Welcome to the World

Craig and I are pleased to announce the birth of Orin. He was born at 3:09am on Monday the 19th of May weighing 2.6kg.

After a rapid labour, an emergency Caesarian section was necessary as Orin was in footling breech presentation. Unfortunately his arm was broken during birth and he had some breathing difficulties but is recovering well.

Orin and Molly are currently in hospital and are being well looked after. We hope to be able to bring Orin home soon, so keep an eye out for more pictures and updates.

Overdue

Sure enough, spudlet has stayed put past his due date. I always suspected this would happen. I was two weeks late, my sister was late and my niece was ten days late.

He is also stubbornly still breech.

On the birth options side of things, much has been happening. Our decision to be as flexible as possible has paid off even though we’ve been bouncing between care providers like a yo-yo. Funnily enough, we’ve ended up with what was originally our worst case scenario – a birth at KEMH AND a private obstetrician. Only now it’s a great option and we’re really pleased!

Here’s how it happened: Armadale hospital referred me to KEMH because they weren’t comfortable letting me try a vaginal breech birth (VBB) there primarily because it’s my first baby. The first obs we spoke to at KEMH was happy for me to try a VBB but wasn’t comfortable with me going more than 10 days past my due date or with induction. He recommended an elective caesarian 10 days past my EDD at the latest. I wasn’t thrilled with that but was pleased to be able to try for a VBB.

The second obstetrician we spoke to at KEMH (on my due date which was Wed 14/5) further advised me that my chances of being allowed to try for a VBB were entirely dependent on which obs were on duty if I came in labouring. He said that not all of them were comfortable with delivering breech so I might still need a caesarian at that point. He also looked into booking an elective caesarian and told me that the only free slot was 8 days past my due date.  This is because apparently they do very limited elective sections on Monday and Friday (which were fully booked) and none on the weekend. I was not pleased and began to negotiate at this point. We were stuck at a bit of an impasse when Craig had the brainwave of asking about booking an elective caesarian at Armadale hospital instead. The obs seized on this idea with relief and I liked the idea because at least I’d be closer to home.

After some phoning around and the help of various midwives, I was booked in for a caesarian at Armadale instead. Frustratingly, it was still 8 days past my EDD (apparently the Fri-Mon limited sections thing isn’t just KEMH) but it still felt like a better option. I was however frustrated by the lack of appointments for four days out of seven every week. That’s a sad indictment of public medical care in WA in my opinion.

On Friday, mum and I headed back to KEMH to have a CTG done on spudlet to check that he was doing ok. He was stubborn and just wanted to sleep, so I ended up hooked up to the monitor for two hours. I got to chatting with the lovely midwife who was attending. She admired my knitting and we talked about that a bit, I also told her about the saga of trying to get a VBB. She said she had an idea and vanished.

A little while later, she came back and asked if I have private health insurance. She said there was a possibility of getting an obstetrician to take me as a private patient which would increase my options. I was delighted by this suggestion and told her to go for it! Shortly thereafter, another obs turned up, plonked himself down on the end of my bed and had a chat with me. We discussed my situation, he had a look at my notes and asked some questions and then agreed to take me as a private patient. He was friendly and willing to negotiate over details of labour but also made it clear where his boundaries were which I appreciated.

He said he was also willing to let me wait a bit longer, especially given my family history, and also consider induction (by prostaglandin gel) if I didn’t go into labour by a certain date. He advised me to cancel my other appointments and my elective caesarian (yay) and instead made some new appointments to discuss options further and keep an eye on spudlet’s health via further CTGs.

So this is where things stand at the moment. I never thought I’d be this happy to have a private obstetrician! I’ll still be delivering at KEMH and hopefully have followup care from the community midwifery program.  There’s still also a good chance I’ll end up needing to have a caesarian. I feel better about that though if I’ve at least had a chance to go into labour. By this time next week, we should hopefully have a spudlet in the outside world. That still feels surreal.

Physcially I’m doing ok. I get tired very quickly and can’t do as much as I’d like but I still go out somewhere most days. It’s good to have both mum and Craig around to help look after me and provide moral support. We’re looking forward to meeting the spud and bringing him home. The birth is going to be an adventure one way or the other but I’m trying not to focus on it too much beforehand. Here’s hoping it goes (relatively) smoothly from this point onwards!

