So here goes, I am going to attempt to write my own blog.
For those who don't know me my name is Jenna, I'm 25 years old, married to the love of my life, and have 3 living children (Jaycen is 3.5yrs old and was born in December 2008, Elise is 17.5 months old and was born in March 2011 and Emily AKA Bubble was born in July 2012, and 7 angels waiting for me beyond the rainbow.
I am not religious but will pray for others (not to any god/goddess in particular though, just a general prayer for help/aid) just in case it does help.
My hobbies include knitting, drawing, painting, playing computer games, making girls hair accessories, reading, craft-making with my children and making Jewellery.
Making Jewellery is my favourite past-time though, I love to create and try new things, I am VERY addicted to buying beads and findings - especially sterling silver, swarovski crystals and gemstones. I sell Jewellery on eBay and also on Facebook via my small business pages KahlahJewellery and Footprints and Rainbows: Gems, Jewellery and Accessories.
I am currently studying to become a Birth Doula, and hope to complete my course by the end of 2013, which means that early next year I will be looking to attend 2-3 births on a pro-bono basis as part of my training to gain experience in assisting a woman through her labour.
I was drawn to become a Doula while pregnant with my youngest child, as I firmly believe that having the right support during labour is very important in ensuring a positive outcome and a happy mother and baby.
My own birth experiences have been varied, not only have I suffered 7 losses (1 termination at the age of 17 and 6 early miscarriages at 8wks and earlier) but I have also experienced an induction via Gels and Pitocin drip that resulted in a c-section, an AROM (artificial rupture of membranes) induction that resulted in a successful VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) and a spontaneous labour that resulted in a successful VBAC. I have also been through the heartache of not being able to breastfeed, breastfeeding for only a few times in a short period of time and successfully breastfeeding.
My first labour I was a young uninformed first time mother who at 21 years old and 41+3wks was impatient to meet my baby boy, I had begged for an induction from 37wks due to constant pain in my hip and upper leg and severe pain when walking that meant I couldn't walk 10 meters without having to stop. My body wasn't ready to have a baby yet, and my obstetrician was amazing, and held off the induction until I was over 41wks pregnant as she wanted to try and let me go into labour on my own. Even on the day I was induced my body still wasn't ready, I wasn't dilated and my cervix wasn't favourable. Even so the induction went ahead, but it was another 41.5 hours before I would meet my son via emergency c-section after he became stuck while I was pushing and his heart rate started to drop really low between contractions. He was born healthy, weighing 8pd 3 (3.774kg) at 41+5wks gestation, measuring 51cm long with a 34cm head circumference. I was given the diagnosis of having Cephalo-Pelvic Disproportion where all of or part of the pelvis is too small for the baby to fit through, but I have since proved that diagnosis wrong, it turns out that it was only the position that my son was in that was preventing him from being born vaginally. I was unable to breastfeed him so expressed and formula fed for 6wks, but a bout of mastitis at 3wks took my supply and by 6wks it was gone and he went only only formula feeds.
The next year we started trying for our second child, but it took a long 11 months and 2 early miscarriages in January and March 2010 before I finally became pregnant in July 2010 - I had my positive pregnancy test on July 19th, the day after my 23rd birthday.
I had a lot of bleeding during the first 13wks of the pregnancy, and was always scared that I would lose her too like I had lost the others, I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes at 32wks gestation and was induced via AROM at 40+2wks. She was born 4hrs and 42 minutes after my waters were broken in a very successful VBAC delivery. I am forever thankful to my husband and the student midwife who was attending me that day as without them I would have likely given in to having an epidural and the repeat c-section that I was continuously threatened with. She was born weighing 8pd exactly (3.65kg) measuring 52cm long with a 34cm head circumference. The only drugs that I used were Gas and pethidine. She had trouble latching on so I combo breastfed and expressed exclusively for 2wks until my supply stopped meeting her demands (she was also only putting on approx 20-40g a week at that point too) and then added formula supplements until I had to stop expressing and breastfeeding at 8wks due to medication that I started taking that wasn't good for her to be getting in her system.
My third birth occured only 9wks and 3 days ago, I became pregnant accidentally when my husband and I went on our long overdue honeymoon and we weren't as careful as we normally were regarding birth control (we also thought that we would be safe, but obviously we were wrong and the proof is currently asleep in her bassinet after a big feed, sadly there won't be any more surprises now as my husband had a vasectomy when I was 20wks pregnant, the same day that I had a small amniotic fluid leak and that I had my 20wk morphology scan which he missed out on attending because of the vasectomy). I went into labour spontaneously for the first time in the early evening of my EDD (estimated due date) of July 7th 2012, managed through the contractions quite well for the next 24 hours until I came down with Gastro (not something that I would wish on anyone while in the middle of early labour). Hubby had his work farewell in the evening of July 8th so after being sent home from the hospital to let things progress I went along with hubby while still contracting (they were slowly getting stronger but still very irregular which seems to be the norm for me in early labour from past experience). The gastro kicked in worse while there and I developed a low fever so we left early and went home for a bit, but while in the shower the contractions started to come one after the other on top of each other so we rushed back to the hospital. We arrived around 10pm and I was put on the monitor right away, which showed strong irregular contractions, I was also dehydrated so they hooked me up to a drip to rehydrate me. Around 4am the next day the on-call obstetrician came around (my OB was away on holidays but had told me to get the hospital to call him as soon as I went into labour but they only did that after we had been demanding that they call him for 3 hours straight, and the on-call OB wasn't comfortable with attending a VBAC delivery and suggested a c-section right away so we weren't happy with him at all) he checked me and said I was 3cm dilated. The midwife asked me if I wanted something to help me relax and came back with a drug that I thought was pethidine and I managed to get a bit of sleep that night as the contractions slowed down and spaced out a lot, coming roughly every 30-45 minutes.
