MY husband had covid, and I was expecting...
...a call from my birth client Louie any day now for her impending birth. Great timing! *Faceplant*.
I was strategically avoiding my husband but also messaged Louie letting her know the situation and how she wanted me to handle things with Covid in my house, and what the plan was if I got it when she went into labour. Honestly, how much more complicated is life since Covid hit!
I got a message from Louie at 6.35pm on Monday the 5th of February that she was having contractions, and immediately took a covid test - phew negative!! Sooo relieved.
So I got myself prepared and my 3 kids in bed, then got a call around 8pm they were headed to the hospital. Being their second baby I decided to head off at the same time and meet them there as its about a 30 min drive to North Shore hospital for me.
As I'm driving I see a message pop up with 'Birthing soon'!
Uh-oh, I'm still a 10 minute drive away at this point, so foot to the floor it was.
I got there, parked, ran like an idiot round to the after hours entry where you have to navigate through security guards and locked doors etc, and took the lift up to the birthing suite. While the lift was moving I pulled all my camera gear out and got ready hoping and praying I hadn't missed it yet!
I found their room and thankfully there were still only 3 people (Mum, Dad and their Midwife) in the room, not the 4 I was half expecting. Louie was working through contractions with her husband there supporting her. I started snapping away, and was amazed how calm she was... I even thought to myself for a moment ''was she actually close to birthing? Or maybe things have slowed down since she messaged me?''.
But after observing a few minutes I could tell she was in-fact in transition and fully dilated with the urge to push, she was just handling these contractions like a boss!
Louie tried to get comfortable for 'pushing' being on her knees leaning against the back of the bed that was inclined upright. She decided after about 10 minutes that wasn't working for her and then moved on to her back.
She spent about 5 mins in that position when the midwife decided to perform an episiotomy on the next contraction to help move the process along. From my understanding of listening to what she said to Louie, she didn't want Louie in the pushing phase for too long being a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), as they don't want too much pro-longed pressure put on the previous cesarean scar. I hadn't heard of this time period needing to be so short before after seeing lots of natural VBAC's without this step, but the Midwife felt this was right for Louie.
After the episiotomy was performed the head started to emerge very quickly!
As the baby was coming out I was wondering why the baby was looking blurry through my lens, but everything else looked sharp. As I kept snapping away I soon realized it was because the baby was still inside their sac, and there were a few amniotic fluid pockets around the face making it look blurry! Phew! The actual birth moment is the LAST moment you don't want your camera working properly.
Louie mentioned to me when I delivered her Birth Gallery that she didn't realize her baby was born mostly still in his sac (semi en caul), and it was awesome for her to be able to see.
Once baby was fully out the midwife peeled away the sac and placed baby Asher on the very relieved chest of his Mumma.
This moment is always so surreal. A new baby has just been born, there are happy tears, and the world feels like a very joyful and beautiful place. You can feel the room take a sigh of relief. It's amazing to be part of.
Mum got about 20 mins of lovely bonding skin-on-skin time, but as more and more people filled the room to assess her bleeding, baby Asher was handed off to Dad and Louie's best friend while Louie concentrated on getting through the discomfort of having everything checked out.
Baby Asher had his newborn check over and all looked perfect. He was a very content and healthy little baby.
It was about 30 minutes after the Birth that Asher's big brother came in where they got to meet each other for the first time. It was so lovely being able to capture this for them, as there really is nothing more heartwarming than siblings loving on each other.
Unfortunately, Louie was still being attended too and had some complications...
**Please note: The next part of this blog below describes significant blood loss and complications - continue at your own discretion**
The bleeding was not stopping and specialist after specialist came in to assess and see what the issue was.
After having her friends pray over her, Louie was taken into theatre to have everything looked at further internally, as they suspected some placenta may be left inside. Louie ended up losing about 2.2L of blood. That is a significant amount!
Because of this huge loss, during the procedure she went into hemorrhagic shock, which is where your body starts to shut down being in a state of shock from the blood loss.
Louie thanks God for the answered prayers from friends and family, as the doctors were able to stabilize her.
She then had to stay in the hospital for 5 days longer as she developed an infection afterwards, and needed 2 bags of blood transfusions to help her recover. Finally, home time.
After 3 days at home Louie's blood pressure and heart rate were high again so she was re-admitted to hospital where they diagnosed her with postpartum pre-eclampsia. I'm familiar with this diagnosis as I had a milder experience of this myself after my first baby. Before that I didn't even know getting pre-eclampsia after birth was even possible! But yes it is, and poor Louie was dealing with it too.
They trialed her on some hypertension drugs, but as if things weren't hard enough already, she then had an allergic reaction to that drug!
Louie said it felt like her heart was coming out of chest it was racing so fast. Another emergency situation where people rushed in to help, and again, thanks be to God, as they were able to stabilize Louie and get her back home again a few days later.
Checking in with Louie a few weeks later she was doing well, just still dealing with the aftermath of her very intense experience. She was trying hard to keep her milk supply up, as after everything her body went through it significantly impacted her supply. But all in all she was on the mend and happy to be home with her family.
It breaks my heart when stories like this happen, as Birth is such a beautiful and natural process, but it does sometimes have some complications, and some like Louie's can be life threatening.
Not specific to Louie's situation, but I have my own thoughts and opinions as to why we are seeing such a significant rise in these sorts of complications after birth, but this is not the time or place to get into that!
Louie, you are amazing. I was in awe of you as you delivered your baby into the world, and the strength you had getting through likely the hardest thing you will ever go through in your life. Thank you for having me part of your story, and I hope the lovely images we captured still bring you peace and joy as you think back on the birth of your beautiful baby boy.
