Speaker 1: You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast.
Speaker 2: Mamma Mia acknowledges the traditional owners of land and waters
Speaker 2: that this podcast is recorded on. We pay our respects
Speaker 2: to elders past, present and emerging, and feel privileged to
Speaker 2: continue the sharing of birth stories and knowledge that has
Speaker 2: been a fundamental part of Indigenous culture.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 2: I'm Cassenia Lukic and this is diary of a birth.
Speaker 2: The general consensus amongst medical professionals is that when a
Speaker 2: woman has her first baby, it will likely take some time,
Speaker 2: but like all things in life, there are exceptions to
Speaker 2: the rule. Imagine feeling your first contraction and within half
Speaker 2: an hour you're on all fours on the front steps
Speaker 2: of your parents' house and your doctor dad has broken
Speaker 2: you waters. Well, that's what happened to today's mum, and
Speaker 2: it all took place on Christmas morning. A model, presenter
Speaker 2: and actor. Our guest today has a wild story that
Speaker 2: left me with my jaw on the floor. So let's
Speaker 2: meet today's mum.
Speaker 1: Hi.
Speaker 3: I'm Francesca Hung and this is the dary of my
Speaker 3: birth with Bridy.
Speaker 2: So Bridy is now three months old. You had her
Speaker 2: just before Christmas.
Speaker 3: She is literally ten weeks today, and she was born
Speaker 3: on Christmas Day.
Speaker 2: She was born on Christmas Day, Little Christmas.
Speaker 1: Baby, Christmas Surprise.
Speaker 2: You're obviously super busy before you felt pregnant, But what
Speaker 2: was your plan like before? Did you always want to
Speaker 2: have children?
Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. I think that's something that Nick and I
Speaker 3: had been speaking about for years and years. But it
Speaker 3: was one of those funny things that I used to
Speaker 3: always think I'd be a really young mum, and I
Speaker 3: was like, oh my god, when I'm twenty five, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna have three kids.
Speaker 1: And then every year that I got closer to you know,
Speaker 1: I was like.
Speaker 3: Twenty four, twenty five, twenty six, wway seven, I was like,
Speaker 3: oh my goodness, I'm not ready for this.
Speaker 1: I'm a child. Children cannot have children.
Speaker 3: And so even when you know, I had Bridy at thirty,
Speaker 3: I still didn't feel really ready. I still felt like
Speaker 3: a child and I had so much more to do.
Speaker 3: It was kind of that bit of a conflict. But
Speaker 3: now that she's here, I'm like, yeah, this is meant
Speaker 3: to happen.
Speaker 2: When Nick and you have been together for quite a while.
Speaker 1: Though, Yeah, eight years.
Speaker 2: But you only got married fairly recently too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, we got married December and twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: So what was that. I can't even see.
Speaker 3: I say, I can't do baths anymore, baby brain, no
Speaker 3: longer can do mouth.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we were married for a year.
Speaker 2: You said, you call her Bertie.
Speaker 1: We do call her Bertie.
Speaker 3: Yes, So I actually Bridy was like the one name
Speaker 3: that we agreed on and we knew the sex and
Speaker 3: everything in the gender, and I had a whole list
Speaker 3: of names and Nick sort of said no, no, no,
Speaker 3: no no. So I said Bridy and he said, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: I really like that, and I was so shocked. It's
Speaker 3: a classic old name, but it's not very common, and
Speaker 3: it's got a bit of an Irish tie for us.
Speaker 3: I loved the nickname Bertie, but I just thought it
Speaker 3: might a bit I don't know. I didn't want to
Speaker 3: name her Birdie in case one day she wanted to
Speaker 3: have a different kind of name.
Speaker 1: But we call it Bertie.
Speaker 2: And was it a planned pregnancy or was it a
Speaker 2: little bit of a surprise.
Speaker 3: No, it was definitely planned. We actually were trying for
Speaker 3: quite a while. I think that I was on you know,
Speaker 3: contraception for I think like six seven years, and I
Speaker 3: had that taken out a whole year before we felt pregnant,
Speaker 3: so we kind of were trying. I was even trying
Speaker 3: before the wedding because I didn't really mind if we were,
Speaker 3: you know, pregnant.
Speaker 1: At the wedding.
Speaker 3: But yeah, it did take us probably about six months. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 3: not to it's I know she was very wanted. So
Speaker 3: what did you feel like when you found out you
Speaker 3: were pregnant? Well, funny you asked that, because I was
Speaker 3: starting to get a little bit. You get a bit
Speaker 3: anxious and you start thinking, Okay, what's happening, Like, why
Speaker 3: am I falling pregnant? I had friends around me that
Speaker 3: were falling pregnant first try, second try, and you know,
Speaker 3: we were all kind of hoping to be aligned together.
Speaker 1: I had this silly.
Speaker 3: Idea in my head, Okay, well I kind of wanted
Speaker 3: to be pregnant before thirty and have my first child.
