“In the first trimester approximately 8 weeks in, I started bleeding heavily. Clots and lots of blood. We instantly thought we were having another miscarriage.

Ultrasound after ultrasound, we found out I had a subchorionic haematoma under my placenta causing the bleeding.

We were assured it would go away in the second trimester, and it did at 14 weeks.

I was then diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes at 25 weeks (which was annoying because I had an early test at 16 weeks that came back negative)

I was able to control this through my diet the entire pregnancy. However every day, 3 times a day, I had to prick my finger and take a test for my Blood Sugar Levels. This encouraged me to eat a healthy diet for the remainder of my pregnancy which I am actually grateful for. I didn’t eat Maccas from week 25 onwards and went mostly sugar free.

From 28 weeks, James and I started a course called ‘Hypnobirthing’ with Bec Black at The Mindful Birth Movement. It opened our eyes up to a whole lot of BS in the medical fields, but also showed us that we could be empowered to have the birth we wanted no matter what direction it went in. My birth plan was 3 pages long, with an induction birth plan AND a cesarean birth plan. I was READY!

At 37 weeks onwards I got harassed by most people that I knew ‘have you had your baby yet’. Please don’t do this to a pregnant women. It’s stressful enough being the pregnant one who has to wait FFS. Go away!

At 40+1 weeks I was still pregnant.

I went in for a midwife appointment, and had very high blood pressure.

Because I was already full term, I was told ‘pack your bags hunny, you’re going to be admitted to the hospital tonight and you’ll be leaving with a baby’ OK let’s do this!

I called James “babe, you might want to leave work and pack a hospital bag for you and go to the Angliss. We are having a baby this weekend”

Mum came and met me at my house, we got my hospital bag, I mean, I was full term, they were relatively packed. P.S I did not pack my bag as well as I thought.

I collected a few more things, and we drove past Ringwood station.

James was getting off the train so we picked him up and took him home. He packed a bag, mum left, then James and I drove to the Angliss!

Got to the Angliss. James could come in with me, thankfully. I had to get monitored for a while and yes, I definitely had pre-eclampsia. Diagnosed in the hospital at 40+1.

They did a stretch and sweep before I went to sleep to see if the labour could be induced this way. Slightly uncomfortable but not as bad as you think.

I stayed Friday night in hospital alone (covid) in the same room as a lady who had a special care baby. Bless her soul she had an alarm set every 2 hours, would pump, take her milk to the special care unit, feed her baby, go to sleep, repeat.

I didn’t sleep all night.

Saturday morning, my student midwife Bridgette O’Reilly was on shift starting at 7am. I could hear her voice in the hallway. I was so happy to see a familiar face before James came in.

8am – James is back! With a coffee! ILY babe.

Visiting hours were 8am – 8pm.

The midwife came in and said ‘how do you feel about having a baby today?’

Well…. I had a birth plan for induction so I said let’s do it.

She did a vaginal exam to see how ‘ripe’ my cervix was. While she was in there she goes “I’m already up here, can i break your waters to see if we can get labour going naturally without the drip?’ (The stretch and sweep didn’t work) Sure, you’re already elbow deep in my vagina.

She broke my waters at 8am.

I was 3cm dilated already.

Nothing happened.

I got the drip hooked up and running at about 11am. My midwife at the time Sigrid, was an absolute legend. I loved her. She was young, about my age, and she was so funny.

She respected mine & James’ private time, and left us alone. Only coming in when she needed to check the monitor or if we rang the buzzer thing.

So from 11am, it was on.

I requested the drip go up slowly. I had heard the drip can go from 0-100 real quick and I was like ‘no thanks’

So I requested it go up half the normal amount every 30 mins.

A birth preference of mine was also to be mobile.

She offered us monitoring via a clip on the babies head. This required her to go elbow deep up there into the cervix (by hand), clip a metal clip on the babies head and a string would come out and be attached to a wheely thing. This gave us 100% perfect monitoring as I hated the straps. They kept moving around and I really didn’t like the noise when it moved and lost babies heart rate. Talk about stress!

Unfortunately she missed the clip the first go, slightly uncomfortable, kind of felt like a stretch and sweep, however we tried again with a different midwife and success! The clip was on!

I didn’t leave the ball. I LOVED THE BALL!

It saved me through my labour.

I hated standing, I hated squatting, I hated kneeling. I didn’t leave the ball.

Unless if I was doing a poo! I’d say every 3-4 contractions I did a poo.

I had multiple contractions on the toilet which were also EPIC! Loved the toilet too.

I had a fan on me for the entire labour which was also amazing. My face was literally frozen but I loved the feeling of the wind on my face it was so nice.

I got James to FaceTime my family group message during a contraction because LOL WHY NOT?

I thought it would be a lot less intense than it turned out because I wasn’t in hardcore labour when we first FaceTimed them, then 5 mins later I had to hang up because well, you know, labour.

A contraction:

What you think it’s going to feel like – hell on earth.

What it actually feels like – slightly less than that, but also fun because you’re literally a boss woman about to push out a baby.

My contractions were about a minute apart for majority of my medication free stage of labour. This was a DREAM. Then out of no where it went like this…

Contraction – 60 seconds rest – contraction – 10 seconds rest – contraction – 40 seconds rest – contraction – 60 seconds rest.

