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Toby’s Birth at Elizabeth R
By Nicola Jones

Finding out I was pregnant was the most beautiful moment of my life. The sort when time seems to sit still for a moment, just for you. People say that sometimes you have an inkling that you are pregnant, before you even get it confirmed by a missed period, and I certainly felt that way. Our good news wasn’t without a tinge of anxiety though: we had suffered a miscarriage four months before and a part of me thought, “Please don’t let that happen again”.

The first 14 weeks of my pregnancy saw me visiting the bathroom most mornings, with morning sickness. I tried every old wives tale under the sun, to help the nausea and vomiting, but not much helped until the 14th week ticked over and then it was truly like a switch being turned off! I just felt great, the healthiest I had ever felt in my life, and getting through to that magic third month also eased the anxiety of miscarriage.

I just adored being pregnant and experiencing the growth and development of our special little person in my tummy. The 10 months that it takes to create a human being is nothing short of a miracle, and Scott and I just marvelled at what was taking place before our eyes. I think that time of waiting, growing and preparing yourself for the birth is an important part of making that leap into parenthood. But by the time we had reached 38 weeks we were definitely impatient and very excited to be meeting our baby soon. We were ready! This impatience was increased by the fact that every night for about a week before Toby was born I would have about four practice contractions, during our nightly walk up the road, and then stop!

Like many first time Mums before me, I began to stay pretty close to home, the prospect of going into labour in the supermarket or while walking down Devon Street did not appeal! But anyway, by the time my due date rolled around I was so bored of cleaning and cooking and waiting that I threw caution to the wind and went to New Plymouth for the day to do some Christmas shopping. I had a great day waddling around and made note of the fact that this would probably be the last time I would go shopping with just myself to worry about - next time there would be a capsule, buggy and, of course, a baby to organise too!

I went off to bed that night feeling very calm and serene…as well as a little tired from my day out!

It was midnight that night that I went into labour. I woke up from a huge cramp that saw me sit bolt upright in bed. I still tease Scott about his initial lack of reaction: for the weeks leading up to our birth I only had to roll over, or cough, and he would be hovering over me checking if everything was o.k. and ‘was this it?’, but not this time! I went to the toilet and discovered a bloody show and leaky waters, went back to the bedroom and then had to shake him to tell him the news!

My midwife Mary had said to me that in the initial stages of labour I should try to go back to bed and sleep if I could - but I couldn’t.  I was so excited and the contractions were 10 minutes apart from the word go. So, I would just get snuggled down and then have to get up and walk about! I still had a few last minute items to pack into the famous labour bag (the one that sat in the corner looking pretty and not much else during the labour), so I pottered doing that while Scott jumped in the shower.

At 1am I rang Mary to tell her that we were all go and we arranged to meet down at Elizabeth R maternity in Stratford, in the next half hour. Hearing Mary’s calm voice, that sounded no different than any other time we spoke, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night and I had just woken her up, was wonderful and very reassuring. I remember having little nervous butterflies and feeling so excited that we were going to meet our baby soon!   

By the time we got into the car my contractions were five minutes apart. I remember looking at the clock each time, 1:30am, 1:35am, 1:40am, 1:45am! To the minute - I couldn’t believe it. I think I told Scott to slow down several times and he later told me that he was only going 50km! But any little bump (there are always plenty of those on country roads) seemed to magnify the contractions.

The lights in the window of Elizabeth R were a welcome sight, and we managed to get out of the car and into the delivery room before the next contraction came. Mary put the monitor on, the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart at this stage and my waters were gushing with each one.

I remembered my Mother’s words at this point: “Hang your pride at the door when you go into delivery dear, and pick it up on the way out”. Very true, I thought, as I gazed down at my wet track pants and my special little waterproof sheet as I waddled into the lounge to watch the netball. There was really no point in getting all embarrassed, my body had begun its journey towards birthing our baby and I was more than prepared to follow its lead.

New Zealand creamed the Aussies at netball, and it was on that note that I decided to jump in the spa bath at about 3am. Everything had slowed down a bit, but when the contractions did come they had a bit of a sting in them, so the bath was a welcome distraction. Oh, that lovely warm water and feeling of weightlessness was fantastic. Moving into comfortable positions was a breeze and the rescue remedy was brilliant. Time seemed to have no meaning once I got in the bath; I just worked from contraction to contraction. It took all my concentration to focus on my breathing and then relaxing in between. The time and how long things were taking was really irrelevant to me at that point.

Looking back at the birth I know when I reached transition, because I told Mary and Scott that I didn’t think I could do it! They had told us about this stage in antenatal class, so Scott gave the standard “yes you can” line and onward we went. It was 5am and I was ready to push - yep, this was the pain that I had imagined. I tried to push in the bath for the next hour but it was ineffective, so I eventually got out and had a whopper of a contraction and big push on the step of the bath!

