Birth

Pregnancy With A Heart Condition

pregnancy with a heat condition

Emily’s story continues as she shares how her pregnancy with a heart condition affected her daughter’s birth.

We went to our dating scan and saw a heartbeat at seven weeks, but we were still worried about the risks and took every day as it came. I never got any morning sickness or other pregnancy symptoms, which added to my concerns.

At nine weeks on the dot, I woke up at 4am and woke my partner and told him, “It’s a girl”. He didn’t believe me and thought I was crazy. We decided to wait until birth to find out, but I had never been more sure about anything in my life.

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“You Will Never Have Kids”

never have kids

Emily shares her story about trying to conceive after being told she would never have kids.

I remember the day my parents and I were told I would never have kids. I was about 12 years old.

I suffered terrible depression, so those years of my life are still very clouded, and I can’t remember many details apart from doctors’ appointments, tests, scans and open heart surgeries. I do, however, remember where I was and who I was with when they discussed my future life without children.

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Birth Photography

birth photography pregnancyHolly Priddis provides an insight into her role in the delivery suite, and share some of her beautiful birth photography images with us.

From the first time I picked up a camera, my focus was to become a maternity, birth and newborn photographer. As a midwife, my entire career is based around this, so it was a logical progression for me. I wanted to represent the true miracle of birth through images and had my first chance just over five years ago when I was invited to attend a birth as birth support. During the birth I took photos for the family. These photos were shared by the mother among the midwifery community and have been used quite extensively in maternity education. This is how I got into birth photography.

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Birth Stories

birth-storiesGiving birth is such a different experience for every woman. These four brave mums share exactly what it was like for them through their birth stories.

Kelly

“I was induced both times I gave birth, so I have never experienced keeping track of contractions, and so on. They wrap your belly with monitor bands and measure your baby’s heartbeat and contractions.

Both my inductions were different. With my second son, I woke up at 2am with contractions that went from three minutes to two minutes apart in a matter of two hours. The midwife checked my cervix, which was 5cm dilated. They whipped me over to birthing unit where I could here another women screaming blue murder. I yelled, “I’m coming to join you love”. I pretty much needed to push when I arrived. It happened so quickly they didn’t get the monitor on for baby’s heartbeat, or give me antibiotics for strep B.

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Birth Skills

birth skillsFelicity Frankish shares how Juju Sundin’s book on birth skills helped her in the lead up to labour.

I hadn’t even thought about it. My mind was so preoccupied with beautiful ultrasound scans and tiny babies that I tuned out how I was going to get from one to the other. I had no birth plan and that’s exactly what I told people when they asked. I am a person who loves being in control, and from everything I have been told – birth is something you have very little control over. I knew if I created a birth plan and wasn’t able to stick to it, I wouldn’t cope. So I opted out.

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