Jerica’s birth story: Public hospital birth with induction

Jerica describes the recent birth of her daughter as ‘a phenomenal experience’. ‘Luck did play a part in it, but I also attribute a lot of my positive experience to Rhea’s Birth with Confidence book,’ she says.

I had a pretty interesting pregnancy, with subclinical hypothyroidism so thyroxine increased throughout, fibroids, one of which was digging into my uterus and at 28 weeks was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I have learnt a lot about that disease since but it came as a huge shock to me as I am fit, healthy and just couldn’t believe that had happened to me. I was borderline but it did get worse and I ended up on 12 units of insulin each night as my fasting levels were not below the threshold (I’d argue the GDM limits are too low, but that’s another story). 

There was a lot of fear around the birth for me and I really avoided thinking about it until about two months before I was due. I knew I’d have to give birth one way or another and I also knew I wanted to give birth vaginally and without pain meds but I couldn’t quite see how I was actually going to do it. When I read Rhea’s book, I fully identified with the fourth or the fifth type of [pain type]. At that time I was probably closer to the fourth one, as I knew what I wanted but I wasn’t prepared enough and I wasn’t sure of my support group at the time. 

By the end of reading the book and doing more tailored research and getting my mum and my husband on board, I felt so ready for the birth and could not wait. Of course, there was still a little bit of fear; I knew it would be hard, I knew it would be the hardest thing I’ve ever done but I was looking forward to the challenge. I’ve been an athlete all my life and I have a pretty high tolerance to pain, and am able to push myself to my limits when required so I figured I’d have the capacity. Reading the book gave me the confidence to know that my body was built for this, and with the right preparation I’d be able to do it in the way I wanted with a little bit of luck thrown in. I’m so grateful that I read the book and went in there feeling prepared. 

My husband and I made a Birth Flowchart (not a plan) as we knew that it could go sideways at any time and my ideal outcome may not occur. We looked into as many scenarios as we could and discussed what I wanted in each. For example – if an emergency C section was recommended, my husband would discuss with the doctors as to why and if there are any alternatives and if not, go ahead. This to save me having to get out of the zone when in the middle of a contraction.

Due to gestational diabetes there was a lot of pressure to induce which I really, really didn’t want to do. It was discussed multiple times throughout the last months of my pregnancy, mainly with doctors, one of which I actually made a complaint about because it was such a terrible experience for us. There was a lot of pressure to induce because of the label of gestational diabetes and it felt like my individual circumstances were not being taken into account – i.e. multiple ultrasounds showing a baby within normal ranges (noting that I am tall, my husband is 6ft4 and I have a tall family as does he, so our baby was likely to be big regardless), my glucose levels were very well controlled with diet during the day and the insulin I was taking was managing fasting most days (not all). There was no indication that gestational diabetes was causing any issues. Of course, you never know these things, but my gut instinct was I shouldn’t have to induce at a certain time, because my body might not be ready. 

In the end my waters broke at 3:32 am on a Wednesday and I didn’t go into spontaneous labour. The recommendation was to induce within 24 hours which I chose not to do. After much deliberation and the self-justification that my waters broke on their own so my body must be close enough to being ready, it just needs a bit of help, I did induce at 9 am on the Friday. Antibiotics were recommended due to the risk of infection because I waited 50 hours to induce and took one dose of antibiotics but did not take them 4 hourly during labour as was recommended, as I had no infection markers and it felt like overkill to take AB just in case. I also had no meconium in my amniotic fluid, so baby was not in distress. I asked the midwife to tell me what condition the placenta was in (I didn’t want to see it, throw it in the bin, it caused my GDM), and she said it just looked ready to be birthed, no real deterioration. My gut instincts were right. 😀 

The midwives I had were amazing and I’m so grateful for them both (shift change halfway through as I went public). My induction could not have gone better, as far as inductions go. I was on a drip with Syntocin for the whole labour. There was one little hiccup where I started bleeding at about 3:30 pm and there were fears it was a placenta abruption but in the end, I just needed to do a wee… My bladder was too full and must have been putting pressure on something. I was in active labour for 1hr 20 and pushed for 46 minutes. 

I kept chanting to myself in my mind, ‘I can do this, I can do this’ and I said it out loud to my husband a few times too – and I truly believed it. There was, though, one moment where I thought I might not be able to keep going. I was shaking, the contractions were so close together and it felt neverending. But I had a goal in mind, I didn’t want to get an epidural or even use gas so I just… kept going. I knew that all I had to do was last through 30 seconds of the first half of the contraction and the second 30 seconds it tended to ease off, and then I’d get a break. I used those breaks to mentally recharge and just be ready for the next one. 

When the time came for pushing, it was such a relief, there was something to push against and the contractions were actually useful. At one point during pushing, the CTG wasn’t reading properly and since I was so close to giving birth, the doctor in the room (who had come in due to imminent birth) asked if we could put on a fetal scalp electrode to monitor heart rate. I was mid-contraction and my husband stepped in and said categorically NO, can’t we just move the CTG to a better position? Did that, it started reading again and off I went. We knew about the heart rate monitoring options and what we didn’t want and it was so great having my husband advocate for what he knew I wanted. 

I ended up giving birth to a baby girl (we didn’t find out the gender beforehand), no pain meds, and with an intact perineum. I had been to a pelvic floor physio as part of my prep and knew it was possible and hoped that, with a bit of luck thrown in, I wouldn’t tear and I’m so stoked that I didn’t. I’m so glad Rhea wrote her book and it wasn’t until I had the GDM label that it really hit home for me, just how medicalised birth is, and how much people don’t know and rely on the medical profession to guide them correctly. If I had listened to the advice I was given, my birth story would be completely different and potentially traumatic, instead of beautiful. I’m so glad I listened to my gut, got myself educated as best I could and felt confident standing up for myself and voicing what I wanted and ensuring I was listened to.