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🌿 I truly know there is no coincides in life, there is a sure reason that I have another story back to back to show how variable our estimated due dates really are. If you have not listened to episode 35, then go check it out after this amazing story. I love sharing these journeys where a family have taken responsibility of their decisions, are supported around that, listened within and birthed their baby at 42.5 weeks. Even better this story is a first time mother, and, typically its the first time mothers that will fall into the anxious time after 40 weeks, especially when that word inductions comes to play. This story is a lovely, sweet gentle birth journey very inspiring for first time mothers! Kristen is also a mental health worker, focusing her work on sexual trauma, we have a conversation at the end here on the correlations of abuse and trauma and pregnancy and birth.
We begin this story with the family dynamics. Kristin is still in her baby bubble, with Harvey being only 6 weeks at the time of recording. They had a long journey into trying to conceive, after seeing fertility specialist and having a range of tests they found out they were pregnant! We talked here about how they may have been trying to much and were not enjoying the process, so they took a different approach and begin to book trips away and bam 💥 enter baby!
Kristen’s pregnancy went relatively well, she found a great relationship with her midwife. She and her partner Mitch attended a calm birth course, they found this to be exceptional in embracing pregnancy and especially for her partner Mitch to understand the process. We talked about what it looks like to choose home birth as first time parents, discussing Mitch’s and Kristen’s experience of birth prior to becoming pregnant. Kristen described all the hesitations they had, how they researched and come to the place of being confident that it was their decision. So they felt confident in their process.
Supported by her Husband
So 40 weeks rolled over, Kristen was feeling rather good. Apart from the phone calls and messages asking if the ‘baby has come yet’ , she was going about her day as normal as you could. She was well nested with the bits and bobs you can do for a home birth preparation. So 41 weeks arrived and the questions started coming to Kristen about what she is going to do being so far over already. This changed allot for her and started to really go inward away from the people that were asking and giving out pressure. Kristen talks about the difficulty of wanting to sit with her instincts yet having the anxiety creeping in of other people around her, she stopped going for walks and responding to many people.
So 42 weeks! Kristen talks about her mother going into labour at 42 weeks. Kristen went for a scan at the 42 week mark and every thing was looking AYE OK. Kristen describes walking out of the scan feeling the same elation as when they found out they were pregnant, she felt relief. Convinced that she was going to have her baby before easter she spent some time talking with the midwife again about what things would look like at 43 weeks. They made a plan, after 43 weeks Kristen will book in for induction. She got home that day and got right into the things that she never said she would do, Kristen was ready to try and get things moving at 42.5 weeks, she was home bouncing on an exercise ball, drinking raspberry leaf tea, eating pineapple and cooking a hot curry!
That evening she woke with dull pains, the excitement hit and she knew that this was now happening. She could not sleep so sat up all night and by the morning things fizzled out. They took a beautiful walk in the village that morning and described this as a great experience for them both. They come home and things picked up again, she tired to sleep, yet ended up having a nice day pottering, eating, just being. Things got stronger and by 3pm in the afternoon they phoned the midwife and run a bath. Got more regular and more intense and Kristen describes the feeling of getting into that magic water! She relaxed into the bath and used her breathing exercises and tired to keep the visualisations to. One of the strongest images that Kristen saw was her being underneath a wave and then diving under, holding onto the sand and the wave coming over her. Around 7pm Kristen reflects that she must of been approaching transition as she vomited, she describes being excited about this! Kristen found when she hopped out of the water things become more effective for her. Pushing for a bout an hour Kristen pushed her baby out and describes this as such a timeless experience. So 20 hours later Harvey was born and they were all laying there on the bed in love!
We talked postpartum and the journey after the birth for them both. There was some complications that we talked about being prolapse and talked about how they are managing this with the support around them.
Little Harvey – 6 weeks
We finish the conversation by talking about Kristen’s work specialising in sexual assault. She works in private practice and we talk about how sexual assault can be re-triggered during birth. We talk about awareness around this and how we need to find ways to support women that may have difficulty in the changes of the body and the sensations.
From Kristen
“You can’t control anything, you just have to wait”.
“Birth is a very normal process”.
“This is intense, but I can do anything”.
“Its about women finding they have a voice and how to use that”.
“My lesson is to trust instinct, then find the research to back that”.
“I Trust what I know, then educate myself”.
Resources:
Calmbirth – Great for partners to – https://calmbirth.com.au
Ina May’s – A Guide to Childbirth – https://www.amazon.com/Ina-Mays-Guide-Childbirth-Gaskin/dp/0553381156
http://www.homebirth.org.uk/overdue.htm
Article – Gail Hart – A Timely Birth – https://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/timely.asp
Connect with Kristen:
Website: http://www.kristencampbell.com.au
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