Birth story - Amanda and baby boy and girl

*Trigger warning* - general anesthesia, growth restriction, placental abruption, category 1 c-section.

This is a bit of a wild story, but I feel like it is incredibly important to share as often, birth doesn’t go as “planned” but can still be so positive. Mindset is so everything!

My pregnancy was a rollercoaster! I found out I was pregnant and reached out to the best home birthing midwife team in our city. My previous sons birth was wonderful, however, I really wanted to avoid interventions and was so wanting a home birth! However, I went for an early scan at 10 weeks due to going on vacation to the USA to visit family, and found out I was having twins!!

In NZ, it’s difficult to find a midwife that will lead a twin home birth- and honestly after my birth I am SO glad I was where I was!! I decided to go with a private OB team as well as my amazing midwife.

Pregnancy was straight forward (nausea in the first trimester, but nothing too crazy) until week 24. I had a routine growth scan that picked up that baby girl was measuring really small. They prepared me for the worst and I started going for weekly scans. They said to be prepared for very preterm babies and it was a bit scary. At 28 weeks, I started going for twice weekly scans at the hospital- Dopplers, and biweekly for growth scans. Despite everyone’s apprehension, we made it all the way to week 37!!!!

Along the way, the OB team was heavily pushing for a c section because of baby b’s size and Dopplers. As we got further, and the very last scan we had, Dopplers were totally normal and she was on track for weighing about 5.5 lbs!!

Birth:

They don’t really like twins to go past 37/38 weeks so I was scheduled to be induced at 37 bang on. I was apprehensive about induction at the beginning, but as the weeks went on I was SO ready for them to be there! My OB tried the balloon catheter 3 times, but it kept falling out. She called in another OB to give it a go, and by that time (2 hours later) I had dilated to 3cm. I was having some “twinges” so they kept me for monitoring over night.

The next day we waited in maternity until 5:30 pm for them to take me to the birthing suite. My OB broke my waters and we set the room up with fake candles, crystals, my birth playlist and dimmed the lights. They gave me 2 hours to see if my body would kick into more established labor. My midwife came around 7, and she got me started on the oxitocin. From there my contractions got a bit stronger, but nothing I couldn’t manage with up breathing and music.

I was being monitored constantly with the whole twin thing, especially watching baby b. All of a sudden, my midwives couldn’t find a very good reading of their heart rates, and baby b’s was looking like it was in the 60’s and not recovering back to normal. At this point, a button was pushed and the room was flooded with people. My OB came in and checked me, and said I was 5/6 cm, which blew my mind as I was feeling quite a bit of pain! He then told me that babies needed to come asap and they got me prepared for theatre. From that point to being wheeled out the door- approximately 10 feet, my body began to push. My midwife told me to listen to my body and from leaving that room and getting to theatre- 2 mins later, my OB announced that baby a would be born then! I let out one, very loud yell and was coached by the OB to push and resist. My midwife and husband were both holding my hands and reciting my birth affirmations, which was incredibly empowering!! In literally 2 more pushes, my son was out! I was so mind blown and proud and happy that I had just given birth completely unmedicated, that my contractions stopped completely as he was placed on my chest. It was the MOST euphoric feeling in the world!!

From there, things got very hairy. I will leave out a lot of details, but basically because I hadn’t had an epidural or spinal they had to act very quickly to get my baby girl out. They popped her waters, which were just blood- which indicated placental abruption and they couldn’t find her heart rate. At that point, they had to put me under general anesthesia. My husband held my hand as I drifted off and told me how powerful I was.

It was less than 8 minutes between my natural vaginal birth with baby a and baby b being delivered via category 1 emergency c section. She came out teeny tiny, smaller than anyone had thought, but SO fiesty!!

I woke up in recovery, and baby a and I had beautiful skin to skin and he latched immediately! Baby girl had been taken to NICU, and I couldn’t visit her until the following day.

Despite the craziness, I got my beautiful, natural birth that I so craved and my baby girl was just fine… just super small! We leave NICU this week after being in there for 2 weeks. I truly would have been so nervous if it weren’t for all the beautiful stories and positive tools I learnt. My husband and midwife were my rocks, keeping me feeling empowered and calm. And my OB did everything in his power to keep my birth preferences in mind- even in the midst of the chaos.

I hope my story can empower other women to trust in their bodies, and also trust in the medical community when necessary. I am SO grateful

P.s. our bodies are freakin amazing! Two weeks post vaginal and c section and I feel pretty amazing. I’m off pain meds and feeling relatively “normal”.