Birth story - Mum and baby boy

-Pregnancy-

I had a pretty rough pregnancy! I got hyperemesis gravidarum by week 5 as well as major issues with my thyroid that caused symptoms that mimicked a head injury. I was off work by week 7 and lost the ability to use my eyes at all. It’s honestly a crazy and long story but I was bed ridden in a pitch black room with no sound for the first 14 weeks. In addition to that I was in an out of the hospital and also getting IV fluids multiple times a week. I then got Covid at 12 weeks and was in the hospital and then monitored at home. It took me 3 weeks to recover from Covid. I finally started feeling better around 16 weeks which is when I went back to work and the remainder of my pregnancy went relatively smooth. Once I got to the 3rd trimester however my baby was posterior and I was strep b positive so that was hard for me to accept as I wanted to pretty much simulate a home birth in the hospital and I was told posterior babies are longer labors as well as much more painful and being strep b positive would mean I would be hooked up to an IV. I did everything to flip my baby lol spinning babies, Miles circuit, curb walking, never being reclined, hands and knees, birth ball, chiro, like I’m talking up to 3 hours a day of working out with these techniques and then walking 2km. And I was successful! My baby turned to the correct position at my 39 week apt! I was so excited! I was also eating dates everyday, drinking red raspberry leaf tea as well!

-Labor and Delivery-

It was Sept 14th and I woke up that day literally not feeling a single thing. I was 39 weeks and 4 days and honestly thought I was going to go over my due date. However I did have the urge to make sure everything was ready and even made the comment “I literally have to clean this house because if I go into labor and the house is a mess it will stress me out” 😂 so I cleaned the house and then thought I’d like to have an early dinner (we always eat around 7pm) but this day I made a nice dinner and was eating by 4pm! (Thank god!) after that I asked my husband to go for a walk and said I want to try and get to 3Km today. His response “don’t you think you should rest so you’re not completely worn out when you do go into labor” hahah and my response was “I’m fine let’s go.” So we went for a 3Km walk at 6:30pm. We got home at 7:15pm and I was just going pee and then was going to drink my tea and sit on my ball. When I went pee and wiped there was a little bit of light pink blood. I thought this must be the start of my mucus plug coming out but was not worried at all. I texted my doula and she told me to text the midwife to just let them know. My text “I had a bit of blood when I wiped but feeling no signs of labor at all so I don’t think this is urgent at all.” I sent that text and as I was walking down my hall my waters broke (and it was just like the movies) a massive gush went everywhere and just kept pouring out of me! I called the midwife and because being strep b positive I had to go to the hospital to start on IV antibiotics.

We get to the hospital about an hour later and I still haven’t had any sign of labor or changes, no pains, no contractions, no cramps nothing! So the midwife suggested being induced as we didn’t want to wait too long and with no sign of labor it was a gamble on what we should do. I had to get antibiotics every 4 hours so we had decided to go home and come back in 4 hours and see at that time if I should be induced. I also got an ultrasound to check position and to my surprise he had flipped again back to posterior! I was so upset and scared. At the hospital I had a total of 2 extremely mild contractions and said I was going to go home and try to sleep for the 4 hours so I was prepared for labor. My doula asked if she should come to my house and I said no she should go sleep because I was sure it would be hours before early labor really kicked off. We live 20 minutes away from the hospital and as soon as we started driving home my contractions were getting stronger and faster. By the time we pulled into the driveway of my house my app said I was in active labor. As soon as I got out of my car on my next contraction I felt the urge to push. I immediately called my doula and told her to meet us at the hospital. She called the midwife to let her know to come back and she said the midwife was shocked we were coming back and thought there was no way I went from literally 0 signs of labor to full blown active labor and ready to push in 2 hours.

Once I was at the hospital and they finally got me into the labor room my midwife checked me and I was fully dilated and ready to push. I labored on the toilet and in the birthing tub and then went back on the bed and had my boy in my arms at 3:09am! I pushed for a total of 2.5 hours. I did have back labor the entire time and he did end up flipping back to anterior right before crowning! My total labor was 7 hours and 51 minutes from the time my water broke to him being in my arms. I did it unmedicated and it honestly was the absolute best birth I could have asked for. Almost everything I wanted and planned came true. I had a 2nd degree tear and a few stitches but overall not bad at all!

-Postpartum-

This is where things took a slight turn. While I didn’t hemorrhage the amount of blood I lost, mixed with extremely low iron/hemoglobin at the end of my pregnancy, caused some issues for me. I did black out after my placenta was delivered and my heart rate went up pretty high. However after a catheter, IV fluids and a blood transfusion I was able to go home after 3 days.

Honestly the entire thing I consider positive and this hypnobirthing course helped me immensely during the it all.