I am so beyond grateful for this course

I want to start with the fact that my second pregnancy this time around had been a lot harder. I spent most of my second trimester on bed rest for a low lying placenta and then after finally getting clearance that my placenta was ok, I got diagnosed with gestational diabetes.

There were so many amazing recourses in this course that really helped me first of all to let go and roll with the unexpected “obstacles” but also navigate how to deal with them.At my final scan around 30w baby girl was measuring on the 95th centile so the drs tried pressuring me into induction at 39w due to a “big baby”. Thanks to this course I felt confident in my bodies ability to birth my baby naturally. I also felt that she was just long rather than big, with how she’d sit in my belly.

I did also understand that scans at that gestation aren’t completely accurate and that being induced purely for a “suspected big baby” wasn’t reason enough & would present with potentially more risks. I was induced at 40+2 with my first daughter purely because it was an IVF pregnancy and missed out on my water birth so felt determined to get my natural water-birth this time.Despite drs trying to scare me with threats of “shoulder dystocia” and “stillbirth”, I continued to advocate for myself and my wishes for a natural water birth.

After declining induction at 39w & again at 40w my waters finally broke naturally at 1:15pm @ 40+2 on Saturday 23rd November 2024.

About 4 hours later contractions started. I labored at home as long as I could but headed to then decided to head to hospital once my surges were about 1 minute long and 5 mins apart. My labour seemed to be progressing somewhat quickly and with the hospital being 40 minutes away this felt like the right time to head in.

Once we arrived they let us know that the tank was getting filled for me but as the surges weren’t close enough together yet, water wasn’t recommended as it could slow down labour, unless I was happy for a cervical check first and to be hooked up to the monitors but then I’d officially be on their timer. They let us make the choice.

We ended up opting for hands off time to labour unobserved. We made use of the shower, exercise ball and birthing comb whilst listening to surges of the sea.

At 10pm I suddenly felt that I needed to get out of there or needed drugs and knew from all my preparation that this meant things were getting close. At this point I agreed to the belly monitor and was finally able to get into the birthing tank for pain relief !
At 10:20pm I felt the urge to bear down & after 13 minutes with the help of some gas/air and the incredible birthing team my little Vaeda was calmly birthed into the waters at 10:33pm.I was able to receive my baby in the water and got immediate skin to skin.After all their scare tactics and threats of her being a big baby, I delivered her naturally & without any intervention. I did end up with a second degree tear & she did weigh in at 4kg but also ended up measuring 55cm, baby girl was just long!

Shortly after the birth I started to hemorrhage due to Uterine atony and was rushed out of the tank. There were also a number of blood clots in my uterus which they were unsuccessfully able to remove whilst I was unmedicated due to the level of pain.

Due to the clots and amount of blood loss it was recommended that I go straight to theatre for surgery. We were told that a hysterectomy was on the table if they couldn’t get the bleeding under control but would do everything they could to avoid that. Things started to feel quite scary at this point but I reminded myself of my breathing techniques for relaxation!

During surgery, they were able to remove all the clots and stop the bleeding using a Bakri Balloon.

At 6am the next day I was finally returned to my husband and baby. We were then told that there was just over 2.5L blood loss & that we’d need some hospital time to be closely monitored for any further blood loss, high blood pressure or blood clots.

After 4 days in hospital we could finally return home as a family ! I’m still on bed rest and have to take medication and closely monitor everything until 6 weeks but I am healing.

I am so beyond grateful for this course. It not only helped me during my pregnancy – empowering me with the knowledge and confidence to advocate for myself and my baby, the birth – the resources in the toolkit really helped me through, but also in the after birth complications to help me remain as calm as possible.