Speaker 1: You're listening to a Mumma Mia podcast. Mamma Mia acknowledges
Speaker 1: the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
Speaker 1: is recorded on. We pay our respects to elders past,
Speaker 1: present and emerging, and feel privileged to continue the sharing
Speaker 1: of birth stories and knowledge that has been a fundamental
Speaker 1: part of Indigenous culture. This episode of Diary of a
Speaker 1: Birth contains graphic descriptions, including blood loss and traumatic injury.
Speaker 1: Please proceed with caution. Additional resources can be found in
Speaker 1: the show notes. Hi, I'm Cassenya Lukitch and this is
Speaker 1: Diary of a Birth.
Speaker 2: Here in Australia.
Speaker 1: We're fortunate enough to have access to excellent healthcare, but
Speaker 1: pregnancy and birth can still be incredibly dangerous and complications
Speaker 1: can and do happen. Today's episode is not here to
Speaker 1: scare you, but to arm you with information, to tell
Speaker 1: a story of a mum who faced an incredibly rare
Speaker 1: complication known as a placental abruption.
Speaker 3: So I was laying in bed and I felt a
Speaker 3: pot in my uterus. I could hear and feel it
Speaker 3: as I pulled my underwear down. The blood ran down
Speaker 3: my legs and spilled out over onto the floor.
Speaker 2: As I'm not a doctor.
Speaker 1: I'll leave the medical explanations to doctor Brolin Devine later
Speaker 1: on in the episode. But it can be fatal to
Speaker 1: both mother and baby. Today's mom exhibited incredible bravery and
Speaker 1: with luck, good timing, and a fast acting medical team,
Speaker 1: both her and her Bob are healthy and thriving.
Speaker 2: So let's meet today's mom.
Speaker 3: Hi, I'm Sabrina and this is a diary of my
Speaker 3: birth with Sienna.
Speaker 1: Sabrina, your story came through and you wrote this beautiful,
Speaker 1: beautiful email and it really sort of struck a chord
Speaker 1: because it was a really traumatic and challenging birth for you. Yes,
Speaker 1: you already had one baby, Kingston. That's right, so this
Speaker 1: was your second birth. So I feel like sometimes we
Speaker 1: get to our second birth and we go, yep, I
Speaker 1: know what I'm doing. But how did you feel when
Speaker 1: you fell pregnant with Siena.
Speaker 4: I was really excited.
Speaker 3: It was a lot shorter process than the first time
Speaker 3: round because I feel like I had a bit more
Speaker 3: understanding of my body and how to go about falling pregnant,
Speaker 3: and so I thought, I know what I'm doing with
Speaker 3: the pregnancy. I know what to expect and from what
Speaker 3: you hear from everybody. Labor ideally is same, same bit shorter.
Speaker 4: That was the hope.
Speaker 1: Anyway, How old was Kingston when you fell pregnant with Sienna?
Speaker 3: I think it was about two years old, give or
Speaker 3: take either side a little bit.
Speaker 1: Emmanuel, who is your partner? You're excited, You've got your
Speaker 1: first trimester, everything's going well. How are you feeling during
Speaker 1: this time?
Speaker 4: I was feeling really great.
Speaker 3: Obviously noticing a big difference between my first and my
Speaker 3: second pregnancy. I had a toddler to keep up with.
Speaker 3: I was a lot more tired. So with my first
Speaker 3: pregnancy I was extremely active, and my second pregnancy I
Speaker 3: was really struggling to fit in conventional exercise, but I
Speaker 3: probably was running around a lot, so that was probably
Speaker 3: the biggest difference. But otherwise, very lucky to have very regular,
Speaker 3: unexciting pregnancies.
Speaker 1: So with your first baby, you went into spontaneous labor.
Speaker 1: As I understand it, you were seven hours, you had gas.
Speaker 1: It was pretty straightforward. So in your head you're.
Speaker 3: Imagining that same sort of situation again exactly. My fear
Speaker 3: was when do I leave home to get to the hospital,
Speaker 3: Knowing that the active part of labor would likely be shorter,
Speaker 3: and because I had, you know, a relatively short labor
Speaker 3: the first time for a first time mum, I didn't
Speaker 3: push for very long.
Speaker 4: My question was more, you.
Speaker 3: Know, how can I have that at home birth experience
Speaker 3: but still make it to the hospital in time for
Speaker 3: the grand finale?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: What kind of system were you in? Were you in
Speaker 1: the public system? Private system? How was your birth supported?
Speaker 4: So I was in the public system.
Speaker 3: I was seeing obstetricians a whole way through though, because
Speaker 3: I have problems with my thyroids, so they were keeping
Speaker 3: an eye on that the whole way. That, however, didn't
Speaker 3: put me into any sort of high risk territory. It
Speaker 3: was just more keeping a second set of eyes on
Speaker 3: my pregnancy.
Speaker 1: So you get through your second trimester, the trimester, can
Speaker 1: you talk us through a little bit about the last
Speaker 1: few weeks before you going into labor? How are you feeling?
