Baby Corinne & Mum - Wednesday 8 February 2023

In the early stages of pregnancy, the thought of birth terrified me. I very much had the belief that I’d be happy to ‘go with the flow’ when the time came and that as long as my baby was healthy then that’s all that mattered. But the more I read and learned about the stages of birth and care options, the more I realised that my beliefs aligned with the midwife continuity of care model and my vision was to have a positive birth experience with minimal intervention. 

I was on the waitlist for a place in the RBWH birth centre program and was thrilled to be contacted at 20 weeks by a midwife to say a spot had opened up. I had three wonderful midwives looking after me and I had appointments with each of them throughout my second and third trimester. 

40 weeks came and went and it felt like time was on pause, but in the early afternoon of 41+1 weeks I was watering the garden when my waters broke. It wasn’t a gush, like the movies would have us believe, it was more of a trickle but I knew something must be happening. At 4pm I called my midwife and decided to go into the birth centre to confirm that my waters had indeed broken. My partner and I drove in and it was as suspected, my waters had broken so now the clock was ticking for me to go into labour. If I didn’t go into spontaneous labour and deliver within a set timeframe then I wouldn’t be able to be in the birth centre and would potentially be on antibiotics for my labour. I was upset as it seemed my intention of a minimal intervention birth was derailing before we’d even started. I was having a little cry about it to my partner as we were driving home from the birth centre, when suddenly my waters broke properly all over the passenger seat of the car. 

After this excitement I was a little more optimistic, and right on 7pm my contractions started. They were 15 minutes apart and manageable. I put on some relaxing music and tried to stay as relaxed as possible to conserve my energy. By 9pm the contractions were 10 minutes apart so I put on the tens machine and started moving around the living room to manage the labour sensation. At 11pm I woke my partner up and let him know to call my midwife as contractions were now five minutes apart. I was using vocalisation, movement and the tens machine to get through the contractions at this point. At 4am my contractions were 1.5 minutes apart so we jumped in the car with our bags and began the 25-minute drive to the hospital. I had headphones and an eye mask on to stay in the zone as much as possible though the pressure in my pelvis from sitting was incredibly intense.

​My partner dropped me off at hospital to go park the car and I had an almighty contraction in the foyer. It was 4am and completely deserted but hospital staff appeared from nowhere and helped me up to the birth centre. My midwife met me there and I laboured for another hour or so, moving around the room while the bath tub filled up. Then all of a sudden I felt a strong urge to push with each contraction. I held onto my partner’s arms and moved through the contractions until the bath was ready. Once I was in the water, the pushing urges grew more intense with each contraction and before too long she was here  - I reached down into the water, scooped up my daughter and held her against my chest for the first time. It was the most empowering moment of my life and a moment shared with my partner that I’ll never forget. 
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We named our daughter Corinne, which by happy coincidence was the name of one of our midwives. We stayed together as a family in the birth centre for 10 hours before being discharged home. After the incredible high of the birth wore off, I had a difficult time in the early weeks with the baby blues, sleep deprivation and anxiety. My milk came in on day five and I had engorgement and latch issues. Sensing I was struggling, my midwives visited every day for two weeks and helped me with breastfeeding positioning and gave me words of encouragement and reassurance that everything would be ok. I’m still breastfeeding Corinne now at 16 months and I’m confident that it’s in no small part thanks to the knowledge and support I received from my midwives in that critical postpartum period. I could not be more thankful for the care I received from my incredible midwife team throughout my pregnancy, birth and postpartum journey.

Written by Hilary Sims - FBC committee member 
​Published 14/6/2024