Turn Around

I’m currently 38 weeks pregnant and physically feeling pretty good. The main issue at the moment is that spudlet is still breech.

What this means is that his head is up the top of my uterus, when it should be at the bottom by now so that he can be born head first. He seems to be wilful already and has refused all efforts to turn him thus far. These have included:

• Inversion (kneeling with head down, bum up)
• Breech tilt (lying upside down dangling off the couch)
• Somersaults in a swimming pool
• Putting an ice pack at the top of my uterus and a heatpack at the base
• Talking to him, singing to him and poking him
• Chiro (Webster technique)
• External Cephalic version (having a obstetrician try to physically turn him from the outside at a hospital) x 2

I haven’t tried acupuncture/moxibustion because that strains my credulity a little too far.

Having the ECV done is pretty uncomfortable. I have some impressive bruises to show for it and I don’t bruise easily. Both times, the obs couldn’t find any obvious reason why he wouldn’t turn. Spudlet is a normal size, has plenty of surrounding fluid and my uterus seems to be a normal shape. The obs could turn him 90 degrees but no further and he soon shifted back.

After the first ECV, spudlet was observed with the cord between his legs, clamping down on it. The second time, he visibly had it in his hand and was squeezing it as if to say “leave me alone”! Cheeky baby! Note that there’s been no sign of cord entanglement. The obs was clear that he didn’t have any cord around his neck.

The breech issue has been quite stressful, especially combined with the CMP issues that I wrote about last time. Some of the advice we’ve been given by obstetricians indicates that a caesarian section would be the best idea in this situation, especially as it’s my first baby.

Being the stubborn opinionated people we are, Craig and I decided to look into this a bit more. I started reading guidelines, journal articles and websites (see below) and collecting the opinions of midwives. I was pointed towards the AU/NZ breech birth group on Facebook who turned out to be a wonderfully supportive community. I got a bunch of information, suggestions and personal anecdotes and was also pointed towards more of the literature by them.

As a result of this, when I went in for my second ECV, I was feeling considerably more confident and able to discuss my concerns with the consultant obstetrician in a lot more detail. It really helped, he listened to me, respected what I had to say and was pretty honest about what (and where) my options were.

I now have a referral to KEMH to discuss options around vaginal breech birth (VBB). Armadale hospital where I had my ECVs done were hesitant to accept me for a VBB as they don’t have surgical teams in place at night for emergency caesareans. KEMH have more expertise with VBB and complex births in general, so hopefully I’ll get a better outcome.

We are aware that there are risks associated with a VBB and that there’s a good likelihood that I’ll end up needing a caesarean section anyhow. There are also considerable benefits to letting spudlet arrive when he’s ready and experiencing labour for both of us. If I can have a natural birth, that will also be greatly preferable in terms of recovery time, bonding and options for a future pregnancy.

Our appointment with KEMH to discuss options is tomorrow morning. I hope we meet their criteria for VBB (I believe we should based on their guidelines). Then we will wait to see what happens. One way or another, we should be meeting spudlet in a week or two!

 

If you are interested in learning more about breech birth, here are some of the resources I used.

Useful Groups/Websites:

Breech Birth Australia and New Zealand Facebook Group (this was invaluable to me – closed group, ask for an invite)

Breech Birth AU/NZ

Spinning Babies

Breech Birth Guidelines:

Royal AU and NZ college of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists – Management of Breech Presentation at Term

King Edward Hospital (WA) – Breech Presentation Guidelines and Breech Presentation Planned Vaginal Birth

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (UK) – Breech Presentation Management (interesting to compare with the AU/NZ one)

Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada – Vaginal Delivery of Breech Presentation

American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists – Committee Opinion Mode of Singleton Breech Delivery

Journal Articles (you’ll need access via an academic library with the appropriate subscriptions for most):

Term Breech Trial (2000) (there are also lots of follow up studies and commentary papers on this trial)

PREMODA (2006) also a followup analysis

Vistad (2013)

Borbolla (2014) – Australian study

Bergenhenegouwen (2014) – Review of literature for preterm breech delivery

Ode to the Craig

I haven’t said much on here about my partner, Craig.