Speaker 4: I feel like big question.
Speaker 3: I was not feeling amazing. I felt like my body
Speaker 3: was getting bigger rapidly this time around, and due to
Speaker 3: my muscles being a little bit.
Speaker 4: More lax, I worked a lot.
Speaker 3: Later in my second pregnancy, so I worked all the
Speaker 3: way up until thirty eight weeks, thinking that I would
Speaker 3: try to extend my maternity leave a little bit longer
Speaker 3: and work from home a bit more, And I was
Speaker 3: honestly feeling quite stressed with the idea of finishing up work,
Speaker 3: handing over things that were happening. I was on a
Speaker 3: contract at work that was finishing up in the next
Speaker 3: two months, and I didn't have a clear outcome of
Speaker 3: whether my job would be extended at that point. So
Speaker 3: I think in my pregnancy I felt really good, but
Speaker 3: just life and its entirety was a lot at that point,
Speaker 3: so I hadn't put a lot of focus onto.
Speaker 4: Birthing like I had in my first pregnancy.
Speaker 1: In terms of your support system with you know, your husband, emmanual, family,
Speaker 1: how was that around you?
Speaker 4: Fantastic.
Speaker 3: I'm really lucky to have my husband, and then I
Speaker 3: have a sister who who also has children the same
Speaker 3: age as me, and my mother is also very involved
Speaker 3: in my family life. So I've got a great little
Speaker 3: network around me.
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's get up to the day of a guess,
Speaker 1: going into labor. If that's what can you call it?
Speaker 1: What was your day like in the morning?
Speaker 4: Okay?
Speaker 3: So I had had those period like cramps the night
Speaker 3: before and that night, and I'd woken up and it
Speaker 3: was still the same, so that lower kind of backache
Speaker 3: that you have just before you get your period, and
Speaker 3: I thought, oh, I remember this feeling. I remember that sensation.
Speaker 3: Is something coming. And I said to my husband, it's fine,
Speaker 3: go to work. We don't live far away from the hospital.
Speaker 3: He doesn't work far away from me. And I was
Speaker 3: quite confident in the way that I had birthed previously,
Speaker 3: that if I was to go into labor, that he
Speaker 3: would have time to come home, and that I was
Speaker 3: comfortable resting and being active and just being around the
Speaker 3: house in those early hours. So I was very comfortable
Speaker 3: in saying, a man, head off to work, and I'll
Speaker 3: give you a call if I need you. But I
Speaker 3: feel confident that if I'm going to go into labor,
Speaker 3: it will probably be tonight, you know, when I'm comfortable
Speaker 3: and I'm sleepy, I'll wake up.
Speaker 1: And things will progress. And where was Kingston at this point.
Speaker 4: He was in childcare, which was fantastic.
Speaker 3: So that was actually my first day of maternity leave too,
Speaker 3: so I just thought, I'll go for a walk. I
Speaker 3: vividly remember cooking spinach and ricotta rolls and thinking I
Speaker 3: can put some in the fridge, I can pop some
Speaker 3: in the freezer. We've got some you know, storage there.
Speaker 3: And then I thought to myself, well, who knows how
Speaker 3: long the night could potentially be and if there will
Speaker 3: be any sleep, So I will try my best to
Speaker 3: lay in bed and watch a movie at the minimum.
Speaker 1: Which is very well deserved. We don't need to explain
Speaker 1: that firstday of maternity leave husbands at work above number one,
Speaker 1: Kixton is at daycare. You've got some time to kind
Speaker 1: of recuperate. So you're trying to recuperate, prepare yourself for
Speaker 1: what's to come. So you're having a rest in bed
Speaker 1: and tell us what happens next.
Speaker 3: So I was laying in bed and I felt a
Speaker 3: pop in my uterus and I cannot tell you to
Speaker 3: this day whether it was an audible pop, but to me,
Speaker 3: it felt very audible.
Speaker 4: I could hear and feel it, and.
Speaker 3: I thought, oh, that's that was really funny. It was
Speaker 3: almost like when you click a muscle or something. Something's
Speaker 3: quite obviously happened. And I had enough time to pull
Speaker 3: out my phone and google pregnant uterus pop. And whilst
Speaker 3: I was googling, I felt a gush between my thighs,
Speaker 3: and with my first pregnancy, my waters did not break spontaneously.
Speaker 4: That was done in the hospital all and so I.
Speaker 3: Thought, oh, this must be my waters, this must be
Speaker 3: what it feels like.
Speaker 4: And I was very well prepared.
Speaker 3: I had dark charcoal sheets on the bed in case,
Speaker 3: you know, anything was to happen over the next couple
Speaker 3: of days, and avoiding stains.
Speaker 4: So I had to flip my legs.
Speaker 3: Over to the side of the bed and I pulled
Speaker 3: down my underwear to how to look at the waters
Speaker 3: and see if there was anything in them.
Speaker 4: And as I pulled my.
Speaker 3: Underwear down, blood ran down my legs and spilled out
Speaker 3: over onto the floor.
