Yahoo Lifestyle Real-life birth stories - 'I waited for a cry, but heard nothing'
My husband, Dane, and I were living in Townsville when he lost his job. I was four weeks away from having our first baby. Fortunately he found work straight away – but it was in Darwin, 1400 kilometres away, and required an immediate start. I was booked into our local birth centre and didn’t want to change my care at the last minute, so, after a lot of discussion, we decided that Dane would go to Darwin and I’d stay on in Townsville. His new boss had generously given Dane two weeks’ leave for when the baby was born, so the plan was that he’d come back for the birth and then we would all travel back to Darwin together.
The only problem was deciding when Dane should book a flight to come back to Townsville. He only had two weeks off and we knew it would be nothing short of a miracle if the baby actually arrived on time. The decision was taken out of our hands, though, when my blood pressure skyrocketed five days before my due date I was admitted to hospital and Dane booked the next flight home. I had lots of tests and the baby was closely monitored over the next five days. I lost my spot at the birth centre as they only admit women with problem-free pregnancies.
My due date came and went and so did Dane’s 10 days of leave. I asked to be induced, but it was hospital policy not to if there was no medical reason for it. Luckily Dane’s new boss was happy for him to take as much unpaid leave as he needed.
[practical-parenting/galleries/photo/-/12696784/amazing-birth-stories/12696788/|GALLERY: Amazing birth stories]
Silent fright
Eleven days after my due date, I was finally induced. My midwives started the process at 6pm and a few hours later, I was in labour. But my baby soon started showing signs of distress, so I was prepped for an emergency caesarean. After a flurry of activity I was pain free and lying on an operating table. A screen had been put up in front of me so Dane and I couldn’t see a thing.
After a short while, a nurse let us know our baby was out. I waited for a cry, but heard nothing. An instant later, the nurse ran out of the room holding my baby. It gave me such a fright. I screamed, “Follow that nurse!” at Dane and he took off after her.
It felt like they were gone for an eternity. Another nurse appeared and told me bub had experienced breathing problems, but she was fine. “She”? We had a girl! A little while later, Dane came back in with our beautiful baby in his arms. We called her Keira. She was 4.13kg and 54cm.
Critical care
The next morning, Dane and I were marvelling at our little angel when a nurse came in to check on us. She noticed Keira was breathing rapidly and the next thing I knew, Keira had been whipped out of my arms and rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). She had developed an infection from swallowing meconium.
When we were allowed to see her, she was hooked up to a tube for oxygen, there was another tube to empty her stomach and there were wires attached to her tiny chest to monitor her. A cannula was in her little foot, administering a cocktail of germ-fighting antibiotics. It was a scary sight and the next few days were awful. Keira was so sick.
Meanwhile, the removalists were packing up our house. Dane was running around doing all the things necessary for a big move while being worried sick about our girl. Later on he had to book himself into a motel as we literally had no fixed address. A few days later I was discharged from the maternity ward, but boarded in at the NICU.
Road to recovery
Keira was eventually taken off all the monitors and allowed to stay with me in my room. After five long days, she thankfully passed all of her examinations and was discharged. As we had no house to go home to, we walked out of the hospital doors, got into the car and set off on our trip to Darwin.
When we finally arrived in our new hometown, we had to look for a new house. We stayed with friends for the first nine weeks while we looked around. I was a new mum, in a new town, with no family around me, so there were quite a few teary days!
Keira has been fine since leaving the hospital and is a happy and thriving little girl. It was definitely an experience we won’t forget, but one we don’t ever want to repeat, either.
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