Donna
Mansell’s Birth Story
Oliver
David Mansell was born 11 December, 2007 weighing 3.6 kilograms. He is Donna’s
first child.
Scott, Donna and Oliver at 3 days
For
many years I have helped women throughout their pregnancy and birthing
experiences but when I found out I was pregnant it opened up a whole host of new
feelings. Will I cope with labour? Will my baby be healthy?
Having preached the positives of natural birth and studied to be a
BirthSkills practitioner my focus was on having the baby as naturally as
possible.
Apart from suffering with morning sickness (all day) for the first four
months and pelvic pain, I had a lovely pregnancy. I worked as a midwife till I
was 36 weeks, delivering my last baby just days before going on leave.
Throughout my pregnancy, I used the self hypnosis and relaxation
techniques I teach other women as I wanted a natural labour and birth. I also
used acupuncture to help prepare my body for labour and to help with the
uncomfortable last month of pregnancy. Being a midwife I had not done any
antenatal classes.
The weeks leading up to my son, Oliver’s, birth were full of many bouts
of Braxton Hicks (practice labour). Some
nights they would be every 4 –5 minutes getting me excited that this was the
day until I would fall asleep and things would settle down.
On my due date I had an appointment with my midwife and pleaded for this
to be over, much the same as I had heard from other full-term women. She
performed a vaginal examination and to my surprise things were already underway
and my cervix was already three centimetres open.
As she was stretching my cervix, to try and stir things up, my waters
broke. I was both scared and excited that very soon I would meet my beautiful
baby. She did a full assessment and the baby was in a great position.
Everything was ready to go.
I went home after the appointment and got the last of my things organised.
My contractions soon became stronger and longer signalling that things were
definitely underway.
My husband arrived home from work and tried to keep me calm and positive
as I had told him. I used the shower and self-hypnosis techniques at home to
keep comfortable.
Later in the day, when my contractions were around 4 minutes apart, I
called the midwife to do a home visit. To
my surprise I was already 8cms and the head was quite low: I could feel that
with the contractions. We decided in was time to head into the hospital or we
wouldn’t make it in time.
The car trip was extremely uncomfortable and seemed the longest in my
life: I felt as though I was sitting on a head!
With the help of a bath I managed to naturally birth my beautiful boy
under water. The bath helped with the pain and stretching I felt as the head
crowned.
It
was fantastic to bring my baby to the surface just as he was born.
My hands were the first to touch him in the new world he was in.
I managed to birth the placenta naturally and avoid any stitches.
I felt very shell shocked after the birth as it was only six hours in
total, short for a first time mum.
After a few good breast feeds and a clean bill of health for us both we
headed home just four hours after the birth.
The first night was difficult as we were worn out from the labour but it
was fantastic to have my new family at home and safe.
The postnatal period was very smooth. Oliver was a typical boy who loved
to eat and poo! He lost 100grams
from his birth weight but was 1.5 kgs above his birth weight by 6 weeks.
The positive mindset from the BirthSkills program and the great support of
those around me, prepared me for such a fantastic natural birth. My birth
experience has made me a better midwife, BirthSkills practitioner and of course
a fantastic mother.
Donna
and Oliver just arrived
Oliver
2 days
us at four months