Speaker 1: You get up and you see all of this blood,
Speaker 1: which I imagine would be quite terrifying for you.
Speaker 2: What was your first thought.
Speaker 3: That it's not normal. It was bright red, so it
Speaker 3: wasn't old blood. It was fresh, and it was continuous.
Speaker 3: So the first thing I did was I picked up
Speaker 3: my phone and I called the ambulance straight away. I
Speaker 3: was in the exact same spot that I had when
Speaker 3: I flicked my legs over the bed. I hadn't stood up.
Speaker 3: I just grabbed my phone and straight away called Triple.
Speaker 5: Zero emergency services. Tell me exactly what happened. I'm thirty
Speaker 5: eight and a half weeks pregnant.
Speaker 3: I started popping in my uterrifs and I did add
Speaker 3: a huge gush of blood and it's not stopping.
Speaker 5: All right, let's get you that help right away. Do
Speaker 5: you have anybody there with you at the moment? No,
Speaker 5: I'm home alone. Okay. Now can you see I feel
Speaker 5: all touch any part of the baby now, No, my
Speaker 5: vagina feels closed still. Okay? Are you having contractions? I
Speaker 5: have had very dull period, pain.
Speaker 4: White, contraction last nam last night.
Speaker 5: More black and yeah, okay there's more blood. Yeah, understood.
Speaker 5: I'm keeping them updated. Okay, now you just try and rest. Okay,
Speaker 5: So do not sit on the toilet and Justine faces
Speaker 5: is the baby coming? Do not try to prevent the
Speaker 5: burse all right. I assume the most comfortable position here
Speaker 5: and take deep breaths between contractions. And it's going to
Speaker 5: put a exposable underwear on. Good idea. But there's a
Speaker 5: blood still coming out there. Yeah, okay, how are you
Speaker 5: feeling now? Any changes?
Speaker 3: No, no change here, it's more I'm you're just trying
Speaker 3: to manage how I feel okay, there's no pain.
Speaker 4: There's took lots of blood.
Speaker 5: Feel lots of blood. All right, don't over exert yourself, right,
Speaker 5: how are you doing that? Yeah, I'm okay, I'm dushing.
Speaker 5: I'm dushing blood. It's still grushing, okay.
Speaker 1: One of the first things that really struck me was
Speaker 1: how calm you were. Do you think that was kind
Speaker 1: of part of your sort of response in terms of
Speaker 1: just not a trauma response, but you were in fight mode.
Speaker 3: Yes, and everything in that moment. I think it took
Speaker 3: six or seven minutes perhaps for the ambulance to arrive,
Speaker 3: and a lot was done in those six or seven minutes.
Speaker 4: So I culturable zero.
Speaker 3: I popped them on clouds and straightaway new group message
Speaker 3: to my mum, to my husband, to my sister, and
Speaker 3: it was husband, you need to get to the hospital
Speaker 3: and meet me an emergency a SAP drop what you're doing,
Speaker 3: I'm bleeding, And then it was to my sister and
Speaker 3: my mum, letting them know what had happened, and also
Speaker 3: letting my mum know that she's going.
Speaker 4: To have to be a childcare pickup today, but.
Speaker 3: Before she does the childcare pickup, she'll probably have to
Speaker 3: come to my house and clean my bed and all
Speaker 3: the floors.
Speaker 4: I also, in that time, managed to find an old.
Speaker 3: T shirt to chuck on, thinking that I'm going to
Speaker 3: have to walk out of the house.
Speaker 4: I can't do that in my underwear.
Speaker 3: I found a towel so that I could hobble around
Speaker 3: the house to get what I needed without dripping all
Speaker 3: over the house. And I kind of wiggled my way
Speaker 3: standing on the tower to the bathroom and found one
Speaker 3: of my disposable adult nappies that I had ready for
Speaker 3: my postpartum experience, and I popped those on. And once
Speaker 3: I had my bags at the front door, it was
Speaker 3: unlocking the front doors because I thought to myself, what
Speaker 3: happens if I pass out from blood loss and they
Speaker 3: can't get in the front door. What happens then? So
Speaker 3: I opened all the doors and had them swung open,
Speaker 3: so worst case scenario, they could walk straight in and
Speaker 3: I would be there at the door waiting for them.
Speaker 1: And while you're doing this, I just think, this is
Speaker 1: such a classic moment of mother's strength. Your gushing blood
Speaker 1: this entire time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was, And I kept saying that to the
Speaker 3: person on the phone call, and they're trying to be
Speaker 3: really relaxed, and they're trying to reassure you, and she
Speaker 3: was saying things like, don't prevent the baby from coming,
Speaker 3: and make yourself comfortable, and I'm They're going, how do
Speaker 3: I make myself comfortable?
Speaker 4: Do I just sit on the floor on this towel bleeding?
Speaker 3: I found myself standing up, just holding on too like
Speaker 3: a buffer, a kind of side table, just waiting for
Speaker 3: the ambulance to arrive, with eyesight on the driveway the
Speaker 3: whole time.
