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Jessica Nash (Mother and Doula) shares the story of her second child’s birth with Mums Baby Magazine.
Since having her second child, Jessica Nash (from Mid-North Coast NSW, Australia) has become determined to help other ladies experience a pleasant and rewarding labour and birth. Jessica has since spent time studying and is now a qualified birth and postnatal doula, Jessica kindly shared the story of the birth of her second child (Jack) and explains how a doula can be of assistance during labour and birth.
My second pregnancy was completely different to my first, right from the very beginning. My first pregnancy was all smooth sailing, with none of the pregnancy complications many women suffer from, so I assumed all my future pregnancies would be the same…How wrong I was! As soon as I discovered I was pregnant, the morning sickness kicked in with a vengeance. Then a few weeks into the pregnancy, our niece was stillborn, so we felt too ‘guilty’ to share our wonderful news with anyone.
We had the Nuchal Translucency test done at twelve weeks (to rate the possibility of downs syndrome), and to our horror, the results showed our baby was in the high risk category. We were completely devastated to even consider something might be wrong with our baby, and it was even more of a shock seeing as though my husband and I were both only 23 years of age. We then had an amniocentesis carried out, and after two very long weeks, we discovered our baby was going to be ok. We were then able to share our news with everyone, and enjoy the rest of the pregnancy.
I had a horrible labour with our first son (as a result of being induced and suffering a severe reaction to the prostaglandin gel), so to overcome my fears this time, I studied a Birth Skills course, which focused on using self-hypnosis and relaxation techniques in order to encourage a calm and comfortable birthing experience. After much study, I was much more confident of my body’s ability to birth my baby, and I felt I had more control over the situation.
Four days after my ‘due date’, I started getting regular surges (contractions) from around 10am almost every ten minutes. The contractions seemed to continue all day, until I decided at 7pm that night we had better make the hour long trip to the hospital. My contractions progressed to five minutes apart throughout the night, but by morning they were back to being ten minutes apart. At this stage the Doctor asked if I wished to have my waters broken, and I reluctantly agreed to get things moving again.
By 1:30pm my contractions were coming every almost every three minutes, at this point the Doctor insisted I have the syntocin drip to speed the process up. I felt pressured into agreeing – I was threatened with being kicked out of the hospital if I said no. This was worrying to me as we lived so far from the hospital, and I really wanted a water birth…something just felt right about the idea of giving birth in the water.
As soon as the drip started, my contractions returned and seemed to come hard and fast. I started to get overwhelmed, which was frustrating because up until now I’d had no pain at all, and was managing each contraction with breathing and movement techniques. I decided it was time to get in the birthing pool. The warm water was relaxing, but the drip was still making my contractions come too fast, and half an hour later I was feeling the urge to push. I got into a squatting position, but the midwife barked at me to ‘lie down or I’ll pull the plug and you’ll have this baby on the bed’. I protested and cried and begged, but it all fell on deaf ears. I felt I would tear if I lay down like she was instructing. However, I was so desperate to avoid laying down on the bed, in hindsight I realise I wanted it so badly because being in the bed again would bring back memories of my first birth. After fifteen minutes of pushing, and with my wonderful husband embracing me in the bath, our beautiful second son, Jack Ethan, made his grand entrance on September 13, 2006.
Jack’s birth was a much more comfortable, positive experience than that of my first birthing, and I’m proud to say that I was able to give my son the gift of a drug-free welcome. However, I held a lot of resentment towards the staff whom I felt ‘bullied’ me into choices I made. When I think back, I start regretting some of the choices I made. I wished I’d had someone there who didn’t have a personal interest to ‘stand up’ for me. I talked with my sister in law at length about this, and she asked me to come in with her when she had her third baby, as she agreed a third person there would be helpful and supportive. We then discovered that was a ‘job’ of sorts, a doula, and so my doula career began. I studied with the Australian Doula College, and have recently become qualified, and am about to attend my fourth birth as a doula. I absolutely love what I do, and thanks to my own birth experiences I have a great understanding of what a birthing woman and her partner may need as support.
Mums Baby Magazine would like to thank Jessica for her time, if you wish to gain further information upon Jessica’s role as a doula then please visit www.jessicanash.com.au
Third time lucky, Tristen Hindle shares her birth story with us.
After having no period for numerous weeks and a history of ovarian cysts I booked in for an ultrasound despondent about the possibility of having to have more treatment. I headed in, one week later, expecting to hear about the discovery of more cysts and treatment options only to come out with the news that I was six weeks pregnant!