He’s definitely worth mentioning as he is wonderful. Having his love and support has made this pregnancy infinitely easier than it otherwise might have been.

Craig and I have been together for over five years. He was always interested in having children, but the actual going through with it took him a while to come to terms with. I was mostly happy to wait because it’s not something I wanted him to be uncertain about or regret.

Those who know us, generally know what a darling Craig is. He’s intelligent, thoughtful, cuddly and very sweet. He’s a great cook and does a lot of the housework. He’s adorably geeky but also has a deep and hard won emotional intelligence that I value more than I can express.

The pregnancy hasn’t been overly easy on either of us. I think it took him longer to come to terms with and to understand some of the limitations it’s put on me. However he has been so helpful and supportive, cooking healthy tasty meals, encouraging me to exercise, giving me massages and generally looking after me. He’s also been taking responsibility for looking after his own issues which I really appreciate at the moment.

Now as we approach our first meeting with spudlet, I believe he’s really looking forward to it. He loves to feel him move and talks to him sometimes. He’s been extra sweet and cuddly lately and likes to talk about the things he will show spudlet as he gets older (mostly bush walking and outdoor stuff). I’m certain that Craig is going to be a great father and I can’t wait to see him cuddling our baby. I know it will melt my heart like nothing else.

When things aren’t going well and I’m feeling down, it helps to think about how lucky I am to have Craig in my life. His support and cuddles make bad days easier and good days really wonderful. I left having children until later in life because I wanted to make sure I was having them with the right person. I’m very confident that this is the case and so thankful that I moved to Perth and found him.

Spanner in the Works

I’ve just started maternity leave. I’ve been planning to update this blog for a while, but work has been consuming so much of my brain and time and baby stuff the rest that it’s been squeezed out.

But today when I was just starting to adjust to the new normal, I got an unpleasant surprise. The official email states:

Dear CMP Client

Due to unforeseen staffing circumstances, the Community Midwifery Program regrets that if you are planning a hospital birth (Domino), or if you are planning a homebirth and are required to transfer into hospital during your labour, your Community Midwife will be unable to remain with you and will hand over your care to the hospital staff.  When you are discharged from hospital, your Community Midwife will continue your care at home.

This arrangement will continue until further notice.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss this further please contact <name and number redacted>

Yours faithfully

Community Midwifery Program

I also got an email from my midwife who I subsequently phoned about it. I’ve been planning a Domino birth (as suggested by my midwife incidentally) and one of the main reasons I chose the CMP was because of the continuity of care. I’m very keen to be able to birth with someone I know, and this pretty much negates that. Coming a month out from my due date, it’s a big unpleasant shock.

I haven’t had a chance to meet the midwifery teams at the hospital I’m planning to attend (why would I when I have a midwife?) and my experiences with the obstetricians have left me less than impressed. They have been for the most part impersonal, uninterested and poor on the details. The last one didn’t even take my blood pressure and tested my protein levels only when I asked about it.

My biggest fear comes down to the BMI issue. I’ve been eating fairly normally throughout my pregnancy and putting on more weight in my third trimester (most of which is going to the baby who is now ~3kg). Despite being otherwise healthy, I’m getting close to those scary cutoffs and that’s when I weigh myself at home first thing in the morning. The scales at the hospital are less discriminating, especially later in the day and wearing clothes. I’m really afraid that I’m going to be packed off to King Edward hospital for delivery sans midwife and lose any autonomy over my birth because I happen to be a kilo over the cutoff if they insist on weighing me.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the backup CMP midwife and then another appointment at the hospital. I’m going to discuss my concerns with the midwife (especially in light of my anxiety issues around the BMI issue) and see if there’s anything they can do. I understand that they’ve had staff leave, but I’d like to hope they feel some sense of responsibility for people who are already in the system. At the hospital, I plan to decline to be weighed. I’m mostly going in to find out if spudlet is still breech and to get an anti-D injection so I’m hoping they don’t push the issue.

