In this episode Paige shares her incredibly positive first birth experience. If you are new to the podcast or feel like you want an encouraging story to inspire you, this is it. After conceiving easily, she started listening to the podcast and knew she wanted a continuity model of care. She contacted Canterbury Antenatal and Postnatal Services (CAPS) and was accepted into their programme. From there she listened to @the.birth.class on repeat and armed herself with knowledge and skills. Her labour started spontaneously and she stayed home till her waters broke. As she says: “Knowledge is power and the more you understand your options, feel like you can make choices and know that you’re involved in the process, the more confident you’ll be.”

“We fell pregnant very quickly so even though it was planned, it was a shock. I did a pregnancy test because Poppy, my dog, was paying me extra attention which was very unusual. The first test was negative but a few days later I did a positive test.

“I started listening to the podcast a lot and I like the sound of going through a Midwifery Group Practice (MGP) programme so I was looking at options in my local area. My GP told me my local hospital was RPA and I didn’t get the best feeling from stories that had been shared. I couldn’t contact anyone at the hospital so I started looking into other options and Canterbury Hospital was one of them and they had a really great programme called CAPS (Canterbury Antenatal And Postnatal Services). I called them, I spoke to someone and that person ended up being my midwife through pregnancy and postpartum.

“I had a few pre-existing issues, including high-grade cells on my cervix that I’d had removed and that can lead to an incompetent cervix so I had a few other scans to check on that. I also had a herniated disc in my back so I had to have a meeting with an anaesthetist to discuss what would happen if I needed an epidural. That meeting wasn’t overly positive; the anaesthetist was horrible, really rude and I walked out of that appointment bawling my eyes out. I ended up making a complaint and a report was made that day and was further escalated.

“The first 16 weeks I was so sick and throwing up constantly. I could handle the vomiting but the dizziness and nausea left me bedridden. I told my work at 9 weeks that I was pregnant because I couldn’t get into the office so I worked from home till about 16 weeks. The nausea petered out and then I would have sporadic vomiting but apart from that I was relatively fine.

“Through listening to Australian Birth Stories I had become apprehensive of intervention and I could see that I was entering a fear-based system in the hospital, that’s why I intended to labour at home for as long as possible.

“I bought The Birth Class and I forced my partner to listen to it all. We listened while driving around a holiday in Tasmania and I have family in Dubbo so we’d always listen on road trips. I also hired a TENS machine because I’d used it before for my back issues.

“I didn’t know at the time but looking back I better understand what happened. I was due to see my midwife on the Friday but the day before I noticed that I was a bit wet and I wondered if I’d wet myself. My midwife reassured me that there would be extra discharge in late pregnancy so I didn’t get too concerned about it. I woke up on the Sunday morning and I had a significant wet patch in my pyjama shorts so I sent a photo to my midwife and she encouraged me to go into hospital to get checked.

“I done a lot of research into the statistics and evidence behind Group B strep so I declined the test.  When I went into hospital that morning a test confirmed that my waters had broken and it was probably just a hind water leak. The obstetrician came in and told me I could choose to go home and wait for 24 hours before returning to the hospital for an induction at 7:30am the next day. I booked my mum and sister a flight to Sydney; my sister has had four babies, including a twin birth, and I wanted her strong energy in the room with me.

“I drank raspberry leaf tea and ate dates; I’d been doing all the things to encourage labour to start, including antenatal expressing. I put a rom com on and sat down to watch it and tried to relax. I started to get period pains while I was there. My contractions picked up in the evening and my mum and sister were with me.

“I stood on the stairs and lent onto the railings during contractions. I called the hospital and told them to cancel my induction which was a lovely call to make. The midwife encouraged me to stay home and keep check on the baby’s movements. My sister suggested we go in because she could see I was doubting myself so we went in about 1am. I knew in my bones that I wasn’t far along. They checked baby and she was fine and they did a vaginal examination and I was 3cm. They gave me the option to stay or go home and I chose to go home and told my sister and Xander to go to sleep.

“I put a hypnobirth track on and breathed through the contractions for about an hour. I started to feel a bit out of control and moaning and I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. I had to give myself another pep talk and I got on all fours and buried my face into the chair and that’s when I started having the fetal ejection reflex. It was an intense bearing down and compressing and that’s when my waters properly broke.

“I managed to call my sister and she got my pants off me and then I got dressed and I went outside and got in the car. It was a hairy 15 minute drive to the hospital and Xander ran about six red lights. The journey from the car to the birthing suite was wild; I didn’t know how to do it. I finally got into the room and got on all fours on the bed and the midwife confirmed I was 10cm and then I felt like I could finally let it go. As far as pushing goes, I was present and involved but I didn’t need to do much; it was like the best poo ever. I was an active participant but not leading the show, it was my body doing its thing.

“It was such a nice surprise when she arrived because the whole way along I thought I was having a boy. She was crying but not big wails. She was just gorgeous. While I was still on all fours I had the syntocinon injection in my thigh and then I flipped onto my back and I had another contraction and I birthed the placenta. It was an absolute dream birth and I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”