My breathing techniques from Hypnobirthing were life saving. I was in the absolute ZONE! I was heaving and moaning during contractions. I was pooping and I was laughing and smiling in between contractions. It was heaven on earth. I LOVED this so much. I felt like a queen.

Then it went like this

Contraction – 60 seconds rest – contraction – 10 seconds rest – contraction – 10 seconds rest – contraction-  60 seconds rest and so on….

So you can imagine, the 10 seconds rest just wasn’t quite enough.

Had I got 60 seconds each time, I reckon I’d have had a baby out my vagina!

Then… my mindset broke.

I couldn’t do it anymore.

I begged James and Bridgette for pain relief.

I got the gas. YUCK NO THANKS NOT FOR ME. Made me feel sick.

I knew what I wanted hehe.

The epi.

Give me the epi.

PLS PLS PLSSSSS!

They looked at my birth preferences “No pain relief” I looked at them both and said “fuck the birth plan, I am a queen, I am so proud of myself, I have done everything in my power to do this pain relief free, I am amazing’ ‘but I want to meet my baby, I want the epi’

I got what I wanted. Obviously LOL

At 11ish PM I got the Epidural.

I’m glad I did.

After I think what was 7 hours of pain relief free labour, I was 4cm dilated.

So from 8pm the previous night I was 3cm, to about 7pm the following day I was 4cm. +1cm dilated.

They didn’t tell me during my labour because I didn’t want to know. And I’m glad I didn’t. Because I would have stopped at 2 hours LOL.

Thank you Bec for getting me through my natural labour. It was EPIC.

Anyway. Epidural. ILY

It took them about 30-40 mins to get the epi in, not sure why, but I think they got it wrong then did it again. I was in the zone I didn’t really care. Although sitting down during contractions on a flat bed not being able to move isn’t that great TBH.

So, ILY EPI until my blood pressure escalated and babies heart rate dropped rapidly.

Keeping calmer then I thought I would, they rolled me onto my side, and baby didn’t like that position. So we put me back on my back, baby liked this position.

They’d stopped the induction drip and a couple of doctors came in and sat James down and said ‘we highly recommend a c-section. With the induction drip and the heart rate and blood pressure issues because of the epi, the baby will be under too much stress to have a vaginal birth now.’

James and I asked if it was urgent. No. Ok so we asked for 30 mins in private to discuss our options.

James made sure I was okay with it.

Let me talk about my original birth plan for a second:

• Water birth
• No meds
• Breathing and affirmations only

As soon as I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia my water birth was gone.

So I thought to myself, I have done amazing. I have done 7-8 hours of pain relief free labour. My drip was turned off, therefore my labour had come to a halt. I will meet my baby in 1-2 days at least if I decide to have baby vaginally.

If I have a c-section, I get to meet my baby in max an hour, safely and healthy.

I chose the c – section. James reluctantly at first but eventually completely supported me. He just wanted to make sure that I was happy with the decision, as he said ‘It’s your body, and your decision babe, do what you want and I’ll support you fully’

Into scrubs he got.

20 minutes later we were in the operating theatre.

My god, the staff were INCREDIBLE.

I was on cloud 9.

In less than an hour I am going to meet my baby.

Everyone was so happy to be there, well so it seemed.

Bridgette got to come in as well. Which was all I cared about along with James.

Bless her, she went home, had a nap and came back!

I got the pain relief through the same spot they do the epidural. Felt absolutely nothing. It stopped the intense shaking that I got from the epidural though.

A bit of tugging happened, I think about 20 mins after the drugs were in, I saw a little baby being passed over the sheet.

At 1.34am I gave birth to a baby!

I cried and cried and cried and cried.

I saw a little (actually it was huge and swollen) vagina.

We didn’t find out the sex of our baby and My entire pregnancy I thought I was having a girl.

I WAS FUCKING RIGHT.

A tiny little girl.

She looked like a chubby Asian baby and did not look like either of us.

I looked at James and he said IT’S A GIRL.

I cried and screamed and heaved crying and screamed again and I just couldn’t believe we had our beautiful baby.

Also lol, she peed herself when she was being held over the curtain!

I couldn’t say her name. Even though I wanted to so badly. I had to ask James if he was still happy with the name we decided.

He said yes.

Thank god!

They took her over to the baby bed, did delayed cord clamping and let James cut the cord. They then brought her straight over to me, an absolute sobbing mess, and put her naked little body on my naked chest.

I cried more.

I couldn’t stop crying.

I looked at James and said ‘I can’t believe it, our beautiful little Meadow’

Our gorgeous girl. We had a little baby girl and we called her Meadow.

Saying our baby girl’s name for the first time was so scary. Once we said it, that would be it. That would be her name forever.

‘Hi meadow, hi meadow, hello meadow, My beautiful baby girl Meadow.’

I couldn’t stop once I started. It was unbelievable. I made a baby. Me and James made this tiny little thing that was lying nude on my chest!!!!

I held her little bum under the sheet. I couldn’t let go. It was so cute. It fit perfectly in my hand. I created this little human and I was completely in love.

Our beautiful daughter

Name : MEADOW WOLFF TWOHILL

D.O.B : 5th September 2021 (Father’s Day)

Time : 1.34am

Weight : 3.4kg

Height : 48.5cm

As told by mum, Katie

 

Learn more about my upcoming HypnoBirthing classes here.