Pregnancy and Birth (5)
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 The entries in this category of my blog will be about my experiences with and thoughts about pregnancy and birth. It will contain my birth stories, some of which is quite graphic, so please ensure you are comfortable with frank discussion about the physical and emotional aspects of pregnancy and birth before deciding to read further.
If you are looking for a great discussion forum and information site all about pregnancy and birth, check out BellyBelly. You can post your own birth stories there, chat to other mothers (and dads too), make friends, and there is a great doula referral service.
Being pregnant and giving birth are amazing experiences, and can be wonderful, frightening, painful, empowering, and more. It’s something I’m very grateful to have experienced.
I do have some strong views about how the medical system deals with pregnancy and birth, and hope I manage to express these appropriately. I am certainly a big fan of midwives and doulas. I’m also a big fan of Ina May Gaskin, having read her wonderful book Spiritual Midwifery. I’m not opposed to pain relief – I think we need to be free to make our own choices about how to deal with the contractions – but I do believe we need as much accurate information as possible in order to make good choices, and I think that often doesn’t happen, which is why the c-section rate is so high.
Naomi Wolf describes her experiences in Misconceptions, showing that even a capable, intelligent woman like herself can feel quite out of control and swallowed up by the ‘system’. I’ve been very lucky with my birthing experiences. I birthed my first two daughters at home, then had my son in a hospital but still with just a midwife and no intervention.
My fourth birthing experience was quite different. Again it was in hospital, and as I was having twins, it was much more difficult to achieve a natural birth. This time I had my waters broken to induce labour, and ended up with an epidural, sintocinon and a spinal block (because there were problems with the epidural). And there was an extraordinary number of people in the room! (Ok, a lot of them were my family). Happily though, I was able to stay fairly upright, and birthed my youngest daughters vaginally. I’m sure this was made easier by the fact that my body had done it before, but I was very aware of those c-section statistics – much higher for multiples.
All my labours were about 12 hours. Whilst preparing to give birth myself, I always enjoyed reading as many birth stories as I could find. This is so much easier to do now with the internet. Reading the personal accounts of other mothers (and fathers too) gives a great insight into what it’s really like, and all the different things which can happen, and how people respond to those things.
If you have a birth story to tell, I encourage you to write it and publish it. There are plenty of sites available where you can submit your story and have it published, including my favourite: BellyBelly. If you’re pregnant, I also encourage you to keep a journal of your experience, and also to ask lots of questions, even if the doctors and midwives seem impatient with you. In fact, if they seem annoyed by your questions, ask them even more! Don’t just go along passively. Those hormones that make you more passive and accepting can also be the source of great energy, which is where our nesting behaviour comes from. Find out about all the options available to you that you’re interested in, and assert yourself.
As I mentioned earlier, I’m a big fan of midwives and doulas. I also believe, from personal experience, in the benefit of remaining as upright as possible to give birth, and of being immersed in warm water during labour. A big enough bath or pool can take a lot of the weight off your tired legs and body as you get through what might be hours and hours of labour. If at all possible, I strongly believe in having your own midwife, who will see you throughout the pregnancy as well as be on call to attend the birth. |
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Asha and Lauren's births 2005 |
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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 |
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This is the story of the births of my youngest children, twins Asha and Lauren. Present were me (Yvette), my husband Lindsay, friend & birth attendant Kelly, my daughters Lola, who was 12, and Ruth who was 8, my mum Irene, three shifts of Midwives, the Senior Registrar and the House Doctor. Our son Angus, who was 15 months, was being looked after by a friend, Nadia. The 2nd and 3rd Midwives overlapped and were both there for the birth. We’d met the 3rd Midwife once before and she’d read the birth plan. I’ve put the birth story together using Lindsay’s notes, the photos which have the time on them, and the video which has occasional glimpses of the clock on the wall, as well as my own memory.
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Angus' birth 2004 |
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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 |
Me: Yvette, age 38. Husband: Lindsay, age 48. Other children Lola, 11 and Ruth, 7. Midwife: Maryse.
The pregnancy.
As with my first two children, I conceived on the second cycle after coming off the pill, and was very healthy throughout the pregnancy. During the first trimester, I had some slight nausea in the mornings which soon passed, and felt tired quite easily, napping whenever I got the chance and falling asleep earlier at night. I was still working for the first 3 months. By the second trimester, I felt better but was becoming even more tired. An iron supplement made a noticeable improvement in the tiredness, but I now developed a pain in the groin.
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Ruth's birth 1997 |
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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 |
This is the story of the birth of my second child. I didn’t write this birth story at the time, because I was so busy working. My memory is quite clear about how I felt, but there’s not so much detail. LMP 13/6/96. I conceived on the second cycle after coming off the pill, as with my first baby. (edit 2008: I think I wrote this when pregnant with Angus, so would have been 2004.)
It was another planned homebirth. Everything had been fine on the ultrasound, (or were there 2?) and we could see her sucking her thumb. I wanted to know the gender again and we found out we were having a girl.
I had a bit of nausea & fatigue in the first trimester, & the usual achy hips in bed and breathlessness in the third trimester.
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Lola's birth 1992 |
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Tuesday, 12 February 2008 |
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This account was written in 1992.
This is the story of the birth of my first child. It was a planned homebirth. Present were me (Yvette), my first husband Kevin, main Midwife Annie, second Midwife Robyn, my mum Irene, support person Julianne, dog Jessie, cat Saxophone. My brother Gavin also showed up, & fell asleep on the lounge room floor at some point, and afterwards it turned out that my dad Ernest had been out on the front porch.
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