If we aren’t happy after the conversation with the midwife, I might contact the CMP manager and discuss it with her. I’m half tempted to see if I can switch to a homebirth even though it wouldn’t be my first choice as I’d feel safer with that than at KEMH. It’s distressing to have to consider these sorts of things when I thought it was all sorted. In the meantime, I’ll be eating salad so I can try to fit within the stupid BMI restrictions. I can’t help feeling sad and angry that the system is letting me down like this.

Pregnancy update

I haven’t been blogging much lately for a number of reasons. The main one is that mentally and emotionally my pregnancy has been somewhat difficult. There is a lot I want to say about this, but finding the time and headspace to write about it has been eluding me. I still hope to get there so stay tuned.

I’ve also been busy trying to balance full time work, getting everything ready for spudlet and managing my increasingly slow and ungainly body.

Today I’m 30 weeks pregnant so I’m well into my third trimester. Spudlet is very active, enough so that I’ve asked a few midwives if there’s such a thing as too much movement (apparently not). I’m also now having trouble sleeping because my hips are getting very painful at night in addition to all the kicking.

On the organisation front, I think we’re doing pretty well. The nursery is mostly set up and I’m very pleased with it. We have a cot and many of the sundries we will need. We’re still working on a name but we’re making progress there too.

I’m really hanging out for the weather to cool down. I’m still trying to walk as much as possible, but when the weather is in the mid to high 30s, that becomes really unpleasant. I’ve finally found a maternity swimming costume, so I’m looking to do more swimming in the coming months.

We are most of the way through our preparation for childbirth classes. While I still feel that there’s a lot I don’t know I at least feel more confident with the labour process and how to fold a nappy. It’s feeling increasingly like a waiting game, but I still have an awful lot to do at work before I start my maternity leave in six weeks time.

Too fat to give birth here

I’ve been sitting on this post for a fair while now to give myself time to settle down. I think it represents the most stressful thing in my pregnancy so far even including the high risk result. It still upsets and angers me a great deal to think about. When I found out I was pregnant, even before we got back from holiday, I started researching birthing options. The Department of Health site on this topic came up very quickly. After a bit of reading, the KEMH Family Birth Centre started looking like a really good option. It’s a midwife led centre which provides a comfortable and low intervention place to give birth but is also right beside the best maternity hospital in WA. When we got back and started planning visits to check out some options, it was at the top of my list.

It wasn’t until just before we went on a tour that I found out about their body mass index (BMI) limit. We did the tour anyway, it was an amazing place with lovely suites and a huge bath you can give birth in. It looked practically perfect from our point of view. We hung around afterwards to talk to the midwife and ask about the limit. Sure enough, she confirmed that the centre doesn’t take women with a BMI over 35. Furthermore, if their BMI goes over that limit at any point during their pregnancy , they will be bounced from giving birth there! At this point in my pregnancy I was about 12 weeks along and hadn’t gained any significant weight (+/- 1kg). I was just under the 35 cutoff. She told me that if I wanted to give birth at the KEMH birth centre I would need to not put on any weight during my pregnancy. She thought this was doable despite it being essentially a pretty steep weight loss diet.

At birth, the combined weight of the baby, placenta, amniotic fluid, extra maternal blood, breast tissue and other fluids is somewhere around 14kg. This is the amount of weight I would have to not gain while still getting enough nourishment to keep me and the fetus healthy. It didn’t sound feasible to me and I was concerned about the effect of watching my weight so strictly on my anxiety which was already beginning to get knocked around by the stresses of pregnancy.

So after quite a bit of anger and tears and consulting with my doctor, I decided to explore the option of the Community Midwifery Program (CMP). We decided after some more research and consultation to sign up with the program and give birth at Armadale Hospital via the Domino program. This means that our midwife will accompany us to Armadale hospital and provide continuity of care throughout and after the pregnancy. Ironically, despite being effectively turned away from the KEMH birth centre, I am eligible for a home birth if I want one because the BMI cutoff for the CMP is a measure of maternal weight prior to pregnancy.

The BMI issue has raised its head a few times since then. At one point, my midwife advised me that I was over the cutoff to have a water birth. This surprised Craig and I since we’d looked up the relevant policies (or thought we had) and it didn’t look like it would be a problem. I’m keen to have the option of a water birth and Armadale hospital has inflatable pools available for this purpose. That caused another emotional scene over stupid bureaucracy. We asked our midwife to double check the policy and fortunately it turned out she’d been looking at one which had been superseded and I can have a water birth if I want to.

