{Birth Story} : Where I was Born Serie Project | Lana
Today it is Lana that told Banksi’s birth story her third girl and second homebirth. She should have been born in the living room but she was born in the bedroom instead.
I've always thought of full term pregnancy as 42 weeks. So I work backwards from that, expecting to go that far- so that when the time comes, if it does end up that gestation, I'm not let down or find it hard to accept going 'over'.
That being said, I've never gone past 40 weeks. My first born was a pre labour caesarean at 38+2 and my second daughter, a homebirth was 39+5.
This pregnancy, I was hoping so bad I wouldn't have gone to 42 or 43 weeks. I was struggling towards the end. I wouldn't say it was a difficult pregnancy, but just given the size I was- I was very uncomfortable. Every night I went to bed feeling bigger and heavier than the one before. Sleeping was hard. Lots of tossing and turning. Reflux. Insomnia.
The last week or so my extremities became quite swollen too- no cause for concern, but it added another layer of discomfort.
It's fair to say that I was very eager for this baby to be born.
I have two daughters already, and this baby was another girl. I always knew I was a girl mum. I've never thought I was having a boy. I had mother's instinct with my first two, having not found out before birth, and I was right. This pregnancy however, we found out the gender at the beginning of the year through the NIPT and she was my third girl.
For a few weeks I'd had braxton hicks, but other than that, no impending signs of labour.
At 39+4, we were at my eldest daughter's physie class where the other mums there had said jokingly to me- 'how are you STILL pregnant' (it had felt like forever!) and 'next time we see you we expect you to have a baby, you know what to do'
But I thought to myself- I don't know what to do. I can't hurry things along if baby's not ready. I'd had a few chiro appointments the last couple weeks to ensure optimal positioning of baby, and good pelvic alignment, and I'd had one acupuncture appointment the week before.
Sure, I could have eaten pineapple, chilli, had sex, walked the curb, doused myself in clary sage and whatever else- but I still saw those as interventions and if baby wasn't ready then they would have been useless. I let her choose her own birth day.
After physie, I took my two girls to get an easy sushi dinner before heading home and getting ready for bed. Once they were asleep at 7:30ish, about 8pm I was standing in the kitchen where my waters broke.
I messaged my midwife and let my partner know.
My beautiful midwife, Rhiannon, was walking in to a birth she was a second midwife for and said she'd check in with me soon. At 9pm, that woman had birthed and Rhiannon let me know she was about half an hour distance away from me and asked about my contractions.
By this stage, I was having mild lower abdo cramping but nothing too intense. I was cramping/contracting frequently (5-8mins apart from the get go) but they were only short, not lasting long.
I wasn't sure what I wanted Rhiannon to do. I didn't want her to come over unnecessarily but didn't want her to go home and then have to head back out if things progressed quickly. She lives about 40mins from me.
So I sat on the birth ball and went through the motions of contractions there with my partner. Ocassionally hopping off to get on the floor and lean over the ball. I was still walking around and able to talk through them.
At 10:30pm, I made my mind up and thought it was best Rhiannon come over to check how things were and asked her to please come when she was done with the other birthing mama and told her the surges were getting stronger.
11pm she texted me to say she was on her way.
Between that text and her arriving at my house, my middle child woke up. She's never been a great sleeper and at almost 3 years old this wasn't unusual for her!
My partner attempted to resettle her, but of course, she only wanted mum and she had become quite distressed, emotional and needing to be close to me.
I couldn't lay down with her with my contractions in her single bed, so I took her to my king bed where we could both try and get some rest.
As I walked in to the bedroom, Rhiannon turned up and I remember saying to her 'we've just had a wake up, I'll pop her back to sleep and be out soon', very much expecting to head back out to the lounge and have a chat and let her know how I was feeling and how things were moving along.
While laying down with my daughter, from 11:30, things started to ramp up and the contraction's were harder to stay quiet through. Noises were getting louder as I worked through them and I wasn't letting my daughter get back to sleep.
About 12:30, I got up off the bed where I expected things to become more intense. And they did. We didn't worry about anyone sleeping anymore, and got the other kids up too- My eldest and my partners son. All the kids were excited to meet their new baby.
