This is not the journey Keira expected; fighting for conditions surrounding her birth to be on her terms. Something she shouldn’t have had to but they were vital factors around cesarean birth. Factors that are important to birthing parents in surrendering to the process. We are here to tell you that cesarean birth can be beautiful too.
Its hard to know what decisions are right, particularly when you are a first time mum. Of course, you want to do what’s best for your baby, What do you do though when your care providers contradict your innate knowing and wisdom? Keira fell into this conundrum at 25 weeks when her antenatal care provider began tell her that her baby was too small and was at risk of dying. Keira already in a fog of HG feared the worst for her baby. After week upon week she met health professionals for scan egg’s multiple days a week to keep an eye on the baby’s heart beat and growth pattern.Always fearing the next update that this time she might not be so lucky. By 32 weeks she was pleased to see that the baby was growth was going well, so why were they pushing her to be so afraid? The last straw was being told that her baby could die of SIDS in the womb and since she had a low lying placenta they wished to perform a cesarean by 37 weeks.
Keira met up with the head OB of the Antenatal department to say she needed a break from the care they were providing as it was causing her too much anxiety and felt it was contradicting how she actually felt. That her baby was completely fine. They agreed to wait for the placenta to move, and that yes statistically her baby’s growth patterns showed she was healthy and just measuring small. The head OB apologised for the previous bullying and harassment but still advised for a cesarean to go ahead.
At 38 weeks Keira’s placenta was still 2cm from her cervix and after another meeting with the OB expressing she has weighed up both risks and preferred the option of a vaginal delivery over cesarean. This time the OB remarked that it was ‘out of the box’ thinking and couldn’t promise how her staff would treat her in delivery.
It was at this point, Keira realised she was being bullied and threatened and became afraid. She agreed to the cesarean as long as the conditions were on her terms; that being she still wanted to birth her own baby, her baby was to only have breastmilk and that they were to given ample opportunity to have skin skin contact and bonding time. This is how they did it.
Pre Op
Collecting colostrum. Jordon didn't hold back helping to collect fresh colostrum as a back up measure post op. You can feed a newborn colostrum simply by dipping a sanitised finger into the milk and allowing baby to suck it off. No bottle needed. This put Keira’s mind at ease that Bub would have everything she needed after surgery.
Maternal Assisted Caesarean
Keira waited up until 38 weeks for her placenta to move. While she did not have complete placenta previa, her placenta was still classed as low lying, multiple OB’s advised her, it was against the hospital policy and advised against her having a vaginal birth. The compromise, offering her a maternal assisted cesarean. Where she would have no curtain and be able to birth her own baby via the cesarean incision.
Part of her birth requests were to have the birth photographed however the OB performing the operation on the day refused to allow this.
The Golden Hours.
Once the baby was pulled up onto her chest. Medical staff agreed to leave mum and Bub free to bond with skin to skin contact. from theatre, recovery and into the Maternity ward. Bubba did not leave her skin. they held each other for several hours while they both recovered.
Post Partum
Bub was born weighing in a perfectly average 7 pounds.
Keira had some issue with feeding post partum. I could see from the moment she was born, she was having difficulty maintain her latch. This is classic suck reduction with tongue tie. After much assistance with lactation consultants, it was easier for her little one to use a nipple shield. Her tie was right under her tongue and risky to be lasered free. She kept up with the nipple shields until 3 months and as her jaw grew and gained strength she no longer needed nipple shields.