Speaker 1: What was your brain doing? Were you just basically really
Speaker 1: in the moment at that point or were you thinking
Speaker 1: the worst?
Speaker 3: I was trying very hard to be absolutely in the moment.
Speaker 3: In the group message that I had started, my sister
Speaker 3: did ask me if I had felt the baby, and
Speaker 3: I had had those thoughts kind of enter my brain
Speaker 3: at different moments, and I was trying.
Speaker 4: To push them away.
Speaker 3: I did hypno birthing with my son when I had
Speaker 3: my spontaneous vaginal birth, and it was the exact same
Speaker 3: in this situation where I just went back to you know,
Speaker 3: it just becomes all about breathing, and it becomes all
Speaker 3: about just controlling the thoughts that are entering your mind
Speaker 3: and getting rid of the ones that are unhelpful and
Speaker 3: clinging desperately onto the ones that are helpful.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's that sushi train analogy, right, you know, you
Speaker 1: let that thought pass, you take the one off that's helpful,
Speaker 1: keep the sushi try and going.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, coming up, we're taking you into surgery.
Speaker 4: We'll try to stop the bleeding.
Speaker 3: If we can't stop the bleeding, we will perform a hysterectomy.
Speaker 1: Tell me about the paramedics arriving.
Speaker 3: So the paramedics reversed up the driveway and they came in,
Speaker 3: and they were fabulous. They grabbed my things. They even
Speaker 3: went to my kitchen and grabbed a garbage bag and
Speaker 3: we changed over the disposable nappy that I was wearing,
Speaker 3: and they took the used one with them in a
Speaker 3: garbage bag. So they obviously had the foresight to know
Speaker 3: that that would be required. And I walked to the ambulance,
Speaker 3: got on the trolley and was strapped in and I
Speaker 3: just remember hanging on for dear life online this little
Speaker 3: pole next to me.
Speaker 1: So you're in the ambulance. Now, what are the para
Speaker 1: medics saying to you at this point?
Speaker 3: Honestly, I think it was just very everyday shitter chatter
Speaker 3: type thing. They had no way of monitoring the baby
Speaker 3: at that point. All they could do was watch my heartbeat.
Speaker 3: They were reassuring me that my heartbeat was good, and
Speaker 3: I think that was because I was spending half the
Speaker 3: time doing these you know, ridiculous deep breaths at hold
Speaker 3: and release.
Speaker 4: But they were asking.
Speaker 3: About my son and my day and talking about how,
Speaker 3: you know, the traffic was really good, and it's lights
Speaker 3: and sirens and the cars are all moving out the way,
Speaker 3: and I was holding onto the pole next to me,
Speaker 3: laying down strapped in and there's a little window in
Speaker 3: the ambulance and I can see all of the prominent
Speaker 3: Melbourne buildings that were passing as we go through the city.
Speaker 3: And I was aware that we were moving quite quickly
Speaker 3: and that felt really good. But I was also aware
Speaker 3: that nothing was happening in the way. That they had
Speaker 3: put a canula into my arm in case that would
Speaker 3: be needed once we arrived. They were monitoring my heart rate,
Speaker 3: but really it was more just I think, staying in
Speaker 3: the moment and just conversing until we arrived at a
Speaker 3: point where something could be done.
Speaker 1: What happens after you get to the emergency room.
Speaker 3: Well, just before we got to the emergency room, I
Speaker 3: did get reassurance in the way that my baby's back
Speaker 3: had moved from one side of my body to the other,
Speaker 3: so that was a big there's movement within there. Once
Speaker 3: we arrived at the hospital, I was trolleyed into emergency
Speaker 3: and my husband was there, and that is when I
Speaker 3: had that absolute, just flood of emotions and I started
Speaker 3: balling my eyes out, and I remember holding onto him
Speaker 3: and saying like I'm completely I'm ok I'm okay. I'm
Speaker 3: just so happy that you're here, like you're my person
Speaker 3: and we're together.
Speaker 1: I have tears in my eyes too, because I can
Speaker 1: imagine that, and that's almost like a safety point. It's
Speaker 1: like I'm holding it together. I'm holding it together. I'm
Speaker 1: holding it together. I can let go now because I
Speaker 1: have some support.
Speaker 3: And someone else can hold it together for me. Now
Speaker 3: you can do that and I can process when I
Speaker 3: need to. So it moves really quickly from there. Once
Speaker 3: we were together, the paramedics.
Speaker 4: Took us up to the birth and suite.
Speaker 3: And the head midwife of the floor was there to
Speaker 3: greet us. I was moved on to the bed and
Speaker 3: they started hooking me up to monitoring the baby's heart
Speaker 3: rate and to monitoring my heart rate, and I was
Speaker 3: told that an obstetrician would be coming to assess me
Speaker 3: and make a decision about how.
Speaker 2: We were going to proceed.