Speaker 3: And it was a night before my thirtieth birthday and
Speaker 3: I was just crying to my mom and I was saying,
Speaker 3: what's going on. My mom had really struggled as well
Speaker 3: to fall pregnant. I'm an IVF baby after numerous rounds
Speaker 3: and years and years, so I think it was always
Speaker 3: back in my mind that something could happen, and I've
Speaker 3: always been a little bit on edge about that, and
Speaker 3: I was sort of having a bit of a cry
Speaker 3: to her, saying, oh, you know, before thirty, I kind
Speaker 3: of want to be pregnant, and she was there for me.
Speaker 3: And then it was the next morning. I don't know why,
Speaker 3: but I just had a feeling and my period wasn't
Speaker 3: even due, and I took a pregnancy test and I
Speaker 3: had a faint line on my thirtieth birthday.
Speaker 2: What was your pregnancy like?
Speaker 3: First trimester was a little bit rough, but really nothing
Speaker 3: compared to a lot of people. I was nauseous. I
Speaker 3: don't think I threw up once, but I was just
Speaker 3: the only thing I could eat was vitaweats with butter
Speaker 3: and vegimite, and it was just like every day, all day.
Speaker 3: Every day, just wanted vegimite. Yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 2: Anything throughout the pregnancy, it was just a normal pregnancy
Speaker 2: for you.
Speaker 3: They actually did have a few scares, which was a
Speaker 3: little bit concerning. So at the beginning when I had
Speaker 3: my first scan, I think we were all so excited,
Speaker 3: and then I came home and I bled after my
Speaker 3: first scan. I think after like mum's history of miscarriages
Speaker 3: and eptopic pregnancies. I was at home with her and
Speaker 3: when I said, like, I've got fresh blood sort of things,
Speaker 3: she came in and she was just sort of oh
Speaker 3: my god, so upset.
Speaker 1: But we're very fortunate.
Speaker 3: My dad's a radiologist and I had had my scan
Speaker 3: at his practice, not with him, but somebody else, and
Speaker 3: so Mum just called dad straight away and said, can
Speaker 3: we please come back in and get like an emergency scan,
Speaker 3: like she's bleeding. So the amazing staff stayed back after hours,
Speaker 3: raced back up. I was like crying, and then they
Speaker 3: did a scan and they said, look, the heartbeats still there.
Speaker 3: They could have just been having like you know, the
Speaker 3: internal examination sort of disrupted a few things, but take
Speaker 3: it easy for a couple of days. So we were
Speaker 3: on tender hooks for a while there. And then I
Speaker 3: think before that twelve week mark as well, I had
Speaker 3: some more bleeding.
Speaker 1: Look, we don't know what that was about.
Speaker 3: It well, my ob believes that because I had a
Speaker 3: bit of a percenta previa at the beginning, so it
Speaker 3: probably was causing that bit of you know, the rupturing
Speaker 3: bit of bleeding. But after that second trimester was incredible, easy, brazy.
Speaker 3: I felt fabulous. I didn't even feel pregnant. I was
Speaker 3: able to do everything, exercise the way I wanted to
Speaker 3: eat whatever I wanted to. And then third trimester, I
Speaker 3: was hit with terrible pelvic girdle pain.
Speaker 2: I feel like we've had very similar pregnancies because I
Speaker 2: had the exact same thing.
Speaker 3: And it was the hits because I just I couldn't walk,
Speaker 3: could not walk. So I mean, I picked up swimming,
Speaker 3: which was great, and I felt like that was amazing,
Speaker 3: and I just did pilates, but even by the end
Speaker 3: of the play as I couldn't do so pretty much,
Speaker 3: it was just like no walking and yep, sit down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really really painful coming up.
Speaker 3: I just start sprinting up the stairs like something out
Speaker 3: of a horror film. I'm on my hands and my feet,
Speaker 3: like running up the stairs like an animal, screaming help help.
Speaker 1: The baby's coming.
Speaker 2: So tell me about going into labor.
Speaker 3: Hmmmm, Well, I feel like I have to kind of
Speaker 3: set the scene for you a little bit. So Nick
Speaker 3: and I decided to move home when we had the
Speaker 3: baby because I just thought we're both kind of working.
Speaker 1: Nick just started his own business.
Speaker 3: I'm not really taking time off, and it'd be nice
Speaker 3: to have extra set of hands. So in the lead
Speaker 3: up to Christmas, we were like, hey, you probably have to,
Speaker 3: you know, get going. Bertie's birthdate wasn't until the eighth
Speaker 3: of Jam and we're very relaxed, and so we were
Speaker 3: sort of like working towards that date, and I wasn't
Speaker 3: really carrying that large and IOB was sort of saying,
Speaker 3: I'm happy to sort of let you go to forty
Speaker 3: one plus no high risk or anything like that anyway,
Speaker 3: So we had only moved out of the house in
Speaker 3: that week leading up to Christmas. I remember setting up
Speaker 3: the nursery at mum and Dad's house and literally putting
Speaker 3: together like the car seat and the capsule and the
Speaker 3: pram and everything. On Christmas Eve and that was Nick's
Speaker 3: last day of work and we was our one day
Speaker 3: we had like we were relaxing. It was so nice,
Speaker 3: and we went to a Christmas Eve party that night.
