Georgia’s birth experience

Expect the unexpected

Prepare for the unexpected. I’d been told this several times throughout my pregnancy. As a first time mum I had an idea of what I wanted as a birth experience and did my research: Minimal intervention, drug free, natural as it comes, at my local hospital in Margaret River….you get the idea.

5pm: Phone rings two days before my due date. “Georgia, after looking at the scans, you’re showing signs of placental depletion as growth trajectory is slowing down. We are going to have to induce you…’

Induction. Shit. This was not something I had researched. In fact, I had pretty much skipped over it in all the books, and had told myself to just decline induction if offered. But with a baby in danger, you just do what you gotta do.

6pm: My partner Mitch picked me up and we drove to Bunbury to be induced. Already the plan was going out the window. My doctor had warned of this. ‘Don’t get too attached,’ he said.

I was thinking about food on the hour and a half drive. Let’s stop and get a curry. A spicy one. Let’s just go the whole hog and see if we can bring this birth on.

8pm: One vindaloo curry later we arrived in Bunbury to be induced. The doctor came in and checked to see if my cervix had lined up at all…nope it was as far back as they come.

8:30pm: Foley catheter inserted. Monitoring on the CTG. Contractions were there which was a good sign. The midwife was positive…'You’re going to have this baby soon.’ This gave me a little confidence.

9pm: I was taken to a room with Mitch where we would stay overnight. They had basically said that I would have mild contractions brought on by the Foley and then they would most likely die down - so get some rest. The doctors would then break my waters the following morning and then the drip would be hung up. Mentally I wasn’t ready for this.

9.30pm: The contractions ramped up, but I didn’t get my hopes up. I just rolled through them.

12am: The contractions weren’t slowing down. Shit, I thought, I don’t think I’m ready for labour if this is what the pre-contractions are like… I was up and down like a yoyo. Was the vindaloo working? It was playing on my mind as the contractions were making me want to spew and the taste of it was not pleasant in my mouth. The nurse came in and gave me something to stop the nausea. However, there was no stopping the amount of times I needed to relieve myself. The toilet was my best friend…

2am: Then I discovered the shower. Needless to say this was a game changer. Although, after an hour of the hot water spraying on my back, I felt like I was wasting water. Funny to think that during labour, but it made me reside back to the bed where the contractions were now ramping up. I was trying to rest between them and then would have to get up on all fours when the contractions were on. I wasn’t measuring the time between them, I was just getting through it.

4:30am: I felt the Foley catheter come out. This was a welcome sight. Things were moving along nicely….perhaps this would happen on its own!?

5am: I felt the gush of water being released onto the bed. No doubt in my mind what that was. Now it was on. Mitch was so excited that it was all happening, he called the nurses and they helped me walk to the birthing suite. Walking was difficult at this point. Here, I got in the shower and Mitch pressed down on my lower back through every contraction. I was offered a vaginal inspection at this point to see how far dilated I was, but declined. I just didn’t want to be disappointed if it wasn’t far along. Mentally I wasn’t prepared for another 12 hours, but knew that could be the reality.

7am: I felt the pushing sensation. It was hard to distinguish at first but then it became more obvious. Back on the bed, the midwives checked to make sure I should be pushing and sure enough the head was in sight.

7:45am: The pushing was so intense. I really didn’t expect that. The feel of the head coming through was unlike anything else I’d experienced. But I remained strong. I put my head down and pushed, trying not to push too hard, but also really pushing. Here the midwives started to coach me through it. They told me to channel the noise into the push itself, and to hold the head down in the rest time to ensure it wasn’t going back up. This helped.

8:03am: After 15 minutes of coaching her head was out, and on the next push so was her body. Floriane entered the world surrounded by strong women. It was only later that I found out she was on a time frame. 15 minutes prior to her coming out, I had started to bleed and small amounts of meconium could be seen. The midwives made a call, they gave me some more time, confident they could see this baby out naturally. If the doctors had been called they would have most likely snipped away and reached for the forceps. Luckily this wasn’t necessary, due to the decision made by these three midwives. I didn’t see a doctor the whole time.

While the birth didn’t go to plan I was glad that I had an expectation in mind. I feel like this helped me get through the birth as naturally as possible, as I trusted my body, my instincts and the people around me. It was within me all along. This baby knew how it wanted to come out, and whether it was sheer luck, good timing or being in a positive mind frame, surrounded by positive people, the birth turned out to be everything I was after and in the end we had a healthy girl which was really all that mattered anyway. Coz let’s face it…girls rule.

Written by Georgia Gregory