Jenna
Jun 03, 2022
Logans birth story: VBAC with 22 month gap. Royal Darwin Hospital
At 3am, on the 2nd of April (Logans due date), I woke with very mild pains. I laid in bed waiting to see if it was nothing or the beginning of something. The pains came 8 minutes apart and were getting stronger. I jumped in the shower for a while which helped me relax. In the shower the surges started coming closer together, so I hopped out and told Luke we might need to get going soon. I put on the TENS machine and sat on my yoga ball, while leaning over the end of the bed. The surges started coming about 3 minutes apart so I told Luke to go and install the car seat (oops hehehe). Then we left for the hospital at about 6am my parents were staying with us to look after Naomi.
We decided to see if she could move it. Which she did successfully. I was pushing and he was decending, slowly but 100% fine. Suddenly Logans heart rate stopped recovering between contractions. The Dr was called in and asked to use ventose, I consented and at 10:22, with 2 tugs and an episiotomy he was out! He had a nuchal cord, hand up around his face and the cord also around his arm. He also had some meconium so we stayed the night for monitoring.I couldn't have been happier with his birth, I was calm and in control every step of the way, which is the complete opposite to Naomi's birth. My recovery has been much better than with Naomi and I'm really proud of myself for doing this.
Context: Naomi (my daughter) was an emergency c section in June 2019. I truly believe it was avoidable and caused by a cascade of interventions.(waters broke, posteria baby, given syntocin, then epidural, got to 9cm in 30 hours).
This time, I was pretty determined to do everything I could to have a VBAC with Logan. I started seeing Ellen from Back To Bump every 3 weeks to get my body in the best shape it could be for birth.
She also led me to do doing the Hypnobirthing Online course. This was everything. Luke (reluctantly) and I both did this course together. I wanted him to know and understand exactly what birth might look like for me. Having him do this also gave him the tools to actually be of assistance during labour. I used The Mere Birth Kit as well. The bath salts were incredible for my recovery as well as the peri spray.
At 3am, on the 2nd of April (Logans due date), I woke with very mild pains. I laid in bed waiting to see if it was nothing or the beginning of something. The pains came 8 minutes apart and were getting stronger. I jumped in the shower for a while which helped me relax. In the shower the surges started coming closer together, so I hopped out and told Luke we might need to get going soon. I put on the TENS machine and sat on my yoga ball, while leaning over the end of the bed. The surges started coming about 3 minutes apart so I told Luke to go and install the car seat (oops hehehe). Then we left for the hospital at about 6am my parents were staying with us to look after Naomi.
On the way to hospital my TENS stopped working! I assumed it was the batteries and Luke forgot to pack the spares! He had 1 job!! So we stopped at a servo to get more. I had a delightful contraction next to some folk laying on the ground recovering from the night before.
Anyway, my TENS started to work again, so I think I must have accidentally turned it of hahah.
So we got to the hospital at about 630am, and had the best midwife! My birth plan basically said leave me alone haha. And she did everything to respect that. I needed to be upright and Luke used a towel to put pressure on my hips (there is a name for this I have forgotten).
Things were progressing well and all of a sudden I was asking for morphine. My amazing midwife knew I didn't want this so she stalled. After a while she said "OK, I need to do a VE before I can give you this", I consented and she laid on the floor and reached up, she new I couldn't lay on my back. I was 10cm with a cervical lip.
We decided to see if she could move it. Which she did successfully. I was pushing and he was decending, slowly but 100% fine. Suddenly Logans heart rate stopped recovering between contractions. The Dr was called in and asked to use ventose, I consented and at 10:22, with 2 tugs and an episiotomy he was out! He had a nuchal cord, hand up around his face and the cord also around his arm. He also had some meconium so we stayed the night for monitoring.I couldn't have been happier with his birth, I was calm and in control every step of the way, which is the complete opposite to Naomi's birth. My recovery has been much better than with Naomi and I'm really proud of myself for doing this.