The birth story of Eleanor Evelyn

We had definitely talked about having babies and it was something that we saw in our future a few years away but also had a very ‘if it happens, it happens’ kind of approach. I found out one day after my period was due, my only symptoms were tender breasts, which weren’t uncommon with a period. Usually I wouldn’t be one to randomly take a pregnancy test but I had 2 in the cupboard and decided to just do one so that I wouldn’t be worried about my period being late. It came up positive, so I skulled a heap of water and waited until I could go again to try another one. This one also came up positive. I started night shift a few hours later, so off to work I went, in birthing suite of all places. The next day I went to my GP and had a blood test and was told to come back in 2 days. The next day I told Jack by showing him the 2 positive pregnancy tests. He was super excited but I was still skeptical that the stick tests weren’t accurate and we needed to wait for the blood results. He was adamant the three tests i’d done by this point were correct.  Obviously we went back to the doctors and she gave me the good news, this is definitely when it hit me. Being a midwife I think I was very cautious of getting too excited knowing the odds of miscarriage but also feelign super grateful to have fallen pregnant knowing how difficult it can be for some couples. I booked in a dating scan for 6 weeks on the dot. We told our first person straight after the scan.

My pregnancy was very textbook, some mild nausea in the first trimester, fairly fatigued, never bad enough to not be able to work or continue daily life. We were lucky enough to get into the caseload midwifery program so we started seeing our midwife from around 20 weeks. We did the online She Births course together, and also some online facebook videos by an epic midwife. Despite having studied midwifery and working in the field I knew I needed to do some work to switch my brain to thinking like the pregnant, birthing woman not the health professional. Second and third trimesters passed uneventfully. Nearing and passing my due date I felt like I would be pregnant forever as I still felt fairly comfortable. I was going for walks everyday and doing yoga a few times a week. Come 40 weeks, I was down at Jan Juc climbing the stairs and in the gym on the stepper trying to get the babies head to engage. There were no early labour signs in sight but I was trusting that my body would know what to do.

I was 40+6 on a Sunday and we decided to go to the market in the morning and take the dog for a walk, all day I was having super mild but regular tightenings that were slightly uncomfortable. We went to my mums for dinner, and knowing this could go on for days I didn’t say anything. Once we got home around 8pm I felt like getting into bed so that I could get some rest just in case they did intensify. Once we got home into our own comfortable environment they slowly started to increase in intensity. I stayed in bed attempting to rest for a few hours but come about 10:30pm I was getting too uncomfortable and needed to move. I came out to the loungeroom, lit some candles and moved around on the floor and clutched my comb, resting my head on the couch and closing my eyes between contractions. Jack woke around midnight and came and lied down on the couch while I contracted. We stayed like this for a little while and then tried going back to bed to get some rest. I was able to close my eyes a few times between contractions however they stayed about 3 minutes apart. With the gradual increase in strength I started moving around the bathroom as I felt standing to be more comfortable. I got in the shower around 2 or 2:30am. I found the shower relaxing but it didn’t seem to help a lot with the pain. I was curious to see if I had made any progress and had a feel for my cervix. It was very far back and was still thick and open less than 1cm. I could just touch the top of my baby's head. Despite still feeling like I had a really long way to go this made me feel better that her head came down and my cervix was doing something, albeit very slowly.

At 3am I felt a small gush with a contraction, the next contraction was the same. My waters breaking excited me because now I was sure this was definitely happening. I rotated from moving around my bathroom to leaning over my bed, becoming more vocal. Around 4am I woke Jack and asked him to help me put the TENS machine on. I felt like I was pulling out my tools too early but also felt like I was beginning to be challenged and needed something. I asked Jack to stay awake and just be with me. I felt his presence was calming even if he wasn’t doing anything in particular. He went to have a shower assuming we had hours to go and he’d start his day slowly. About half an hour later I said he needed to pack his bag for the hospital as I didn’t feel like I could keep coping through these contractions at home for too much longer. About 4:50am I noticed a change in my noises during my contractions, I sounded (to the midwife in me) as if I was pushing, which I thought would be impossible. I still felt very present in my own head and was able to talk between my contractions, however the contractions themselves were beginning to feel like too much to continue for hours. At 5am I called our caseload midwife, apologised that I wasn't doing a very good job as I thought I was still quite early on but felt that I was nearing my limit and needed to come in. I didn’t have a contraction during the 2 minute phone call so was sure she must have thought I was making it up, but she didn’t doubt me and said she’d meet us there soon. The 20 minute car ride was very uncomfortable, Jack was really calm trying to get me to do horses breath while I was very vocal and involuntarily bearing down with every contraction.

We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 and were greeted by a lovely familiar face, who once we were in a room told me to have a feel to see if there was a head there. Sure enough that head was nice and low and that pushing feeling was exactly what i thought it couldn’t have been. I got onto my knees leaning over the bed to push. Our caseload midwife arrived and it was very calming to me knowing everyone in the room.

The best thing for me while pushing was using a mirror to watch her head progressing, Jack was able to get some gloves on and deliver her with the help of our midwife which was amazing. She came out with a nice strong cry and because we didn’t know the gender Jack got to tell me we’d had a girl. I gave birth in all fours then moved onto the bed to deliver the placenta.

We enjoyed some skin to skin and she latched on beautifully, then she had some skin to skin with dad while I had a few internal stitches.
We planned to go home quickly which we were able to do so 7 hours later we walked out of the birthing suite with our beautiful new 3.745g, 51cm long baby girl named Eleanor.

The birthing experience was everything that I could have hoped for. While I trusted the process I definitely doubted myself while I was in labour. I felt pushed to my limits at times but was so damn proud of myself for achieving what I set out to do.

My advice for any pregnant mums out there would be that whatever birth you want to have is the right birth for you. Get educated, know your options and trust yourself and your body.