Becoming a Modern Day Mama
A birth plan doesn’t always go exactly as you plan it which I hear many times before from numerous mamas — I personally had a plan but was open to it going how it was going to go. Of course, being a type A personality, I figured that my plan would be executed perfectly, because well that is just how I like to roll. I didn’t think that my plan would take a detour onto another course that I hadn’t been intending just because that isn’t normally my style.
But, I learned a valuable lesson in my journey of bringing my son into this world: things don’t always go as expected but if you are willing to experience anything (which is a valuable lesson I have learnt from my mentor L. Ron Hubbard) that you can get through anything, even if it is not always easy.
So, how did my beautiful 9 pound 10 oz baby boy make it into this world? Let’s me share my story with you, it was a c-section. The long and short of it was I was close to 42 weeks and after a night of partying at our Modern Day Wife event I had an ultrasound the next day to confirm my amniotic fluid levels along with my placenta health. During the ultra sound I had a feeling something was wrong — the tech became super quiet, I was wondering, does he have all his toes? Is something missing - really panic does start to set in at that moment.
She wouldn’t say anything, the only thing she said was that I needed to go to labour and delivery. Thank goodness that my sister was with me. My heart started to panic, I am sure it skipped a beat or two and then I was getting hot and nervous and all the things.
I tried not to panic.. when the nurse opened the doors to the labour and delivery floor she says, and with a definite emphatic voice - “you don’t look like you are having a big baby!!”. I was like hi? um okay haha I had no idea what was going on. She took me into the room and said that my midwife was on her way (I had been planning a water birth might I add and all natural up until this point). When my midwife arrived, she said, your ultrasound shows your baby is large and you should be induced and I was thinking okay — will he really be that big? Ultrasounds can be hit or miss apparently on this, I am no expert but sometimes it is right and sometimes it is wrong.
I figured, well, I could give it a shot naturally, come on contractions..but then to my surprise, about 5 minutes later she came back in and said by the way he is also breech.
Mic drop. This is when to be honest the waterworks starts happening.
First off, I hadn’t ate in a while.
Second, I was very pregnant.
Third, this wasn’t a part of the all natural plan here.
So, I called my husband Corrie and the long of a short if you know my hubby he came in guns a blazin on this topic. What you don’t realize is that sadly, OBs do no train or midwifes on how to deliver breech babies anymore. This is kinda crazy to me because literally a few days prior my spa tech was telling me about how 20 years ago her OB delivered her baby feet first, they used to do all kinds of things and now it is just automatic c-section (someone is getting a fat pay check). I mean don’t get me wrong, I had a c-section so time and place and I do believe it is great that we have this option but I believe natural should be a first choice and promoted more.
So Corrie and I had the OB do another ultrasound bedside to confirm that the baby was breech and we was. We decide to not rush into a c-section right then for two reasons —
We didn’t want to be pressured into making the wrong decision on the spot.
There also was no sense of urgency to do it right then and there.
So we went home and decided to connect with some other people who gave us some key data —
Yes, it could be done but you would want a confident team on your side.
Your baby is too far along to turn.
If I wasn’t that far into my pregnancy I could have hired a private Dr.
My local midwife team had agreed to a home birth still with some specific regulations. So I opted to try that first but to be honest I had no time to really think about that because that night t 10pm I went right into active labour.
I skipped the warm up and it was just bam here we go. My Doula that I hired had even said just take a bath..there was no taking a bath, things just ramped up. To be frank, it was an intensive 10pm to 6:30am of contractions on and off and things were just not progressing was exhausted and intuitively I knew he was just not coming out that way.
At this point, he was happy and healthy and stable so I said sign me up for the c-section. This is where modern medicine is amazing, once I arrived to the hospital within about 20 minutes I was in the operating room and Dalton was born, perfectly healthy.
I learnt so much along the way from this story and I am super dedicated to having a vaginal birth for my next child. I would do some thing different and confirm the baby’s position closer to my due date next time and I also would look for a specific team to deliver my baby. All in all everything worked out and Dalton is here and he is perfect. It doesn't matter what your birth story is and how perfect or imperfect it is, what is important is that you and baby are healthy and I really realized this.
I also noted where for future I could be more responsible for the outcome and that is a win in itself.
What I am super excited to share with all you mamas is some of my favourite things I did post c-section for a very fast recovery which I hope help if you or someone you know ended up going this route or even had a pre-planned c-section.
My top suggestions for c-section recovery, and you can shop my edit here.
Frida Baby C Section Strips
Dolphin Treatment
Bio Oil
Scar Tissue
Guesha Tool