Birth story - Samantha and baby Olivia

*Trigger Warning* - Use of the word contraction, Hyperemesis, posterior positioning, endometriosis & anxiety.

History:

My daughter was 14 months old when I found out I was pregnant again. I was in shock. I cried. LOTS but tried to remain positive.

The short story of my experience with my first is that the birth was incredible - I posted it on here and it can be found by searching. It was fast, easy and joyful however the pregnancy was awful due to experiencing Hyperemesis. Following her birth I had a lot of heavy bleeding for months and found out 4 months or so after her birth that I had endometriosis and was likely going to have surgery by the end of the year in the hope that falling pregnant didn’t take as long as it did with my first.

Little did I know, 4 weeks after the diagnosis and specialist appointment I would fall pregnant again. I felt like it was a blessing because it did happen so quickly but also my anxiety spiked immediately because of the likelihood of Hyperemesis again… but this time with a toddler!

Pregnancy:

My cycle was of course everywhere! I had a Mirina put in which ended up falling out so when I got the notification from my period tracking app that my cycle was currently on day 35, I honestly wasn’t that fussed. I did have extremely sore joints (weird, I know) so wanted to speak to my doctor about that, I knew she would likely run all the tests, one being a pregnancy test, to be safe. So I pee’d on the stick, popped it down and got on with my day. After about 3 hours, I went in to pop it in the bin and that’s when I saw “Pregnant” on the test. I booked in with my GP that day, got my scripts for the medication to assist with Hyperemesis and waited to see if by some miracle I would avoid it. How wrong I was!

I spent most of the first 4 months with hospital home care visiting my house twice a day to give me IV medication because I couldn’t keep anything orally down, fluids and nutrients. It was hell on earth and mentally was not in a good space.

The sickness continued throughout the remainder of my pregnancy unfortunately and I was struggling to really connect with the baby like I did with my first. I didn’t feel excited about meeting her and even started to become anxious about birth and my choice to home birth. A spike in Covid cases again in Perth (Australia) made me angry… I had birthed in peak Covid times with my first and after 2 years of our little bubble, boards had opened and the numbers shot up again … right before I was to birth! I would only be able to home birth if there was enough community midwifes available. Baby being posterior also didn’t help my emotions, the thought of going into hospital and birthing if the home birth didn’t go to plan was an extra stress.

The birth:

For the weeks leading up to my due date I was experiencing lots of cramps and became increasingly uncomfortable as the date approached. 9 days before due date I thought my waters might have gone whilst carrying my toddler around a shopping centre. Luckily it was a false alarm but the midwife popped over to double check and said that I was 1cm currently so things were at least moving in the right direction.

The week of due date, I was waking a lot throughout the night and felt at 3am every morning that I was ready to start my day. Rather than sitting in bed tossing and turning I began to get up and potter around completing housework tasks and catching up on Netflix.

Due date came and went and I couldn’t help but feel a little deflated. On due date I had an appointment with my midwife where she offered me a stretch and sweep, I jumped at the chance but unfortunately when the appointment day came they were incredibly short staffed due to Covid and had 2 ladies in labour with a 3rd looking like it was going to be that day also. They just couldn’t risk me going into labour. I was disappointed but was happy to know we had confirmed another appointment for Friday (2 days after due date). On Thursday whilst walking, I lost my plug so was sure the stretch and sweep would get things moving and we’d be meeting our baby over the weekend.

Friday 8th April came around and as always I woke at 3am with cramping and feeling uncomfortable. I went to the toilet and then jumped back into bed but within a few minutes knew I wasn’t going to get comfortable so headed out to do what I had been doing for the last week. I had this strange urge to sit in my birth space and listen to my playlist so grabbed my headphones and went to the rug in the room to sit with my dog and chill out. At about 3.30 I noticed the cramps were coming and going and thought I would time them just to see if there was any consistency to them. I used the Freya app for this and didn’t really pay much attention for the next 30 minutes then reviewed the app to see that they were happening every 3-4 minutes and lasting 50/60 seconds. I stated to get a little excited so woke my husband to tell him I was possibly going into labour. I told him to rest and I would wake him again when I needed the tens machine put on or needed to call the midwife.

