Birth Story Series: My first birth - 2022, part 1
Setting the scene: My husband Simone and I live in the Italian countryside. I had support from a private midwife, Marianna, through my pregnancy with the goal of having a homebirth.
I was nearly 40 weeks pregnant, and one night I woke up at 1:30am to pee. I have no idea if I’d been dreaming, but I just had the clear thought in my head for no apparent reason “I’m going to go into labour today” (only I thought it in Italian, not English). I went back to bed and back to sleep.
42 Weeks Pregnant - will they let you go to 42 weeks?
Will they let you go to 42 weeks? Has the midwife told you what she wants to do if your baby isn’t born in the next couple of days? These are the kinds of questions that you get asked once you pass 41 weeks of pregnancy. And these are the kinds of questions that show how we’ve been conditioned to think that the hospital or medical care provider has the final word over a pregnant woman’s body.
37 Weeks Pregnant - co-sleeping? room-sharing? bed-sharing? sleep training?
We’ve had family from Italy staying for a month, and they went home this week. I also had my last home visit with my last client before my maternity leave. So now I feel I am able to focus on the final preparations for our baby to arrive! There’s not a lot to do, but even so I’m breaking it down into smaller tasks to make it easier to get to. This week’s task was emptying the bassinet in our bedroom and finding storage for all the stuff I’ve been dumping in it! And yes, my babies sleep in a bassinet... I’ve found that the topic of newborn sleep is one of the most hotly-debated on social media and on parenting and new mum forums. Honestly, to my way of thinking it’s actually a pretty straightforward topic. What I mean is...
33 Weeks Pregnant - you don’t need permission to change your mind!
I have never been anti-water birth. I’ve always believed that water is a fantastic tool for pain relief during labour and birth, and studies are quite convincing that birthing in water significantly lowers the chance of perineal tears. However, it’s just never felt right for me.
32 Weeks Pregnant - back pain in pregnancy and abdominal separation (aka diastasis recti)
I’ve had a bit of upper and mid back pain this week as my abs have really let go, and the weight of my uterus and baby is pulling my upper body forward. I need to be very mindful of posture and of engaging my core. But I’m also feeling very motivated to really focus on building up the muscle in my abs and back after I close up my diastasis recti postpartum!
30 Weeks Pregnant - good news!
This is going to be a very brief post today, but in keeping with the festive season I am celebrating some good news! Not only did my latest tests come up negative for any pathologies that could have been linked to the low platelets, but my platelet levels have gone up already, and are actually back into the acceptable range!
26 Weeks Pregnant - varicose veins
We all know about varicose veins in the legs, right? But have you ever heard of varicose veins of the vulva? Well, if I’m being suuuuper honest, me neither until I went for my 26 week check with my pelvic floor physio and she told me I have them.
8 Weeks Pregnant - meeting the midwife
We met our midwife this week! The local private midwife we'd contacted came over for a face-to-face meeting and we asked all our questions and booked her on the spot! So excited to have this support in place for the pregnancy and birth. The next big exciting thing to look forward to is seeing our baby at the 12 week ultrasound 🥰 I'm trying not to be too impatient! The weeks do pass quickly when you're busy (which is always with toddlers!), so I'm sure we'll be there before I know it.