My Birth Story | My VBAC | My Success

Birth Story
From the moment I found out I was pregnant - waaait... Let's rephrase that, from the moment Charlie's birth ended in an emergency csection I knew I wanted a vaginal birth for my next child. 
I spent so much time researching reading and educating myself; Shane called me obsessed, he believed I was letting it consume me. I joined a support group on Facebook, I asked questions and spoke to other woman who had experienced vbacs personally. 
I began to feel empowered. 
I felt strong.

Archer Raymomd Mcconnell, here is his birth story.

7am Sunday 6th of March. 
I woke with a loss of fluid in my underwear and a soft crampy feeling in my stomach. By 9am I was having light contractions and I made a phone call to the hospital. 
The hospital was really easy going not phased at all until I mentioned I was a VBAC... The midwife told me to go in immediately; I told her I would come when I was ready. 



12pm Sunday 6th March.
We set off for the hospital, in no rush what so ever. We stopped for lunch, dropped the toddler off with his Nanna and even made a pit stop at McDonald's. My contractions we becoming more mild and regular at this stage. Both Shane and I were shocked at how I was riding through each contraction and staying so calm. I was enjoying it. I knew I was going to birth this baby out of my vagina! 
2pm Sunday 6th March.
Arrived at the hospital, was asked to sit through half an hour of CTG. After letting them know how I felt about continuous fetal monitoring they were kind enough to take it off after 15 minutes. Contractions had fizzled since arriving at hospital and being made to sit down, they were only coming here and there. The doctor preformed a speculum to clarify whether my waters ruptured at 7am or if the fluid was more mucus plug. My cervix was closed and there were no signs of my membranes rupturing. 
So we headed home. 
11pm Sunday 6th March.
After labouring at home all afternoon it was time to go to hospital, knowing we were an hour away I began to think we wouldn't make it! Safe to say Shane managed to get us to the hospital in about half the time... 


Once at hospital the midwife I had was amazing, she had also had three vbacs herself! At 2am we did a vaginal exam and I was 6cms, she told the OB I was only 4cms incase my labour stalled so there would definitely be progress ;) how sneaky. 
The hot shower worked wonders for my back pain at this stage. The midwife also had me "marching" to help bring baby down and finish turning him as he was still slightly posterior. We got down on the floor on all fours and did knee to chest position through about 5 contractions and wow the relief this had on my back was amazing too! It was around this time I asked for the gas. 
As time passed and the contractions became more intense as did the back labour, nothing was easing it. I had a shot of pethadine to try take the edge off. Like Charlie's birth the pethadine helped me relax, I managed to rest between contractions.
5am Monday 7th of March.
At 5am they broke my waters and soon after I was pushing. Not willingly pushing like I did with Charlie, not trying to push him out, my body had taken over, it was pushing, it was intense and the back pain was unbearable. I begged for an epidural. 
The midwife went away and came back and said we could try sterile water injections, I told her to call the anethiest, that I wasn't consenting to anything other than an epidural and to get me a fucking epidural now. With having the epidural she said I had to stop my body pushing; this was hell. Trying to stop something you have no control over, words can't explain the feeling.
The anethiest came and tried to introduce herself and tell me the risks involved. This is something I didn't want to hear and with over lapping contractions it wasn't something I was going to take in either. I rudely told her I knew the risks and I had done more than enough research. 
Unlike the spinal block which I became numb instantly the epidural felt like it took forever to kick in...
After a vaginal exam by the OB (mind you this was the first I had seen the OB all night) they decided that forceps would need to be used to help deliver my son. The lip on my cervix could be pushed to the side but it kept coming back. ( Can't remember any technical words to try explain it... ) 
Due to a failed intervention of a vacuum extraction with Charlie's birth they prepped for a cesarean. This meant we all moved down to theatre; at this point I was scared. It was all too familiar; thoughts of failure dwelled in my mind. I began apologising to Shane, God knows why but I did.
I'm guessing it was somewhere around 8am as we were all moving to theatre. A lot of people introduced themselves to Shane and I. My epidural was topped up, incase of cesarean, this I was thankful for because it now blocked out all back pain. The contractions were fine, I could ride through each wave; the back pain was on a different level.
Before I knew it they guided me as to when I needed to push. After a few pushes the help of the forceps and an episiotomy, I felt lots of pressure and they told me his head was out! One more push and he was brought straight up onto my chest. The blood, the slime and all the amazing stuff was all over me. I fucking did it, I got what I wanted. Tears welled in my eyes and I looked up at Shane, he kissed my head, no one has ever looked at me with so much pride in their eyes. I honestly wouldn't of been able to succeed without him.
8.49am Sunday 7th of March.
Archer was born, he came silently and calmly into the world. This scared Neo asked the modwovws several times why isn't he crying, is he okay, is he breathing? They assured me he was fine and soon after he began to cry, that first cry which you will never forget. I had skin to skin for over an hour and archer attached and had a great feed. 