Later that night on July 9th the contractions started to ramp up again, by this time I had just been given my 4th bag of fluids and had a high fever, the new midwife who was attending me mentioned that the drug I was given earlier that morning was actually a drug that they use to stop contractions in premature labour (hubby and I were very angry about this after the birth as it could have potentially been dangerous to our youngest child who had passed meconium in utero and she could have inhaled it at any time which then could have been fatal), around 11:30pm my contractions regulated and started coming closer together and I was 4cm dilated, at 1:47am the midwife checked me and said I was 8cm dilated with a high rear-facing cervix so she attempted to pull it down and forward, instead at 1:50am my waters broke all over her, the bed and the floor and had meconium in them. the next 12 minutes are a blur, I had a break from contractions for 5 minutes and then all of a sudden had to push, so I did. My youngest child and 2nd daughter was born after only 7 minutes of pushing. She was floppy and not breathing for 5 minutes and they were about to take her to the nursery when she finally started to respond. Approx 58-odd hours of labour.
She weighed in at roughly 8pd 11 (3.95kg), measuring 49cm long with a 34.5cm head circumference in another successful VBAC. I suffered 2nd degree tearing but that was ok, it had fully healed within 2wks of her birth. I wasn't very happy with how I was treated during this labour, I was treated as though I was an uninformed first time mother, and I think that if I had been the uninformed first time mother I would have just accepted it as a good birth. Unfortunately it has made me even more reluctant to trust the medical and hospital system, my birth plan was never followed (apparently you have to have your OB and any midwives you see sign it if you do shared care like I did, which is wrong as it isn't their body or labour/birth, it is the mothers body and labour/birth and we are the ones who make the decisions), even after many demands to have at least some of the things I wanted I was repeatedly denied by a scared OB who didn't care if I was 3.5yrs post c-section with a successful VBAC already under my belt.
Things need to change in our medical system, we cannot just accept that women will be walked all over during their labours to the point where the only way to truly get what you want is to homebirth (I swear if I could have another child I would homebirth with a fully trained and experienced midwife and a Birth Doula in attendance to support me and help me through the hard parts). Just the fact that I was refused time and time again even after insisting that I was sign any forms they had to take the blame away from the OB and midwives if on the rare (0.5% chance of rupturing along my c-section scar, compared to the approximately 0.2% chance of rupturing elsewhere regardless of if you have had a c-section before, you have a higher risk of hemorrhaging in any birth than you do of having your uterus rupture) something did go wrong.
So in other words now that I will no longer be having any more children I am even more determined to help other women achieve the birthing experience that THEY want, or if things don't go to plan to help them to find the good in their birthing experience and help them to come to terms with the bad parts of their birthing experience.
I did not mean to write a novel here, but it seems that once I start typing I can't stop until what I want to say is out.
Another thing about me to get rid of the down tone of this blog post - I finally got my learners licence 1.5wks ago. I have had 1 lesson so far, and to be honest it scares the crap out of me. Ever since I was involved in a car accident as a passenger that resulted in my first miscarriage I have been terrified of getting behind the wheel of a car to the point that I hyperventilate and have a panic attack.
My first lesson did end in a panic attack though - after 35 minutes of driving - when hubby got me to drive on the road itself instead of around the outside of the football oval like I had been, he asked me to drive the car around a roundabout but I panicked and couldn't do it, my heart was racing so fast I thought it would burst, and so I had to pull over and let hubby get behind the wheel instead. I finished off the lesson by practising parking and reversing.
And one last thing, I became an aunt yesterday, my younger stepsister gave birth to her first child, a little girl called Myla-Jade, weighing 7pd 14, sometime around 3:30pm.
I am happy for her but also a little bit sad (and slightly jealous) because I will never again be able to experience that joy of holding your newborn baby in your arms (I am having a hard time coming to terms with not having any more babies, even with how hard my pregnancies and labours have been, I am a little bit jealous of every woman who is pregnant or who has just had a newborn baby, even though my youngest is only 2 months old I still want another baby one day and it won't happen).
So now you know about me, and about my secret jealousy and that my hubby and I can't have any more babies together. You know what I want to do with my life, my hobbies, my children.
So I will finish this post off here.
Until next time,
Jen xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment