Kayla tells her birth story in her own words…

I had a fairly straight forward pregnancy, I was quite sick from weeks 7 to 14 but apart from that - a bit of back/hip pain was my only other complaint.

I started maternity leave at 36 weeks and spent a hell of a lot of time doing all the things people say may help to bring on labour. Bouncing on the exercise ball, gutter walking, Medjool dates.. you name it I tried it. At my 38 week check up with the midwife she checked bubs heartbeat and found that it was in a bit of a funny spot, although she was fairly certain she could feel his head down below so she wasn’t too concerned.. she said the head feels like a cricket ball and the bum is nice and squishy.

That night as I went to the bathroom for what felt like the one hundredth time, I sat down and I felt what I would compare to a cricket ball wedged right up in under my ribs & I said to my husband I think this baby has flipped. It was a weekend, and knowing I had my 39 week check up with the Obstetrician on the Monday, I just monitored bubs movements over the weekend.

Surely enough, when I went in to my appointment on the Monday morning, after Bub had been head down since my last scan at 34 weeks, he had turned himself around and was now tucked right up in under my ribs. The Obstetrician sent me off to the hospital to be sure, and they did another scan to confirm. While I was there they also took bloods and the results of the bloods found that I had pre-eclampsia, which put simply is high blood pressure. I had had no other symptoms of pre-eclampsia throughout my pregnancy.

Having had all of my Midwife & Obstetrician appointments based out of Queanbeyan and now being classified as high risk if I was to try for a natural breech birth with pre-eclampsia, my only options were to either transfer my care to Canberra Hospital and try my luck at a natural birth or book in to have an elective cesarean at Queanbeyan.

My experience at Queanbeyan had been fantastic so far and the thought of changing care this far along actually made me more anxious then the idea of a Caesarean, so I opted to remain at Queanbeyan and booked in for an elective cesarean two days later.

Having spent the last 9 months preparing myself for a natural birth and even doing hypnobirthing classes, I now had less than 48 hours to educate myself on what to expect with a cesarean birth. It was a lot and I didn’t sleep much in the lead up.

On Wednesday March 30 2022 at around 12:30pm my husband & I arrived at Queanbeyan Hospital knowing that I was scheduled to head into theatre around 1:15pm. When we arrived, we were taken to the room where we would spend the next three days, I was asked to get dressed in the pretty hospital gown with the compression socks and the hair cover.

Once in theatre my husband was asked to go and scrub up while they prepped me for the spinal block. I was particularly nervous about this part however the lovely nurse talked me through the whole procedure and by the time they started Michael was back, holding my hands and reminding me to breathe.

Once the spinal block was in place and working well (they checked several times), they pulled the curtain up so we couldn't see and the nurse continued to talk us through what was happening.

Within what felt like minutes I could feel a bit of pulling and tugging, but absolutely no pain, and then out came this big cry. The nurse pulled down the curtain and by 1:58pm our little man was here!

They did take him away to be checked over and at the same time they began fixing me up, but it wasn't long before he was in my arms.

Once in recovery I had started the gain feeling in my lower body and the midwives were helping me to breast feed. We then remained in the hospital for three days, my recovery was great and both my son and I were healthy.

What do you wish you knew before birth?

That educating yourself is key. Pregnancy and birth can be both straight forward or complex and knowing what your preferences are and what you are comfortable with can be super beneficial if you are faced with a decision that isn’t quite what you had been planning for.

If you could, would you do anything differently?

My next pregnancy I will be laying horizontal on the couch until that baby decides they’re ready. I am convinced I bounced the poor boy into a breech position. But when you are over it and ready to meet your baby, you will try anything!

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

During the lead up he consistently reassured me that we were only days/hours/minutes away from meeting our son. There wasn’t one moment other then when they took bub off to be checked over, that he wasn’t by my side to make sure that I was OK.

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

I sound like a broken record but just educate yourself on all the potential outcomes. I am all for having preferences, but in the end as long as you and your baby are safe and healthy that is the ultimate outcome.