Here is a rather unique birth story from a friend in Australia. We were in the same class in primary school and though we haven't been in touch very much since, I feel like we are kindred spirits in a way since we are both now very passionate about issues surrounding natural birth and have a desire to change things for the better somehow, perhaps by becoming midwives! She has much more experience than me though, this story being about her fifth baby!
She found out that her baby was breech towards the end of her pregnancy. In Australia, and most places it seems, a baby presenting breech (i.e., bottom or feet down) automatically puts you in a high risk category, regardless of other considerations. Obstetricians become concerned about vaginal birth and often seem to suggest Cesarean section, because the risks of infant mortality are slightly higher with vaginal birth. However, the risks are still very low in both cases and C-sections have their own, fairly significant risks. Many are talking about the fact that fewer and fewer doctors are being trained to assist with vaginal breech deliveries. This article discusses some of the issues (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/c-section-not-best-option-for-breech-birth/article597103/).
It seems that my friend was lucky to have been well-informed of her options and also benefited from a supportive head Dr. from the UK.
This story is also interesting for another reason, but I'll let you discover that for yourselves. Thanks for sharing!
"I was due for a checkup on Thursday morning at 11.30am at the birthing centre. The previous appointment I had just had at our regular GP and she wasn't entirely sure if she was breech or not; so the birthing centre double checked and then sent me up for a scan to confirm. It was a complete coincidence that in that same morning I started having a few contractions. Not very painful but regular enough to think, hmm it maybe starting!
I called Daniel as he had just flown out to work the day before. He said to call his boss so he could organize a flight home again. I then called mum who was already going to come to my appointment with me anyway. So I got the kids ready for the school bus, dropped them off, made the other kids' lunches and packed a few things to keep them occupied. Changed our sheets put a load of washing on and quickly packed a few things in a bag for hospital just in case I wasn't coming home (which I didn't!). So I drove to the appointment whilst having mild contractions. Baby was still breech so they said obviously I can't birth in the birthing centre. I had a student midwife who was great and kept me company almost the entire day. She had never seen a breech birth and I told her she was welcome to stay and watch. She was also a great help in confirming to me that I was right in my mind to insist on a vaginal delivery providing there was nothing else wrong. So they laid out all the options and thankfully the head Dr on that day was very supportive of vaginal breech births; otherwise I may have had a harder time getting what I wanted!
One of the options was to try and turn baby with an ECV. They give you a muscle relaxant to stop contractions and help shift baby's bottom out of the pelvis so they can manually turn it. They literally push down on your belly under the head and bottom and try to make it do a somersault. The twisting on my skin kind of felt like a chinese burn on my belly! It didn't work though unfortunately so there was no chance in going back to the birthing centre for my water birth, which I was a bit disappointed about. Funny though, I had quite an audience with the ECV as a lot of the student midwives hadn't seen one performed before. After trying, the nurse assumed that contractions would stop after the muscle relaxant and was talking to me about coming in again next week to try turn her again. The student midwife and I looked at each other in confusion and in my head I was thinking, um, contractions haven't even stopped at all! And they were still about 5-6 mins apart. I don't think she believed me when I told her! (I believe I am hard to read as I don't show I'm in pain). Anyway, the midwife came back and they did a vaginal examination which then confirmed I was already 6cms dilated (I was quite surprised I was that far along as it really wasn't that painful!) So they took me to the labour ward.
I was very fortunate to have midwives that backed me in my decision to have a vaginal delivery and did all they could to help. Since I had to have the fetal monitor on I wasn't allowed to labour in a bath but they managed to let me have a long shower (even though they were supposed to have the monitor on me). I seriously thought it was going to be a longer labour because although contractions were regular they weren't as painful as I remember them with my other labours. I could still talk and laugh and hold a conversation! Mentally I think I was also hoping it would take a bit longer as Daniel wouldn't be arriving until around 7pm from the airport. After the shower I put on my labouring clothes and got into a comfortable position on my side on the bed and just grimaced through the contractions as they came. I think it was after 5pm by this point. Finally Daniel arrived at 6.45pm. Contractions kind of stayed the same but they were getting a bit more intense. Then all of a sudden I started to feel like I needed to push and bear down.
The midwife looked down and said, I can see toes! I reached down and felt 5 curly toes sticking out. All of a sudden someone mentioned that baby didn't like something and the emergency button was hit. Drs came rushing in and started talking about a cesarean but I was already pushing baby out and literally she slipped out in about 2-3 pushes in under a minute! Poor Daniel was a bit overwhelmed and sitting on the floor when they mentioned a cesarean. They put her onto me and then after a bit, took her to clean her up and check everything. Something wasn't quite right I could tell by the vague chattering amongst the midwives. I had another shower to clean myself up and then when I came out and had a proper look at her I could see what they were talking about. She seemed to have a few features that look like down syndrome. It was all a bit of a shock and completely unexpected. Daniel was still lying on the floor and (I didn't realize at the time) was in even more shock with being told the rough diagnosis and likelihood of our baby having down syndrome before he had even seen her properly or recovered from thinking I might need a c-section.
