Abigail's birth - a story in photos

One of our birthday traditions is that I will tell the birthday child the story of their birth, while we snuggle in bed together in the morning. I cannot believe it has been four years since I first stared down at her little head lying on my chest, in complete shock at her mop of dark brown hair!

WARNING: Abigail was born by caesarian section. I have included lots of photos in this post; none show private body parts (except one view of newborn baby buttocks), but there is blood, so don't scroll down if you're squeamish. All of the medical jargon is kept to the end, so feel free to skip that as well.

Here I am on the morning of Abigail's Big Day:Daddy and Mummy prepped for theatre:
Abigail is here!
Daddy cuts Abigail's umbilical cord:
I want my mummy!
Daddy introduces Abigail to Mummy:
First cuddle with Mummy:
She has hair! Are you sure she is ours?
Anna meets her sister:
Joshua meets his sister:
Snoozing with Daddy:
Abigail was born in the Royal Darwin Hospital. It always makes me laugh when I see how they lay claim to all babies born there as their own:

Abigail was born by planned caesarian section after she turned to the breech position at 35 weeks. From ultrasound measurements, she was predicted to be around 4.1kg, which is generally considered too large to deliver safely naturally in the breech position. (In the Lancet Term Breech Trial, for example, the cut off for trial of labour for breech births was 4kg.) She turned out to be 4.24kg (9 pounds, 5 1/2 ounces) when she was born. We were blessed to have four weeks in which to research, consider and pray about the risks of a trial of labour versus a planned caesarian section. I have heard that emergency c-sections can be quite emotionally traumatic. That was not my experience, because we went into the operating theatre confident that this was the right thing to be doing for the health of both of us.

I am very, very thankful for the great encouragement and assistance of the midwives program at RDH, which I was in for the duration of my pregnancy with Abigail. This program ensured that I was seen by a pair of midwives throughout my pregnancy for each of my antenatal visits except the initial one and 36 week check up. If I had delivered naturally without complications, the birth would only be attended by those same midwives, without doctors but within the general hospital labour ward.

My midwives greatly helped me in my fight to be allowed to continue in this program when the hospital higher-ups wanted to require me to have an ultrasound to ensure I didn't have placenta praevia, despite my complete lack of symptoms. (Placenta praevia is a serious complication to pregnancy if it does occur, but it is almost always able to be diagnosed without an ultrasound. Obvious symptoms include abnormal fundal height measurements and unexplained blood loss during pregnancy.) In the end I was forced to have the ultrasound if I wanted to continue in the midwifery program, which is only for low risk pregnancies. But I was able to elect to have a very short ultrasound, without the usual nuchal fold measurements wrt Downs' Syndrome being taken, despite the sonographer's insistence I "needed to know".

When Abigail turned breech, my midwives stayed with my case, even though I was no longer eligible to be part of the Midwifery Program. They helped me to find information about breech births and all the options available to us. They clearly explained the risks and possible problems with both caesarian section and natural breech birth. They also organised for me to have a doctor from the hospital attempt an external cephalic version (ECV), where the baby is (if it works!) turned by a doctor pushing on the mother's abdomen. It didn't work for us, and I almost decided to call Abigail "Mary", as in, "Quite Contrary"! One of the midwives was able to attend me during my op, despite not being part of the medical team for the operation. (She's seen taking photos in one of the pics above.) And she organised to obtain the doctor's report on Abigail's birth for me, even pointing out where the doc had written, amid all the highly technical medical terms, "Breech extraction of a cute girl."

The only thing that I later found was wrong in all that they told me, was when they said that I had the same chance of delivering naturally for a future birth after a caesarian section. This was true at that hospital, where caesarian sections are not greatly encouraged. But here in Perth, aka the Caesar capital of Australia, I found my doctor assumed I would want a second caesarian section (for Samuel) after having one previously, despite Samuel not being breech and me having had two births naturally before. The VBAC rate is only the same as the VB rate for those women who actively choose to push for a VBAC, despite the presumption of caesarian section by the vast majority of doctors. I really had to fight for my minimal intervention VBAC here in Perth. For that, Birthrites was a fantastic source of support and information. But that is a story for another time... perhaps November, when we celebrate Samuel's birthday.

(I posted about sharing my memories of Anna's very different birth, back here, for anyone who is interested.)