Okay guys I just need to stop there! I could keep writing about the hours and days later. I could go into so much more depth and detail about the labour and birth, but I won't. I am happy to answer any questions you have so feel free to comment on this blog or slip me an email. 
tiarne.straatmam@gmail.com
I hope you enjoyed this brief but super long outline of my labour and fingers crossed I haven't left out anything!
If you reached the end thanks so much for reading this novel 💕

Millie's Birth Story | rylan|

Birth Story
Millie's birth story!
From 28 weeks as far as I know Rylan was breeched, I went in 4 times to try for a 4D ultrasound and he was hiding everytime! Every doctor appointment she would tell me he was heading the right way but I knew something wasn't right as his kicks were low and not as often as they should've been. At about 30 weeks I started getting severe pelvic pain to the point I couldn't get out of bed and was in an out of hospital with anxiety from the pain and general concern about everything. At 32 weeks the doctor started checking every week wether he had turned and he was always in the same position. I tried everything to try and get him to turn even seeing a chiropractor every 2nd day to try the Webster technique. At 34 weeks she sent me for an ultrasound and we discovered he was frank breech (feet in his face). I was so worried he would have hip problems as I googled it and the pictures made me stress! 
At 36 weeks I went back to my doctor and we made the decision to plan my C section, so from then on I knew my sons birthday would be July 29 if he wouldn't turn! Those weeks dragged on as I was so excited but I kept up with trying to get him to move! The 29th came and we headed to the hospital at 7am, I was so nervous knowing that I was going to meet my son that day! The nurses told me to relax in a bed as I wouldn't be going up to surgery until 1ish so they put the catheter in (which I found really unpleasant! I thought I was going to pee everywhere.) 
The day went really fast and by 1pmthey were taking me down to surgery and the nerves started to really kick in and I couldn't stop shaking. They did the spinal and I was amazed it was nothing compared to what I thought it would be. They laid me down and prepped and said they were ready to start and I was worried as mum wasn't in the room yet (she was there through my whole pregnancy as his father wasn't) and was like "where's mum?" They told me they would do the incision and bring her in without her seeing a thing. It all went quickly and I felt lots of tugging and within a few minutes my baby was there at 1:38pm! As soon as they showed me him I started to cry it was such a shock he was finally here. I was so caught up in seeing him for the first time I thought nothing of the fact he was purple and didn't cry. After a minute of them having him on the table I started to freak and he let out that first ever cry. They put him straight on my chest and I just remember saying to my mum "why does he only have one eye?" As his eye was stuck together and I was on plenty of drugs. I was so concerned that he only had one eye! Haha. He latched straight on once I was sewn up and they made me wait in the theatre for fifteen or so minutes because there was no beds in recovery and he had his first ever drink. Once we got to our room he was weighed and weighed 7 pound 3. The next day they got me up for a shower and I was surprised how much pain I wasn't in! I was expecting to be in agony. I recovered within a few weeks with a bit of a pulling sensation when I walked but all in all I was happy with my experience and it was the best day of my life! I had a little trouble with breastfeeding within the first month and couldn't keep up supply but that was the only issue I had, he was the perfect newborn! Doing it alone is hard but now I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Tamara's Birth Story | ally |

Birth Story
My obstetrician gave me the option of having a planned cesarian or having Ally turned and I chose to have a cesarian. 
In the third trimester, at every antenatal appointment my blood pressure was high so I was admitted to the hospital for observation over night a couple of times. The last time I was admitted, my obstetrician came to check on me the following morning  and she said I would be having a cesarian in 10 days. 
So at 37+5 weeks, I had to go up to the hospital by 7:30am for my cesarian! It was a very emotional morning. 
The nurses (my partners mum was one of them) got my partner and I ready for the big operation!
They wheeled me into surgery meanwhile my partner was waiting in the waiting room. 
The anaesthetist put the spinal block in and laid me down. It was the weirdest feeling not feeling my feet! I didn't cope with that too well. I started feeling really hot and sick and my blood pressure rose so they had to give me something through the IV to bring my blood pressure down. 
At this time I was started to freak out as my partner wasn't in the room yet and it's something I would never go through alone. 
I didn't know they had made the incision until they finally brought my partner in. All I could feel was pulling and pushing in my tummy. Turns out that was the obstetrician trying to pull our little girl out! 
After a few minutes they had her out. They showed me her quickly over the sheet and told me she was a girl (we found out the sex whilst I was pregnant). 
Being early, we expected her to be taken to the nursery for observation but we were lucky enough that she was fine :) 
The nurses cleaned her up and handed her to my partner to show her to me. It was honestly the most crazy feeling! Hearing her cry for the first time and seeing our daughter was amazing. No words can describe the feeling. I would go through everything again to feel that. 

I would honestly have another cesarian if I could. The worst part would have to be day 2 when they get you to get up and have a shower. 
The pain was pretty intense and I didn't have any help or anything from the nurses so I struggled. But later that day I got up and walked laps of the hospital to get myself mobile again and I slowly felt better. 
They say your out of action for 6 weeks but when I got home I was doing house work and everything I was doing prior. I just didn't drive. 
I'm left with a scar across my tummy but that doesn't bother me when I look at my daughter :)

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