My mum asked me if i was okay with her having down syndrome and all I could think of was how could I not be? She is my baby girl and i don't have a choice about it. I would love her like all of my other children. So from then it was a bit of a whirlwind of emotions and anxiety for both of us, trying to change our vision and expectations of how we imagined the next stage of our lives and trying to comprehend how we were going to manage with a special needs child. The day after the birth was definitely the hardest, talking to the neonatal specialist and various other drs explaining everything that comes along with having DS. Thankfully so far, a lot of the medical conditions that are often associated with DS have been ruled out, as she is healthy, feeding well and her bowels are functioning normally. They still had to make sure at that point that there weren't any small holes in her heart but due to her good colouring and no heart murmurs detected, we were told she should be safe - and thankfully the scan showed no irregularities at all. We are very fortunate in that respect as up to 60% of people with DS have some form of a heart condition. We also had to wait on test results to check her thyroid and of course to confirm whether she had the extra chromosome abnormality or not.
Initially the diagnosis was purely from examining her physical features - the slightly slanted eyes, flat bridge of the nose and extra fold of skin (nuchal fold) at the back of her neck. There are other features which are common but she doesn't display them. There is such a wide spectrum with DS so it's really hard to tell until she grows and develops.
Just as we were ready to leave the hospital, results came back that confirmed she has the full extra chromosome. But thankfully her thyroid is functioning as normal. Another tick in the box.
Since being home it has been wonderful to see her develop. She continuously amazes me with her strength. She is practically commando crawling when she is on her tummy! And I've lost count of the amount of times she's rolled - all before she is a month old! We had a little bit of trouble with her gaining weight for a couple of weeks but as I was adamant in not supplementing her with formula (I have read far too much about the damaging effects of formula produced these days), I made a conscious effort to increase the good fats and protein in my diet, along with monitoring the time I feed a lot more closely (I increased feeds to every 2 hours instead of 3-4). It paid off as we weighed her again after a week and she had put on 330g and grown another 1.5cms! The nurse was very happy and said we can continue along just exclusively breastfeeding. I could not be happier :)"
She found out that her baby was breech towards the end of her pregnancy. In Australia, and most places it seems, a baby presenting breech (i.e., bottom or feet down) automatically puts you in a high risk category, regardless of other considerations. Obstetricians become concerned about vaginal birth and often seem to suggest Cesarean section, because the risks of infant mortality are slightly higher with vaginal birth. However, the risks are still very low in both cases and C-sections have their own, fairly significant risks. Many are talking about the fact that fewer and fewer doctors are being trained to assist with vaginal breech deliveries. This article discusses some of the issues (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/parenting/c-section-not-best-option-for-breech-birth/article597103/).
It seems that my friend was lucky to have been well-informed of her options and also benefited from a supportive head Dr. from the UK.
This story is also interesting for another reason, but I'll let you discover that for yourselves. Thanks for sharing!
"I was due for a checkup on Thursday morning at 11.30am at the birthing centre. The previous appointment I had just had at our regular GP and she wasn't entirely sure if she was breech or not; so the birthing centre double checked and then sent me up for a scan to confirm. It was a complete coincidence that in that same morning I started having a few contractions. Not very painful but regular enough to think, hmm it maybe starting!
I called Daniel as he had just flown out to work the day before. He said to call his boss so he could organize a flight home again. I then called mum who was already going to come to my appointment with me anyway. So I got the kids ready for the school bus, dropped them off, made the other kids' lunches and packed a few things to keep them occupied. Changed our sheets put a load of washing on and quickly packed a few things in a bag for hospital just in case I wasn't coming home (which I didn't!). So I drove to the appointment whilst having mild contractions. Baby was still breech so they said obviously I can't birth in the birthing centre. I had a student midwife who was great and kept me company almost the entire day. She had never seen a breech birth and I told her she was welcome to stay and watch. She was also a great help in confirming to me that I was right in my mind to insist on a vaginal delivery providing there was nothing else wrong. So they laid out all the options and thankfully the head Dr on that day was very supportive of vaginal breech births; otherwise I may have had a harder time getting what I wanted!
