Rebecca tells her birth stories in her own words…

I was lucky enough to have a very low risk and generally unremarkable pregnancy. I even managed to dodge morning sickness for the most part and was able to remain active through resistance training and daily walks right up until our baby was born. She got into the continuity program at The Canberra Hospital, and armed herself with a Transform your Birth course and ACT Health classes.

We were accepted into the continuity program at The Canberra Hospital at around 10 weeks; an absolute blessing given the high demand to get into the program. My two midwives were amazing and I felt well supported right up until birth. 

Prior to becoming pregnant, I hadn’t really thought about what birth would be like (aside from the melodramatic portrayals on TV). I didn’t really think about it much while pregnant either, aside from deciding early on that, if medically possible, I wanted to aim for a low intervention birth and to create as positive an experience as possible bringing our baby into the world. 

As a first step, we spoke with our midwife about the best options regarding birth education. We ended up completing the online ACT Health birth classes in conjunction with the Transform Your Birth weekend course following many recommendations from friends and family. The ACT Health classes helped with the practical and process based aspects of birth within Canberra Hospital, whereas the Transform Your Birth classes provided us with skills and insight into how to maintain an optimal emotional state during birth, as well as the (very big!) role of my partner. I left the course feeling really empowered and excited to meet our baby, and I carried that throughout the rest of my pregnancy. 

At 38+4, I was enjoying my second week of maternity leave, binge watching all things trashy and brain numbing (hellooo Selling Sunset) and pottering around the house. It was a Thursday afternoon and I was about to head off to a pregnancy massage when I noticed I had begun to lose some of my mucus plug. I kept going about my day, knowing this didn’t necessarily mean the baby was coming anytime soon (though secretly hoping it did). I was feeling very over being pregnant and very ready to meet our baby. 

Friday morning just after midnight, I woke up with mild period cramps and an increase in the loss of my mucus plug. I checked in with my partner, who was working night shift, and we made a plan to contact our midwife in the morning. I expected to have a long early labour, being my first baby. However, at about 3:30am I was still wide awake rubbing my increasingly cramping belly when I felt the strangest sensation - an all consuming popping feeling and sound followed by a release of water. I jumped up and ran into the bathroom - definitely broken waters! I contacted my midwife at this point and we made a plan for us to come into the hospital at 10:30am the next day to be assessed while I tried to get some sleep until then, with the hope I would progress into labour on my own. Can confirm absolutely no sleep was had due to all the nerves and excitement (although I probably would have tried a bit harder knowing what sleep looks like with a newborn). 

Things really ramped up from here. The cramping quickly became quite rhythmic and I had to breathe through what shortly became contractions. I downloaded a random contraction timer and googled how to use my TENS machine (clearly I wasn’t expecting her to come early!), and began to labour at home while attempting to finish packing our bags while my partner came home and got some sleep. The surges soon became too much and so I woke my partner up to finish packing the bags and we headed off to the hospital early at about 8:30am. At this stage my contractions were about 3 minutes apart. I’ve never had a longer car ride in my life, despite living relatively close to the hospital. You don’t truly appreciate the ridiculously large size of Canberra round-a-bouts until you’re in labour! 

We finally got to The Birth Centre with the help of a lone wheelchair pinched from ED. At this point I knew we would be meeting our baby very soon. I could just feel within my body that things were happening quickly and our baby was well and truly ready to enter the world. We were admitted and escorted to our room. As part of my birth plan I wanted the option to labour as much as possible at home, so my midwife and I discussed our options. We both decided to have my dilation checked and go from there, with the options being to return home with some pain killers or remain in hospital. The former felt absurd to me at that time - I wasn’t even confident I would make it back to the car without having this baby. We did the check and determined I was 7cm - which was super validating for me because I felt like I was pretty far along. So I continued to labour in the hospital with the TENs machine for a couple of hours, contractions getting stronger and stronger. 

Once the TENS machine had run its course, I got into the bath and felt instant relief (between contractions anyway). At this point my midwife told my partner to go grab himself a coffee and something to eat while she stayed with me. However, my first contraction after he left the room I felt an intense urge to push, and let out a very deep and loud, completely involuntary, animalistic groan (exactly the type I always thought I wouldn’t make during birth). So my partner was called back immediately, which I took as a sign that things were really progressing.  

