Meagan share's her story on what it was like preparing for birth being from a small town away from a hospital, to her c-section experience and some hot tips!
Baby
We had a baby girl – Emma Adele on 24 August 2018 at Sunshine Coast Private Hospital.
Lead Up
My husband and I were living on a cattle property in Chinchilla through my pregnancy. I was doing shared care with the GP in Chinchilla and then visiting my OB on the Sunshine Coast as that’s where my family was based. I was working full time and long hours so didn’t really feel like I had much time to relax. As it was a small rural town there wasn’t much on offer for pregnancy – eg yoga. I finished up work a month before my due date and traveled back to the Sunshine Coast that weekend for my baby shower. On the Monday I had an appointment with my OB and found out the baby was transverse – so my OB didn’t want me travelling back to Chinchilla as I would be at least 2 hours from a hospital in case I did go into labour. So my husband had to go back to work and I stayed with my parents. I didn’t really find this time too hard but my husband was struggling being 4 hours away from me – he was worried I would go into labour and he would miss the baby being born. I was confident I wouldn’t have a baby in a 5 hour time frame. I ended up doing an ECV with the OB, the baby didn’t turn head down but then we never knew whether she would turn back so there was always the risk that I would need a c-section.
Birth Plan
A good friend of mine is a doctor and I remember when she was doing birth suite rotations at the hospital she told me about all the women that came in with a birth plan and then something happened that changed their birth plan but they were so fixated on their original plan that they couldn’t see past what needed to happen to get the baby out safely. So my birth plan was simply to follow the advice of my doctor and midwife and do whatever needed to be done to the get the baby out safely. I was never the kind of person that dreamed for a natural birth and really I just wanted the baby out – I didn’t really care how that happened. I think not having a rigid birth plan did help me in the end to just go with the flow and trust that my baby would be born – somehow!
Labour/Deciding to go to Hospital
As my husband was getting increasingly anxious he decided to finish up work on my due date and hope I wouldn’t be 10 days overdue! His boss was excellent in allowing him flexibility. My OB said she was happy to induce me 2 days after my due date given our living circumstances.
I went to the hospital Wednesday afternoon. I remember being so emotional before I left home having to say goodbye to my 2 dogs just that this was the last moment before our lives changed completely and I wasn’t ready for it – I wanted longer still to stay in my little pregnancy bubble.
I was given the gel Wednesday afternoon and then monitored throughout the night until about 1am. I was never concerned with being induced as I thought a contraction was a contraction and labour was labour – how could you tell the difference between being induced and going naturally. But that night I was really uncomfortable – I was in pain and kept getting interrupted every hour for the nurse to check mine and the baby’s vitals. At 1am they gave me a sleeping tablet though which was a blessing!
Thursday morning nothing had started so the doctor broke my waters and then they started syntocin and I was moved to birth suite within about an hour. Not long after being in birth suite the nurse thought the baby had dropped and that pushing wouldn’t be far off. I called for an epidural (it was always in my plan to have an epidural – I was so afraid of the pain and I also didn’t want my husband to have to go through seeing me in so much pain and being so helpless). Just before I had the epidural the nurse offered me the gas – in hindsight I wish I had of held off the epidural for longer and stayed on gas as it was effective at managing my pain. But at the time I thought I was going to be pushing soon and didn’t want it to be too late to have the epidural. After the epidural though they examined me and I had only dilated 4cm – so I should have held off the epidural for a bit longer.
The epidural took away all of my pain so I was able to have a sleep but by the afternoon I was getting restless with not being able to move. For some reason the nurses machines wouldn’t pick up my contractions so they had to keep manually tracking my contractions. Around dinner time the nurses realised they hadn’t felt the baby move in a while so they gave me some cold juice to “perk her up” – this actually made me vomit quite forcefully. At this stage I had only dilated 7cm so things were moving really slowly. As the night progressed my pain came back and I was really uncomfortable. The nurses were also having trouble picking up the baby’s movements and her heart rate started to drop and spike so they were worried she was becoming distressed. Around 10pm the nurses called the doctor and she came in – I had already made my mind up at that stage that I wanted a c-section – I was only 8cm dilated and didn’t have the energy to go through another few hours to get to 10cm and then push. The nurses had also warned me earlier that they can only wait so long after my waters being broken before they have to intervene. My doctor took one look at me and asked if I was ready for a c-section – I was so happy that everyone just agreed to proceed with that option and no-one tried to suggest to me that I keep going for a bit longer to see what happened.
