Teegan tells her birth stories in her own words…

We had a difficult time conceiving and had to end up going through IVF to have a baby. It was an extremely difficult process for me because I have a fear of needles. We were very lucky though because I was pregnant on our first transfer. Even though conceiving was difficult, I had a pretty easy pregnancy besides the standard symptoms. However, the birth of Hudson was far from easy.

In the last 2 months of my pregnancy there were discussions of my birth preferences as well as being induced. I would have loved to have a natural birth, even took hypnobirthing classes.

However, after talking to a nurse at my IVF clinic (Connect IVF) and an OB, they had both said that IVF babies are usually induced to ensure that they are born safely. Hudson was also measuring big and I have epilepsy so my midwife and an OB at the Canberra hospital thought it would be best to be induced.

My induction date kept changing because they were so busy at the hospital. Hudson was due on 2nd November 2022, and I ended up being induced on the 31st October.

Once we were at the hospital I was checked to see if I was dilated at all, which I wasn't. I then had to have a cannula put in incase anything went wrong and I would need mediation quickly. I am terrified of needles and my veins have never been easy to find. Every blood test I have had, they have always struggled to find a vein. The cannula was to go into my arm instead of my hand. My midwife had two attempts of finding a vein to put the cannula in and couldn't do it. For the 3rd try a doctor came to do it, she was able to get it (I do have some lovely scars from this).

The balloon was then inserted into me at 1pm. It was such an odd feeling, but we had no issues with it. I was already 1cm dilated when the balloon was inserted. At 8.30pm I lost my mucus plug and after that I started feeling some light cramps every 5 or so minutes.

While the balloon was in, I was walking around a lot to help further along my dilation. At 6am on the 1st of November, the balloon was taken out and I was 3cm dilated. The midwife broke my waters once the balloon was out and I was given a few hours to see if the contractions would start naturally or I had to get oxytocin. I walked around the hospital to help bring in the contractions but nothing was happened so at 9am I was given oxytocin. This caused the contractions to slowly start coming.

The oxytocin was increased a lot during the day. My contractions were tough because they were meant to be in waves, but I would have 10 minute contractions that never came back down they just stayed at the high pain level. Then I would go 15-30 minutes without one. This kept happening and my midwife was surprised at how weird my contractions were.

I had been going for 7 hours and decided to get checked, I had only dilated 1cm since my waters were broken. This devastated me, I was in a really bad mindset then and just thought that I couldn't do this. I was so adamant that I didn't want pain relief as well. We decided to try gas to see if that would help, and I ended up vomiting straight after it. I was just exhausted that I started wanting an epidural. Jack was talking me out of it, saying I don't need it (because I told him before I went into labour to not let me get it). My midwife then said that it would be good to get it, because I was so tired and we didn't want me having any seizures. A doctor came in to give me the epidural, she had to have 2 attempts at it and still couldn't do it correctly, so then I had to wait even longer for another doctor to finish a surgery so he could have a try. He was able to make it after an hour and he got it on the first go. This happened around 5.30pm and I was now at 5cm.

Once the epidural was in I got some sleep and I was checked at 11pm and I was 9cm. Then at 12:30am on 2nd November I was 10cm. A bit after 1:00am I was able to start pushing. I ended up pushing for 2 hours and my midwife could see a small part of the head but that was about it. I was exhausted. My midwife thought I could push for another 30 minutes but wanted to get a doctor first to check. This was at about 3:30am and the doctor came and checked. She said that the baby will need to come out and I will need assistance. She gave the option of forceps or vacuum, but said if she did the vacuum she will probably have to switch and go to forceps anyway. So we decided on using forceps but I was warned I will probably get a 3rd or 4th degree tear. When she started to use the forceps an emergency button was hit and 8 nurses/doctors came into the delivery room. Jack and I had no idea what was going on and we were terrified. We kept hearing that the baby was stuck. The doctor was trying to ask if I wanted an episiotomy and I just had no idea, I was too scared to even really respond. She ended up having her hands and the forceps in me because his shoulder was stuck on my pelvic bone and he had shoulder dystocia. When the baby came out, he was completely blue and not breathing. He was taken away and we had barely seen him. We didn't even know if we had a boy or a girl. After a minute the baby started crying, but I hadn't registered that and was crying myself thinking that we had lost our baby. Jack had to go check to see he was breathing and come tell me. I still didn't believe it until he was in my arms. It was so beautiful having our little boy on my chest and I was just so happy that he was okay. Hudson Doust was born at 3:58am on Wednesday 2nd November.

After he was born I was given oxytocin to help deliver the placenta, which came out pretty quickly. I also had a 2nd degree tear and needed stitches. Everything was going well for a few hours. Hudson had a swollen head, but was recovering well. The catheter had been taken out of me. I got up to go to the bathroom and as soon I stood up, blood just poured out of me. I even fainted a bit but caught onto a railing. For the next hour or so I kept losing more blood. Turns out the placenta hadn't fully come out. Midwives kept pushing on my stomach to try and get the placenta out but more blood just kept coming. A doctor came and told me that I would be going into surgery after he has finished a c-section and told me that there is a 1 in 20 chance I could lose my uterus from this surgery. I had signed the papers and was only waiting when more blood came. A new midwife came and pretty much put her whole body weight on me and finally the rest of the placenta came out. In total I had lost 1.6L of blood. We were then in hospital for 5 days to make sure that both Hudson and I were okay. A few more issues came up during that time but we were thankfully released and able to go home. The whole experience was horrific and traumatic but I'm happy we got our little miracle.

What do you wish you knew before birth?

I wish that I knew more of the reasons as to why an induction is needed for an IVF baby. Looking back I listened to other people including family members and OBs that I never met, but they informed my midwife and then  passed that onto me.

If you could, would you do anything differently?

I would never get an induction unless it was an emergency one for medical reasons. I wanted a natural birth and I gave that all up by having an induction because it was just a cascade of interventions after that.

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

Jack was so supportive throughout it all. He held my mind, gave massages to help the pain and was always checking in on me. I mentally wouldn't have been able to go through what I did without his support, both during and after the birth. I know he was terrified for my safety and health throughout it all, but he never showed it because he knew that it would stress me out even more.

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

Stick by what you want. Don't let anyone tell you what birth you should have, unless it is in an emergency situation. Listen to YOUR gut and instincts because you know your body and its limits.