Birth of Mira

The following are mostly rough times (especially near the end) and all details may not be 100% accurate with what happened when as it’s a little bit hard to remember.

From around 38 weeks I believe I was in pre-labour. I was experiencing daily period-like pains that radiated into my lower back, and pain in my cervix that felt like it was being stabbed or ripped open. I had nausea on and off and even vomiting, along with headaches and just feeling off. This lasted for around two weeks.

Two days before my due date I experienced a brown blood loss which I was told was probably from an internal examination I had, but I do believe now that it was the start of my mucus plug coming away.

On the 18th of March (my due date) I woke up early in the morning to more period-like pain and minimal bright red spotting. I went back to bed and called the hospital a couple of hours later to be told to come in and get checked to make sure everything was okay. At around 11:30am they put me on CTG monitoring which showed baby Mira was happy. However my doctor who looked after me during labour was on at the time and wanted to do an internal examination and bedside ultrasound.

The internal showed I was about 2cm dilated (which progressed from 1cm at my last appointment a few days prior) and he performed a stretch and sweep.

When doing the ultrasound my doctor was fairly quiet, I asked him if everything was okay and he didn’t answer straight away. Then he spoke and said he wasn’t happy with some numbers. I didn’t understand what he meant and he explained that he wasn’t happy with the blood flow that was going through the umbilical cord to baby. He said Mira was working extra hard to get blood flowing to her which could have meant my placenta was calcifying or something else. I was then told I won’t be leaving the hospital until she is born and that I needed to be induced. At this stage she was engaged, head down and facing to the side, so a good position for labour and birth.

At around 2:30pm-3:00pm they inserted the balloon catheter, however about an hour before they started the induction I felt like I had started to have small contractions. I believe I was in early labour from the morning just before I went to hospital.

They told me the balloon would stay in overnight and they would break my waters and start the induction drip the following morning. They mentioned sometimes the balloon works and sometimes it does not, but usually takes several hours/overnight for it to help dilate/prep the cervix.

As soon as the balloon was inserted I was contracting even more and the balloon fell out very quickly, within two hours of it being in. They did an internal examination and I was around 4-5cm. Another hour or two went by with my contractions coming on very strong and frequent. At this stage I was only using my TENS machine and Calmbirth techniques to get through each one.

Around 7pm they decided to move me to a birthing room as the contractions were getting intense and they believed I was progressing very quickly. In the birth suite I used my TENS machine and Calmbirth techniques to get through each contraction. Matt and my midwife were doing a lot of work on my lower back as well with massage and pressure as I started to get a lot of pain in my tailbone and lower back.

At around 10:30pm my doctor came in and checked my dilation. It had been around 5-6 hours since my last one and my cervix was still only 5cm dilated, it had not progressed at all, which was strange considering my contractions were becoming very regular and frequent and more strong.

My doctor broke my waters to help try get my cervix to dilate and progress.

Once they were broken things ramped up a lot, to the point where they thought I was progressing very quickly.

The pain was starting to get very severe and I felt a lot of it in my back. My contractions were also going all over the place and there were times when I would get multiple contractions, so once one finished, another would start and I would get no break between them.

I decided to go in the shower to try get some more relief. And after a while of being in there I wanted to try gas and air as my Calmbirth techniques were not enough for the pain that I was experiencing. Unfortunately the gas and air did not help my pain, but helped me focus more on my breathing.

Things were getting very very intense now, it felt like my body was being tortured and the pain was something I could no longer breathe through. I had contractions both in the front and back, but most of them were in my back. The front ones were okay and I could get through them, the back ones got to the point of not having energy to breathe through.

After a few hours I asked for pain relief, morphine. Morphine is not something I wanted to take before labour due to possibly making baby sleepy after birth. But my labour pains in my back and the fact they were coming one after the other and not stopping or giving me a break were just too much and I needed relief to regain some strength and energy to push her out. The morphine shot helped a small amount. It helped shorten my contractions and helped the pain ever so slightly, but it wasn’t a huge difference.

