| MANDIE & COOPER - BIRTH STORY - Planned Home Birth with a Private Midwife Mandie tried to ring me on Thursday evening while I was at the movies and spoke to Ian my husband. She told him he didn't need to go and get me as it wasn't urgent but to get me to call her when I came home. When I called her she told me she thought it was going to happen tonight as she had a show and was having irregular contractions. I asked her to let me know what was happening before she went to bed if it all fizzled out otherwise I would wait to hear from her. She sent me a text message at 10:57 pm that said Hi, have been lying down 4 the last hour & a half - still having surges, not regular but getting stronger & longer. Boobs have started dripping & John wants 2 start throwing drop sheets down! He needs to relax I texted back to ask if she wanted me to come as I was happy to and she messaged back Yes she would be happy for me to come and check her out and she would have a shower while she was waiting for me, so I collected my daughter Hannah who was coming to see her first birth and we set off for Tongala. When I arrived Mandie looked too calm and unflustered to convince me she was in labour. John had put the plastic down on the bedroom floor next to their bed where 2 year old Tom was asleep. I sat and watched her for a while and she kept telling me that she was having contractions, which I could feel if I put my hand on her belly, but she was able to continue with what she was doing through them which tells me that this is still early in labour. I reassured both her and John that she just needed to relax and things would settle down and get going. Mandie decided that she wanted to go into her room in the dark and listen to the hypnobirthing relaxation tape. She then spent about three hours either on her knees leaning over the bed or lying down in the dark with her ear phones in. Periodically she would wander out to the toilet or ask John to rub her back or heat the hot pack up . She kept telling me that the contractions seemed stronger and were lasting longer but the labour did not seem to be in full swing to me. The best skill of a midwife is to be patient and sit still and so Hannah and I rested and waited. At four am Mandie asked me to do a vaginal examination and see where she was up to. I reminded her that this could be frustrating if she did not get the result she wanted but she said she anted to know. I did this and found her cervix to be 80% effaced ( thinned out), 2-3cm dilated but a little towards the back although the head was well applied to the cervix. This was not what Mandie wanted to hear and I tried to reassure her that things were ready to go quickly once she had a few good contractions. I suggested that maybe she was too relaxed and needed to remind her body that she wanted it to do its job. She agreed to try this and so we stood in the kitchen for a while were she could lean on the bench while she rotated her hips. I held the hot pack on her back and encouraged her to get a rhythm going which she found OK for a while and then she decided to hop into the bath as this would allow her to relax. I was hoping that it would make or break the situation as the contractions may stop but at least this would let her get some rest. The bath was small enough that Mandie had to lay on her back and it quickly became evident that this would not work as she experienced strong pains in her back with each contraction. I encouraged her to lie on her side but even this was not much help. Mandie became increasingly frustrated and was loosing faith in her ability to keep going. Since she had been up and about the contractions were coming 2-3 and were much stronger. All of a sudden Mandie decided she had had enough and demanded that we call an ambulance to take her to the hospital. I smiled to myself as I have heard this many times before. Women in hospital always want to go home and women at home always want to go to the hospital when they are in transition. What they really want is to be anywhere but here. Despite her pleas for us to take her to hospital she did not make any move to get out of the bath so I kept reassuring her she was doing a great job. This went on for about 15 minutes after which she declared herself serious and I pointed out that she would need to get out of the bath if she wanted to go to the hospital. Eventually she got out, still demanding that I call the ambulance. I did point out to her that as this was no emergency she could go in the car and this seemed to settle her a bit. I convinced her to put one foot up on the edge of the bath and rock with me during a few contractions which was all that was needed for it to become evident to Mandie that she was about to have her baby. I asked where she wanted to have the baby and she decided that she would like to be in the lounge room in front of the fire so Hannah and John quickly set up her nest, plastic sheets, quilt and towels, for her and she moved onto all fours leaning over the big ball. The first contraction after she moved caused the membranes to break and I called Jodi the second midwife to come. Tom who had been asleep all this time, woke up and John went to resettle him. Tom was sitting on their bed watching the whole thing as the baby began to arrive quickly, and I called to John to come back. The baby's head was born and with the next contraction the rest of him slipped out to be passed under onto the mat in front of Mandie. She soon scooped him up into her arms but his cord was too short to allow her to hold him properly so as soon as it stopped pulsating it was clamped and cut by John. Cooper was then able to be cuddled properly by his mother and soon began to feed. Tom then came out of the bedroom to join in the fun and was soon settled on Hannah's knee for a cuddle. He watched fascinated as the placenta was born much to his parents surprise as he was not at all put off by the yucky stuff. Jodie arrived soon after he was born with five week old Oliver in tow as he would soon need a feed. It was time to put the kettle on and settle in for a chat. 
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Offering midwifery & maternal child health services to the Echuca and surrounding areas. |