I had two miscarriages the previous year so even though I was elated, I was nervous when I told my boyfriend, David that we were expecting. We were excited, and hopeful, but after a few tears and hugs reality set in. We lived in a shared house and I had just lost my job. However, we talked it through and decided that maybe this was our miracle baby and, with a bit of luck, that we were on our way to becoming a family.
Just after I turned fifteen weeks pregnant we were asked to leave the shared house. We had nowhere to go so my angel of a sister-in-law, Peta took David and I in. Even with all the demands and duties that came from her own family of herself and two girls, she gave me unlimited support and advice and the best cooking a pregnant woman could ask for.
At twenty weeks pregnant we found out that we were having a girl. We had a 3D scan and we could see exactly what our baby looked like. She was amazing, she had David’s chin and cheeks and my lips.
Finally the big day arrived. I woke in the early hours of the morning with contractions. They were a long way apart so I quietly went into the lounge room and watched television. A few hours later David and I went to the hospital and I was hooked up to a monitor. Nothing much was happening. A few hours later I hadn’t progressed at all and my waters were still intact. The midwife explained that my waters had to be broken to speed things along. He broke them, only to find they were stained with meconium. Meconium is a baby’s first poo. Typically, a baby will have their first bowel movement after they are born, however, occasionally it happens prior to birth. My baby was now at risk of meconium aspiration. She could inhale a mixture of meconium and amniotic fluid that could partially, or completely, block her little airways.
From that moment on I was watched like a hawk. A fetal monitor was placed upon my baby’s head so that they could watch the baby closely, too. My contractions continued late into the night and by that time the pain was unbearable. I begged for a caesarean but the medical staff said it wasn’t an option. It was too dangerous because of my size. A few hours later a doctor came in and said my baby’s heartbeat was accelerated and she was becoming distressed. The baby needed to come out immediately so I was rushed into theatre for an emergency caesarean. After being by my side all day poor David was exhausted. I had to have a general anaesthetic so David couldn’t come into the theatre with me, we were devastated.
I woke up in the recovery room with nurses telling me that I had a beautiful, healthy girl. Our little girl weighed 3.9kg’s and was 53 centimetres long and had an impressive mop of dark hair. David came in and showed me pictures of our baby who was under observation in the special care nursery. A few hours later I finally got to hold her for the first time. It felt amazing. We named her Abigail Janette. Our angel, our princess, our everything!
Abigail is now fourteen months old, and is sure giving us a taste of parenthood with its ups and downs. I can still remember all the pain and everything I went through. But, all told, she was worth it all and always will be.
Sabina shares her birth story with MBM
My waters broke on Saturday at around 9.00pm. I contacted ‘Triage’ while my husband was putting Luca (two years old) to bed. We managed to get my brother to babysit overnight.
We arrived at the hospital at approximately 10.30pm. The midwife checked me over and confirmed that my waters had broken. However, I was only 1cm dilated and only contracting once in every ten minutes. As I was a GBS (Group B Strep) carrier during my previous pregnancy I had to have swabs taken and was given antibiotics every four hours along as standard precaution along with steroid injections in case my labour continued as I was only thirty five weeks and one day pregnant.
Not long after this I saw a Doctor who estimated that I was now 3cm dilated, at this point we were still awaiting swab results, therefore the Doctor gave us two options: either to wait for the results which could take up till 48 hours or be induced right away. As I was already in hospital and the labour seemed to have already started we decided to go ahead with induction. At 10am on Sunday I was given an epidural and syntocin drip (which increases the hormones produced in labour). Sadly, the epidural failed on my left hand side just as it did during my first labour with Luca.
I started panicking and almost ended up having a panic attack!
The Doctor returned and told me that I would be checked again at 2.00pm. I continued to receive ‘top-ups’ for my epidural which made the right hand side of my body so dull and numb that I started panicking and almost ended up having a panic attack! At around 2.00pm the Doctor returned to my room and discussed the babies heartbeat with the midwife. Apparently my babies heartbeat was rather low (under 60 bpm) and there seemed to be little improvement. The Doctor wanted to take the babies oxygen levels by carrying out a blood sample from the babies head. Once the tests were completed the room seemed to suddenly fill with hospital staff…
At this point my husband was taken away and I was asked to sign consent forms, to drink something and all this was happening whilst I was being wheeled through the labour ward into the theatre. Almost halfway through being ‘put to sleep’ the Doctor examined me and found that I was fully dilated, they therefore opted to carry out a forceps delivery rather than an emergency C section. At this point my husband was allowed into the room, it only took three minutes to deliver Jake, Jake was born at 2.36pm weighing 6lb 13 ounces. Jake was born with the cord wrapped around his neck , luckily he was perfectly fine, my husband got to the cord and hold him once the paediatricians had checked him over. It’s quite funny really, Luca was born at 35 weeks and weighed 6lb 14 ounces so the two labours are quite similar.
