Speaker 1: You're listening to a Muma Mia podcast.
Speaker 2: Mom and Maya acknowledges the traditional owners of land and
Speaker 2: waters that this podcast is recorded on. I am pregnanty.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Hello Bump. We're making pregnancy less overwhelming and
Speaker 1: we hopefully have made it more manageable for you. I'm
Speaker 1: Grace Reebray, I'm pregnant for the first time, and we're
Speaker 1: all about to become a parent.
Speaker 2: I'm young A Pittman. I'm a former Olympian mother of six.
Speaker 2: I'm definitely not about to become a parent. I am
Speaker 2: now training to be an obstetric and Guiney registrar.
Speaker 1: Hopefully. Each week we have been holding your hand through
Speaker 1: the mysterious, perplexing and wonderful miracle that is pregnancy, all
Speaker 1: the way from a poppy seed to a pumpkin.
Speaker 3: Oh week forty.
Speaker 1: What size are we? Can you get bigger than a melon?
Speaker 3: Well, babies could be up to five and a half kilos.
Speaker 3: I don't know. If you've looked up the Guinness Book
Speaker 3: of Records. They could be bog You remember that when
Speaker 3: you're a kid's gna?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: The biggest baby I've ever birth, though, is only four
Speaker 2: point nine so I've still got a bit of a
Speaker 2: way to go. A couple of my friends have had
Speaker 2: bigger baby.
Speaker 1: What's that one pounds?
Speaker 3: Twelvesh lots?
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, okay, okay, But most babies Grace will be
Speaker 2: between three point four and three point six kilos at
Speaker 2: full term. Now, remember there is still two weeks before
Speaker 2: we consider a baby beyond post dates, so it still postdates. Now,
Speaker 2: even anytime after forty weeks is postdates. But the normal
Speaker 2: as in term baby pregnancy is thirty seven to forty two.
Speaker 2: So even though we're finished with this podcast, there is
Speaker 2: still women who'll be pregnant for at least another two weeks.
Speaker 1: What's the maximum cutoff you would ever let a woman
Speaker 1: get to.
Speaker 2: I think that's an interesting number because or interesting word, because,
Speaker 2: of course, our recommendation is to have a baby by
Speaker 2: forty two weeks, again because of that personal insufficiency we've
Speaker 2: talked about, but there are lots of women that decline.
Speaker 2: Now you know, I personally wouldn't, but there's definitely women
Speaker 2: who feel very strongly about natural labor and they wait
Speaker 2: beyond forty three weeks. But I think, if this is you,
Speaker 2: I just really want you to have a conversation with
Speaker 2: your midwife, be really open minded. And again I come
Speaker 2: back to it again, we don't do things to you
Speaker 2: because we want to hurt you. We do things because
Speaker 2: we want to see a good outcome. So for both
Speaker 2: of you, it just needs to be very well monitored,
Speaker 2: lots of lots of CTG monitoring and things like that.
Speaker 2: And if it's your choice, it's always always the woman's choice.
Speaker 1: Now I'm guessing there's no updates to what the baby
Speaker 1: is doing this week.
Speaker 2: It's getting fatter, like quite a bit fatter and quite
Speaker 2: a bit bigger. So I think that is where we
Speaker 2: start thinking about babies. That if you know, at thirty
Speaker 2: six weeks you had a big, little chunky monkey on
Speaker 2: board who was already on the ninety fifth centile, for example,
Speaker 2: I'd be thinking now about having a baby and doing
Speaker 2: all those things to bring this little one on naturally,
Speaker 2: and you know, and just being really open to the
Speaker 2: idea of what it would look like to have a
Speaker 2: four and a half kilo baby, because it is a
Speaker 2: it's a little unit.
Speaker 3: It's in like know, double low sized.
Speaker 1: Clothes, yeah, oh when they come out double over big
Speaker 1: about and quadruploths, I'm excited to learn those sizes because
Speaker 1: I've got a bunch of stuff, but I just don't
Speaker 1: know what she's going to come out at to know
Speaker 1: what I need more of or what I don't even
Speaker 1: need at all.
Speaker 2: Well, even even big babies are still little babies, Like
Speaker 2: even like a big four and a half is still tiny,
Speaker 2: Like they're still inter blows. They're little guys, but they're
Speaker 2: just certainly a lot bigger than your premier babies that
Speaker 2: come out at you know, two kilos and one kilo
Speaker 2: and five hundred grams. So a mixture of everything would
Speaker 2: be my answer to that.
Speaker 1: This is a Roague question. Do any patients who are
Speaker 1: having an elective cesarean do you ever work with them
Speaker 1: to wait for labor to come on naturally so they
Speaker 1: can feel the body is ready and then have a cesarean.
Speaker 2: And we like it when that happens, but it means
Speaker 2: it's not an elective labor. It's actually considered an emergency
Speaker 2: caesar because they'll come in laboring. So now regularly when
Speaker 2: this happens, is a woman who'd love, love love a VBAC.