I’m in awe of how much my body took over from here, and how I was able to trust it and lean into the process. There were a few points where I started to doubt myself and it all felt impossible (cue my annoyance with past me who asked both my partner and midwife to hold off on the epidural for a while if I asked for it). With the help of my partner, I would recenter myself and focus on my breathing and getting through contractions one at a time, using the water (and my poor partners arm) as my pain relief. 

After about 2 hours of pushing between bites of Vegemite toast, sips of apple juice, and George Ezra on repeat, my midwife suggested we try a few different positions or get out of the bath as bub was no longer progressing downwards. After mentally and physically preparing myself through a few more contractions, I was assisted to the bathroom with the hopes that gravity would help get this baby moving downward. 

Standing in the bathroom, one hand holding onto the wall railing and the other on my partner, it only took three more contractions until our baby joined the world at 2:10pm on the 9th of June 2023. I’m sure I could be heard on the other side of the hospital on that final contraction! 

We decided not to find out the gender of our baby, and the anticipation of who our little human was grew as we came closer to our due date and even more so during birth. Our initial plan was for my partner to catch the baby and tell me the gender, but because I birthed standing up, he had his hands full holding me up and so the baby was passed straight to me. The first thing I did was hold the baby out in front of me to check the gender, after being certain for most of my pregnancy I was carrying a little boy.

We were incredibly shocked to find out we had just become parents to a beautiful little girl! Meeting our baby was the most indescribable experience, it was truly the best moment of my life - I felt like I had unlocked some kind of world of emotions that I didn’t know existed (thank you oxytocin!). Meeting her felt so novel yet familiar all at once. At this time, a secondary midwife entered the room and introduced herself as Chloe, to which I responded “this is Chloe too!”; our girls name we were set on long before I was pregnant. Without sounding grossly cliche, it all felt so meant to be in that moment. 

Everything else was very straight forward medically and we spent the next four hours lying in bed in the most amazing newborn bubble, staring at our baby girl in absolute awe (still do 4 months later) and calling our family to tell them the news. We were discharged from hospital at around 6-7pm (my labour being a speedy total of about 5-6 hours), not without taking Chloe through her first McDonalds drive after realising we hadn’t eaten properly since the morning. The most victorious tasting cheeseburger I’ve ever had! 

Being home that night felt surreal. We were in and out of hospital in less than 12 hours and now had the most perfect little girl (not boy?!) to stare at, which we continued to do for hours despite neither of us having slept the night before.

What do you wish you knew before birth?

To pack those damn bags before because you’ll be useless at it during labour haha! No, my midwife during birth told me that it was her job (not mine) to focus on and analyse what was happening and that I just had to get myself through each contraction. This was such a pivotal moment for me and this mindset would have made my earlier labour a lot easier! 

If you could, would you do anything differently?

Regarding birth, I don’t think so. While things may have been easier for me if I had stopped trying to analyse every little thing or moved into a standing position earlier, I wouldn’t change how we met our little girl for the world! I also learned so much about myself and what my body and mind are truly capable of. 

I would however have spent more time researching and understanding postpartum, as this turned out to be a hard time for me. Turns out parents aren’t exaggerating about that lack of sleep and need for a village! 

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

He remained completely present and with me throughout every contraction, and really listened when I was struggling. He advocated for me and assisted with communication with my midwife about pain relief, although we didn’t end up using any. He also created the perfect birthing environment for me and continued to feed me toast and juice to keep me fuelled, even when I said no. He reminded me that my body was capable of birth and that I didn’t want to birth filled with fear. Most importantly, he took it in his stride when I told him to “stop f#cking touching me!”

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

First and foremost, do not leave your bag of snacks in the car - you’ll never want Vegemite toast or apple juice (as provided by the hospital) again! 

Haha no, there’s so much about pregnancy and birth that we can’t control, so I would say to control the controllables. For me that was my mindset. I went into birth with the tools to be able to recentre myself when I got overwhelmed and felt that I couldn’t keep going, which helped me get through each contraction until our baby was here. 

Include your birth partner in your education and have a plan for how they will support you - you’re in this together.