Birth Story Series: My second birth - 2024

Setting the scene: My husband Simone and I live with our 2 year old daughter M in the Newcastle/Port Stephens area of NSW, Australia. I had my pregnancy care through the midwifery group practice connected with the publicly funded homebirth programme at Belmont Hospital, with the goal of having a homebirth. I also had a student midwife.

[Written up shortly after birth.]

As I was coming up to 41 weeks, I had a hospital appointment one morning with one of my midwives, since at that point they like to do a quick ultrasound to check there’s still plenty of amniotic fluid and also do a CTG on the baby to check all is good. That ended up going for quite a bit longer than we expected, so Simo ended up leaving me at the hospital, going home to get his mum and M and get changed for soccer, then they came and picked me up and we made it to his soccer game just in time! It was a great game; they thought the other team was significantly stronger but Simo’s team ended up winning 3-0! I got to chat with the wife of one of Simo’s teammates who is a midwife, and M had a great time playing with their little girl who’s nearly 3. We got back home 5:30ish, had something to eat, got M to bed, got everything wound down … and then about 8pm I started to have lower back pain.

I wasn’t sure if it was just another pre-labour symptom or if something was starting to happen, but by 9 I was sure they were contractions. They were a bit all over the place, every 5-8 mins and varying lengths, but knowing things went relatively quickly last time I wanted to notify the midwives. So I called at 10 and was assured they could be here as soon as I wanted them. I ended up calling again at 10:30 after having had regular contractions every 3mins for 20mins. So the main midwife (not my usual one Janene, since she was rostered off, but Jane, another I’d met before who lives close by) and the student midwife Jarrah arrived between 10:45-11pm. The other midwife, Erin, who we’d never met before came a bit later, though I’m not sure when exactly.

Contractions continued very regular, and I was already vocalising through them by the time the midwives arrived. I felt them all in my lower back like last time, but more intense. During contractions I was standing leaning over the dining table, and got Simo to do counter-pressure on my lower back during each one which helped massively. I hadn’t done that last time, but I feel like last time I didn’t need it. Jarrah checked the baby’s heartbeat with the Doppler at regular intervals, but besides that the midwives kept to themselves since they could see we were managing fine.

I’m not sure of the exact timing, but by 12ish the contractions were not more than 1-2mins apart and continued to get closer together and more intense. Sometime around then I went to the bathroom feeling like I needed to poop, and ended up in there for the duration, mostly leaning over the bathroom sink with Simo doing counter pressure on my back. I didn’t get a gap between the two phases like last time. It was like they merged into each other. Jarrah came in and started some warm compression on my perineum during contractions, as we’d discussed previously, to reduce the risk of tearing. The other midwives came in at some point too, as did Simo’s mum with little M. The bathroom was quite crowded! Pushing was definitely faster this time. By others’ accounts it was about 15mins, though I think a little longer because I’d had pushing contractions the midwives didn’t witness. Anyway, at 1:55am, about 15mins from when my waters broke, baby L was born, caught by her papà 💜

M had woken up around 11pm. She settled herself on the lounge with a cosy blanket and some cuddly toys, and rested there for the first hour or so which was really good, then made the most of the snacks which we had on hand for me, the midwives and whoever else. When I was in the bathroom and no longer really interacting at all she came every so often to hug my leg or give me a kiss which was lovely. She watched the birth and was completely fascinated. I did hear she got a little concerned at one point when baby’s head was about half out - I think she was worried baby L was getting hurt - and then after the birth when L was crying she got a little distressed, but settled quickly. We let her stay up for a while and she came and sat on the bed while I lay there to feed L. Simo put her to bed around 3:30 I think. She didn’t want to leave L, but obviously needed to get some sleep. Thankfully she zonked out straight away despite continued noises around and slept till after 9am.

I didn’t have any tearing this time which was great (despite the fact that it all felt more intense!), blood loss was in the normal range, and the placenta was complete, so the midwives were happy. They stayed till 5am, 3hrs post birth, filling in lots and lots of paperwork and checking up on me at intervals. They weighed and measured baby L. She was 3.72kg (just a touch bigger than her sister), 53cm long, and had a 35.5cm head circumference. Before the midwives left I had a shower and sat up to have something to eat. I have so much less swelling this time and was able to sit up right away which is fantastic! Last time it was a week before I could sit remotely comfortably.

After the midwives left I dressed L, fed her again to settle her, put her down in her crib, had something to eat and drink again, and finally got to bed a bit before 6. I slept the best part of 3hrs I think. We all napped again for a couple of hours in the middle of the day. And by evening Simo and his mum had tidied up and got everything organised, so now we’re pretty much back to normal but with L out of my belly instead of in! We were so exhausted by the time we got to bed this morning, having had the birth straight after a big day! With M at least we’d had 5-6hrs sleep first! But we did it!!! Very thankful for the Lord’s strength and sustaining grace, and for this special gift he’s given us 🥰🥰

[Photo of M with new baby sister L]