I laid on the operating table for some time as the medics struggled to stop my bleeding, by the time they had finished I had lost almost 500ml of blood. Once I had been given the all clear, I was moved to a bed but found that I felt extremely queasy and couldn’t stop being sick.
Luckily my nausea passed and I was able to hold Jake. I then returned to the labour room to wait until a bed was ready on the maternity ward.
Two days after Jake was born we went home, Luca adores his baby brother and seems to enjoy winding him!
I gave birth on my living room floor!
Ellie Yusuf from Kings Lunn, Norfolk is Mum to Samiel (one month old). Samiel is Ellie’s second child, Ellie opted to go for a home birth, here’s her story.
I started to have regular tightening sensations on Thursday 10th September (my official due date) at about 9pm, the tightening sensations were eight minutes apart but not painful so off I went to bed thinking that it was nothing sinister
Midnight arrived and I hadn’t slept, I had just watched a film in bed, having a nice rest in-between tightening sensations whilst my Husband slept next to me like a log, typical! I suddenly had a painful tightening which I decided was a contraction rather than Braxton Hicks. Shortly after following the third painful contraction I woke my Husband to tell him labour had started and that my contractions were five minutes apart.
We got up and made a cuppa, we timed the contractions for a while and they remained to stay at five minutes apart, lasting a minute each. I called my mother to let her know what was happening, I also contacted the in-laws to collect my son and finally I called the Midwife to let her know too.
Mum made her way over to the house as did the in-laws. My Midwife decided that she was going to come and examine me as she was only twenty minutes away.
My in laws arrived after about an hour to take my little boy for the night, we had had a cuddle beforehand and gave him some medicine and milk as he was very poorly at the time.
The midwife examined me and said that I was four to five centimetres dilated. She decided that she was going to stay with us then but she had to nip back to the hospital to get the Entonox (Gas and Air) for me.
My Midwife returned twenty minutes later, by then my pains were roughly three minutes apart and getting more intense.
Whilst she had gone we had set up a nice nest in the front room, water proofing pillows and quilts and we had placed lots of things for me to lean on around the room.
I used the tens machine for as long as I was able to. I also practiced pressing certain pressure points that I had read up on beforehand along with breathing techniques (which really do work!)
At about 4am I decided to start using the Gas and Air as the contractions had become intolerable, and I was beginning to think that I wouldn’t be able to manage much longer.
My midwife decided it was time to call the second midwife as she was twenty minutes away, my midwife explained that “things were hotting up”…
It was then that I realised that I was experiencing the transition stage as I suddenly started to feel quite weepy (this is always a good sign). However, I felt defeated and low.
My midwife was fantastic, she recognised my transition and performed some great acupressure on my lower back which helped relieve the pressure of my babies head.
My Midwife became the person whose hand I held onto during the more overwhelming contractions. My Midwife needed to nip to the toilet so my Mum switched to doing the pressure point massage for me and no sooner had my midwife shut the bathroom door than I felt the urge to push, suddenly my waters broke.
My contractions then became almost constant and the urge to push was overwhelming, luckily the Midwife heard me 
pushing from the bathroom and came running!
Just as my babies head was fully out and we were waiting for the shoulders, the second midwife walked through the door, I believe this to be the perfect greeting! Out came my beautiful baby boy after six minutes of pushing at 4:20am, four hours and twenty minutes after labour had started and only ten minutes before the time that my Mum had guessed that he would be born!
I gave birth whilst on my knees, leaning over my foot stool so that my baby came out behind me, as soon as he was born I asked my husband to take off my night dress and bra so that when my son was passed through my legs for me to hold we could have some well deserved skin to skin contact. This is something I did not have with my first son and was determined to do this second time around. I sat back on my heels and cried with joy at this little bundle that had appeared.
I opted for the placenta to be kept attached to my son until the cord stopped pulsating so I sat and had a lovely cuddle with my son and husband whilst we waited.
After a while the midwife told me the cord had stopped so I clambered onto the sofa, got wrapped up in a blanket that I had saved for the occasion and cuddled my son whilst my husband cut the cord.
I had already discussed with my midwife my choice not to have the injection which speeds up the delivery of the placenta if we didn’t need it, so I gave my son to his Daddy and I tried pushing a little to see if we could get the placenta out without aid. Three small pushes later and it was out and intact. I was examined and found to have had no tears, no grazes and my son was declared fit and healthy.
