THE FLEURY BIRTH STORY
September 7, 2008
Theoren and I found out we were pregnant in January 2008. We were very surprised because I was on the pill. They say 1 in 20 women get pregnant on the pill …. I guess I was one of them.
This was my first pregnancy so I wanted it to be perfect. We started out by going to our family physician who did not deliver babies. We were referred to a doctor that did.
I remember being so excited to go to our first appointment. But to our dismay the doctor scared the excitement right out of us. With suggestions of tests to see if the baby had down syndrome and tests for everything else. I was 31 and very healthy I was disheartened that they would suggest that there could possibly be a problem. And even if I did have the tests it was not going to be 100% . I didn’t want to be put in the position to have to make a tough ethical decision and so this is basically where our journey for alternative care came to light.
I called around to find a midwife and with my luck we found the best!!! Joy Eklund from Cochrane Community Midwives. This was the best thing that could have happened. Joy has been a nurse for over 30 years and has delivered hundreds of babies. The love and encouragement that these women gave to us, calmed any concerns and made the rest of my pregnancy a breeze.
Joy suggested that we take a pre-natal class from Rhonda Gordon at Healthy Birth Choices. This was a huge part of us having a healthy baby. Rhonda provided us with knowledge regarding how to prepare ourselves for that special day. The information we collected in class was invaluable and helped us make the right decisions at the most crucial time in our pregnancy.
Now our plan was we were going to have our baby in our bathtub, drug free. Well, as life goes, it didn’t quite turn out that way.
Thursday
My water broke on a Thursday at work, 37 weeks into my pregnancy. Theoren was golfing in a tournament. I had no pain…nothing, and I began thinking “WOW, is this it?” I called Joy and she said not to worry and continue laboring as we were. So that is exactly what we did.
Friday
Friday rolled along and everything stalled…. not even a single contraction. Baby was still as active as ever kicking away. We met Joy at the foothills hospital where she did the normal tests; checked baby’s heart rate, my blood pressure, and even did a sweep of my cervix…..Still nothing!
Saturday
The weekend brought nothing, but just a little pulse here and there. So Theoren and I met Joy back at the hospital and did the same thing; checked baby, checked mommy, did another sweep of the cervix. Saturday night rolled around and all of a sudden our baby moved and the rest of the amniotic fluid came out. I soon realized labour was “on”. The problem was that I would not dilate past 2 .5 centimeters. Joy came to the house and evaluated us. I was not doing well and my contractions were 2 minutes apart. Baby’s heart rate began to climb, and so with that, the birth plan went out the window and we headed to the foothills hospital in the middle of the night.
Now at this moment I was in pain and vomiting. A sense of worry for our baby poured over us and it was difficult to think straight.
We arrived safely at the hospital with a bag packed (thanks to Rhonda telling us to be prepared) on Theoren’s arm and me hanging off the other one. We were rushed right into our Midwife’s room. Thank goodness there was no waiting in triage with all the other women in labor.
A young Doctor walked in and almost instantly brought up “C-section”. Theoren and I looked at each other and he knew what I was thinking. Theoren began to kindly advocate and asked for a second opinion. We would never do anything to jeopardize the health of our baby, as this doctor suggested. We just wanted another doctor’s opinion. We valued having some control of the situation!!
Shortly after, in walked Dr.Brain. She said that they needed to do one test to check for infection (since my water had been broken for 2 days). We were happy to oblige and thankfully, I was infection-free. So we were able to proceed to the next step. They induced me, put a tube inside to fill my uterus with saline to refloat baby, put an internal monitor on baby’s head, providing a clear reading of baby’s heart rate. Now remember…. I was supposed to have our baby in the bathtub, no drugs! Here I suddenly was in the hospital, with an epidural and tubes coming out of everywhere. Interestingly, I was ok with all of it knowing I was about to meet my healthy baby. Although, this was not the plan, we felt prepared as we could have been, thanks to Rhonda and her prenatal class.
With my mom, Theoren and the Doctors at my side, our Midwife Joy caught our 6lb 7oz healthy baby girl at 10:47am on September 07, 2008. SKYLAH MARY ANNE FLEURY; the best thing that has ever happened to us!!!!
THE END