Speaker 3: I remember just sort of like, you know, having a
Speaker 3: bit of a grumbles, like, oh my god, like, wouldn't
Speaker 3: it be nice if the baby came on Christmas Day?
Speaker 1: Bit of a present?
Speaker 3: I'm so I'm so over this, but you know, obviously,
Speaker 3: not thinking anything would happen, went home, went to bed,
Speaker 3: and I woke up at about two thirty on Christmas morning,
Speaker 3: and I stumbled to the bathroom just thinking I needed to,
Speaker 3: you know, go to the toilet. And I was sitting
Speaker 3: there doing the longest wee ever, thinking, oh, like, my
Speaker 3: brags and hicks feel a bit funny. And I've been
Speaker 3: having brax and hicks since thirty weeks, so I was
Speaker 3: very used to them, but they just felt a little
Speaker 3: bit different, and I thought, oh, maybe I needed to
Speaker 3: number two, like you know, something going on there. Couldn't
Speaker 3: do number two, so I thought, okay, going back to bed,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna sleep this off. Because I had heard so
Speaker 3: many horror stories of women who have had like prodromal
Speaker 3: labor or you know, these labor signs for so long
Speaker 3: and then they don't go into labor. And I just
Speaker 3: did not want to be thinking that I was in labor.
Speaker 3: So I was like, no, I'm not in labor. Going
Speaker 3: to sleep anyway. I lay in bed for another fifteen
Speaker 3: twenty minutes and I was like, no, this is I
Speaker 3: think I'm in labor. I think these are contractions. Oh
Speaker 3: my god, Oh my gosh. So I tapped Nick on
Speaker 3: the shoulder. Poor boy was fast asleep, and I said,
Speaker 3: I think we're having a Christmas Day baby, and he
Speaker 3: woke up.
Speaker 4: What what what?
Speaker 1: I was like, But don't worry. You know, this takes forever.
Speaker 3: This takes so long. Like, go back to sleep. I
Speaker 3: need you to be you know, energetic tomorrow. So just
Speaker 3: go back to sleep. And quite funny, in the past,
Speaker 3: my birth plan was I said, Okay, I know I
Speaker 3: want to stay at home for as long as I
Speaker 3: can labor at home. So the idea is like when
Speaker 3: I start going to labor, I want to like take
Speaker 3: the dog for a walk and get out, go to
Speaker 3: a cafe. I've heard that, you know, distract yourself because
Speaker 3: it will take forever. Anyway, I had just said to him,
Speaker 3: go back to sleep, and then I had another contraction,
Speaker 3: and I was literally like, oh my gosh, like no, no,
Speaker 3: this is this is so painful. How is this the
Speaker 3: beginning stages of labor? Anyway, Nick's like should I get up?
Speaker 3: And I was like no, no, no, no, it's fine, just.
Speaker 1: Go back to sleep. Go back to sleep. Anyway, another contraction,
Speaker 1: and I was.
Speaker 2: Like Oh my god.
Speaker 1: I was like, we haven't packed a hospital bag.
Speaker 3: So jumped out of bed and started to try and
Speaker 3: pack a hospital bag.
Speaker 1: Three am in the morning.
Speaker 3: I'd pull out about ten bras and I said to Nick,
Speaker 3: pack these and he looks at me and he says,
Speaker 3: do you need ten bras?
Speaker 1: I said, I don't know what I mean. I can't
Speaker 1: I can't think.
Speaker 3: I could not think straight. Every contraction, I was like
Speaker 3: on all fours on the ground bearing down. I remember
Speaker 3: looking at my dog at one point and she was
Speaker 3: just staring at me, and I was staring at her,
Speaker 3: and I was thinking, what is going on? This is
Speaker 3: so painful. Anyway, so I have to say there was
Speaker 3: no hospital bag packed. And then Nick started time my contractions.
Speaker 3: They were super irregular, like one was every seven minutes,
Speaker 3: one was every three two, so random. So he called
Speaker 3: the birth unit at the hospital and we spoke to
Speaker 3: the most gorgeous midwife that She said, look what we're after,
Speaker 3: especially it's her first labor and everything, and she's literally
Speaker 3: just woken up half an hour ago and felt her
Speaker 3: first contraction. So what we're looking for is four contractions
Speaker 3: within ten minutes. It's like clockwork. So maybe we'll see
Speaker 3: you later today kind of thing. She asked, have you
Speaker 3: taken panadoal? Have you done any of your at home pain,
Speaker 3: you know, relief, had a bath, any of that sort
Speaker 3: of thing, And I hadn't at that stage.
Speaker 1: So she's like, maybe do.
Speaker 2: Some of that. How many weeks were you at this
Speaker 2: point thirty.
Speaker 1: Eight on the dot? Yep.
Speaker 3: So Nick ran and got me some panadole down the
Speaker 3: hatch and then I pretty much vomited it straight up
Speaker 3: straight into the bathroom. I remember looking at the toilet,
Speaker 3: could see my Christmas Eve dinner, and I was like, great,
Speaker 3: there's the ham, there's a cran resource, and there's the patadol.
Speaker 3: And then I said, okay, let's hop into the bath.