One of the options was to try and turn baby with an ECV. They give you a muscle relaxant to stop contractions and help shift baby's bottom out of the pelvis so they can manually turn it. They literally push down on your belly under the head and bottom and try to make it do a somersault. The twisting on my skin kind of felt like a chinese burn on my belly! It didn't work though unfortunately so there was no chance in going back to the birthing centre for my water birth, which I was a bit disappointed about. Funny though, I had quite an audience with the ECV as a lot of the student midwives hadn't seen one performed before. After trying, the nurse assumed that contractions would stop after the muscle relaxant and was talking to me about coming in again next week to try turn her again. The student midwife and I looked at each other in confusion and in my head I was thinking, um, contractions haven't even stopped at all! And they were still about 5-6 mins apart. I don't think she believed me when I told her! (I believe I am hard to read as I don't show I'm in pain). Anyway, the midwife came back and they did a vaginal examination which then confirmed I was already 6cms dilated (I was quite surprised I was that far along as it really wasn't that painful!) So they took me to the labour ward.
I was very fortunate to have midwives that backed me in my decision to have a vaginal delivery and did all they could to help. Since I had to have the fetal monitor on I wasn't allowed to labour in a bath but they managed to let me have a long shower (even though they were supposed to have the monitor on me). I seriously thought it was going to be a longer labour because although contractions were regular they weren't as painful as I remember them with my other labours. I could still talk and laugh and hold a conversation! Mentally I think I was also hoping it would take a bit longer as Daniel wouldn't be arriving until around 7pm from the airport. After the shower I put on my labouring clothes and got into a comfortable position on my side on the bed and just grimaced through the contractions as they came. I think it was after 5pm by this point. Finally Daniel arrived at 6.45pm. Contractions kind of stayed the same but they were getting a bit more intense. Then all of a sudden I started to feel like I needed to push and bear down.
The midwife looked down and said, I can see toes! I reached down and felt 5 curly toes sticking out. All of a sudden someone mentioned that baby didn't like something and the emergency button was hit. Drs came rushing in and started talking about a cesarean but I was already pushing baby out and literally she slipped out in about 2-3 pushes in under a minute! Poor Daniel was a bit overwhelmed and sitting on the floor when they mentioned a cesarean. They put her onto me and then after a bit, took her to clean her up and check everything. Something wasn't quite right I could tell by the vague chattering amongst the midwives. I had another shower to clean myself up and then when I came out and had a proper look at her I could see what they were talking about. She seemed to have a few features that look like down syndrome. It was all a bit of a shock and completely unexpected. Daniel was still lying on the floor and (I didn't realize at the time) was in even more shock with being told the rough diagnosis and likelihood of our baby having down syndrome before he had even seen her properly or recovered from thinking I might need a c-section.
My mum asked me if i was okay with her having down syndrome and all I could think of was how could I not be? She is my baby girl and i don't have a choice about it. I would love her like all of my other children. So from then it was a bit of a whirlwind of emotions and anxiety for both of us, trying to change our vision and expectations of how we imagined the next stage of our lives and trying to comprehend how we were going to manage with a special needs child. The day after the birth was definitely the hardest, talking to the neonatal specialist and various other drs explaining everything that comes along with having DS. Thankfully so far, a lot of the medical conditions that are often associated with DS have been ruled out, as she is healthy, feeding well and her bowels are functioning normally. They still had to make sure at that point that there weren't any small holes in her heart but due to her good colouring and no heart murmurs detected, we were told she should be safe - and thankfully the scan showed no irregularities at all. We are very fortunate in that respect as up to 60% of people with DS have some form of a heart condition. We also had to wait on test results to check her thyroid and of course to confirm whether she had the extra chromosome abnormality or not.
Initially the diagnosis was purely from examining her physical features - the slightly slanted eyes, flat bridge of the nose and extra fold of skin (nuchal fold) at the back of her neck. There are other features which are common but she doesn't display them. There is such a wide spectrum with DS so it's really hard to tell until she grows and develops.
Just as we were ready to leave the hospital, results came back that confirmed she has the full extra chromosome. But thankfully her thyroid is functioning as normal. Another tick in the box.
Since being home it has been wonderful to see her develop. She continuously amazes me with her strength. She is practically commando crawling when she is on her tummy! And I've lost count of the amount of times she's rolled - all before she is a month old! We had a little bit of trouble with her gaining weight for a couple of weeks but as I was adamant in not supplementing her with formula (I have read far too much about the damaging effects of formula produced these days), I made a conscious effort to increase the good fats and protein in my diet, along with monitoring the time I feed a lot more closely (I increased feeds to every 2 hours instead of 3-4). It paid off as we weighed her again after a week and she had put on 330g and grown another 1.5cms! The nurse was very happy and said we can continue along just exclusively breastfeeding. I could not be happier :)"
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