I selected the Maternity Group Practice model of care for my pregnancy and was lucky to be allocated Bec as my midwife and I saw her for the majority of my check ups. The main thing I wanted to ensure second time around was that I could have skin to skin contact with our baby as soon as possible after the birth. I tested this aspect of our birth plan with Bec and with a couple of the other midwifes who I saw when Bec was off duty/on leave. Their responses were consistent
"The theatre is too cold, we'll need to clean and wrap the baby so it is warm enough"
"You will be wearing a gown and we won't be able to expose your skin"Then my partner and I did a birth debrief/preparation with Rhea Dempsey at Fertile Ground who explained that family centred cesareans were becoming more common but that other hospitals were ahead of the Mercy in terms of their practices. She said it would take a strong woman to demand the birth experience we were after. We asked Bec what we needed to do to get the outcome we wanted. Did we need to speak directly to the surgeon or anaesthetist? Bec told us that closer to the date she'd find out who would be operating and check the plan with them.
At my second last check up I gave Bec a copy of the revised birth plan and said the baby could be kept warm with a blanket, dried while on me if necessary and any immediate checks of the baby could be done while on my chest. Bec would brief the theatre team and everything was set.
Then the Monday before my scheduled surgery (Friday) I was called by the day surgery office to say they had to move my cesarean a day earlier due to no surgeons being available. This meant it would be a different theatre team, not the one that Bec was used to working with and I was immediately nervous that it would jeopardise the birth plan. I felt more positve once Bec had spoken to the theatre midwife who said it should all be fine.
On the day I was reassured when I met the theatre midwife, surgeon, anaesthetist and other theatre staff and they all seemed familiar with our plan. My left arm was left out of the hospital gown for easy access. I was very nervous about the spinal block anaesthetic and when I was seated on a hospital bed in the middle of the large operating theatre with strangers all around poking and pulling I cried. It reminded me of last time when things had taken an unexpected turn and the interventions began. My partner wasn't allowed to be present while the anaesthetic was administered and so Bec held my hand. It was comforting to have her there amongst all the strangers.
I won't know whether our baby was 'walked' out of my tummy in a slow careful manner as included in our birth plan but what happened after that was perfect. Once the cord was cut, our baby was passed over the curtain so we could see the sex and then placed straight onto my chest. He was covered in lots of sticky vernix, the staff put blankets over him and left us to enjoy the moment which we did absolutely.
When I told the maternal child health nurse about the birth experience she thought it was wonderful.
"There is no better place for the baby in an operating theatre" she said.Our son went with my partner to be cleaned, weighed and measured while I was transferred to recovery. As part of the Maternity Group Practice model my midwife Bec would be with us in recovery and see us up to the ward. This meant that our son was able to stay with me in recovery and we did more skin on skin and began breastfeeding.
I am so grateful for the care I received at the Mercy and in particular to Bec who voiced our wishes and made them a reality. Thanks also to midwife Andrea who suggested the debrief with Rhea and to Rhea for sharing her knowledge and for inspiring me to insist on skin to skin in the operating theatre.
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