The Birth of Mitchell Edward - 27 November 2009 (long)

[FabFiona]

The Birth of Mitchell Edward

My pregnancy was relatively straightforward after a bad start. We found out we were pregnant when in Venice, Italy. I heard the canals were a bit smelly but to me they smelt rank! By the time we got to Florence a few days later husband was constipated and I felt nauseous 24/7. We decided to skip Rome and head back to London a bit earlier On the plane to London I started vomiting. Managed to spew on myself before husband got the bag open. From that point, I didn't really stop throwing up. Those next few days were just miserable as I was trying to make the best of our last few days of holidays. Husband was getting better so he could look after me, but couldn't really do anything for me as I just kept throwing up.

We ended up heading into a London hospital because I hadn’t kept anything down in days. I got seen straight away and was kept in overnight for extreme dehydration. A scan revealed I was 5 w 4 d pregnant. The next day was husband’s birthday and thankfully I was feeling a lot better after being rehydrated so we kept our booking at the Gordon Ramsay restaurant. I lasted through the meal, but the flight back to Australia the following day was a different story.
The constant vomiting did not ease until the 14 week mark. I couldn't go to work much and lost 10 kgs. I was nauseous until week 16 and really only felt 'well' around week 18 or so. I took Zofran Zydin and that helped a little, but the acupuncture worked wonders. Acupuncture was the only thing that made me feel human for a few days until the vomiting or nausea came back.

Pregnancy continued fine from that point so fast forward to 37 weeks.

Thinking all was going well with my pregnancy I caught the tram to my OB for my 37 week appointment. Husband was going to come with me, but he had been caught up at work. It's a very easy tram ride and I was happy catching public transport. I was actually supposed to be at work too with my maternity leave not kicking in until the following day.. However I was really tired in the morning so since I am the office manager I had decided to work from home instead. I was looking forward to my last day at work the following day, as I knew the office had bought me a very nice present and there was a very nice lunch planned.

At my appointment my OB did all the normal checks. She took my blood pressure as per usual l and then asked me if I was stressed about anything. Nothing was stressing me at all, so I was told to lie down on her couch for 10 minutes and then she would take my blood pressure again. The 2nd reading confimed it – my blood pressure was through the roof. The exact numbers evade me, but it was something like 220 over 120. I am not a stress head (ironically, given the sky high blood pressure!) so I was pretty calm at this news. I think my OB was surprised how relaxed I was. From my perspective there was nothing I could do to control it or change it, so no point stressing about it. I did a urine test and there was a very small amount of protein. I knew this meant pre-eclampsia. Anna (my OB) and I talked about the options. Given that the baby was full term it was her recommendation that I be induced. I was very comfortable with her recommendation as I trusted her commitment to vaginal delivery and I knew that pre-eclampsia is not something you muck around with. Thankfully husband was in Melbourne that week as he actually should have been in Canberra for work.

At this point I ring my husband whilst Anna calls the hospital. The conversation was very funny. It went something like:
Husband - "Hey, I'm just in the middle of something. Quickly what's up?"
Me - "Ok then... I'm being induced and you have to swing past home and pick up the bags then come to the hospital."
Husband - Silence
Me - "You ok?"
Husband - "So..... the baby is coming?"
Me - "Yes."

Whilst calm, the news certainly stopped him in his tracks!
I toddled across the road to the hospital where the midwives were expecting me. I got taken into a room and they did all the normal checks. By this time it was about 6 pm. The main thing they were doing was keeping an eye on my blood pressure. This would determine whether I was going to be induced that night or in the morning. I tried to convince them to let me go home but given how extreme my blood pressure was they weren't having a bar of it. We called our doula Christine to keep her in the loop so she knew to come in the next day. My husband called a friend to deliver us some dinner, but otherwise we told no-one we were in the hospital.

That night I slept in the delivery suite. I took some sleeping tablets to help me sleep, knowing I would need my energy for the next day.

My OB arrived at about 8 am and the ball moved pretty quickly from there. My blood pressure was still very high so the induction would be going ahead. They faffed around a bit and started the drip around 8.30 am. At that point I was also told that my little man was posterior. Husband arrived around the same time as Anna was breaking my waters then they started the drip.

