ELLIE tells her birth story in her own words…

I had a really quick labour, it was 5 hours from my waters breaking to having Finn in my arms.

At 40+1 weeks my waters broke at around 1am on the 2nd of August. I was fast asleep when I felt a weeing sensation, I wasn’t able to make it stop and realised my waters had broken. Around 10 minutes after my waters broke, my contractions started.

I got up and started walking around to keep myself occupied and distract myself from the fact that it was go time. Luke, my partner, also got up and started timing my contractions. After about two hours my contractions started getting more intense. I asked Luke to call the midwife and let her know the contractions were getting stronger. Our midwife was with us throughout the whole pregnancy but was away on holiday, so we called her number and a different midwife answered. She asked to speak to me. I waited until my contraction was over to chat. She asked how I felt and told us to call her back in 2 hours and then see how I felt at that point.

We hung up and continued to labour at home. It got to 40 minutes and I told Luke we need to call her again, the contractions felt relentless and I didn’t feel I was getting a break.

She came over to our house within 30 minutes, although for me, it felt like a lifetime. She checked how far along I was and to her surprise I was 9 cm dilated.

She asked if I had the urge to push, I said no. She said we need to get into the car straight away and get to the hospital.

We followed her at what felt like we were driving 130 km an hour, we were trying to keep up with her. She was certainly in a rush.

We got to the hospital and went up through the fire exit to get to the birth suite. Luke left the car running with the doors open and helped get me to the room as quickly as possible.

They had the bath running and ready for me, as soon as we got into the room I just took my clothes off and jumped straight in. As soon as I got into the water I let out a primal scream, it was time to push.

As I was getting into the water Luke ran back down to park the car, as he was running down the midwife called him off my phone and told him he needed to hurry because I was about to have the baby. The poor thing sprinted down, parked the car and ran all the way back into the room within a few minutes, but made it in time.

After only 28 minutes of pushing, Finn was in my arms.

I remember thinking to myself, I did it, I have actually given birth and it’s all over. This was not the case.

 As I went to get out of the water there was a huge gush of blood. I ended up having a postpartum hemorrhage and lost 2.2 litres of blood.

Luke and the midwife basically carried Finn and I over to the birthing bed where 5 other people rushed into the room to assist.

At first I thought this was a normal thing that happens after you give birth, but then the doctor explained if we don’t stem the bleeding in 20 minutes I was going to have to go into theater. There were nurses and doctors poking and prodding me in every part of my body, but the worst of it was the uterine massage to help the muscles of the uterus contract, for me, this was honestly worse than labour.

I couldn’t breathe through this pain and each time they did the uterine massage it was more excruciating than the last.

As they were doing all they could to stem the bleeding, I started to go into shock and began shaking and vomiting. During this period I don’t remember much of what was going on but Luke was by my side covering me in warm blankets.

They managed to stem the bleeding within the 20 minute timeframe, so thankfully didn’t have to go into theatre.

Along with a postpartum hemorrhage, I ended up with a graze right near my urethra and a second degree tear.

Afterwards, I was exhausted, confused and overwhelmed. I had no energy whatsoever as I had lost so much blood. They put a catheter in as I wasn’t even able to get up to go to the toilet. I could barely lift my head without feeling like I needed a nap.

Due to the blood loss I was unable to go home, so was sent to the postpartum ward in a wheelchair. As part of their process I had to complete a covid test. The test came back as covid positive - I was completely asymptomatic.

Instead of making myself comfortable in the postpartum ward, I was shipped off to the isolation part of the ward, which was in the birth centre.

I slept on a birthing bed for 2 nights whilst I got a blood transfusion and iron infusion. The birthing bed was rock hard and had makeshift sheets over the top of it. I felt disappointed and upset that I had just given birth, I had major blood loss, and my body was in pain, but because I tested positive for covid I was put in a room that was not really suitable for overnight stay. The staff at the hospital are incredible at what they do, but unfortunately, they were so understaffed that we were checked in on less than we would’ve liked. We were lucky to have our amazing family members drop off food to us so we could eat properly.

After two sleepless nights I was so happy to be discharged from hospital and we could finally take our little man home and enjoy the newborn bubble.

Although my birth story sounds horrific, I feel like all in all I had a really positive birth experience and would do it all again, aside from the whole covid and the postpartum hemorrhage situation.

What do you wish you knew before birth?

There is so much emphasis on the birth itself and little information about how you and your body will feel and recover afterwards. I feel the birthing part is the least of your worries, it's the aftermath of where you try and navigate breastfeeding, recovery and looking after your little one is where there should to be more education and support.

It’s fantastic how you have monthly check ups with a midwife/doctor whilst you’re pregnant, but as soon as you give birth, you have two appointments and then left to fend for yourself.

If you could, would you do anything differently?

There isn’t much I would change except for going to the hospital sooner instead of labouring at home for as long as I did, but hey, it makes for a great story.There isn’t much I would change except for going to the hospital sooner instead of labouring at home for as long as I did, but hey, it makes for a great story.

What did your partner do that really helped during labour/birth?

Luke was such a great support for me. With him keeping track of my contractions it allowed me to focus on my breathing and getting through the pain. He was cool, calm and collected and let me do my thing, which was exactly what I needed.

He was also such a trooper sleeping on the floor by my side for 2 nights.

What advice/honest truth would give a mama-to-be about birth?

Our bodies are absolutely incredible and are designed to give birth. Stay open minded and trust that your body will do what it needs to do to.

Educate yourself, but don’t set yourself a birth plan because we can all guarantee that almost always, it will never go to plan.