I’m still extremely angry about BMI being used as a sole method of weight based risk stratification in pregnancy. I’m not going to go into the science of BMI here because there’s lots of information about it all over the internet (see here, here, here and here for some examples with varying degree of scientific rigour and readability). BMI can be a useful tool when used across populations, and a lot of dieticians and clinicians like it because it’s easy to calculate. When applied to individuals however, it can be extremely misleading. When using it as the basis of risk stratification (e.g. among pregnant women), it may fail to consider that some women are overweight and obese as a result of being unwell. This can skew both statistics and clinical experience of obesity.

I am obese according to medical definitions. I am also relatively healthy. My blood pressure and blood sugar are low, I’m reasonably fit (I walk an average of ~5km/day even in my 6th month of pregnancy). All of the risks that are supposed to be attendant on obese pregnant women have failed to materialise for me. I don’t have prenatal diabetes, it seems very unlikely that I will develop pre-eclampsia going by my blood pressure results. Also, my ultrasounds have shown spudlet to be in the 52nd percentile of growth for his gestational age meaning he’s bang on normal size. I see my pregnancy as low risk and don’t think my BMI changes that.

So why is BMI used in pregnancy? Especially when you’d be expecting women to gain weight as part of a normal pregnancy? It appears to be part of the increasing medicalisation of pregnancy which is predominantly coming from, surprise surprise, the United States (where medical care is big business). Caesarian section rates in the US and Australia have exceeded 30% of live births as more people see doctors for the birth of their children. Doctors/obstetricians view patients through the lens of pathology. Pregnancy and childbirth isn’t a disease, it’s a normal human process which like many processes can vary from person to person. Doctors however are trained to look for and treat anomalies. This can lead to a pathway of increasing intervention which more often than not results in a C section.

Don’t get me wrong, if anything goes awry with my pregnancy I intend to seek medical attention (and have done so to date). If something goes wrong during the birthing process, I’m not going to eschew medical treatment (including a caesarian if it comes to that). However I prefer not to borrow trouble. It concerns me sometimes that I’m being sent for so many extra tests based on my BMI (when by other measures I’m healthy) and I’m mindful that I don’t want any of this to snowball into unnecessary intervention just because a doctor who doesn’t know me or my medical history just wants to be extra careful.

I’m a person, not a number. I’m not stupid and I am capable of making decisions about my own health and that of spudlet. I am very glad that modern medicine exists, but I strongly prefer that medical decisions be made based on up to date evidence based research rather than out of date practices with little to no science to back them up. This is why I am, and will continue to be critical of the BMI as a individual measure of wellness.

Baby Knits

I’ve been knitting up a storm in preparation for spudlet’s arrival. I’m an avid knitter, something I’ve been honing my skills at for the past six years and little baby clothes are cute and satisfying to make. I spent quite a bit of time knitting things while I was staying with my parents over Christmas and still manage to get quite a bit done despite working full time. I also spin my own yarn, so some of spudlet’s new wardrobe is made from my handspun. I’m aiming for him to be the best dressed baby in Perth, come this winter. 😀

So here, without further ado are most of my completed baby knits. I have linked them to their project pages in Ravelry:

 

This is a teeny tiny Tri-Peak hat. It’s an ingenious pattern with a really clever bind off to form the three peaks. I knitted it from some lovely German yarn I picked up in Sydney.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a little sleep sack knitted from a very soft yarn (which was a bit of a pain to knit with to be honest).

I’m concerned it might be a little small for spudlet but I can always use it for a heat pack cozy or something. It has a button band at the bottom to make nappy changes easier.

 

This is a cardigan called Purperium. I’ve knitted this in a bigger size than most of my knits so it might not fit spudlet until he’s 1 or so. It buttons down the side for something a bit different.

 

 

This is one of my favourite things so far. It’s a teeny tiny pair of overalls and matching hat knitted from some of my handspun yarn. Despite the fact that this pattern is worked from the bottom up (which is just weird), I really enjoyed making them and I’m happy with how they’ve come out. I added an extra pair of buttons so it will hopefully fit a bit longer. The hat is adorable, I might well make another in this pattern.