Speaker 3: So I hopped at the bath. It was instant relief.
Speaker 3: It was so gorgeous, you know, in between those contractions.
Speaker 3: But those contractions were just oh, they were just like
Speaker 3: getting really really intense. And it was only about three
Speaker 3: point thirty at this point, maybe four, I don't really know,
Speaker 3: but I didn't do any birthing classes, but I had
Speaker 3: looked at some things on TikTok and I'd seen some
Speaker 3: things about like holding combs and whatever else. So I
Speaker 3: grabbed one of the combs I had in my drawer,
Speaker 3: and I was squeezing it so tightly it was literally
Speaker 3: like causing these like dents and like blood was coming
Speaker 3: out of my hands.
Speaker 1: And I was like, this is doing nothing.
Speaker 3: What do you mean trying to get into like a
Speaker 3: meditative state and whatever else? Anyway, nothing was working. I
Speaker 3: was just like clenching the bath. I think I was
Speaker 3: starting to get a little bit panicked at this point.
Speaker 3: I hadn't really felt her kick this whole time, and
Speaker 3: I'm used to her being quite active. Also, my waters
Speaker 3: hadn't broken, I hadn't lost my mucus plug, so like
Speaker 3: none of the things you were kind of told to
Speaker 3: expect at the early stages of labor. And I just
Speaker 3: thought this was happening way too quick, like this isn't
Speaker 3: meant to happen like this. And I also was freaking
Speaker 3: out about tearing, because you know, you hear so much
Speaker 3: about like, oh my god, tearing and prolapse, and I
Speaker 3: just thought something terrible is going to happen here. And
Speaker 3: then every time I could feel a contraction, I remember satanick,
Speaker 3: I cannot do this, I cannot do this. Another one
Speaker 3: is coming and he was just like being amazing and
Speaker 3: he was like, yes, you can, you can do this.
Speaker 3: And I kept saying, somebody cut me open, like please,
Speaker 3: I think it will be better. And I want drugs.
Speaker 3: I want the epedeel right now. And I had always
Speaker 3: been very happy to have all the medication and the
Speaker 3: drugs in the world. I just had to get to
Speaker 3: the hospital and I kept saying, I just I need
Speaker 3: to be the hospital right now, like I need drugs,
Speaker 3: like this is unbearable. And then I remember one contraction
Speaker 3: was just unbelievably painful, and I looked down and there
Speaker 3: was blood in the bath, and so then I think
Speaker 3: I just freaked out. I leaped out of the bath
Speaker 3: and I just had this insane urge to push, and
Speaker 3: I just I needed to push, and so I over
Speaker 3: the toilet and I said to Nick.
Speaker 1: I need to like, I need to push.
Speaker 3: And I said, something's coming out, Something's coming out. And
Speaker 3: it was just incredibly painful, and I thought I was
Speaker 3: having a prolapse or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I thought maybe my vagina was coming out of me.
Speaker 3: And I could feel I couldn't see it, obviously, I
Speaker 3: had a belly in front of me, but I could
Speaker 3: feel this soft, warm, wet thing coming out of me
Speaker 3: over the toilet, and Nick, poor boy, was trying to
Speaker 3: push it back in.
Speaker 1: He was like, oh my god, oh my god. We
Speaker 1: don't know. We didn't know what the hell was going on.
Speaker 1: And he kept saying to me, should we get your mom?
Speaker 1: Should we get your mom?
Speaker 3: And I kept saying earlier I'd said no, let her sleep.
Speaker 3: And then he was like, I think we need your
Speaker 3: mom and dad. And I was like, okay, but we're
Speaker 3: going to the hospital right now. He said, okay, but
Speaker 3: like you're naked, and I said I don't care, and
Speaker 3: he tried to dress me. He got a bra lette
Speaker 3: on me. That's it, and I just started running. I
Speaker 3: just couldn't tell that I was in the in between
Speaker 3: a contract. Now. We have a lot of stairs my
Speaker 3: mum and dad's house, probably about like one hundred stairs
Speaker 3: from top to bottom. Mom and dad at the top
Speaker 3: of the house and we're at the bottom. Pitch black.
Speaker 3: This is now, it's like four fifty in the morning.
Speaker 3: I just start sprinting up the stairs like something out
Speaker 3: of a horror film. I'm on my hands and my feet,
Speaker 3: like running up the stairs like an animal.
Speaker 1: Screaming, hell, hell, the baby's coming.
Speaker 3: And like I was petrified at this point, like I was.
Speaker 3: I can laugh at it now, but at the time,
Speaker 3: like I thought she was dead or she was like
Speaker 3: ejecting herself. Something was really wrong. And Nick, poor boy,
Speaker 3: was just left in the bathroom and he was like
Speaker 3: he turned around, he was like, where did she go?
Speaker 3: Where did she go? And then he could just hear
Speaker 3: me screaming. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad Christmas morning, fastest sleep
Speaker 3: and they just wake up to blood curdling screams. They
Speaker 3: run out into their balcony. They thought the neighbors. Something
Speaker 3: was happening with the neighbors, and they ran to the
Speaker 3: balcony and they thought, no, no, like that's coming from
Speaker 3: inside the house. Mum said she walked back to the
Speaker 3: top of the stairs and she just saw me running
Speaker 3: naked up the stairs screaming out help, the baby's coming.
