Sidney’s Birth Story

It was the morning of Maggies third birthday, I’d asked baby if they could please wait until after Maggies birthday to arrive so that we could have a special day together celebrating.Maggie and I had a beautiful morning together, we went for an early morning walk to the Lilydale takeaway shop around the corner where the ladies in the shop who know us sung Maggie happy birthday and treated her to a blueberry muffin. I gave Maggie a big kiss and left her with Nanna (who had just arrived from NSW the day prior) so that I could meet with my midwife, Jaimee.

I met with Jaimee and we walked to the hospital together from the birth centre. We had a consult organised with the Obstetric team to discuss my options as Sid had been transverse/oblique for about 10 weeks now and no amount of spinning babies, swimming, headstands, acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy and homeopathic remedies were encouraging him to turn.

We discussed that It’s not physiologically possible for transverse babies to be born vaginally but that he may still turn, despite the odds against him as he was running out of room to turn now that I was nearing 39 weeks. 

Despite hearing this news, I was feeling positive and empowered. After spending 10 weeks overwhelmed by all the spinning babies and appointments to encourage turning, I had finally surrendered to the likelihood of a belly birth and trusted my body, my baby and Jaimee that whatever will be will be. I felt like I could finally surrender and relax. 

We had a beautiful evening celebrating Maggies birthday, eating cake and pizza at Du Cane with a small group of friends.

I went to bed that evening rubbing my tummy and thanking baby for allowing Maggie to have her special day.

The following morning at 4:30am I woke to mild back pain.

I drifted in and out of sleep thinking the pain was from all the pizza I ate the night before. At 6am things started to intensify so I woke Alby and Nan and told them I might be in labour. It was part of our plan to head to the birth centre as early as possibly in labour so that Sid’s position could be checked to minimise the risk of cord prolapse and to attempt a manual turn at hospital.

By 7am I was on all fours in front of the fire moaning.

This time felt different, I could sense Sid was posterior as I was having very intense back labour. 

Alby, Maggie, Nanna and I squeezed into the car and made our way into town, the most uncomfortable car ride I’ve ever experienced. I desperately wanted the tens machine on but I was non verbal at this stage and couldn’t physically ask Alby to put it on for me. 

They say that as a woman nears the birth of her baby, she gets closer and closer to the ground. By the time we arrived at the birth centre at 7:30am I was on all fours on the cement pavement outside moaning, I don’t remember this but I had grazes the next day to confirm.Jaimee arrived and we needed to make our way across the road to the hospital to check positioning. There was no way I was walking there and the wait for an ambulance was 3hrs we were told. So I knelt on all fours on Jaimee’s German Shepherds dog mat in the back of her little hatchback whilst she zipped us across the road to the hospital. 

The doctor doing to bedside scan said baby was head down and confirmed my suspicions of a posterior position. I was almost disappointed to hear this news, as I couldn’t imagine labouring like this all day (or longer) with the back pain I was experiencing. 

Nonetheless we headed back out of the hospital, stopping frequently so I could bend over and moan during painful sensations. Jaimee has since told me that we received lots of concerned looks and had people stop to tell us we were walking in the wrong direction and that labour ward was back where we came from. 

We arrived back to the birth centre at 8am. Sheridan our birth photographer had arrived, Nanna had taken Maggie for a walk and Alby had almost finished filling the pool. I could see the box of candles, birth affirmations, my birth beads and the beautiful buntings that my girlfriends and I crafted at my mother blessing just three days prior sitting in a box on the floor. There was no time to decorate the room.  I could hear Jaimee in the background making calls as my back up midwife was away and we needed another midwife to be present.

I tuned out, stripped off and climbed into the pool with my birth comb. 

The surges were coming frequently and I felt like I wasn’t getting a break. I could also tell I was still very much alert and using the neo cortex part of my brain. I was not at all in labour land like Maggies birth I worried that this might stall my labour.

Nan and Maggie returned from their walk just as I saw a familiar face walk through the door at 9am. It was my beautiful friend and midwife Abby, who had arrived to support Jaimee and I as second midwife. I was so elated to see her and have her present for my birth. Jaimee couldn’t have picked a more perfect person. 

I held tightly to my birth comb as I moved through intense back to back surges and started to have a crisis of confidence which must have been transition. 

Very soon after this at 9:20am I no longer had any pains, and was now feeling the ejection reflex.  

I didn’t push at all, I just felt intense pressure and could feel him moving deeper and deeper into the birth canal with each surge. 

I called out to Maggie and Nan who were in the next room. 

Maggie sat beside me with Alby for a short time and I reassured her I wasn’t in any pain and that the baby was coming. Jaimee stood by with a mirror and Nanna picked Maggie up and held her as I kneeled into a lunge in the pool and put my hand down to feel Sid’s head. Confused at first as I felt a bubble

I quickly realised he was in his caul. I was in no pain and filled with adrenaline at this stage, so excited to meet my baby and in disbelief that he was in his caul.

I kept looking up at Maggie, Alby and Nan and saying “the babies coming, the babies coming”. 

Around 9:40am I could feel him turning from posterior to cephalic and his head emerge fully. In-between the next surge I began to feel him start to go back inside, I had to physically grasp at his head through the sac to stop him from slipping back.

Meanwhile Alby held my free hand and my Nanna looked on beside Jaimee and Abby who was holding Maggie. With the next surge at 9.44am Sid’s whole body emerged into my hands as I instinctively moved into a seated position in the pool to hold him to my chest. I could see his little face through the sac, still swimming in his amniotic fluid with no idea of the big world outside of his caul that looked like a big bubble. Jaimee helped to remove his caul and untangle the cord from around his neck. It took a while for him to land. I intuitively rubbed his back and spoke to him as he was very pale, floppy and non responsive. He took his first breath at 9:46am with a little help from Jaimee who administered a few puffs of air. He pinked up immediately and cried and cried, we all cried. We then noticed our baby was a little boy, discovering the sex was the last thing on our minds in both of our babies births.Shortly after I felt called to head to the bathroom where I sat quietly with Sid to my chest wrapped in oven-warmed towels and a robe with Alby by my side. I birthed his placenta painlessly and immediately into a bowl in the toilet, 10 minutes after Sid’s birth. Alby helped me to the four poster bed and the three of us climbed in together to continue our golden hours and his first breastfeed. At about 11am, one hour and fifteen minutes after birth, Alby cut Sid’s cord and I had a hot shower to relieve after birth pains whilst Alby had skin to skin with Sid. I rubbed cramp bark oil into my womb to help with intense after pains that were making me vomit and climbed onto the bed as Jaimee did a quick inspection of my perineum which was in tact, no tears or grazing. 

Abby brought us vegemite on toast and a cup of tea before she went back home to her own babies and I fed Sid side lying whilst dozing. A short time later Sid was weighed and had his observations checked before Jaimee and Sheridan left us to rest and bond. We called in Maggie and Nan to climb into bed with us and all cuddled together some more.

The day crept on and I was ravenous, the vegemite toast wasn’t hitting the sides so Alby warmed up congee I had prepared for the birth, my friend Lili dropped off my favourite carrot cake from Princes Square Bar (a after-birth ritual from last time) and our doula Ayla delivered us a hot cup of miso and some warm rice pudding. After feasting, dozing and cuddling we made our way back to Lilydale at 4pm and Alby, Maggie, Sid and I all climbed in to our big bed together and had our first night together as a family of four.