We let the second midwife, Jordan know that baby was close. And my partner called my birth photographer and asked her to come as well. I'd given her the heads up a few hours earlier that my waters had broken but didn't know what would eventuate so she was waiting for the call at home.
I moved around the house a little- my bedroom, lounge room and dining table, leaning over and swaying, a few swear words here and there, Rhiannon and my partner doing hip squeezes giving me relief as the contractions were full on. I knew baby was coming.
At one point I got on all fours and knew I was in transition, baby descending and very very close to making her entrance as I almost had that crisis of confidence but knew I could do it.
Rhiannon removed my undies as we filled up the birth pool which I'd set up in my bedroom. I knew as soon as I got in there that I was having a baby.
Yep, I got in to the beautiful warm water and I remember saying 'she's coming' as I felt a bulge between my legs.
I was sitting, my back leaning against the pool when her head was born. It was easy- no bearing down or pushing unnecessarily.
But then something shifted. I didn't have another contraction to birth the body.
Time passed on and we knew it had been a little long between head and body and we tried to get things going again. I gave my tummy a rub and attempted to use a bit of traction to get her out with some guidance but she wasn't budging.
Then I felt her head going back in or 'turtling'. Rhiannon waited until I was ready to ask her to intervene as i'd previously stated I wanted a hands off birth and to be in total control. I knew we needed to get this baby out so I asked Rhiannon to help me, as we suspected a shoulder dystocia.
I changed positions and got on all fours and with Rhiannon attempting to get her shoulder out from behind- her hands inside me, I was trying to push her out, still with no further contractions!
1:27am, concerned and at the same time Rhiannon said she wants me out of the pool, baby was born!!
Needing to be stimulated- some rubbing and talking to, she was flat. Cord was white and not pulsating. I'd had some blood expel when birthing her head, and it's since been thought that I had a placental abruption (given the loss of contractions also).
She still wasn't breathing and was blue with no tone. She was totally floppy.
I gave her some blows in the mouth while we retrieved Rhiannon's oxygen cylinder from her car.
It's all a bit of a blur from here. With everyone staying calm, baby required the oxygen and after a while, a little longer than 5 minutes I think, she made a little squeak and we were all relieved. The photographer closely followed by the second midwife arrived now, having missed the actual birth.
My older girls got in the pool with me, over the moon to meet their new baby sister.
Here after not too long, I easily birthed the placenta which was a thick, chunky size and we stayed having cuddles admiring our new family member and the organ that sustained her life inside my womb.
When we got out and made our way together to the bed, placenta still attached, we enjoyed snuggling while chatting and letting the pool down etc.
We then cut the cord with all involved, big siblings keen to help but Dad the one having the honours of doing so.
We did all the usual checks and measurements. We had a healthy 4.54kg baby. She was deliciously chubby.
When it had been between an hour or two, I attempted to breastfeed. Little babe was so exhausted from the birth, she wouldn't latch. I attempted to express some colostrum to give to her but didn't have luck getting any.
Thankfully both midwife and photographer are breastfeeding mamas and were able to ever so kindly help me out and hand express some of their milk in to colostrum collectors and we got this in to baby by dropping it in to her mouth, able to prevent any blood sugar drops etc.
My saviours! I didn't know what we would have done if we had to put a call out for donor milk at that time of the morning.
About 4am after a shower and clean up, it was time to say goodbye to the amazing support team I'd invited in to my sacred space and we hopped back to bed and tried to get a bit of rest. The bigger kids were able to doze off, but not for long, they were back awake as usual when the sun rose haha. I don't think I got any sleep! Still on an oxytocin high.
Baby girl, Banksi Bloom, is now 8 weeks old and we have adored her ever since her wild but amazing entrance in to this world.
I am so grateful to have had Rhiannon with me that night and will forever be thankful. Things definitely could have been worse and I know for sure it would have been a whole different scenario had we have been in a medicalised hospital setting. Our birth environment was perfect for our little love to be welcomed in to the family.
If you would like to be part of my serie “ Where I was Born” like Lana did, please click here or if you would like me to document your birth, you can find all the information here note that I have special offer for 5 future mum to get your birth photograph all on film