Speaker 3: And she thought, oh my god, like, what has happened.
Speaker 3: Something horrific has happened. What's going on? I ran straight
Speaker 3: past her, opened the front door and then hit the
Speaker 3: decks and was on all fours having another contraction outside
Speaker 3: the front of the house. Luckily we are inside the
Speaker 3: front gate, so it's not in the street at this stage.
Speaker 3: But I am outside in a bralet, in a brlet
Speaker 3: butt naked. And I not a prude, but I was
Speaker 3: nervous before birth about the doctors seeing me naked in
Speaker 3: the hospital, and at this point I do not care
Speaker 3: who sees me naked. It's very animalistic birth, is what
Speaker 3: I've learned, and everything what you thought was out the window.
Speaker 3: I remember being outside. I'm on the cold stone, you know,
Speaker 3: of the ground, and Dad walks out and he says, Franceasca,
Speaker 3: come inside, and I just look at him. I'm on
Speaker 3: all and I look at him and I say, tell
Speaker 3: me what is coming out of me? So, my beautiful dad,
Speaker 3: it's a real bonding experience. He did get down on
Speaker 3: all fours and he had a good look. I think
Speaker 3: someone must have used a flashlight. I don't know how
Speaker 3: he saw because it.
Speaker 1: Was pitch black outside.
Speaker 3: And he started feeling around and he said, he looked
Speaker 3: at me and he said, your membranes are bulging. And
Speaker 3: I said, Layman's term, what is that? And he said,
Speaker 3: it's your amnionic sack. It's coming out of you. But
Speaker 3: it hadn't burst, so it was just that's what I
Speaker 3: was feeling that was the circular thing, that was the
Speaker 3: round thing, and it was like literally hanging out of me,
Speaker 3: this big, beautiful sack. And at this stage Nick finally
Speaker 3: come outstairs. He had tried to pack some semblance of
Speaker 3: a hospital bag. He came upstairs. He said, it was
Speaker 3: the strangest scene ever. I'm on all fours, the dog's
Speaker 3: running around me, my dad is down touching the amniotic sack.
Speaker 3: Mum is trying to find clothes to put on so
Speaker 3: she can drive us to the hospital. And Nick just
Speaker 3: comes up the stairs with the hospital bag and took
Speaker 3: this photo and it is my favorite photo ever because
Speaker 3: it just sets the scene perfectly, but obviously because Dad
Speaker 3: was sort of manipulating the sack, it broke.
Speaker 1: It broke. Yeah, so there outside the front of the house.
Speaker 2: Sorry, can we just back for a second. Your dad
Speaker 2: broke your waters?
Speaker 1: My dad broke my waters.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1: That's our headline, literally, But.
Speaker 3: You know what it's like when your waters break. I
Speaker 3: feel like it steps up a gear. And then I
Speaker 3: remember saying I need to push, and Mum and Dad
Speaker 3: both said, do not push.
Speaker 1: You hold it in. You hold it in.
Speaker 3: And I was like, I need to push, and they
Speaker 3: were like hold it in. I don't know how, but
Speaker 3: we managed to get up to the car. Mum was
Speaker 3: driving Nick and I to the point where we must
Speaker 3: have left so quickly that Dad went to put some
Speaker 3: clothes on and or shoes or something, and he came outside.
Speaker 1: We're all gone.
Speaker 3: So I love that we just left the doctor at home,
Speaker 3: probably the one person that would have been really handy
Speaker 3: in the car, but anyway, that's fine. I remember being
Speaker 3: in the backseat. I couldn't sit properly, so I was
Speaker 3: sort of straddling the seat arms around the headrest waters
Speaker 3: that keep breaking every contraction. I remember Nick and Mum
Speaker 3: in the front seat. Mum just remembers beautiful Christmas carols playing.
Speaker 1: Apparently.
Speaker 3: Nick just kept telling me you're doing amazing, you'd be
Speaker 3: amazing at all. I remember asking is is she okay?
Speaker 1: Is she okay? Can I have some drugs? Please? Will
Speaker 1: I be allowed drugs? Is she okay?
Speaker 3: And Mum kept saying, I don't know, darling, but I
Speaker 3: don't think you'll be a loud drugs You won't be
Speaker 3: a loud drugs darling. There was no screaming apart from
Speaker 3: when I ran up the stairs. There was like never
Speaker 3: a scream. I was kind of like very much within myself.
Speaker 3: And then we finally got to the hospital. It took
Speaker 3: us I think like ten fifteen minutes to get there,
Speaker 3: no traffic on the roads.
Speaker 1: But obviously it's.
Speaker 3: Christmas, so there was skeleton staff and there was nobody
Speaker 3: at the front doors to the hospital, and so Nick
Speaker 3: jumped out of the car, buzzing on the intercom. Security
Speaker 3: guard comes on, you know, slowly comes down.
Speaker 1: Nick's like, my wife's in labor. My wife's in labor
Speaker 1: with the door. So he presses the door. They open.
