RE: [ozmidwifery] Julia's birth

[Ken Ward]

Me again.  No , no c/s. Just let your body take it's time. If you feel it's all going too quick, the knee-chest position is good, takes the pressure off the peri and allows for stretching. My advice for next time is don't push, breathe the bubby out, have a home-birth or go to a liberal birth centre. I am surprised that with a BP like that they actually encouraged you to push, and why did they need a doctor to tell them you were ready? I believe time will tell, the mother tends to know and you can usually tell from the noise and behaviour.  In my opinion the reason you tore so badly is because they made you push. We really need to trust women's bodies. Maureen. 

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Isis and Andrew Caple
Sent: Friday, November 08, 2002 8:58 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [ozmidwifery] Julia's birth

After following the discussions about interventions, prostin and in some cases ob's putting the fear of danger into mother's minds, I wanted to share Julia's birth with you all.  After she was born, it was then that I decided to become a midwife. I wanted to become a voice in the birthing woman's ear telling her to trust herself, that she was doing fine and to guide/support her in the special journey that is pregnancy/childbirth...

 

Julia was due to be born around 18th October 2001.  I was originally booked into the Geelong Hospital Birthing Centre, but I stupidly mentioned a cyst that I had in my head and like a hot-cake, I was shifted to the ante-natal clinic.  I kept telling them that it was just a lump of flesh and a that neurologist had given me the all clear, but the doctors just nodded and gave the good old- 'Just in case...'

 

At about 30 weeks, my blood pressure shot through the roof.  No other symptoms, just a bp of about 150/105. Eventually at 38 weeks, the doctors decided that I should have my babe induced. The medications weren't reducing my BP. The date of the inducement was Monday 8^th October 2001. I remember the OB who booked the induction, telling me that because I was being induced, I would most likely need to be put on a drip then given an epidural all in order to bring down my blood pressure. Being a first time mother, with no female support in this state, I nodded and accepted it. I had done my research, I knew what all these interventions were, but because it was my body that wasn't coping, I didn't bother questioning.

 

At 8am on the big day, Andrew and I went to the hospital for the first (as it turns out- only) application of the prostaglandin gel (or should I say- pig jism..LOL) at 8.30am. I was at the hospital for about 2 hours while they externally monitored Julia’s heart rate and my blood pressure.  They told me to go home and get into bed and to return at about 4.30pm. So we left the hospital, and got home at about 11.30am. I jumped into bed to read at about midday, feeling slight period pain. The slight period pain felt stronger and stronger, till at 1pm I decided to get up and have a walk and a cup of tea.  Just as I thought about doing this, I heard a ‘pop’, but thought it was from outside. I rolled out of bed and stood up, feeling 2 ‘runs’ of water, that was definitely not me weeing myself.  I then realised as well that my period pains were quite regular and painful.  They were 4 minutes apart and definitely enough to make me take notice.  We called the hospital and were told to come in, but not to rush it. I had a piece of toast and a cup of tea, by then the contractions were 3 minutes apart.  On the way to the hospital I was really uncomfortable. The contractions were 2 minutes apart and quite painful by the time we got to the hospital at about 2pm. They monitored Julia, she was fine and my blood pressure was stable.

 

They moved me into the birthing room at about 3pm and I immediately went into the shower, on the roller ball thingy.  They did a VE and I was 3 cm dilated at 3.30pm.  The next hour went like a blur.  I remember asking for pethidine, being told to wait and that I was doing really well just breathing and rocking through the contractions.  I remember I looked at one of the mid-wives and asked for some gas.  I was on the verge of freaking out with the pain… (Andrew has told me that I actually screamed)  She had me lie over a bean bag with pillows heaped on top of it and showed me how to use the gas. I had the choice of the mouthpiece, or the mask. I chose the mask.  I remember she told me to make the machine rattle…. I made it almost explode J  I could feel each contraction coming, getting harder and lasting longer. When the contraction started, I started sucking gas and rocking around. The gas removed my sense of time, but left me aware of the contractions. I could hear people talking and I could talk back, but I was really in my own world.

 

At about 4.30 (apparently) I yelled that I needed to push.  My contractions were finishing with an extreme urge to push or should I say, an extreme urge to do a BIG poo...  The midwives told me that I couldn’t push, to use the gas and breathe through that urge and that the doctor was on the way. That was hard trying to stop my body doing what it needed to do. Well-  the doctor looked inside and said, yep, she is ready to go, 10 cm dilated and that Julia’s head was waiting to come out. I remember thinking-  'I told you so!!'   So then the push started….

 

I didn't think about getting off the bed, no-one suggested I get off the bed. In hindsight, I should've gotten off the bed. I pushed about 5  times, each time, moving her slowly further down.  The midwives told me to change my way of pushing.  I put my feet on their hips, grabbed hold of my thighs near my knees, stuck my chin down to my chest and when time came to push, I remember I roared. It’s funny, while I was roaring, I remember thinking to myself that I would scare the baby…  I pushed so hard, that Julia’s head was birthed and on the next contraction, her body followed.  What an exquisite pain it was…  She was born with her right hand beside her head, next to her ear. She was born at 4.57pm, 7lbs 1oz, 52cm long with a head circumference of 32.5cm.  And a shock of white blonde hair….  Perfect…

 

I sustained 4^th degree tears, including a buttonhole, to my perineum, rectum and sphincter…. I guess that if I could have changed anything, it would have been to not be on my back and to have controlled my pushing a bit more, to let myself stretch. But as it turned out, I had too much strength inside me and no-one (including me) knew that.

 

I managed to feed her between having an IV line put in and the surgeon poking around to see exactly how badly I had torn.  Pretty bad.  I was put under a general anaesthetic and had my bottom half sewn back together.  I had not only torn the outside, but muscle on the inside…   To repair the damage took 25 stitches. Luckily a woman OB did the repair, so the stitches were neat and tidy. I healed really well. I have been doing pelvic floor exercises for 10 odd years. Good for your sex life apparently LOL.. I have no incontinence problems, except that I might fart when laughing hard, coughing hard or in certain yoga poses..

 

The same woman who sewed me up, also told me at my 6 week check-up that my next baby will be born by caesarean. 'Why?' I asked- Her response was straight to the point. 'Because of the damage done to your perineum and the speed at which you laboured, the chances of retearing and thus needing colo-rectal surgery are just to great to risk...'  My jaw actually dropped, I shook my head. She smiled and told me to not worry until I fell pregnant again. I don't believe that what she said is true. I have total faith in my body, I know that the stranded beetle position didn't help at all, and that Julia's hand positioning couldn't have helped... Next time, I want a midwife to guide me...  If a midwife suggests that I am high-risk and I need 'definite' major abdominal surgery over 'possible' colo-rectal surgery, I'll trust her...   Till then, I'll keep up with my dream of bringing birth back to women...

 

 

I love this list. All you women (and occasional man) are lovely, special people.  Thank you!!