C-Section
They moved me up to the operating theatre and I had to wait there for a little while. At the time I was blaming my husband for only wearing thongs to birth suite and him taking a while to get the little shoe covers on but it wasn’t that at all. The anaesthetist came in to check my epidural – but it turned out that the epidural had come out which is why I was in pain again. As that had failed they gave me a spinal tap so I had no feeling from my neck down. That was a very surreal feeling and I was so worried that I would actually feel when they cut me. The operating theatre was overwhelming – I was so tired and exhausted and unable to move and there were so many people in there. Everyone was really nice but at the same time it was 12.30am and the doctor had already said to me everyone was there to just get the baby out quickly as she was distressed.
Although I had no pain I could still feel the doctor “rummaging” around and then a long pull as she pulled the baby out. Before I saw the baby I heard a nurse saying “wow that is a big baby” – I was so worried to see her thinking she would be huge! She was born at 12:54 am and was 9lb2 (4.2kg). They put her on my chest while they stitched me back up and then my husband took her while they made sure the spinal tap wore off.
I was then moved to post-op for a while and then back to the room. I can’t actually remember whether they gave me a sleeping tablet or I was so tired that I just fell asleep. I remember vaguely hearing my husband through the night ask the nurse what to do with the baby as he didn’t know how to swaddle her – I remember thinking I was the mother and should be doing that but I couldn’t move.
By around 10.30am the next morning I was up and moving but moving was slow and difficult. I was on a lot of painkillers so wasn’t in a lot of pain but moving just felt hard – like my body couldn’t do it. It also felt like I would tear all the stitches if I moved too quickly or stood straight.
Hospital
We had our own room with a double bed and private bathroom. To me this was amazing – I wasn’t able to move much so my husband did everything with the baby – it was a relief to not have to share a bathroom and just have him there, especially overnight. Emma was a good sleeper – we had to wake her to feed her every 4 hours. Combined with all meals being provided I actually loved my time in hospital – I found it was a nice slow start to life with a baby.
Breastfeeding was tricky – Emma just wasn’t latching on and I was becoming upset that Tim was doing everything and I couldn’t manage my one job. In the end the midwife tried a nipple shield with a supply line of formula to help her to start sucking and this was what worked – it was a process at the start but it became easier. I ended up breastfeeding for a year and used a nipple shield the whole time as my nipples were flat. I was really glad that with the hospital the midwives were there for every feed and they were always trying something different to work out how to make breastfeeding work.
Recovery
From the c-section I was on a lot of pain killers. The hospital also supplied me with a belly band which helped a lot. Being able to stay in hospital for 5 days was great – to have the bed that moved up and down to help me get in and out and the bathroom with toilet and shower handles helped. I tried to walk a bit and keep moving but I also acknowledged that this wasn’t the time to over do it so I also just enjoyed being able to sleep during the day and just sit or lie down and cuddle Emma.
When I went home my mum stayed with us for a week and my husband was able to work from home. This was great because I had never had time to set up the nursery or stock the freezer with meals.
Otherwise, I just took it slowly and tried not to push my body. Everyone says how difficult a c-section is because of the recovery but I found each day I was able to move more or walk for a longer time and things just got easier each day. It definitely wasn’t a 6 week struggle. I also figured with a vaginal birth there can still be a recovery time depending on what had happened and if stitches were required.
Tips
Underwear – “granny pants” were a lifesaver. I took all of my normal underwear but then couldn’t wear any of it because it all sat on my incision. I definitely recommend at least packing 2 pairs of granny knickers in case you need a c-section.
We only packed 0000 bunny suits but Emma didn’t fit in them – so my mum had to bring in more clothes – pack some 000 just so your baby doesn’t have to stay naked!
Try to enjoy being at the hospital – appreciate not having to cook or clean and that there will always be someone there willing to help. I remember not wanting to call a midwife in for a night feed but then when she came in she said she was just sitting at the front desk so she would rather come in and help as it gave her something to do.
Try not to stress or over plan things – the main thing from childbirth is that you have a baby – it doesn’t matter how it happens.
Make sure your husband packs some snacks for himself – it could be a long time in birth suite and food wasn’t really available to him. Afterwards, we found the kitchen which was always supplied with food but at the time we didn’t know.
Include your husband – it’s a stressful time for them as well and they feel so powerless. Right from the start Tim did nappies and clothes and just held Emma a lot – it meant when we went home we were a lot more comfortable as we both knew how to handle it and not just me.
If you plan on breastfeeding – invest in a Haakaa. I got mastitis twice because Emma wasn’t feeding properly. The haakaa was great because I could attach it to the breast I wasn’t feeding on and then didn’t have to worry about – it pulled out a lot of milk in those early days when your milk is in over-supply and relieved a lot of pressure in my breasts. It also meant I was able to have milk in the freezer early on in case we had a problem with breastfeeding or I was sick and Tim had to bottle feed.
Meagan
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