Speaker 3: The obstetrician arrived, they did an internal examination at that point,
Speaker 3: and I was told that I was not in labor,
Speaker 3: even though things in the ambulance had ramped up to
Speaker 3: the point where I was breathing through what I thought
Speaker 3: were really progressed contractions. So I arrived at the hospital
Speaker 3: thinking that I was in quite established labor at that point,
Speaker 3: because every couple of minutes I'm holding on to something,
Speaker 3: I'm breathing, I'm getting through it, and then it would subside.
Speaker 3: But I was told that I was not in labor,
Speaker 3: and that I was dilated one or two centimeters that
Speaker 3: I would typically be at that point in prior.
Speaker 4: To active labor beginning.
Speaker 3: Anyway, whilst the obstetrician was conducting my internal the midwives
Speaker 3: had removed my adult nappy and had taken the second
Speaker 3: adult nappy of the paramedics, and they weighed those and
Speaker 3: when they communicated the weight of those to the odd costatrician.
Speaker 1: Everything changed, so it flicks therein Okay, this is emergency mode.
Speaker 3: Yes, so they flip switch quite quickly. The obstetrician looks
Speaker 3: at me and is very direct, very straight with me,
Speaker 3: and says, you're losing too much blood. We need to
Speaker 3: get this baby out immediately. We are taking you into surgery.
Speaker 3: We will get the baby out. We will try to
Speaker 3: stop the bleeding. If we can't stop the bleeding, then
Speaker 3: we will try to inflate your uterus. I believe they
Speaker 3: said with a balloon. I'm not familiar with that process.
Speaker 3: And then they said, if not, we will perform a hysterectomy,
Speaker 3: to which my husband said, what's a hysterectomy? And all
Speaker 3: the women in the room looked at him and had
Speaker 3: a little giggle, and I had to say, Babe, I'll
Speaker 3: take my uterus.
Speaker 1: Sorry, it's not funny, but it is funny.
Speaker 4: It's a comedic moment, a light in the mood. In
Speaker 4: our dark moments.
Speaker 1: Sometimes we need a little giggle, and usually we can
Speaker 1: rely on men to provide those.
Speaker 4: They do. They provide absolute gold in those, don't.
Speaker 1: They In your head, you're like, okay, so they might
Speaker 1: be having a hysterectomy. When do they tell you that
Speaker 1: you're going under because they're not doing a spinal tap,
Speaker 1: they're putting it under general athetic.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 3: The head midwife of the floor at that point, she
Speaker 3: was amazing this whole time. I had women holding my arms,
Speaker 3: rubbing up and down my arms, squeezing my hands. I'm
Speaker 3: a very physical person, and I remember everyone being really
Speaker 3: physical with me and like helping reassure me. And she
Speaker 3: said to me, hold my hand. There's going to be
Speaker 3: a lot of lights, there's going to be a lot
Speaker 3: of people. Squeeze my hand. Close your eyes. You don't
Speaker 3: have to see this. And so I had my eyes
Speaker 3: closed from when we left the birthing suite to arrive
Speaker 3: in theater, and then I do remember looking up at
Speaker 3: the ceiling and seeing people everywhere and hearing so many
Speaker 3: voices and I'm hard of hearing. I we're hearing aids
Speaker 3: twenty four to seven. I did not have them in
Speaker 3: because I was at home watching a movie, and so
Speaker 3: that in itself was quite overwhelming. But as soon as
Speaker 3: the anaesthesiologist said Sabrina and spoke directly to me, I
Speaker 3: knew this is the voice to hang on to and
Speaker 3: then it was a matter of talking me through the moment.
Speaker 3: So they said, we're putting another canula in your other arm.
Speaker 3: You can feel us. Now we're washing your stomach. We're
Speaker 3: drawing a line where we will cut. Don't worry, nothing
Speaker 3: will happen until you're under the sheet goes up. I
Speaker 3: had no idea at this point where my husband was.
Speaker 3: From the moment I closed my eyes, I just succumbed
Speaker 3: to the process and just again to breathing, and then
Speaker 3: I remember, I guess I fell asleep.
Speaker 1: That is very, very harrowing. What we know now is
Speaker 1: that you had a placental abruption.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: So they took Sienna out and fortunately she is beautiful
Speaker 1: and healthy, perfect, and they were able to stop the bleeding.
Speaker 1: Now you did mention something about them saying that she
Speaker 1: came out all in one with the placenta detached already.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So they opened me up and I was full
Speaker 3: of blood.
Speaker 4: They lifted her out, and.
Speaker 3: The umbilical cord obviously came and the placenta came with it.
Speaker 3: So from what I understand, in those last moments, the
Speaker 3: plus center had almost completely detached from my uterus. That
Speaker 3: was the cause of the bleeding. So usually the bleeding that.
Speaker 4: You have post birth is from that big.
Speaker 3: Placental wound in the uterus that was happening to me
Speaker 3: prior to giving birth. And the issue with that is
Speaker 3: obviously the placenta provides all of the nutrients and most
Speaker 3: importantly the oxygen to the baby. So we were extremely
Speaker 3: lucky in the way that Sienna wasn't deprived of oxygen,
Speaker 3: and the timing must have just been perfect that she
Speaker 3: came out and was breathing usually just as at placenta
Speaker 3: as I said before, came out with her.