 

 

 

 

This little cardigan was the first thing I knitted for spudlet. The yoke and bands are worked from a small skein of lovely silky handspun. The body of the cardigan is a really soft cashmere blend yarn that I had leftover from a cardigan I made for myself a few years ago.

 

 

This soaker (nappy cover) is made from some very soft malabrigo yarn. The ladybird buttons are so adorable! This wasn’t the greatest pattern of all time, but it should be useable.

 

 

 

 

I call this the Goth Romper. It’s a cute little playsuit with buttons at the top and also at the crotch to assist with nappies. When following the pattern, it came out overly long. I managed to pick up stitches in the middle, unravel a few inches and kitchener stitch it back together. I’m quite proud of that. 😀

 

 

 

 

 

This gorgeous fish hat was made for spudlet by the very sweet and extremely talented Julie. She’s really great at these fish hats in particular and this one is knitted from her handspun. It’s so delightfully soft, I’m sure it’s going to be adorable on spudlet.

Despite being a knitter, I love knitted and other handmade gifts! I know how much time and effort goes into them and I really really appreciate it. Thanks Julie! 😀

 

 

I’m not going to stop here with the knitting. I’ve also finished but not photographed a Turtle Butt soaker and I’m currently working on a Tiling Fish blanket and a Pepita body suit. I also have a Pinterest board of baby knits that I hope (rather optimistically) to make my way through. It’s a labour of love for me. I enjoy the process and I look forward to dressing up spudlet in my creations.

Dad’s first kick

Craig felt spudlet kick for the first time last night. He’s tried to feel it a few times before but spudlet is notably bad for kicking on cue.

Yesterday I was at the dentist and spudlet was kicking harder than I’ve felt before. I’m not sure if he was reacting to the sound or vibration of the cleaning tool or something else. My lovely dentist said he was just saying hello. 😀

Funnily enough when Craig finally felt a kick, I think he was expecting a gentle flutter. Instead spudlet let fly a hefty thump to the vicinity of Craig’s hand. Craig’s response “whoa!” and he felt a few more after that too. Nice for him, but I was very tired and in need of sleep. It felt like spudlet was having a dance party in there which made it harder to relax.

Mostly it’s reassuring to feel spudlet moving but sometimes it startles me and sometimes it’s a bit painful, especially when he kicks low down. It feels particularly weird when he rolls. I’m sure that will get more uncomfortable as he gets bigger. I’ve started singing to him to soothe him and this is something I plan to do more of. He’s big enough now to be able to hear sounds so I’m hoping that by singing and humming to him now, I’ll be able to use the same methods to soothe him after he arrives in the outside world.

Angry Pregnant Lady

I know it’s a stereotype, but it’s one that fits pretty well at times. Pregnancy hormones definitely make my temper quicker to flare up. Indeed, some of my team at work suspected I was pregnant before I told them, because I’d been grumpier than usual.

Today I’m especially grumpy. I’m feeling very tired and emotional, there’s no particular reason. I didn’t get as much sleep as I could have last night and I had weird dreams. Also, we’re out of coffee beans which is sub-optimal. But I’m definitely more snappy than normal. What’s just as strange is that I’m aware I’m doing it, but not always motivated to do much about it. Probably due to the tiredness.

I get especially steamed by healthy looking young men taking the priority seats on the train and then ignoring heavily pregnant women and old people standing nearby. That shit is just not cool. Also by incompetence which is a pretty big trigger for me anyway.

Some strategies I use when I try to mitigate the grumps include:

• having something to eat; low blood sugar can help set me off
• get up and walk around, walk away from the thing that’s making me angry if possible
• put on headphones and listen to (calm) music
• find something I enjoy to think about briefly (e.g. what to knit next for spudlet)
• if I’m at home I’ll often read a book to help soothe myself. This has always been one of my primary self soothing tactics
• Relax spray from Perfect Potion. Aromatherapy FTW. Come to think of it, I should bring a bottle in to work

If you have any other suggestions for soothing the savage beast, I’d love to hear them. Yes mum, I know you like meditation. 😛