Mallery's Birth Story
/The hardest thing I have ever done!
PS not a short story!
Surges started about 2am Saturday morning with a pain level of 7/10 managed to get a few more hours of sleep. 5am surges intensified to 8/10 woke my husband to help me through, my surges which stayed very intense but were only 30-40 seconds and about 4-5mins apart. It continued like this all day and I was trying all positions to ease my pain and get through. I had a bath about 2pm which may have stalled my surges a little bit, at this point a little time to relax was a blessing. Wasn’t long until the surges came back but I also knew I needed to get some sleep so tried to lay down but that made my surges worse. I continued like this till about 630 pm when I just couldn’t anymore, and my husband called the midwives. I was lucky enough to get a home visit from a midwife, who checked me out I was only 2-3cm dilated, but we were spine to spine which what was making my pain so intense, and my back was killing me, we were shown and attempted some baby spinning moves to try get her in a better position, unfortunately with no luck.
I tried to get more rest but at about midnight I just couldn’t bear it anymore, so we went into the hospital, to find out I was still only 3-4 cm dilated and still spine to spine meaning her head wasn’t in the right position to help my cervix dilate properly. We were given a few options to stay with some drugs (but be put on the clock to birth my baby) or panadeine forte to get some rest and sterile water injections to help with the back pain and go home for a few more hours, we chose this option.
We got home and I tried to sleep but couldn’t so I got up to let my husband get some rest. I managed to ride my surges out till about 7 am then woke my husband and said we are going back to the hospital.
We got back around 0730 and the midwife we met yesterday was going to be our midwife as all my assigned ones were off. Which made us happy as she had met us the night before and knew what I had been going through.
I accepted a check and to my surprise I was 9 cm dilated and Mallery had moved into position. I immediately hopped into the bath and followed my body's instincts to birth my baby. As much pain as I was in, I was using everything I had learned in my hypnobirthing course to have a positive mindset and release all fear knowing eventually I would meet my baby.
Unfortunately, after an hour or so I wasn’t making any progress, so we changed positions.
Next, we tried to toilet with a stall, still not making much progress. By this point I was exhausted and really didn’t have much left to give. So, we got off and my midwife suggested we try laying in a bed with my legs in stirrups (my legs were tensing every surge since the beginning, so my legs were shot)
In this position I was almost crowning but something was pulling her back , we also then tried leaning over the bed but it was harder for me so we went back to the stirrups after 30/45 minutes we had still no progress and I was spent so we called the OB in for help and a new plan .The OB realised her cord was actually over her shoulder and neck like a handbag and was basically bunging her back in every time I got somewhere. The OB decided our best course of action was to use the ventouse and an episiotomy. Not too long after Miss Mallery entered the world, I still had to work hard for a few more surges but with a bit of assistance we got her out and at 12:13 entered my beautiful baby!!
She was immediately placed on my chest where we stayed for about an hour as the doctors fixed me up.
My birth was a marathon but overall, I am happy with the outcome. The two big things I didn’t want was a C-section or an epidural.
All intervention methods were fully consensual, and my team treated me with the utmost respect with a peaceful and nice bedside manner.
I will be forever grateful to my midwife, my student midwife, and my husband! Without them I don’t think I would have been able to birth my baby vaginally.
To book into a Hypnobirthing class in Adelaide - Book here.