Up onto the bed I got and by 6:30am the baby’s head had crowned. I seemed to enter sort of an auto pilot mode at this stage and just went with what my body was telling me to do. Once the baby’s head was out the job was basically done and out slithered the body, so by 6:50am we were the proud parents of a healthy baby boy.

Toby Scott Jones was born on the 17th of November 2004, weighing 7lbs 15ozs. A loud cry erupted from his small body, which was the best sound ever! Scott cut the cord and our wet brand new bundle was laid on my tummy - lots of hugs and kisses with Scott and our wonderful midwife Mary. We had done it!

That instant after our baby was born was such a moment of relief, a sense of being utterly overwhelmed, of happiness, exhaustion and pride, that can’t properly be justified by words. I was so pleased that the labour was over and to hold Toby for the first time was wonderful and felt so right. I felt like I had arrived in a place that was perfect for me to be and inside me, deep down inside my heart, began the stirrings of mother’s love.

I was so proud and satisfied that I had delivered our baby with no pain relief. For me, it was a team effort of my mother, a supportive husband, and a midwife I trusted completely. We were both so thankful that we had been blessed with a straightforward and normal delivery and, above all, a healthy baby. It had taken nowhere near as long as I had thought (7 hours from start to baby) and, apart from a few stitches, I felt fantastic. What a wonderful first experience with natural birth!

Nicola and Scott have been in Taranaki for the last eight years, and they live in Kaimata which is just out of Inglewood.  In her past life before motherhood, Nicola was a primary school teacher. She is now studying extramurally to be a homeopath. Scott is a diesel mechanic in Inglewood, and a superb hands-on Dad.

Natural Birth of Twins
Wendy’s Story (written by Belinda Tran-Lawrence)

Most of us tend to look on birthing one child as something of a challenge – how about two?! This is Wendy’s story about the experience of birthing twins, and is a lesson to all of us that a multiple birth need not be any harder than one!

The beginning

Wendy herself is adopted, and this led to a great desire to have her own child in the usual way. However, after eight years of trying in the old-fashioned way (and some not so old fashioned methods), with much regret and disappointment, Wendy and her husband finally turned to the IVF program to help them conceive their wanted child. Wendy had never liked medical technology, so was very disappointed when she discovered that they were unable to get pregnant naturally.

Finally, after an exhaustive process, three viable eggs were implanted and, although the medical prognosis was not encouraging, Wendy and her husband went to the first scheduled scan positive that there would be twins.  And, much to the surprise of the fertility specialist, indeed there were. In his words - “Oh my god – there’s another!”

“Ha, ha we were right!” Wendy and her husband were thrilled, although they were warned not to get too excited, as it is apparently common to lose a twin without even knowing that you had a multiple pregnancy to begin with.

The pregnancy

The experience of having undergone infertility treatment, while resulting in the longed for pregnancy, had involved a lot of medical invasion and so had, in turn, led to a desire for an ‘as natural as possible’ pregnancy and birth. 

Wendy was determined to enjoy her pregnancy as much as possible since she knew that this would be the only one she would ever have. A normal pregnancy did follow, with an emphasis on eating well, exercising heaps, and resisting all suggestions that she had a high risk pregnancy just because she was having twins. Wendy did not experience any morning sickness, which is unusual for someone who is carrying twins.

It certainly helped that Wendy was very fit when she conceived, since an applicant’s BMI (Body Mass Index) has to be within a certain range to get on the hospital list for the IVF programme. Through concentrated exercising and diet, she had gone from 121kg to 89kg prior to being accepted onto the programme.

Wendy decided to follow a two-step program during her pregnancy:
Step 1 – refuse to read anything on labour. Then you won’t get scared by the ‘what ifs’!
Step 2 – keep fitness up by aquaerobics, walking and stretching exercises.

Some spotting occurred at 10 weeks and this was rather frightening – but Wendy just went straight to bed and concentrated on positive affirmations, which seemed to do the trick.

During the first half of the pregnancy, the couple were living in Auckland, so they attended multiple birth ante-natal classes there. These were very helpful and, even though they were very focused on intervention-type birth, the emphasis was on having the confidence to speak up and go with your gut instinct. Wendy felt that it was good to have all of the information on the possible medical intervention aspects of a multiple birth; however, it only increased her determination to do it the natural way. As part of the ante-natal classes they were taken on a tour of National Women’s Hospital and the multiple birthing suite - Wendy did not feel that this was an environment that she would wish to birth in. It was also stated at the time that the staff at National Women’s prefer to do caesareans for the second twin and for mothers of multiples to have epidurals.

