Birth story - Viva and baby Zella

Pregnancy-

Baby was planned and we got pregnant after 3 months of trying. We found out on valentine's day which was lovely.

I hated being pregnant. I had morning sickness, heartburn, and stomach aches just about the whole time. I had hip problems before which were more painful during. I also have a family history of eclampsia so I was taking low dose aspirin from week 12-36 which worsened my stomach pains. I had a bleed scare at 33 weeks. I did like feeling her kicking and moving though.

Leading up to the day-

I absolutely love my midwife. She was just my style and spoke perfect English and understood my American ways. Everything looked "perfectly average" as she would say. It was an easy decision to have a home birth and we had everything, including the pool, ready to go up to the appointment on 39+4. My blood pressure was high but not enough to make me a medical case yet. We made another appointment in 3 days and she told me what to look out for. The next night I had false labor from 7:30-1:30. I was having BH every 3 minutes which got more intense but being my first time I didn't know what to expect. When I laid down they would stop so eventually I just went to bed. I had a headache the next day so I let my midwife know and she agreed to come by later in the evening to take my blood pressure. It was high. One more high reading and my home birth was out the window. I went to the appointment on the morning of 39+6 and had another high blood pressure. She reluctantly made me an appointment with the ob/gyn at the hospital for the same day. My husband had a cough so my mom went with me to the meeting. At this point I was a little upset with saying goodbye to the beautiful home birth of my dreams.

They took urine, blood and a CCG for 30 minutes. I then met with the very attractive young doctor who told me that I didn't have preeclampsia but it was still advised to induce labor. He was really nice and made me feel comfortable so I asked a million questions and had him do a VE to see if the BH from a few nights ago had done anything which they did, I was 1.5 cm. He wanted me to start the induction later that day. I was feeling rushed, wanted to talk to my husband, and it was my mom's birthday so I agreed to schedule an induction for the next day. I made my mom a beautiful dinner and we had a lovely little celebration that night.

I was having period like pains and I also lost a bit of my mucus plug which was a nice surprise. We packed up everything and headed to the hospital the following day (40 weeks) I was put in a triage room for CCG for "1 hour" which turned into 3ish hours ( due to shift change) before a doctor came in to insert the balloon. The said they would keep me there without a partner overnight and break my water in the morning. I was not really ok with that which I guess they could see so they said I could go home with the balloon but then upon examination I was 2+ cm dilated so the balloon wouldn't stay in if they put it in. Major eye roll. We went home with instructions to return early the next morning. We got takeout on the way home, I lost more mucus plug, and returned in the morning for another 2.5+ hours of CCG in the triage room while the pool room was being cleaned and yet another shift change was happening. They moved us to the room and immediately put in the IV which was not pleasant. I told them I wanted to be at home and this wasn't what I wanted. They rudely said "but this is the way it is.” I was using upbreathing that whole time but it was still the worst part of the whole experience.

Labor and birth-

The induction was started by the ob breaking my water. I asked for an hour to see if things would start on their own before the drip but I had only 1 or 2 surges in that time despite trying to use my senses to get the oxytocin flowing. The nurses and ob came back in and decided to start me on 0.6 of the synthetic oxytocin saying they could turn it up if needed. (It could go up to 10) . They all left us to it and I was very shortly (within an hour) having very intense regular surges every couple of minutes. I was using up breathing and Freya app to count it for me. I had my mom and husband put the tens on and boost it for me. At the end of that intense hour I was struggling to keep up the breathing and feeling very nauseous I had them call the nurses in to fill up the tub because I was having surges every minute so in my mind I was closer to the end than I expected to be at that point. I thought wow if this is only the start there is no way I can deal with several more hours of this.

The nurses casually came in and said it usually takes a while to get to 5 cm but I could have the ob come check if I really wanted. At this point I was on the floor vomiting in a bucket and I told them, “I guarantee I'm at 5 just fill up the tub!” So they casually went to get the ob and helped me off the floor so she could do a VE. Being on the bed was the worst part of the labor and it took me a while to get myself off the bed. I felt that I was being electrocuted with each surge, I was loosing my upbreathing, and I was having a hard time catching my breath between so they agreed to turn off the drip. Upon VE the ob said I was a generous 5 cm and told the nurses to quickly fill up the tub. We had a discussion about pain relief and she thankfully said there's nothing besides an epidural. I asked for paracetamol which she agreed to bring but she could have given me a tic-tac, it would've done the same thing.

My mom gave me a foot rub and my husband hydrated me and took the tens off while the tub was filled. They brought us sandwiches around this time which I found odd and so very Dutch. I got in and the feeling was amazing and once again everyone left us. My husband was feeding me grapes and strawberries. I had a couple surges and started feeling pushy. One of the nurses popped her head in while I was mooing and pushing and I told her I needed to push, she looked a little shocked and said she'd be back in a little while. While everyone was gone I followed my body and pushed for a while, looked at my mom and husband and joked that I hoped they knew how to deliver a baby because the professionals were going to miss it, this baby was coming!

The crew came back in and very quickly got some stuff ready for the delivery. The stickers they had over the mobile monitors were leaking and they told me not to get the IV in my hand wet the ob eventually took off the baby's heartbeat monitor and held it in place, the straps were really itchy so having one less was nice. The monitoring was really getting annoying especially since I wouldn't have any of this strapped to me if I were at home like planned. It was distracting. One of the nurses asked the ob if it was ok that the baby be born in the water luckily the ob said of course, if that's what I wanted. I was mostly grabbing a handle on the side of the tub (so tight I caused nerve damage) and kneeling forward.

I came to a more central spot when I felt her head really coming out so she didn't hit the side of the tub. My husband stood in front of me to see her head and cheer me on. The surge ended and I laughed saying "oh come on baby!" Everyone was saying just one more but I wanted to wait for the surge which quickly came and with it her head was out. The ob said "ok we have it now, last push" and guided her body out while unwrapping her cord from her neck and passing her up to my arms. Baby Zella was born at 1:42pm, she looked around for a sec then let out a fairly calm cry before latching onto my nipple and grabbing her daddy's finger. It was the most beautiful moment of my life.

I was in the tub for 1 hour and pushing for 45 minutes. We stayed in the tub for a while and tried to deliver the placenta there but it hadn't released yet. I asked to get out of the tub which everyone helped with and after about 40 minutes daddy cut the cord. I eventually accepted the shot to help the placenta come out. It caused a really painful surge and required quite a push. The ob said it was really big and showed everyone while inspecting it, my mom took pictures.

I had a 1st degree perennial tear which she put 2 stitches in and a labial graze on each side which she left alone. We continued having skin to skin while another shift change happened. Several new doctors came in and out advising I stay for medical observation which I denied thanks to a quick BRAIN with my husband. A very nice nurse came in and helped me feel good about my decision to go home and told me what to be aware of. She helped me shower and asked if there was anything else she could do for us. Only then did I realize it had been a few days since anyone checked my blood pressure so I asked her to and it was a little lower than it had been so I was happy to go home.

A few days later my midwife came over to meet baby and we had a discussion about the experience at the hospital, she was pretty upset that nobody bothered to check my blood pressure after my initial release from the hospital. She checked it and it was very high. I'm still in the process of figuring out why, but a month later it's higher than it ever was during pregnancy.

Aside from that we are all doing great and I'm so in love with my sweet little love. I'm so thankful that my baby was born so easily because I was so relaxed (my favourite affirmation). The nurses said they'd never seen anyone laugh while crowning and I said it was thanks to the hypnobirth course I did. I recommend the course to everyone and I hope everyone gets such a positive birth experience.