Jun 8, 2020

"I have never felt so happy and relieved to have this baby in my arms"

Quinn’s Birth Story Wednesday 28 April, just a normal day at the home office. I was dialled into our weekly team meeting halfway through and i started to get a bit of a backache, I thought nothing of it - I had probably spent too much time on the Swiss ball. After work on Wednesday, I went for a walk around the block with my dog Luna and my cousin. Once we got back the discomfort in my back got more intense and I think I had my first surge! My husband Jayden saw the look on my face, he knew straight away something was different to the usual Braxton Hicks I had been having for weeks now.

Wednesday night was a blur of surges, heat packs and lulling in and out of sleep listening to the different hypnobirthing soundtracks we had downloaded. As we rolled into Thursday the surges kept coming, but I wasn’t feeling Baby Bright moving around - so I call the hospital and we went in for CTG, everything looked good after an hour and we were sent home that morning. That afternoon I noticed my waters had broken - just a trickle, I again let the hospital know and a few hours later got a call asking me to come back for another CTG. Again, everything looked good and we went home

Another night of strong and more frequent surges, multiple hot showers and heat packs let me know Baby Bright was getting ready to enter this world and I was excited and a little tired due to the sleepless nights

Friday, 1st May, the morning rolled around we were asked to come back into the hospital at 9 am, this time my OB Kate was there to present me with 2 options. As my water had broken about 10 hours ago she was concerned about infection, she offered to do another CTG and send me home and if Baby Bright hadn’t arrived by Saturday morning she would induce me or we could stay now and be induced. My immediate reaction was not to go home. Jayden and I then had a very honest conversation talking about mine and Baby Bright’s wellbeing. Another night of little to no sleep, no food (because everything I ate made me want to be sick) I didn’t think I could do it. So working with Kate we got all the information and decided we would be induced today.

A twist - as we decided to stay Kate did a cervical exam and discovered, to everyone’s surprise, I was 6cm dilated and well on my way to welcoming Baby Bright into the world. I had a bulging membrane - so Kate finished breaking my waters at 9.30 am on Friday. We moved into the labour and delivery room - where Jayden had dim the room lights, set up fairy lights, our diffuser and a speaker with the positive birth affirmations and a playlist I had made on repeat. We used heat packs, so many heat packs as I wasn’t able to get in the shower due to us monitoring Baby Bright’s heart rate. I spent the next few hours on all fours, moving around the room and on the Swiss ball. At one point I had a massive surge - I said to our midwife - I think Bub has moved - finally, Baby Bright had moved from her posterior position and engaged. Shortly after I felt the need to bear down. Throughout the bearing down phase Jayden provided the support and encouragement I needed! At times I said I couldn’t do it anymore, and he reminded me each surge we were getting closer to meeting our baby and reassured me I can do this.

A few more pushes later - we met our beautiful baby girl, Quinn Rose Bright, weighing in at 2.95kg and 48cm long. We were so in love to finally hold her. I have never felt so happy and relieved to have this baby in my arms. We had uninterrupted skin to skin time, Quinn did the breast crawl and we attempted breastfeeding for the first time. I managed to birth the placenta without medical intervention, with just couple stitches later before I know it I was eating Vegemite toast, the first time I ate in two days and I was ready to shower and walk up to our room for the night with the three of us. The whole pregnancy was a beautiful experience. My birthing experience was what I expected, yes it was hard at times, yes it was painful, but I knew I could handle it with the support of Jayden and being armed with the knowledge of Hypnobirthing to get me through it.