After the morphine shot wore off the pain came back x10000, it was much much worse than before and I was starting to make noises like I needed to push. Everyone thought I was very close to having Mira due to how I was acting. My doctor came in and checked my dilation around 4am and told me I was still 5cm dilated and no progress had happened.

Throughout my pregnancy Mira was very low, engaged and in the optimal position for birth. Around 4am when my doctor checked me over he said she had been transverse and then went posterior and facing up. So during my labour she completely changed positions after so many weeks of being in the optimal position. Her position was the reason why my cervix wasn’t dilating and progressing and it was hard to say things would progress at that point.

She was also getting tired at this stage as well as myself. After around 12 hours of staying at 5cm dilated with no progression I had hardly any energy to do anything anymore, I felt like I was passing out and couldn’t do anything. I asked for an epidural so I could get some rest and hopefully regain energy to push her out without any assistance.

At 4:30am I had an epidural, I am unsure how long it took them to put it in as I had several contractions throughout the process which they had to start and stop so the epidural was safely administered. Once the epidural took effect they put the drip in to get my body to progress. I still could move my legs and was quite mobile so we changed positions multiple times to help get Mira to change positions.

After another couple of hours I think it was I had another examination and discovered I was still 5cm and no progression. So they turned the drip up and was told if nothing happens I will most likely need a c-section.

A couple more hours went by and was told I still hadn’t progressed. By then I felt defeated and extremely tired. I was told my option was to turn the drip up even more and potentially try get her to turn and go down which could have taken a minimum 5-8 hours, which then we would have to wait for me to dilate another 5cm, along with pushing, which all up could have been another 12+ hours. If we went down that route it could have either ended up with a forceps delivery or a cat 1 emergency c-section which could have had several complications.

My other option was to have an emergency c-section.

After discussing both options with my health team, my partner and calling my mum, we all decided it would be the best and safest option to get her out as soon as possible with a c-section. We were both getting very tired and I did not have the energy to go on for potentially another 12+ hours. Plus, the risk of something happening to Mira if we continued was not worth it.

Around 10am they started getting me ready for a c-section. I believe I went into theatre around 10:30am. They just topped up my epidural so I didn’t need a spinal. I could barely feel anything at all, barely any tugging or anything, I did feel them just as they were birthing her, when they pushed down on my upper stomach to help her come out. I could feel her being born and coming out in a way.

At 10:54am Mira was born! They quickly lowered the drapes, she was crying straight away when she came out and was nice and pink. They knew I wanted to do delayed cord clamping, so they allowed it as Mira was nice and healthy when she came out. They held her in front of me for a while with cord still attached and I touched her for quite a while. It was the most amazing feeling ever. They cut the cord, but cut it in a way so Matt could go trim it. Once that was done they brought her over to me for skin to skin where she latched for feeding straight away whilst I was being stitched up. She was completely healthy, I had minimal blood loss and the c-section went really well.

I found out my placenta had started to calcify and was sent away to pathology. My membranes were also apparently ragged.

C-sections have always scared me, more so being awake for a surgery. But I took my Calmbirth techniques in and stayed positive the entire time and it was a beautiful and positive experience. I didn’t want a c-section, I didn’t want pain killers. But throughout my pregnancy I prepared myself for anything. And I knew anything could happen.

After my labour with Mira I felt like I still achieved a birth that I am proud of and feel so positive about. I still feel like I somehow birthed her naturally because of what we endured during all those hours in labour.

If I didn’t have a c-section and I had dilated as I should have, Mira would have most likely been born on her due date!

I’m glad I went into labour and birth with a positive mindset and a very open mindset. I feel like if I just had one thing on my mind about having a drug free, natural vaginal birth, I would feel very different about the whole experience now and probably would have gotten quite depressed.

I couldn’t have done it without my partner and health care team. What a journey 💕✨

Written by Enya and shared with permission 💕

Much love -

*Information shared is of a general nature only and is not medical advice — please see your own care provider for specific and individualised information and advice. All personal stories & photos shared with permission.

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