Victoria Midwifery Care - Deanna Wildeman, Registered Midwife

Birth Stories

Anita ~ Astra ~ Beth ~ Elizabeth ~ Heather ~ Jane ~ Jessica
Josie ~ Kristine ~ Marlee ~ Marlene ~ Melanie ~ Shannan

JENNIFER P

Jennifer & Steve Amanda Lynn Clout came early into the world literally feet first on November 30th, 2004. She decided to be lifted out of me instead of making the journey though the birth canal, however everything went very smoothly and we now have a beautiful, healthy little girl.

We had hoped for the natural child birth option except little Amanda decided at week 34 that she would turn herself around and have her feet near the "way out" instead of her head. There she stayed until week 39 when the doctor and our midwife, Deanna, suggested we schedule a caesarean section. The doctor offered to turn her from the outside to get her into the right position but we opted for the wait and see alternative because we were told that sometimes babies turn themselves. While we were waiting and seeing, Deanna told me to get in the pool and swim. This has also been known to turn babies. Well, I went and she didn't turn. It sure felt good though. I would recommend swimming to every pregnant woman. I even tried acupuncture and what is called moxibustion where a quiet Chinese woman and her student agitated a tiny spot on each of my baby toes. Then they proceeded to burn an herb called mugwort and held the heat from that near the place where they agitated. This procedure has been known to turn babies, however we think Amanda was just too big to turn herself around in there and was just meant to be a breech baby.

So on Tuesday November 30th we found ourselves at Victoria General Hospital waiting to get our baby. It was a very surreal experience as it felt like we were going to pick up our baby there. The nurses were very nice to us and made us feel very comfortable. We were actually impressed with the whole c-section experience; however I had quite a bit of anxiety about the epidural and getting a needle in my spine. I think I just watched too many TLC Birth Stories. The epidural was fine....not a problem but boy did it feel weird to be frozen from the chest down. So, a little tug here and some pressure there and within no time, "Waaa-waa-waaaaaaaa"... We heard our child's voice for the first time. With a tear in my eye and the biggest smile on my face, I heard Dr. Cooper say, "Well, there's no mistaking what sex this is." Right away, I thought for sure it was a boy, even though right from the beginning of my pregnancy, I knew it was a girl. Steve looked at me and I asked what it was and he said, with a big wet tear in him eye, "It's a girl!" Then he took my picture. Well, I was speechless and numb to say the least, as I saw our baby being taken to the little area where they clean her up. A girl. We had mentally prepared ourselves for a boy so our heads were spinning after hearing this wonderful news. We decided that Amanda Lynn would be her name before she was born. Amanda, because we just liked it and Lynn after my mom who passed away almost 5 years ago.

As they started to sew me up Deanna wheeled the placenta over for me to look at as I had requested. Deanna exclaimed, I LOVE placentas! with a big smile, so she was happy to bring it over for me to observe. If any of you women out there are not squeamish you should take the opportunity to have a gander at yours should you decide to have another baby. It's a pretty amazing thing. At that point, I think Steve got a little warm and had to leave the room. This was a good opportunity to spread the news to our anxious family members who were all waiting outside. He also got to show my dad, who was wondering if I was okay, the happy face of his daughter who had just become a mother.

When they finished closing Amanda's birth passage, I was wheeled into recovery where I met Mary, one of the wonderful nurses who took care of us. Before she introduced herself to me she had Amanda trying to master the art of “latching on” so she could have her first taste of mother's milk. Well, Amanda was a natural and latched on right away for her initial experience of colostrum. Steve joined us in the room as we posed for some of the first pictures of our new family. At this point we didn’t even know how much Amanda weighed, how long she was or anything. We saw that she had dark hair like me and that her lungs were undeniably working, but that was it. Eventually after a few long hours of anxiously waiting, we were finally told that our beautiful bouncing baby weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz and was 19 inches long.

The next three days were spent in our semi-private room as we started to get to know this new person who had just become our darling little daughter, a niece, a grand daughter, and a great-grand daughter all within a span of about an hour.

Amanda slept with me the first night as I just lied there and stared at her and checked if she was breathing every 10 minutes. Daddy slept on a 2 inch mattress on the floor that the hospital provided, but woke up very sore and felt like a truck had hit him. He went home the next night and came back in the morning. We learned how to swaddle Amanda in a blanket so she wouldn't move too much and wake herself up. She slept A LOT while I tried but wasn't too successful. From now on sleep will just never be the same again.
In the hospital we learned how to give Amanda a bath. Actually Daddy was the lucky one who got to bathe her first. This was quite the deed when the nurse added a little olive oil to the water to keep baby’s skin soft. Not only did Steve have his first newborn bath experience but a slippery one at that! Of course Amanda didn’t enjoy her first few baths, but now she LOVES them and is now much easier to handle.

Getting to go home was one of the best parts of the whole birth experience. We would’ve loved to have had Amanda at home and gone through the whole home birth thing, but unfortunately that did not happen. Having a breech baby presents a whole new can of worms and we could not risk there being any problems. It wasn’t even an option. Maybe next time.

Amanda seemed to enjoy being in her new home. The first few nights were LONG though to say the least as she had to nurse every 3 hours due to a little bit of jaundice. Breaking in the milk machines was also a little trying as well. Without being too graphic let’s just say I experienced a lot of pain and engorgement. However, I have friends with kids so I was able to get some much needed advice from them, as well as from Deanna. I’ll be relying on them in the days to come as the road of parenthood twists and turns.

So as you can see, our birth experience went quite smoothly on the whole. The only thing that kind of threw a loop into our lives besides the addition to our once twosome, was our home flooding when Amanda was no more than 9 days old. At about 3am one morning we discovered that a major rain storm had assaulted our drain and let in about a foot of water into our home. We had to move all of our stuff out and put it in storage as all the flooring was destroyed. We are still staying with friends as I type, but we’re all doing just fine. So I must say it has been an interesting couple of months, but we’re still smiling. How could we not, we have a gorgeous daughter who has brought us nothing but smiles and lots of gurgles and grunts. We might have been flooded out of our home but we now know nothing really matters except that we’re all healthy and that we’re together.

Top of page