My VBAC Journey/ Xaviers Arrival
I knew I always wanted a big family, when I got pregnant with Noah, I was ecstatic! I thought I knew a bit about birth, enough to get me by.
The pregnancy was a standard one although I suffered from severe reflux near the end which made me wish it was over sooner rather than later. I ended up going into labour after my waters ruptured although the contractions stopped later, a stalled labour they called it. I was told I would have to be induced the next morning as I was GBS positive. That path lead to the cascade of interventions which eventually lead to having a caesarean in May of 2007.
Fast forward to May of 2008, I was heading to Canada for Noah?s first birthday; he was finally going to meet my family. May 9th I did a pregnancy test since I had a feeling I might be pregnant, no signs, just a feeling. I was heading to Canada the next day and wanted to share the news with Justin in person. The test came up negative, I was disappointed but happy that I would be able to go out with my sisters and enjoy myself. On May 21th 2008, I was eating lunch, it was macaroni and cheese, I got halfway through the bowl when I suddenly had the urge to be sick. I raced to the toilet and was violently ill. As soon as it was over I felt great again and was able to finish eating lunch with no more vomiting episodes. I thought maybe it was time to do another pregnancy test...
I went to the chemist with my sister and we raced back home so I could test. As I was peeing on the stick the plus sign came up, I only had to wait seconds to see it was positive. I would have been about 6 weeks pregnant by then. It didn?t take long for the morning sickness to kick into full drive, I was not able to keep any food down and soon I couldn?t keep water down either. I went to the doctor after suffering for nearly 2 months and found out I had hyperemesis gravidarum, he gave me a script to help control it and within 3 days I was able to eat again. I lost 10kgs over that 2 months which put me at 55kgs, the same weight I was before I got pregnant with Noah. At 25 weeks the heartburn and severe reflux started which also needed a script to control it. Luckily I was not needing the other medication anymore so swapped one for the other.
I started thinking about the possibility of trying for a natural delivery. Another pregnant friend was going to try for a VBAC and I was inspired by her. My friend recommended books like New Active Birth and Silent Knife as well as VBAC Companion. Silent Knife really opened my eyes to the danger of having a caesarean and that is what really spurred my obsessive research. VBAC gave me several tips on how to achieve my goals and New Active Birth had all sorts of wonderful tips and positions to to try to birth naturally.
I spent 7 months researching everything; the pros and cons of VBAC vs Elective Caesarean (okay so there are hardly any cons on the VBAC side), how to increase my chances of having a successful VBAC, the most effective birthing positions, I also read heaps of VBAC stories, the good and the bad.
At 38+6 weeks on January 4th I started getting a bit antsy, I was worried about birthing a big baby, I was also over feeling miserable all the time and quite eager to meet my little man. I did the unthinkable and took 2 tablespoons of Castor Oil just after lunch, at about 10pm I went to bed, disappointed that nothing had happened. At 2am on January 5th I was woken up by a contraction. I had been having contractions on and off over the last couple of weeks but this one was different, I grabbed my iPhone and started timing them, sure enough they were coming every 5 minutes and lasting about 30 seconds. I knew I should be getting some sleep but the combination of excitement and pain made it difficult. At 3am I heard/felt a loud pop, the familiar sound of membranes rupturing. After a very brief moment wondering if it was my waters, I hopped out of bed and waddled as fast as I could to the safety of the tiled floor just in time. I called the maternity ward of the hospital and was asked to come into hospital for a quick check up and monitor. By the time we got organised to go and got back it was about 5am. After a quick bite to eat, Juz went back to sleep and I pulled out the bean bag in the lounge room to labour on while I listened to The Labour of Love Hypnosis for Birth CD and tried to rest for the job ahead of me. By 8am the contractions were really getting some bite, unfortunately at the same time the castor oil was starting to take effect and I spent an hour with my bum glued to the toilet. At 9:30am I was getting thoughts of going to the hospital because the contractions were really unbearable, I thought it would be a good time to get Juz to call the doula. It is at this stage where the time starts to mean nothing. I am sure it took a little bit of time for Alice to get organised and to our house but it seemed almost instant to me. I can remember saying to Alice quite a few times ? I want to go to the hospital!? her reply was always ?Why do you want to go to the hospital? I would answer ?druuuuuuuuuugs? Alice would reply ? You don?t need drugs.? I think it was finally about 11:30am when I had enough, grabbed my bag and said loudly, ?Hospital NOW!!!!?
I had 2 contractions in the car on the 5 minute drive and one in the hallway in the labour ward, they were starting to come really hard and fast. My midwife John arrived, I remember how happy I was to see it was him, Alice my doula is his wife, I wanted it to be them because I was certain they would make a great team, otherwise they wouldn't be married would they? John did a quick internal and told me I was 5 cms dialted. I was so disappointed because I thought for sure I was much further. I should have been stoked because with Noah I had never gotten further than 4 cms. The contractions were coming so hard and fast and I had a lot of back pain, I begged for an epidural and I remember hearing John on the phone with my GP talking about the possibility of getting one for me, I had another contraction and forgot about the epidural. I was taken to the bath to labour in there, I laboured there for a while and then John wanted to monitor me for a while, 10 minutes on the machine and it was back to the bath. The second bath was short lived and I wanted to labour on my knees against the bed. John did another internal and said I was fully dilated although I had a lip. He asked if I was ready to push and I asked him how I would know. He said I wasn't ready because I would know. I was given 2 options by him then, I can try and push and hopefully the lip will budge, or he can push the lip over the head and push. I said I would try to push first. I was really ineffective at pushing though and soon said just get rid of the lip.
As soon as the lip had been pushed out of the way it was like a switch had been turned on. I knew what the urge to push was. It took about 15 minutes before I got the knack of pushing and I was loving the rest periods I was getting in between the contractions. I was so thirsty and had sips of water in between contractions and more cold face washers on my back and forehead, I was sooooo hot! Finally after 50 minutes of pushing John held the mirror to show my progress, I saw a small section of head!!! That is when I got down to business and really started pushing. 15 minutes later I had a baby on my chest!
Xavier Alexander was born January 5th at 3:18pm after a 13 hour and 18 minute labour. 3480gms/ 7lbs 11oz, 49.5cms long. An active and drug-free labour!
I had a 2nd degree tear, lost 300mls of blood at birth and more during labour and totally elated I got my VBAC!