Speaker 1: Fortunately, they were able to stop the blood loss and
Speaker 1: you wake up? What was that like waking up?
Speaker 3: I woke up in recovery I believe about two two
Speaker 3: and a half hours after her birth, and I was
Speaker 3: in a recovery ward and there was a nurse with me.
Speaker 4: My husband and Sienna weren't in the room.
Speaker 3: I was never fearful of her not being okay, so
Speaker 3: I didn't wake up with the scare of where's my
Speaker 3: baby and did my baby make it? I had this
Speaker 3: reassurance and just in my soul that everything was okay,
Speaker 3: And within minutes they had gone and found my husband
Speaker 3: and Sienna, and they were there extremely quickly, so it
Speaker 3: wasn't as if I was lacking time.
Speaker 4: With them, and it was beautiful.
Speaker 3: It was a lot, I remember shaking a lot they
Speaker 3: did the transfusion, but once I had Sienna, I was
Speaker 3: able to have that beautiful, golden post birth moment. She
Speaker 3: did a wonderful feed. We did all of our skin
Speaker 3: to skin. They hadn't given her anything in the time
Speaker 3: that I had been asleep, and she just did skin
Speaker 3: to skin with my husband for those two hours. So
Speaker 3: they had this beautiful moment. And from there it was
Speaker 3: just becoming more alert to my surroundings and just really
Speaker 3: taking in that amazement of I have this new baby,
Speaker 3: and this baby is mine and I didn't birth it
Speaker 3: through my vagina, So where did it come from?
Speaker 1: Did your husband tell you his thoughts during the process
Speaker 1: of when you were asleep and Sienna had come out?
Speaker 3: So Emmanuel wasn't allowed in the theater because I was
Speaker 3: going under the general esthetic, so.
Speaker 4: He was in a room outside of the theater. And
Speaker 4: my sister, actually, from the.
Speaker 3: Moment that I had texted her telling this had happened,
Speaker 3: had stormed out of work and jumped in a car
Speaker 3: and come to the hospital, and so I believe she
Speaker 3: was in the car when I went under and had
Speaker 3: called Emmanuel and said she's had multiple cesareans and she
Speaker 3: was walking him through what they would be doing. So
Speaker 3: she was walking him through how they prepare for the
Speaker 3: cesarean and reassuring him that once they make the cuts
Speaker 3: that the baby comes straight, like, very very quickly, almost instantaneous.
Speaker 3: So from what I understanded, that was a a really
Speaker 3: beautiful bonding moment between my husband and my sister, and
Speaker 3: that he had a person, even though it wasn't physically there,
Speaker 3: he had someone to rely on.
Speaker 4: But obviously he was ridiculously.
Speaker 3: Scared for myself and obviously having this big, long term
Speaker 3: relationship with me and the connection he has with me,
Speaker 3: and then he's scared for this little baby that he's
Speaker 3: never met before that he doesn't yet have this relationship with.
Speaker 3: But it's, you know, the person he will live his
Speaker 3: life with.
Speaker 1: Yeah, people, he loves people, he loves Yeah. So they
Speaker 1: take Sianna out and did she need to spend any
Speaker 1: time in a nicu?
Speaker 4: She was perfect.
Speaker 3: She came out screaming and because of the nature of
Speaker 3: the birth, the room was filled with pediatricians and everyone
Speaker 3: has told me there was just a huge, like a
Speaker 3: relief from everybody in the room. I have a lot
Speaker 3: of photos of her coming out. She was obviously covered
Speaker 3: in blood, but they cleaned her up and she's crying,
Speaker 3: And I've got all these photos of my husband and
Speaker 3: her immediately after she was taken out, so he had
Speaker 3: all of those first moments with her. And I can
Speaker 3: even click on the live photos and listen to him
Speaker 3: talking to her whilst I was in surgery.
Speaker 4: It's beautiful.
Speaker 2: What was he saying?
Speaker 3: He was saying things like Mummy's going to be okay.
Speaker 3: They're working on mummy, Like she's going to be okay,
Speaker 3: like I'm here, things of that nature. If I ever
Speaker 3: have a fight with my husband, and I doubt the
Speaker 3: way he feels about me, I can go back to
Speaker 3: those photos and brush the short he loves me.
Speaker 1: I think the reason your story is so pertinent at
Speaker 1: the moment is because of the story that's come out recently,
Speaker 1: the baby that passed away due to a placental abruption. Yeah, recently,
Speaker 1: and I think that's affected a lot of people. And
Speaker 1: I am so happy that you and bub are okay
Speaker 1: because a placental abruption is incredibly serious. I spoke to
Speaker 1: an Obstrican before speaking with you today, and it is
Speaker 1: really one of the most dangerous things that can happen
Speaker 1: during a pregnancy. And I had no idea, and you
Speaker 1: had no idea, and I did ask, and I'm sure
Speaker 1: you've asked as well. They don't really know why it happens.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of risk factors. But did they give
Speaker 1: you any indication as to why this happened or.