Speaker 3: He runs around to the back of the car because
Speaker 3: he thought, oh, Chester is in the car. I had
Speaker 3: a robe luckily packed, and so put that over my
Speaker 3: shoulders and I'm shuffling in.
Speaker 1: I have enough contraction. I cannot walk.
Speaker 3: So the doors shut again, so security guard has to
Speaker 3: come back open them again for us. Then we shuffle in,
Speaker 3: get to the lift, go up the lift to the
Speaker 3: maternity ward. One of the midwives meets us there and
Speaker 3: I have enough contraction and I cannot walk, and I
Speaker 3: remember feeling something coming out of me was different to
Speaker 3: the sack, but I was literally having to use my
Speaker 3: hand to like hold I believe it's her head, but
Speaker 3: I had to hold it in when I kept saying
Speaker 3: I can't walk, I can't walk, and a midwife, Maddie,
Speaker 3: she said, come with me. You have to walk, like
Speaker 3: I need you to get on the bed right now.
Speaker 3: So I'm trying to walk mid contraction. As it was
Speaker 3: skeleton staff, there was obviously no planned inductions, no plan cesareans,
Speaker 3: so there was only two midwives on Christmas morning at
Speaker 3: this time, and it just so happened that three women
Speaker 3: including myself, had gone into spontaneous labor and we were
Speaker 3: all in labor at the same time, so you need
Speaker 3: two midwives per birth, and so the midwives were having
Speaker 3: to run between the three rooms and you could just
Speaker 3: hear screaming from the other two rooms like one of
Speaker 3: the other ladies. Unfortunately I met her later where we
Speaker 3: were in hospital, but she was in like active labor
Speaker 3: and birth when I came in. But the midwives had
Speaker 3: to leave her to come to me, and they said
Speaker 3: hop on the bed, and I kept asking them like,
Speaker 3: please tell me, like is she okay?
Speaker 1: Sheka?
Speaker 3: She k They shut the heart rate monitor on straight away,
Speaker 3: and that was the best thing ever because they said
Speaker 3: she's absolutely fine, in absolutely no distress whatsoever. Heart rate
Speaker 3: is perfectly normal, and I think everyone, Nick, myself, my mum,
Speaker 3: we all just we finally could breathe. And then at
Speaker 3: that point I thought, okay, like I can do this.
Speaker 3: This is fine, She's okay. And then I said, can
Speaker 3: I please have some drugs?
Speaker 1: Please? Guy, I have some drugs.
Speaker 3: And she said I'm sorry no, but you could have
Speaker 3: some gas, and so I said okay. So I grabbed
Speaker 3: the gas and I had a good suck on that,
Speaker 3: and then the midwife said, look that I'm gonna put
Speaker 3: my gloves on and just check to see where you're at.
Speaker 3: And as she was putting her gloves on, she came
Speaker 3: up to me and put her hand on my shoulder
Speaker 3: and she said, you just do what you need to do.
Speaker 1: And I said I need to push, and she said, yeah,
Speaker 1: you just do what you need to do. So I
Speaker 1: think it was.
Speaker 3: Three pushes and she was born. So we arrived at
Speaker 3: the hospital at five eleven and time of birth is
Speaker 3: five twenty one.
Speaker 2: My hairs are standing up on end, so you had
Speaker 2: a precipitous birth.
Speaker 3: Well, from when I felt the first interaction, it was
Speaker 3: under three hours from when I gave birth. Wow, I
Speaker 3: would have had a home birth if we hadn't left
Speaker 3: when we had left, or if I hadn't actually held
Speaker 3: her in while I was in the car, because I
Speaker 3: could really feel that urge to push, and I was
Speaker 3: actively pulling up, pulling in.
Speaker 2: Wow, I'm just trying, I know.
Speaker 1: To be there for a shock. Trust me, I was
Speaker 1: in quite a lot.
Speaker 2: Of Okay, so obviously this is not what you were expecting,
Speaker 2: not at all. So they put Bertie up on your chest. Yeah,
Speaker 2: how are you feeling? Are you in just complete shock?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So that probably was the hardest part of it all.
Speaker 3: I think I just hadn't really had time to figure
Speaker 3: out what was going on, and there was so much
Speaker 3: anxiety around what was going on. I think, like knowing
Speaker 3: obviously that it was all just happening very naturally and
Speaker 3: was meant to happen. If I have another child and
Speaker 3: I happened to have that kind of birth, I think
Speaker 3: it'd be a very different situation. But that being my
Speaker 3: first birth and first labor and not being at the hospital,
Speaker 3: alarm bells are ringing, and so when they did put
Speaker 3: her on my chest, I couldn't even look at her.