At this point I went into a bit of shock due to the short labour and very short pushing stage, also I think the lack of pain relief was a shock to me too!
I laid on my sofa for a while nice and comfy and breastfed my new son a few times, he had three or four feeds which we were very happy about. We all settled down and had a nice cup of coffee and I had a kit-kat as I was suddenly quite hungry whilst Nanny had a cuddle with her newest Grandson.
My son was weighed and found to be 7lbs 15oz which is the exact same weight as my first born! His head circumference was 35cm again, exactly the same as my first born (and oddly they were both born on a Friday after a four and a half hour labour!).
I then went off for a bath, it was wonderful to be in my own bathroom, whilst I was in the bath, one midwife cleaned up downstairs with the help of my Mother whilst my husband had a cuddle (or should that be the other way around I’m not sure!). Then the second midwife came to me and helped get some water proofing down on the bed and sorted out my outfit to get into bed in. She helped me to get out of the bath and get dried and into bed then my mum brought my son to me in bed…aww, bliss!
I can’t believe I had such an amazing birth, it knocked the socks of my first by far and I can’t believe I didn’t have a homebirth for my first. I will never go into hospital for any subsequent babies. It took us until the evening of the next day to pick the perfect name ‘Samiel Lou Yusuf’ for our perfect second son.
Mums Baby Magazine would like to thank Ellie for sharing her birth story with us.
Naomi shares her birth story with Mums Baby Magazine.
Naomi Jane Cooper gave birth to her beautiful baby girl Mia Iris on Saturday 12th September at 6.24am in Kingston Hospital, Surrey. Mia was born weighing a healthy 8lb 2oz. Naomi got in touch with Mums Baby Magazine to tell us her birth story:
I woke up with cramps similar to period pains on the morning of Friday 11th September. The cramps felt different to the pains that I had previously felt and so I called my best friend to tell her that I thought something was happening. Luckily I had a check up arranged for that morning at the hospital as my midwife had been concerned that my blood pressure was high. 
I was five days overdue and this was our first baby. My husband came home to take me to the hospital and upon arrival I was examined immediately. Tests showed that my blood pressure was very high and that I had protein in my urine, the staff were concerned that I was showing signs of preeclampsia.
I was then given an internal examination and to my amazement was told that I was already 3cm dilated! I was given a ‘stretch and sweep’ and told that I was not going home, I was going to be getting induced! By the time I got to the car park to call my family and friends I started to have mild contractions, I was so excited that we were finally going to meet our baby.
I was admitted to the labour ward at 1pm to wait for a delivery room to become free. By 6pm they had a room for me so my husband, Mother and I were taken down the corridor and I just remember thinking ‘When I leave the room I will have my baby!’
My waters were broken manually, it was very quick and painless. Within half an hour I started having stronger contractions, I was on the birthing ball and watching the soaps at first. I found the pain bearable at this point but I was then given a syntocinon drip to increase contractions.
At about 9pm I got onto the bed to rest a little and asked for Gas and Air as the contractions were getting stronger. My husband was watching the contractions coming on the monitor and would tell me when one was coming so I could start using the gas and air, it was a great help!
By about 2.30am (Saturday morning) I wanted to get off the bed and move about to try and help ease the pain as the contractions were becoming intense due to the drip. Once I stood up I had the most overwhelming urge to push, but was told not to as I was not ready, it was so hard as it was all I wanted to do!! I got back into the bed and was again examined and was told that I was now 8 and a half cm dilated and that soon I would be able to push, I was so pleased to hear those words!
I started pushing at 4.30am and continued to push for a further two hours with no pain relief, apparently the gas and air was stopping me pushing as hard as I needed to. I was getting so tired and really struggling, I thought that I would never get her out, her head was coming out and going back in so many times and I was so exhausted but finally at 6.24am after a twelve and hour labour our beautiful baby girl, Mia Iris Cooper was born weighing 8lb 20z at 6 days overdue.
All the waiting was so worth it and I am amazed that I did it without an epidural as I was convinced I would need one…so it can be done.
My husband was amazing, he was such a brilliant support and backed me all the way. My Mum cut the cord as my husband did not want to, I think it was all a bit much for him, He cried so much when she was born, it was an amazing time.
Mia is a very content little baby, we are very lucky. I love being a Mummy, it is the most amazing thing in the world and so worth every little bit of pain you go through, and it’s true, the second you get handed your little one, you forget it all!
Mums Baby Magazine would like to thank Naomi for sharing her story with us and wish Naomi and her family all the best for the future.
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