With her second pregnancy, she thought she’d have one again, but was surprised.
“I was hoping for a natural birth and went into labour at 40 weeks. I woke up in die middle of the night with painful contractions. I got up and took a shower. Then my water broke all in about 20 minutes. However, when we got to the maternity ward, they found that our baby’s heartbeat was very slow due to him pushing down on his umbilical cord and stopping the blood flow. A C-section was necessary to save his life. I remember feeling quite calm about the change of plans as I wasn’t hell-bent on having a natural birth and because my gynaecologist was so calm as well. The C-section was really quick. Six minutes after I went into theatre it was over and I got to hold Caleb straight away. The only upsetting thing was they had to put him in an incubator for three hours after the birth to get his oxygen levels up and I wanted to feed him, but in the end it was fine,” tells Lauren. She admits that it was scary to hear that her baby was in distress, but luckily the medical facilities were available to quickly perform a C-section.
A change in plans… again
Lauren says she read about VBAC’s online and in books and magazines. “There is quite a lot of contradictory information out there. I also chatted to relatives who are in the medical field which was quite helpful. I thought my gynaecologist would insist on a C-section but at the 35 week check-up she told us that we could have a natural birth as the baby was in the perfect position.” Lauren and her husband thought about it some more and at their next appointment, they set the conditions: no pain relief, no induction and the labour must progress naturally.
Labour Pains
“I am a sound sleeper and even towards the end of my second pregnancy I didn’t lose too much sleep. When I was woken up at 01:00 by sore contractions, I knew something was up. I took a hot shower to make sure and the pain didn’t lessen so we got ready to go to the hospital.”
Arriving at the Hospital
When they arrived at the maternity ward, Lauren was showed into a labour ward and hooked up onto machines to measure contractions and the baby’s heartbeat. Her husband left to fill in the paperwork and the nurse to phone the doctor. “I was left lying down on the bed which wasn’t great because the contractions became more painful. I had brought a book to read, but it wasn’t enough distraction. As soon as the nurse returned, I asked to be unhooked from the monitors so that I could walk around which helped a lot. They were concerned that the baby’s heartbeat was at a resting pace rather than wide awake so there was still a change that we might have to go for a C-section.” However, after a membrane sweep the heartbeat picked up. When they checked how far Lauren had dilated, she had gone from four to six centimetres in an hour. The labour was progressing fast and it was too late for a C-section. “I was a bit nervous about the second phase of labour, but told myself to be calm. Listening to the nurses telling me to breathe through the contractions was really helpful, especially when they came harder and faster. My poor husband almost had his hand squeezed off during it, but I couldn’t have done it without him cheering me on.”
The Gift of Life
Eventually it was time to go into the delivery room for the pushing. “I remember thinking that the pushing was one of the hardest things I have ever done but also the most rewarding,” says Lauren. “The nurses and gynaecologist were really helpful in telling me exactly what to do and commented on how calm I was. The worst part wasn’t the pushing but the epistomy and the stitches. At last our beautiful Jemma Ruth was born. It was amazing to be able to hold her and let her suckle straight away.” For Lauren it was empowering to give birth naturally and given the choice, she’d do it again. “The recovery afterwards is so much quicker and our baby’s suckling instinct was much stronger than we had with the eldest.” Lauren remembered that staying calm as possible was important and having her husband with her also helped along with focusing on the nurses’ instructions.
Pneumonia
Though the natural birthing experience was beautiful, the couple suffered a scare a few hours later when Jemma went into distress due to congenital pneumonia. “It was traumatic for us, but fortunately she made a full recovery after ten days in NICU,” says Lauren. If she were to do anything differently, she’d urge a group B streptococci test as the group B caused their baby’s pneumonia and she’d also try and avoid and episiotomy. - Zanri Kotzé
Books read: Attended ante-natal classes, What to expect when you’re expecting, parenting magazines
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