The next 30 minutes flew by and by 4.30 I was wanting the tens machine on to ensure it was on before things got intense. My husband got up and popped it on and I called my midwife to let her know what was happening. I told her to hold off on coming over seeing as I was talking through them still and didn’t feel like it was too intense. I said I would call her in 30 minutes and we can assess how I was going. I stupidly put my phone away and continued to move on all 4’s and listen to my playlist.

Time absolutely flew by again and I noticed the sun was starting to come up, I asked for my phone and saw my midwife had messaged me at 5.10 asking how I was going and again at 5.40 saying she would let me sleep and didn’t want to call. By this time it was 5.50 and I was starting to find it difficult to talk through the contractions so called her to come over. We also called our incredible photographer to come over too.

Once Amanda (midwife) arrived she came into the room to see how I was going, this was at 6am, I was lucky to have her only few minutes from my house. Seeing her at the doorway was like seeing a saint, I got a bit emotional because I was relieved to see her, excited it was happening and nervous because I had been labouring for close to 3 hours and because of how quick my first birth was, I assumed my baby would have been in my arms by now. Amanda established quickly that I was in labour and she needed her back up to come now seeing she was coming from about an hour away (due to Covid and staff shortages). The photographer also arrived at 6am with Amanda and of course my toddler thought it was the perfect time to join the party.

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Amanda checked position of baby who had been sitting LOP in the later weeks of pregnancy. Unfortunately bub had decided to go OP (full posterior) so Amanda said I could crank the tens machine up if needed and not to hold back. I was left to labour with my husband and daughter which was perfect. My daughter was giving me lots of cuddles and kisses, was rubbing my back and giving me lots of encouragement.

@ambermay.birth photographer

At 7am Amanda asked my husband to help fill the pool up, I went to the bathroom, took off the tens machine and went into the pool at about 7:40. Because baby was OP my inner legs were in a lot of pain so the water felt incredible as it took my weight off of them, however I felt the tens did a lot more for the discomfort in my back so I was started doubting if the pool would be where I would birth!!

At about 7:50 I asked my husband if he could get his parents to collect my toddler as things were intensifying and I wanted my husband to be 100% with me to help me get through it, thankfully she was out the way by 8am and my husband was able to focus on supporting me 100%. With my first birth, I never had to push at all so the pushing sensation was new to me and was a little scary but I kept telling myself to trust my body and focused on my breathing and relaxing where I could between contractions. I went from kneeling in the pool to lying on my back, I held my husbands hand and my midwifes hand until baby’s head was crowning, from there, I guided her head out.

Our second daughter was born at 8.09am. It was the most intense and empowering experience.

@ambermay.birth photographer

I delivered the placenta naturally when I came out the pool 50 minutes after the birth. My husband called his parents to bring my daughter back to the house, whilst waiting for her to arrive we got to spend some time with our new baby, both enjoyed skin on skin time with her and my husband cut the cord.

Our photographer captured our daughter meeting her new sister which was super emotional and I continued to relax on the couch with my little family for hours following the birth. Amanda was amazing and didn’t rush any of the checks but everyone was out of our house my 11.45am.

@ambermay.birth photographer

It was surreal and so relaxing to be in our own space and to be able to have our family all together to enjoy our newest addition. For anyone thinking about home birth, I cannot recommend it enough and feel incredible blessed to have been able to have my dream birth during these crazy Covid times!

For anyone out there currently experiencing HG, you’ve got this! You’re strong, you’re incredible and you are a warrior! Any Aussie mum’s struggling, I found HG Australia website and Facebook support page literally a life saver.