Speaker 4: I have had care post birth?
Speaker 3: They have tested my plus center and there's nothing unusual.
Speaker 3: They said it was odd that it happened with my
Speaker 3: second pregnancy, because if this was something that I was
Speaker 3: predisposed to, that it would likely show up in my
Speaker 3: first pregnancy. I meet none of the risk factors and
Speaker 3: it's not as if I had a fall or anything
Speaker 3: like that, which has happened since to one of my friends.
Speaker 3: They've told me at the hospital, and I was at
Speaker 3: the Royal Women's Hospital Melbourne, which is our biggest hospital,
Speaker 3: which is where you get sent if there is an
Speaker 3: emergency like this. They said they see I think they
Speaker 3: said one in one hundred in a year is a
Speaker 3: placental abruption. And to my case would be one in
Speaker 3: like two thousand. So they said placental abruption not particularly rare,
Speaker 3: but to the extreme level that I had at at
Speaker 3: quite rare and as you said, very serious.
Speaker 1: And I think the lesson in all of this is,
Speaker 1: obviously there was a lot of luck involved, but you
Speaker 1: picking up that phone and calling Triple Zeros straight away
Speaker 1: is the absolute best thing that you could have done.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And that was told to me continuously by everyone
Speaker 3: I spoke to in the days after, because I had
Speaker 3: woken up from this experience and I guess I didn't
Speaker 3: really understand and it took me days to work out
Speaker 3: just how serious it had been, because you're not aware,
Speaker 3: as a typical person how much blood you have in
Speaker 3: your body, or what normal blood loss is, or when
Speaker 3: it does get to a point where it becomes critical.
Speaker 3: So in speaking to the obstetrician that did the surgery
Speaker 3: in you know how tight Some of the hugs I
Speaker 3: got from the midwives were like those things are telling
Speaker 3: that people would come in, nurses and midwives would come
Speaker 3: in and they would know who I was on the floor.
Speaker 3: They had heard of what had happened. So there was
Speaker 3: quite a few things like that that made me think, oh,
Speaker 3: this is more than I thought it was initially.
Speaker 1: It's probably a good thing in retrospect for you personally,
Speaker 1: you know, like being just that kind of speed of it.
Speaker 1: But I am so so happy that Sienna came out beautifully.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy that you recovered well. And how long
Speaker 1: were you in hospital after Sienna's birth?
Speaker 3: They were actually pretty discharged me on day two, but
Speaker 3: she had just dropped a little bit more of her
Speaker 3: birthway than they were happy with, and so really I
Speaker 3: stayed in hospital for I believe five days to monitor
Speaker 3: her growth.
Speaker 1: So you did have a transfusion, not an iron infusion.
Speaker 3: I had a blood transfusion when I was in recovery,
Speaker 3: straight after I'd woken up. Then they ran my blood
Speaker 3: work that day, and every day that I was in the.
Speaker 4: Hospital they ran my blood work, and I was completely fine.
Speaker 3: The bloods showed no sign at all of me losing
Speaker 3: the amount that a blood that I did, to the
Speaker 3: point when I went to my six week check up
Speaker 3: with my GP, he seriously questioned what had happened, because
Speaker 3: he goes it.
Speaker 4: It doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 3: And I asked all of those questions to the hospital
Speaker 3: when I went back and had post care with them,
Speaker 3: and they really attributed the amount of iron that I
Speaker 3: was during pregnancy was significant, and my stores were apparently
Speaker 3: just so good that I was able to bounce the
Speaker 3: way that I did.
Speaker 1: Do you know from the reports how much blood you
Speaker 1: lost in total?
Speaker 3: In total the hospital from what they could gather in
Speaker 3: their ambulance and at the hospital and obviously in theater
Speaker 3: they had edit two and a half leters, so that
Speaker 3: would be not including the amount that I had lost
Speaker 3: initially at home. Wow, to which when I first was
Speaker 3: told that, again, I had no real understanding of what
Speaker 3: that meant. How much blood does the body even hold?
Speaker 3: I didn't know.
Speaker 2: Do you know now?
Speaker 3: I think my GP told me for someone of my size,
Speaker 3: I'm one hundred and sixty three centimeters, I'm not a
Speaker 3: tall woman.
Speaker 4: I would probably have about five and a half.
Speaker 1: You lost a lot of blood. You lost a lot
Speaker 1: of blood. Yes, I guess. The way that I would
Speaker 1: love to finish this is is there a message that
Speaker 1: you would like to share regarding your placental abruption.
Speaker 3: I would just love people to know that it exists.
Speaker 4: I am in no.
Speaker 3: Way wanting to scare pregnant women, especially first time mothers.
