New Year New Life Part 2
So after the great feedback from part 1 and reflection I am going to continue to write as Me (Bex) rather than in the third person.
So our first meeting with our Supervisor of Midwives (SoM) was highly productive. Home birth has not been ruled out as an option and other options were discussed. Since I laboured my first and second stages with ease, there is no reason for me not to aim for a natural labor for this birth.
Birth Choices open to us for my Wise Hippo Baby Number 2;
- Home water birth in my bath the same way I had my first. (This is what I am visualising daily)
- Water birth on the Midwife Led Unit
- Water birth on the Labour Suite which is Obstetric Consultant led
- Natural Caesarean Section
- Caesarean Section\Hysterectomy – this could be the case if my condition is at its most severe.
As you can see there are so many options open to me to make my birth choices. At present I am remaining positive and focusing on this amazing gift of the chance to have another birth that is right for me and my baby on the day.
I have fully accepted that if history has repeated itself then option 4 would truly be the safest option for me. But until later in this pregnancy that cannot be confirmed or ruled out, so why stress about it! Option 5 will be the safest for me and my baby’s health if the most severe case is confirmed. I am at peace with Option 5 as sometimes you have to go with the medical expertise and be able to get into the correct emotional place to still have an amazing birth experience.
Our baby looking at us.
My 16 week appointment (November) was in the hospital where I was lucky enough to be seen by both an Obstetric doctor who was excited to read my notes and talk to me about my postpartum condition. My trusted Consultant, who supported and trusted my body to correct my condition without needing irreversible surgery, was also there.
My Consultant booked me in for an MRI Scan at 32 weeks. She would then see me back in clinic at 33 weeks to discuss the results. I am otherwise very fit and healthy, with no other reason to see her before then such that the remainder of my appointments would be back with my Community Midwife. She asked me if I had any questions, I didn’t as I had done extensive research and knew I could contact her through her secretary if I needed to see her before 33 weeks.
Both Lee and myself were very happy with the outcome of this meeting. We had both gone into this meeting wearing our ‘Cloak of Protection’ a tool that we had learned in our first pregnancy journey. It is true the more you use your cloak the stronger it becomes. I also listened to my ‘Cove of Confidence’ Mp3 the night before this appointment to help me prepare emotionally for such an important first meeting with our consultant since finding out I was with child again.
It’s at this point it dawned on me that we have had a positive experience or confirmation that this pregnancy is heading on its own path. What this path will be, who knows, but what I do know is that I will have the birth that is right for me and my baby on the day. There is no such thing as the perfect birth, it is all about the mother’s perception of what happens on the day. So with this in mind, I will go with the safest option with all the information that is available to me as life does throw us curve balls and sometimes we need to accept these and take them as the gift they are.
My Anomaly Scan at 21 weeks (December) could not have gone any better. Lee and I dropped our son off at Nan and Grandad’s, had lunch and prepared ourselves for the scan. Every parent goes into this scan with some nerves as every parents wishes for a healthy baby. For me there was the added worry of was my placenta going to look healthy and in a position which would be favorable to avoid my medical condition.
The Sonographer was amazing. So thorough and talked us through every single part of the anatomy that she was checking. We were both amazed by how clear the scan was and the report summary of ultrasound findings was what we had hoped for “No obvious signs of fetal anomaly were observed”. Even more importantly another tick in the ‘home birth can happen’ box as it was also reported that the Placenta is “posterior high, structure normal”. So this gives us hope but as the placenta reported normal last pregnancy and the condition was undiagnosed we are not going to put our eggs all in one basket and will make our final decision when we have all the facts.
21 Weeks Anomaly Scan
In the mean time we are interviewing Doulas to be able to give us extra emotional support and also be there with us on our journey and attend the next meeting at the hospital with the Consultant.
Part 3 to continue the story will be available soon. Thank you for sharing our journey with us.