The birth plan

Wendy felt that it was extremely important to write a birth plan – it was three pages long!! The birth plan comprehensively covered how the couple wanted everything done relating to the birth and care of both mother and babies directly after the birth. It dealt with such issues as that Wendy’s husband and sister would both be present, if Wendy had to go to theatre for a caesarean for the 2nd baby her husband would stay with the first baby, in event of neo-natal care at least one parent was to be involved at all times if possible. It also stated that Wendy did not want pain relief but was prepared to consider drugs if necessary.

The birth plan was worded carefully to try and plan for all eventualities while also trying not to alienate the doctor or obstetrician who happened to be on duty. Interestingly enough, when the birth plan was completed Wendy sent a copy of it to the antenatal coordinator in Auckland to get feedback. Her response was that it never would have been accepted in Auckland.

In New Plymouth, however, Wendy was blessed with a very supportive obstetrician (Jeremy Smith) who was happy with the birth plan and very supportive of Wendy’s desire for a low intervention birth. Jeremy never gave the impression that the twins’ birth had to be one of high medical intervention simply because it was a multiple birth.

When Wendy was admitted into Taranaki Base hospital, she was very impressed when it was immediately evident that the hospital staff had indeed read her birth plan.

The labour

Wendy got to her due date (Monday) intact with the attitude of ‘Ha, I did it’. But then she started to worry through a thoughtless comment from another twin mother. She arranged for a foetal assessment on the Friday at which Jeremy informed her that everything was fine. She could choose to go home or to do an induction then.

An immediate induction was decided upon, since Wendy felt that she had already made her point by going to full term and she was concerned about birthing over the weekend. She did not want to have to give birth with another obstetrician who would not be familiar with her or what she wanted. She was happy to accept the prostaglandin gel since it would only work if her body was already ready to begin labour.

3pm: Nothing happening although feeling a bit restless – more gel.

5.30pm: Plug came away on loo. The midwife went to check and Wendy’s waters broke in a big flood.

Throughout the labour, Wendy did not have any pain relief – she says it never got that bad. She hated being on the bed and felt most comfortable sitting on the toilet.

Wendy remembers thinking - “why haven’t they got the Doctor (obstetrician) yet?” Jeremy only came when he was needed, towards the end – he was playing it Wendy’s way!

One of the midwives at the birth had never attended a multiples birth before and Jeremy remarked to her “don’t think they’re all like this”. There were only three staff present at the birth and this is very unusual, as it is common for each twin to have its own neonatal team. During Wendy’s labour the neonatal unit kept ringing to see when they would be needed (assuming that they would be needed). Jeremy told them they weren’t needed and they would be called if necessary.

11.46pm Out came the first baby – a boy, Connal – and he was put straight on Wendy’s chest as per birth plan, with the umbilical cord left intact. 

Wendy: “Don’t tell me I have to do all of that again!” – She didn’t know if she could go through all the pushing a second time!

Obstetrician: “I would like the other one born now”. – He could see that the cord was wrapped around the 2nd baby’s neck but did not want to worry Wendy.

Midwife: “Or the next one could be born tomorrow!”

Wendy: “Stuff that – birthdays on two different days!” A few more pushes and then Azaria made her entrance into the world, seeming to glare around at everyone! 

After Jeremy had breathed into her face briefly she was placed side by side with her brother on Wendy. Connal was already feeding to help with the release of oxytocin, which aids the delivery of the placenta, since Wendy had said that she did not want an oxytocin shot.

Wendy’s husband cut Connal’s cord, and his sister Azaria’s.  The staff then left the family alone as was specified in the plan – there was no need for anyone to hang around.

Breastfeeding

Wendy and the twins stayed in hospital for nearly a week to help get feeding established.  Initially the twins were fed one at a time at first and then graduated to tandem feeding during the day and one at a time at night. Her husband took the big step of staying home for the first few months to help her out and support her in breastfeeding.  One of the hospital midwives, Mary Shepherd, also provided wonderful support – she felt her main job was making mum feel strong and confident and not about telling her what to do.

Wendy had thought that she would breastfeed for 3 months, as it was hard to feed two at once on her own. However, after one year she decided to let the kids decide when they wanted to stop - they ended up continuing feeding for 3 1/2 years!

The first year passed in a bit of a sleep-deprived haze but the twins are now healthy and happy little people. They are very close and although they fight a lot between themselves – woe betide anyone who gets between them!

Wendy’s advice to other mums of multiples:

• Do your own research and don’t automatically accept that you are having a high-risk pregnancy unless you have other risk factors.
• Enjoy your pregnancy because you won’t have any time to enjoy anything after!
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
• You need a strong support network that is willing to help even without being asked.