Birth Story: Adjusting to a different path & the power of the birth plan - The Birth of Henry
I was lucky enough to meet Em & Justin during their pregnancy in their home for a private Your Birth Class and support Em through Acuneedling (which was usually supervised by their fur babies😍)
Em was incredible in all she did preparing her body and mind - their plan for birth changed fairly suddenly, but they were both well informed of all the options and able to make the best decisions for them even when things changed, thank you to Em & Justin for sharing their story x
Story by Em
“Our birth came around suddenly. I had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes and had done everything in my power to adjust my diet to avoid medication and was successful. I wanted to avoid medication as I really didn’t want to be induced.
I went in for a routine appointment on the Wednesday at 39 weeks and they discovered I had thrombocytopenia and needed to be induced asap or risk not having access to an epidural if needed and would need a general anaesthetic if I required a caesarean. This was all really overwhelming especially since I was lucky enough to have an acuneedling appointment already booked on the Wednesday so I was able to discuss my options with Lauretta, and felt really supported.
I went in for a balloon catheter on the Thursday and was able to come home that evening. My husband and I returned to hospital on the Friday morning at 7am for induction. I had struggled with the pain of having my cervix checked the day before and had utilised the gas for my balloon catheter insertion. I asked the midwives if I could use gas again as I didn’t want to start out the process in pain and upset and they were really supportive and organised it for me. I had the induction medication and my waters broken. Things escalated quite quickly pain wise and I climbed the pain ladder rather quickly. We used the TENS, breath work, the ball and the gas but it wasn’t long before I asked for the Remi. While they were getting that organised I pretty much begged just to skip it and go directly to an epidural but my husband supported me to manage the pain until the Remi was connected. Once the Remi was up I found things much more manageable.
Our birth plan was respected and the lights were off. We had LED candles, music and the monitoring noises were kept low. It’s a bit of a blur for my husband and I but after what felt like a short time pushing (the discharge paperwork says it was about 2.5hrs but it certainly didn’t feel like that long) our baby boy was stuck and I was unable to push him out. They informed us we would need to go to theatre for trial of forceps, we requested the vacuum be tried first and we signed the paperwork. They tried to move him manually but were unsuccessful and the decision was made to skip the vacuum and go directly to forceps. This was pretty much my worst nightmare but it all turned out ok. Our little boy arrived at 1734 and even with all the chaos our midwife was able to ensure delayed cord clapping as per our request on our plan. Our little boy Henry was perfection despite his few scratches (they healed very quickly).
While we were in theatre I was incredibly overwhelmed and felt like a deer in the headlights but by the time we got to recovery I was on cloud 9 and so proud of myself. The doctor who had delivered Henry told me at the bedside if I hadn’t been able to push while she was using the forceps she wouldn’t have been able to get him out vaginally which made me feel really empowered and like I had more of an active role than I did at the time.
I ended up with quite a painful episiotomy (and lost a litre of blood). Things got a lot better at about 4 weeks as I regained my physical strength and now at 6 weeks I wish I could go back and allow myself to rest and be kinder to myself and have some faith that I would recover and get back to myself.
My time with Lauretta allowed our little family to go into the birth informed and confident to advocate for ourselves. We had two copies of our birth plan, one for the midwife and one for my husband.”
Em & Justin
Thanks Em for sharing your story.
Much love -
*Information shared is of a general nature only and is not medical advice — please see your own care provider for specific and individualised information and advice. All personal strories & photos are shared with permission.
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