Speaker 3: But there is absolutely nothing wrong with learning about the
Speaker 3: different things that can happen in birth and the different
Speaker 3: pathways that it can take. Absolutely trusting your instinct that
Speaker 3: if something is wrong, act. There is no shame in
Speaker 3: acting where it is not needed. And if you have
Speaker 3: to backtrack, that's completely fine. But if you act immediately
Speaker 3: and it's needed, then you can save your life.
Speaker 4: You can save your baby's life.
Speaker 3: And I did all of this training for hypnobirth in
Speaker 3: for my first birth, and never did I think that
Speaker 3: it would have such an impact on my second emergency birth,
Speaker 3: where it kept me grounded and kept me calm, was
Speaker 3: just as useful.
Speaker 2: Talk a lot about that.
Speaker 1: There's the fight flight or phrase, yes you're calm, you're
Speaker 1: in fight mode, and you were this is what I
Speaker 1: need to do, and you can hear that in the call.
Speaker 1: I was blown away by your calm and ability to
Speaker 1: get through that. I'm so happy that everything is okay,
Speaker 1: and how all this Ciena.
Speaker 3: Now, Sienna is just over one and she's striving, she's walking,
Speaker 3: and she's talking and eating and interacting and socializing and
Speaker 3: cheers and absolute delight of a baby.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Sabrina for sharing your story. I'm
Speaker 1: going to need a few tissues after this, but thank
Speaker 1: you very much, and yeah, very happy that everyone is okay.
Speaker 4: Thank you for allowing me to share.
Speaker 1: Given today's episode has been pretty traumatic, I wanted to
Speaker 1: get some information from our resident obstitution and pocologist, doctor Bronwendevine,
Speaker 1: about what exactly a placental abruption is.
Speaker 6: So, a placental abruption is a really very serious complication
Speaker 6: of the second half of pregnancy, and it occurs when
Speaker 6: the placenta, either in part or in full, shears off
Speaker 6: the wall of the uterus, so it comes away from
Speaker 6: the wall of the uterus. And the placenta is connected
Speaker 6: to the uterus to provide oxygen and nutrients for the baby.
Speaker 6: So if it comes away, the baby can't get oxygen
Speaker 6: and nutrients, and oxygens the really important one. I mean,
Speaker 6: they can go for a little bit of time without
Speaker 6: getting nutrients coming across, but oxygen's imperative. Fetuses don't breathe
Speaker 6: via their lungs, so they need to get oxygen via
Speaker 6: the placenta. And if the placenta comes off the utrine
Speaker 6: wall and it comes off a huge chunk of it
Speaker 6: comes off, then that will leave the baby without an
Speaker 6: oxygen supply and that can be extremely dangerous. Now, sometimes
Speaker 6: there's an abruption where the placenta comes away a little
Speaker 6: bit and there can be a lot of bleeding because
Speaker 6: the percentae comes away. Then there's bleeding from behind that,
Speaker 6: and that can trickle down and be obvious bleeding and
Speaker 6: then the baby can be okay. But if we diagnose
Speaker 6: a placental abruption, that's in almost all instances and indication
Speaker 6: to get the baby born quickly. It's not just the
Speaker 6: bub who's at risk from a placental abruption. Mums can
Speaker 6: be at really serious risk as well. In response to
Speaker 6: a placental abruption, they can develop what we call a coagulopathy,
Speaker 6: so their blood can stop clotting and they can then
Speaker 6: bleed and bleed very very heavily.
Speaker 2: And what about the risk factors?
Speaker 6: So it can happen without any known risk factors, but
Speaker 6: we do know of several risk factors for the condition.
Speaker 6: So if you've had a placental abruption before, you are
Speaker 6: at increased risk in a subsequent pregnancy. Having high blood
Speaker 6: pressure in pregnancy is an increased risk, and there are
Speaker 6: certain autoimmune conditions that are more likely to be associated
Speaker 6: with the blsas central abruption, and usually we're aware of
Speaker 6: those beforehand because there are other things that can happen
Speaker 6: as well, so we've usually got an idea one of
Speaker 6: those conditions might be present. There are steps we can take,
Speaker 6: for example, watching the baby's growth very carefully and having
Speaker 6: people on blood thinners and things like that that can
Speaker 6: help with reducing the risk. Controlling blood pressure, keeping an
Speaker 6: eye on a fetus's growth, keeping an eye with ultrasounds
Speaker 6: and things like that can help us predict some of
Speaker 6: the features that can be present before an abruption occurs.
Speaker 6: But sometimes it just occurs out of the blue without
Speaker 6: any warning signs and it can be very very serious
Speaker 6: for Mum and bub.
Speaker 1: Dari of a Birth was hosted by me Kasanulo Kitch
Speaker 1: with expert input from doctor Bronwyn Devine. And while we
Speaker 1: have you here, we're on the hunt to share powerful
Speaker 1: underrepresented stories from people of all cultures, backgrounds and abilities.
Speaker 2: If you've been affected by today's episode, we've attached additional
Speaker 2: resources in the show notes.
Speaker 1: This episode was produced by Tina Matalov and myself Cassenya
Speaker 1: Lukich with audio production by Leah Porgies