The midwife told me baby had been born en caul / Stephanie
It was always the plan for Joseph and I to have a third baby and on March 21, 2020, we were so excited to find out that baby number 3 was on its way! We made the decision to keep the gender a surprise, as we had done with our last two babies, both beautiful boys.
Our dating scan went well, we were given an estimated due date of November 29th but after our last two pregnancies were overdue, we expected a December baby. The 12 week scan came along and again everything looked great with no complications, we had already contacted the Midwifery Group Practice through Armadale Hospital and we were very lucky and excited to find out we able to have the same midwife follow our pregnancy as we had with both of the boys.
I was lucky enough to be able to catch up with Renee from The Birth Space who had helped me have a successful hypnobirthing experience with my second bub. After going over a few things from the course and reminding myself of the plan I had in place for my last delivery I was feeling much more confident and excited to deliver again.
My appointments were tracking along well, and all my scans looked great. By 32 weeks I was getting very big and very tired, I had cut back my hours at work and the prenatal yoga I was doing was a great way to stretch out and relax. The gender had become hot topic with our friends and family, almost everyone thinking we were having another boy. I was convinced we were having a third boy, I was feeling and looking exactly as I had with the last two pregnancies.
I had made a vision board which I put up in the bathroom and was looking at every day, reminding myself how close I was to meeting my baby and that my body was made for this. I had been listening to the hypnobirthing tracks regularly, they really helped me relax when I was feeling stressed, along with practicing the breathing exercises. I had made a labour playlist for my second pregnancy and spent time adding and editing this, it was ready for labour number 3.
By 38 weeks I was sure baby was going to be early, I was so heavy and could feel baby was so low, I was thinking we might even have a November baby! I had to have a few extra ultrasounds as my abdomen was measuring quite small, but I was soon told to expect another big baby, tracking along at the same size as my last bub who was born at 4.42kgs!
My EDD came and went and still no signs of baby. I had an appointment with my midwife when I was 40+5 that both my midwife and myself did not think I would make, we thought baby would be here before then! At this appointment I had an ultrasound, CTG monitoring and a stretch and sweep, everything looked great, baby had an approximate weight of 4.3kgs, looked like another big bub on its way. I had a bishop score of 7 and my midwife was sure I would be in labour in the next couple of days. She booked me in for another stretch and sweep for 40+9 and I was booked in to be induced on December 10th, making me 40+11.
I was becoming impatient but kept reminding myself that it was only a few more days before I would be meeting my new baby. The day of my next stretch and sweep I woke to my bloody show passing. I went in for my second stretch and sweep and the midwife had trouble finding my cervix I was now a bishop score of 5 and the stretch and sweep was unsuccessful. I had only two days before I was coming in to be induced and had come to terms that this would likely be how I went into labour this time. After going into labour twice naturally I was feeling disappointed, but excited that I had a date I would be meeting my baby.
After my second stretch and sweep I was having intermittent surges throughout the day, nothing regular and nothing too strong, I put this down to the internal exam and some braxton hicks. That night my sister came for dinner and I had three strong surges over the space of 90 minutes. I went to bed as usual and fell asleep fine. I woke up 30 minutes later with another strong surge but fell back to sleep for another 30 minutes before waking again with another surge. This happened a few more times. At 1230 I woke again but this time the surge was so strong I was unable to get back to sleep. 10 minutes later another surge came over me, I found lying in bed very uncomfortable so I got up and sat on the couch. This helped but the regular surges were getting very strong. By 2.00am the surges were very strong, I was doing the breathing exercises that were making them bearable. I decided to get into the shower and this helped a great deal.
By 3.00am I woke my partner to get a few things organised as I knew we would be heading into the hospital soon, I contacted the assessment unit to let them know what was going on, my surges were 5 minutes apart at this time and I was told to stay at home until they were 2-3minutes apart. We called my mum to come over to watch the boys. Mum arrived at 4am and I had been in and out of the shower, my surges were 3-4minutes apart and very strong. Mum and Joseph both told me it was time to go, I refused, stating I was fine and didn’t want to be sent back home.
30 minutes later I was having surges 2-3minutes apart and although I didn’t feel ready Joseph and mum both got me out the door and into the car. We arrived at hospital around 5.00am and the surges were very strong, I struggled to sit or lie down. I was taken up to the labour ward and as I met with the midwives they took one look at me and put me straight into the delivery suite. My midwife was called to come in and another midwife did an internal exam on me, I was already 6cms dilated! I felt great, my hard work was paying off. The midwife said to me, “the baby is going to be here really soon, I don’t know if your midwife will make it in time”. I didn’t believe her, in my head I was thinking, ‘I’m only 6cms, I have hours yet’. I got into the shower and was feeling okay, the surges were coming frequently and very strong but I was breathing through them and reminding myself I would be meeting my baby very soon.
It wasn’t long before my surges changed and were becoming very painful. I told Joseph to grab the midwife as the baby was coming. She got me onto my knees on the floor of the bathroom, I didn’t think I would make it to the bed. After two surges in this position, with the help of Joseph and the midwife I got onto the bed and onto my knees, leaning over the back of the bed. The surges were very strong and I could feel baby moving down the birth canal. I was thinking back to my hypnobirthing course and breathing through as much as I could, I was bearing down with a lot of noise, which Joseph later told me sounded like a ‘moo-ing’. As baby’s head was crowning in walked my midwife, just in time! After a few surges I felt the head being born, the midwife told me baby had been born en caul, still in the sack. She broke the sack after the head was born and on my next surge the rest of my baby was born. Joseph had caught the baby and passed it to me, we had a GIRL! We were so shocked and surprised!
I turned over and was having a lovely cuddle with our new baby girl! We had requested delayed cord clamping and a physiological third stage if possible. We had had no complications during the delivery so my midwife was happy for this to occur. 40minutes later and I delivered the placenta. Everything had gone exactly how I had hoped. I attempted to breastfeed our new baby and she had no problems at all, she was straight on there and sucking well. After 90 minutes of cuddling and feeding the midwife took her and did all of her checks, she was perfect. Thinking back, it all happened quite quickly, I never even turned on my labour playlist!
She was here, our beautiful girl Elsie Jean born on December 9th at 05.55am, weighing in at only 3.7kgs at 50cms long, the smallest of all my babies, ten days overdue!