Speaker 3: I was like incomplete, not a shock, and I just
Speaker 3: I think I was like disassociating.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: I remember just like not looking at her and just
Speaker 3: looking at Nicker, looking at my mom, and I never
Speaker 3: felt that. People kept saying, oh my gosh when they
Speaker 3: you know, that's like the most incredible feeling ever, and
Speaker 3: they put the baby in your chest and like it's euphoric,
Speaker 3: And I did not feel that at all. It actually
Speaker 3: took me like a couple of weeks, I think, to
Speaker 3: feel that. I don't know the endorphins, I guess, but
Speaker 3: I remember like the first twenty four hours in hospital,
Speaker 3: I couldn't sleep because every time I closed my eyes,
Speaker 3: like I was transported back to home, and like the
Speaker 3: pain and what was happening and the fear. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: just like wasn't really coping with it in that first
Speaker 3: twenty four hours.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's completely understandable. That's probably your
Speaker 2: body's like fight or flight kicking in. You know, that's
Speaker 2: a trauma response, right, Like you know, you didn't know
Speaker 2: what was going on. It was all happening so quickly,
Speaker 2: and you know when someone tells you, oh it's fine,
Speaker 2: it's your first birth, it'll be a while. This is
Speaker 2: your first contract. You're only at thirty eight weeks, like,
Speaker 2: you'll be right, yeah, and then it all happens that quickly.
Speaker 2: I can imagine that would be really, really challenging for you.
Speaker 2: So in terms of your recovery physically, was there any complications?
Speaker 2: Were you okay?
Speaker 3: So that's a good question because I also that was
Speaker 3: my biggest fear, obviously, thinking such a quick berth could
Speaker 3: mean a lot of damage down there. I only had
Speaker 3: a labial tear, I know. I thought I might have had,
Speaker 3: you know, peraneal tear. Nothing, so I was super super fortunate.
Speaker 3: I think one of the midwives said afterwards, well, I
Speaker 3: think you're just a natural born berth, and I was like, great,
Speaker 3: well there's my claim to fame. And they kept saying
Speaker 3: that if we do decide to have another one, Nick
Speaker 3: will probably have to learn how to deliver or I
Speaker 3: literally stay opposite the hospital and come in as soon
Speaker 3: as I feel that first contraction.
Speaker 2: Wow, yep, this is not that long ago. Are you recovered?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I don't know. Like I.
Speaker 3: Laugh about it now and I think, yeah, it's wild,
Speaker 3: but I still get emotional, like even thinking about it.
Speaker 3: Because I just remember sort of the shock and like
Speaker 3: I do remember the fear I felt. But I'm also
Speaker 3: very conscious of the fact that I've had almost like
Speaker 3: the dream birth, I think as well, like for a
Speaker 3: lot of women, you know, you labor for a very
Speaker 3: long time and then a lot of you know, emergency
Speaker 3: cesareans and that sort of thing. So I'm very aware
Speaker 3: that I had a very fortunate birth as well.
Speaker 2: What an amazing story. And did your dad make a
Speaker 2: che us?
Speaker 1: But no, never, he just got left on.
Speaker 4: No.
Speaker 3: I think I didn't see Dad until I think Mom
Speaker 3: face timed him like well, obviously probably twenty minutes after
Speaker 3: we left home. I don't think he was expecting us
Speaker 3: to be calling with the news of a baby. I
Speaker 3: think when Mum called him, he was like, how is she?
Speaker 3: And then Mum just put the phone to my face
Speaker 3: and yeah, there I was with the bub.
Speaker 2: Marry Christmas, Grandpa and.
Speaker 3: Gramby, I know, and I think we all obviously had
Speaker 3: Christmas lunch plans, Nick with his family, me with my family,
Speaker 3: so all of that got canned and yeah, it was
Speaker 3: really nice. So we had both of our families come
Speaker 3: in on Christmas Day and meet her. So it was
Speaker 3: like the most special Christmas Day ever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's beautiful. Is there anything that you would change
Speaker 2: about that situation? Knowing what you know now?
Speaker 3: The one thing my mom would like me to have
Speaker 3: changed is to have let her know earlier that I
Speaker 3: was in labor, because I think the poor thing said
Speaker 3: that I've taken about ten years off her life because
Speaker 3: seeing her daughter screaming like that and thinking that also
Speaker 3: her grandchild may not have been in a good way,
Speaker 3: and her child, she said that was just her fit.
Speaker 3: She said, you know the love that you feel for
Speaker 3: your child, now, that's what I have for you. And
Speaker 3: then can you imagine, you know, your child screaming like that?
Speaker 3: So she said, would it be nice if I knew
Speaker 3: maybe you were in labor a little bit earlier? And
Speaker 3: I said, Mom, it would have been nice to find
Speaker 3: you I was in labor a bit earlier. I didn't
Speaker 3: even know what's going on, So probably just that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's an incredible story. Francesca, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: Here a diary of a birth. We want you to
Speaker 2: be armed with all the information. And today we have
Speaker 2: obstitution and gynecologist doctor Bromin Devine to answer some of
Speaker 2: her burning medical questions, So, how common is a precipitous
Speaker 2: birth in a first pregnancy.
