Liyana's Birth

My first pregnancy was wonderful and problem-free. It was the labour and birth that was a horrible experience. I never liked the idea of having a baby in the hospital for the main reason that I didn’t want my legs up for the world to see. To cut a long story short, I went into hospital and was immediately strapped up to the monitors and had a IV line in my arm – ‘just in case’ and given an internal. 24 hours, artificial rupture of my membranes, 2 sweeps for blood on my baby’s head, gas and air, an epidural and finally an LSCS later, I had a baby boy.

The first few weeks I was concentrating on healing but after that I felt sad I didn’t have the whole natural birth experience. The doctor who performed by c-section told me that I could have a natural birth if I waited for about 2 years. This was great news to me – I was among the population that thought once a c-section always a c-section.

I fell pregnant again end of July 2007 and right from knowing I was pregnant I was on the internet researching VBACs and IM’s. After a lot of reading and going through endless websites and stories I decided to email all the IM’s and see which one would take me on. I settled on Virginia Howes – and what a God send!

We had an initial consultation and found her so positive, full of energy and knowledgeable so we decided to go with her. My husband had many concerns about a homebirth but after meeting Virginia he too, was convinced that having a homebirth was the best option we had if I wanted a natural birth and to avoid all the problems of a second c-section. I told my mum and sisters that I wanted to have this baby at home but they believed (understandably) the safest place for me to have the baby was in hospital especially because of my CS. So in the end I just told them my back-up plan - that being - I’d go into hospital once I reached 6cm. The rest of my family were told the same.

All the antenatal appointments with Virginia were done at home at a time that was suitable to me. She would stay for over an hour answering any questions I had and explaining in depth everything I had concerns about. As my EDD drew nearer I was second guessing myself whether I was making the right decision, and what if this or that went wrong. I think Virginia sensed this at one of my visits and she immediately put my mind at ease. At anytime during my labour I could request to go into hospital and she would call an ambulance, at any time during my labour should she sense something going wrong, she would call for an ambulance. So it was settled. I would definitely go for the homebirth, but if at anytime I wanted to go into hospital, I knew I could just let her know.

Thursday 1 May 2008, I had a bloody show in the morning. I texted Virginia to let her know and she said that labour was imminent. I kept informing her when the contractions started coming sooner. I had to take my son to school at 1pm so I texted her and asked her if it was ok for me to take a half hour walk to my aunts afterwards. She let me know that this would speed up labour and to make sure I had a lift home should things change. So I took my son to school and started my walk. And as she had said, labour did speed up and I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes. When I got to my aunts house we just chatted in between contractions and at 3.30pm my husband picked me up and we went to pick up our son from school. When I got home Virginia called and asked if I wanted her to come over and check on me as she had 2 other ladies to see in the area. I said yes. When she came over she gave me the option of having an internal which I agreed to. Throughout the day and contractions in my mind I was only 3cm like last time round but when Virginia examined me, to my absolute delight she said I was 7cm! I hadn’t even got to 6cm last time round so I was chuffed. She ran downstairs and told my husband to hurry getting the birth pool ready because baby would be here in about 2 hours – it was 5.30pm.

Everytime I had a contraction I’d tell my sister to take my 3 year old out the room. He could sense something was happening. Virginia told me that once I sent him to my aunt’s I would be able to relax without worrying about him and labour would progress quickly. So I called up my aunt and asked her if my husband could bring him over. And true to her word, labour sped up. The contractions were strong and I spent most of the time on my knees holding onto the sofa. As the birth pool was not filling up fast enough Virginia asked my sister to run the bath. My husband came back from dropping off our son and the contractions were painful – Virginia suggested lying in the bath which I did. It took the edge off the pain. All throughout this time Virginia was monitoring baby’s heart rate and asking me if there was any pain in between contractions (one of the signs of uterine rupture). All was ok, and a few times throughout labour I felt baby moving. How amazing!

All throughout my labour my sister was there with a cold, wet cloth dabbing my face. My waters broke in the bath and all of a sudden everything seemed to stop and I just needed to sleep. One of the few things Virginia said would happen (something doctors interpret as maternal exhaustion which could lead to a CS), this is the ‘rest and be thankful’ period which the mother uses to regain some strength for pushing the baby out. So I fell asleep and thank the Good God for that because I didn’t know how much more I could take. My husband and sister helped me out the bath and put on a t-shirt. When I got back to the lounge I had a few more contractions which where hell, and that’s when I asked for the gas and air. But Virginia told me it was too late, I was already fully dilated and would start pushing soon, but nonetheless she set up the gas and air for me and I was on it like a baby with a dummy. About ½ hour later I had a spontaneous push (What an amazing feeling!) There were plenty times throughout my labour I was considering an epidural but I knew what that would’ve meant. I could hear my husband and my sister getting excited behind me. After a final push baby’s head was born and with one last push Liyana was born at 8.40pm, my husband helped catch her and Virginia put her in front of me.

I just cried and cried ‘Hello baby! Hello.’ I had done it! Virginia reminded me from my birth plan about skin to skin contact so I picked her up and fed her. I was given a shot of syntocinon to help deliver the placenta which took a while to come out but with some gentle pulling from Virginia and some pushing on my part it came out. I did lose some blood but not a huge amount. I lay down to rest while my sister held Liyana and after a while my husband helped me with a bath. We all went upstairs where baby was weighed – 7lbs3oz. By 11pm Liyana and I were in bed.

Ritoka, thank you so much for all your support, continually putting a cool damp cloth on my face – always at the right moment, but mostly for just being there to share in my experience and what is a special moment in our life.

Mahomed, thank you for all your support! For helping bring Liyana into this world, for putting up with the hormonal mood swings – you know how it went! But thank you!

Last, but by no means least – Virginia. Thank you! For everything! For all the advice, for supporting my decisions and equipping me with the knowledge I needed to make informed choices, for ensuring that I had done everything in my birthplan that was in your control – like reminding me about skin to skin contact. It was because of you, through the grace of God, I was able to achieve a successful VBAC. Every woman should have a midwife like you.