the first time, something we’ve longed for.
After about 20 minutes of sitting in the pool, I stood up and walked to the couch for a physiological third stage. My doula prepared me my first meal of delicious congee and we sat around talking, laughing and adoring our son.
About an hour after the birth, I began to breastfeed. I had no significant bleeding at this point and the umbilical cord had not lengthened. Shortly afterwards I passed a large clot and started bleeding. There were still no other signs of placental separation, so Marita attempted gentle cord traction, however with no success, she escalated to intramuscular oxytocin. The bleeding continued so Marita placed a urinary catheter to see if emptying my bladder would help the placenta to birth. Then due to the blood loss increasing, she placed an IV cannula, started fluid resuscitation, called an ambulance and gave intramuscular syntometrine (ergometrine and oxytocin). Marita liaised with paramedics and directly with the admitting hospital so they could prepare a surgical theatre before our arrival. After arriving in theatre, I was placed under general anaesthetic for a manual placental removal where I also a received a blood transfusion.
Despite experiencing a significant PPH, Marita and Bridget held the space in a calm and professional manner, and I never felt unsafe or scared. I was confident in their ability to manage this medical situation in the home environment and supported the call to transfer as it was the next required step. Marita stayed with my husband and son while I was in surgery and stayed with us until we were settled into our room.
I am so grateful for the care and support I received antenatally, during birth and postnatally.
Birth story by Aimee.
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