From here things went very hard and very fast. My contractions were very strong and being posterior I felt them in my back. I was trying to listen to my hypnobirthing CD and keep with the breathing. That was good when I was listening, but the midwives kept wanting to check my BP and trying to get me to get back in the bed to they could monitor me. Husband was doing his best but kinda wasn't sure what to do. I told him I just wanted him to encourage me and to stop trying to lighten the mood during contractions as that broke my concentration. This went on for about an hour. We had spoken to our doula a few times that morning and agreed she would come in a bit later when things got moving. At about 9.30 I said to husband that I wanted him to call Christine now as I felt I needed some more support.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting it to move so fast. The contractions were very intense, the heat packs weren't helping, the hypnobirthing and breathing wasn't really helping. I was starting to feel overwhelmed with the pain and was starting to doubt whether I could do this at all.

At about 10.00 am our midwife Anita came in and took my blood pressure. Another bad reading. I gathered this when she ran, not walked, out of the room to find my OB. At that point husband and I look at each other and had the same thought - emergency cesarean. Bollocks. Christine arrived and swung into action. Helping me breathe, giving Mark pointers on what to do and had a quick chat with the midwife about my blood pressure. Anna my OB arrives and informs me that my blood pressure is continuing to rise and that she is recommending I have an epidural to try and bring it down. The drugs they were giving me just weren't doing anything. The pain relieving aspects of it were also appealing to me so we agreed.

The contractions were continuing, still really painful, still hard and still fast. However knowing that some relief was coming helped somewhat. The anesthetist turns up about 10.20 am and as he is setting up I decided I want to do a poo. Off to the toilet I go, but couldn't push anything out so head back in.

The anesthetist was very nice. He waffled on and I nodded like I was listening to all the important information he was giving me. Really, I just wanted him to hurry up! The first time it was a bit stingy so I got some more local to numb the needle spot. I was a bit scared of not moving so was very diligent in telling him when a contraction was coming. He actually said to yell out his name, Nick. It sounded a bit pervy yelling out "Nick" at the top of my lungs every few minutes! It took about 15 minutes to get that sorted and I started to feel the effects pretty quickly. I could still feel the pressure of the contraction, but not the intense pain. That being said, even with the epidural the pressure of the contractions was pretty intense. However I felt it was much more manageable.

After the epidural (around 11 am by this point) husband was getting the shakes as he hadn't had a coffee. So he wanders off as we were thinking the epidural would slow things down. 10 minutes later my OB did an internal exam to see how I was coming along. She did the exam and then informs me that I'm fully dilated, the poo I was trying to do before was the baby and that it was time to push! Righty-o. Also, our baby had turned and was now in the perfect position. Good man! We then realised that husband was missing from the room. I explain his need for coffee and I am told he needs to get back quick smart otherwise he would miss the big event. So Christine calls him and he gets moving. However it ended up being about 10 minutes as the lifts took ages. He was freaking out that he had missed it.

My blood pressure was slightly down but not enough so Anna was worried about whether I was able to push. She had given me the heads up the day before that we might have to use the vacuum to get him out so I was prepared for this. However she wasn't keen on me pushing... Anna thought that it can take some time to get the hang of pushing and given it was my first baby I was unlikely to get it right before my blood pressure went up again. I really wanted to try so she and Christine (doula) had a quick chat and agreed we would give it a go.

I start pushing at 11.42 am.

Contraction 1 - Christine was coaching me through it - push for 10 secs, take a big breath, push again for 10, then another breath, then push again. I missed the second breath and kept pushing through, but got the hang of it and managed to breathe. I did feel myself going purple though. I felt him move down. Anna was very encouraging and tells us she could see his head and had the vacuum on it. Christine is telling me to be 'jelly' and relax until the next contraction. I immediately visualized jelly and relaxed as best I could.

Contraction 2 - Pushed again. I felt him half come out. Far out - that felt very stingy. It is hard to be jelly and have a baby half out!

Contraction 3 - Pushed again. He came out and was up on my chest before I knew it. I had my eyes shut and then I hear the midwife tell me to open them up and look at him. And there he was, beautiful, perfect. They popped a blanket over us and he was so warm and slippery against my skin. He had a bit of a cry to say ‘Hello mum and dad!’ and then spent lots of time blinking at us. Just gorgeous.

I couldn't believe how fast the pushing was! Anna said I was a superstar and she was quite surprised. Husband was pleased as his coffee was still warm! The placenta came out but I didn't really notice because I was too busy meeting my son.

Mitchell Edward was born at 11.49 am on 27 November 2009. He weighed 2.84 kg. His head circumference was 33 cm and his length was 49 cm. I had a tiny tear in my skin so only needed two small stitches.

My room wasn't ready so we spent a few hours in the delivery suite. We named our baby, called our parents, did some breast feeding and generally were in awe of our son.