Speaker 4: It's not super common for a woman in her first
Speaker 4: or a person in their first labor to birth precipitously,
Speaker 4: but it's not unheard of. What we tend to do
Speaker 4: is say to people who are having their first baby, oh,
Speaker 4: don't worry, you'll have plenty of time. There's plenty of
Speaker 4: time to call the midwives and chat them through how
Speaker 4: you're going, and they'll let you know whether you need
Speaker 4: to come in. Because we do see people who've had
Speaker 4: babies before, and certainly people who've had relatively quick labors
Speaker 4: before have precipitous births, and sometimes births before they actually
Speaker 4: get to hospital. But it's not at all common for
Speaker 4: a woman in her first labor to labor quickly. We often,
Speaker 4: you know, sort of we're really excited and happy for
Speaker 4: people who have a quick labor because you know, oh,
Speaker 4: lucky you you didn't have to endure hours and hours
Speaker 4: of horrible labor pains. But you know, it can be
Speaker 4: quite terrifying for someone who you know, can action start
Speaker 4: and then all of a sudden, they're really hitting hard
Speaker 4: and they're coming with great frequency and they're getting a
Speaker 4: lot stronger really quickly, and then suddenly you know, there
Speaker 4: can be an urge to push, which someone in their
Speaker 4: first birth who hasn't labored before, you know, would find
Speaker 4: really quite confronting in some ways. So precipitous births are
Speaker 4: much more common, as I say, in women who've had
Speaker 4: babies before, and certainly women who've had precipitous births before.
Speaker 4: If someone comes to you and says, look, this is
Speaker 4: my third baby and my first baby I barely made
Speaker 4: it to the hospital, then you'll usually say, look, will
Speaker 4: be really cautious, make sure that you know, as a
Speaker 4: baby gets to be due, don't go too far from
Speaker 4: the hospital. You know, I definitely don't take a trip
Speaker 4: up from the Hunter or anything like that. Just stay
Speaker 4: close by, you know, the minute you think things are happening,
Speaker 4: let's just get you in. So we anticipate if someone's
Speaker 4: had a precipitous birth before that they likely to do
Speaker 4: it again. But in Francesca's case very different because it
Speaker 4: was her first baby. Other things that can make labor
Speaker 4: go faster. Sometimes if people have got a bit of
Speaker 4: high blood pressure, it's all my like when they get
Speaker 4: up to term, their body says, right, I've had enough
Speaker 4: of this pregnancy. Now in your high blood pressure, it's
Speaker 4: time to just get this show on the road, and
Speaker 4: so your body just takes over and lets labor happen
Speaker 4: quite quickly. So we do see that sometimes, and certainly
Speaker 4: when babies are smaller or premature. A woman who's laboring
Speaker 4: would say a prem baby can sometimes have quite a
Speaker 4: close cervix and then an hour later be fully dilated.
Speaker 4: So that's another reason. But in Francesca's case, it sounded
Speaker 4: like she just was someone who is very good at
Speaker 4: this and did it in a really rapid way. But
Speaker 4: it definitely, you know, something that is scary, because she
Speaker 4: would have probably gone to birth classes or spoke to
Speaker 4: her friends or spoke to her care providers, and they
Speaker 4: would have likely said, oh, you'll be fine, you've got hours,
Speaker 4: You've got hours, and that you know, when people ring
Speaker 4: up the hospital and they say, look, I'm my contractions
Speaker 4: have started and I'm wondering if I should come in.
Speaker 4: The midwives will oftense ask you to describe the contractions
Speaker 4: you're having and how long they're lasting, and how long
Speaker 4: they've been going on like that, and whether you know
Speaker 4: you've had any bleeding or any fluid, come away, and
Speaker 4: if the baby's moving and you're feeling well otherwise. So
Speaker 4: they'll ask a lot of questions and then sometimes over
Speaker 4: the phone, make an assessment. Look, it sounds like you're
Speaker 4: not quite in good labor yet. I thinks stay at
Speaker 4: home a little bit longer if you're happy to. And
Speaker 4: you can always say, look, I know you think I
Speaker 4: probably should stay home, but I really would like to
Speaker 4: come in and just be checked out. I'm worried or
Speaker 4: I'm anxious about you know, my mum had a very
Speaker 4: fast birth, or my sister did you know that sort
Speaker 4: of thing, So you can it's very much an individualized thing.
Speaker 4: It's not a hard and fast rule. You have to
Speaker 4: stay at home until your contractions up this far apart
Speaker 4: lasting this long for this amount of time. For some people,
Speaker 4: they get contractions and they're worried, you know, they're just
Speaker 4: not sure. It's always fine to go in. You can
Speaker 4: always go home if you're in early labor and the
Speaker 4: midwives think or your doctor thinks, that it's going to
Speaker 4: be a while yet. And some people want to come
Speaker 4: in in early labor and just be there because they
Speaker 4: feel safer. This so it's we very much to visualize it,
Speaker 4: but for Francesca, it sounded like she really just cracked on,
Speaker 4: and that's you know, not at all common in your
Speaker 4: first pregnancy.
Speaker 2: Diary of a Birth was hosted by me Casseniya Lukitch,
Speaker 2: with expert input from doctor Bronwin Devine. If you have
Speaker 2: a birth story, we'd love to hear from you. Details
Speaker 2: are in the show notes. This episode was produced by
Speaker 2: Tina Mattiloff and myself Casseniya Lukitch, with audio production by
Speaker 2: Leah Porges,