Speaker 2: And because we many doctors won't do an induction because
Speaker 2: that sintosin and increases the risk of that rupture of
Speaker 2: the scar from the first pregnancy, so they won't start
Speaker 2: that sintosin and drip. So we book the caesar date
Speaker 2: as late as possible, like as in as late as possible,
Speaker 2: with the hope you'll go into spontaneous labor. But I
Speaker 2: reckon I wouldn't know the exact percent, but a lot
Speaker 2: of women who with book cesarians come in with rupture
Speaker 2: membranes or early labor, and all that means is we
Speaker 2: do the season earlier. And in most cases, like you know,
Speaker 2: I guess we have to be a bit honest. Here
Speaker 2: in rural settings, maybe we can't open a theater as quickly,
Speaker 2: but in Sydney and some of the major states around Australia,
Speaker 2: there's a hospital pretty close and they can usually get
Speaker 2: a labour team there to do the birth fairly, fairly swiftly.
Speaker 2: So it's not a bad thing because it means your
Speaker 2: baby's picked its judate and and you still had that
Speaker 2: elective season that you've wanted.
Speaker 1: What what's happening to me? What's happening to our bodies?
Speaker 1: Apart from probably being really uncomfortable and angry at the world.
Speaker 3: Because it's just not happy.
Speaker 1: Maybe people have a lot of bliss. Maybe I'm looking
Speaker 1: at this through a negative lens, but what is happening
Speaker 1: to our bodies.
Speaker 2: I don't know many women that haven't got to forty
Speaker 2: weeks and think they've had enough. You know, even women
Speaker 2: who are very very pro spontaneous vaginal birth and really
Speaker 2: wanting minimal intervention and you know, a water birth at home,
Speaker 2: are happy to have a baby at forty weeks.
Speaker 3: They just want it to happen naturally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're heavy, you're uncomfortable, everything hurts, you know, it's
Speaker 2: not fun. No one, no one is happy at forty
Speaker 2: weeks pregnant. So but you know, it happens a lot,
Speaker 2: and so we just have to roll with those punches.
Speaker 2: But babies just getting bigger at this point, they're fully developed.
Speaker 2: And now again it is extremely important to watch those movements.
Speaker 2: The highest risk of plus senal insufficiency is beyond forty weeks.
Speaker 2: So if you go postates that's what we call it.
Speaker 2: After forty weeks, we'll start seeing you a little more.
Speaker 2: So you'll usually get what's called a postate's ultrasound providing
Speaker 2: your low risk just to check the baby's growing still
Speaker 2: well and that placenta is still fine. They'll check the
Speaker 2: dopplers and things. They'll check the fluid around baby because
Speaker 2: one of the signs of a bubby getting tired and
Speaker 2: the placenta getting insufficient is that the fluid volume drops down.
Speaker 2: That's the amniotic fluid around the baby. So there's all
Speaker 2: those signs. They'll check in with you if everything goes well.
Speaker 2: We just hope you go into spontaneous labor by forty
Speaker 2: one and five days. Otherwise ninety percent of places will
Speaker 2: say we think you should have an induction of labor.
Speaker 1: And if the amniotic fluid is dropping down, is that
Speaker 1: the only way for that to drop is to come
Speaker 1: like out your vagina like you will notice or.
Speaker 2: No, So it's the baby's absorption, so it actually is less.
Speaker 2: So it's very good question because you're right that you
Speaker 2: would assume it means you're leaking from the vagina. If
Speaker 2: you're leaking from the vagina, that means your labor is
Speaker 2: hopefully starting because your waters are broken, or we would
Speaker 2: again offer an induction. We don't like someone sitting on
Speaker 2: broken waters, particularly at term, for much longer than ideally
Speaker 2: twenty four hours. Is the recommendation. We will wait three
Speaker 2: days with raptured water, provided there's no signs of infection
Speaker 2: and no gbs. You know, that's fine, that's a woman's decision.
Speaker 2: But if you're leaking, it's it's baby time. No, it's
Speaker 2: actually because your baby is not getting as much volume
Speaker 2: and nutrition from the placenta. Your bubby's not weaning as much,
Speaker 2: so it's actually not swallowing and creating that much urine.
Speaker 2: So it basically shows us that the fetus is distressed.
Speaker 2: So not always it's a soft sign, but it's okay,
Speaker 2: one of the only ones we have. So if your
Speaker 2: post dates and your baby's not moving as much and
Speaker 2: there's not as much fluid around, that's a really strong
Speaker 2: indication to bring you to start your labor.
Speaker 1: Is this normal?
Speaker 3: Is normal?
Speaker 1: Way? Is this normal? Questions are about when will all
Speaker 1: the bad pregnancy stuff go away?
Speaker 3: Well, do you mean like the big belly in the scene,
Speaker 3: a big belly?
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm quite I feel like I'm informed
Speaker 1: that the bounce back is weeks. In terms of months, yeah, months,
Speaker 1: in terms of your uterus shrinking, I'm talking about nausea reflux.
Speaker 1: It's probably just the blood pressure yeah.
Speaker 2: Blood yeah, blood pressure, yeah, exactly, and diabetes and things
Speaker 2: like that. So look, in most cases, things happen fairly
Speaker 2: quickly in the first few days after birth. Now, for
Speaker 2: certain conditions like the nausea, it often goes away almost
Speaker 2: as soon as you've had your baby. It's phenomenal. I know,
Speaker 2: you breathe a sigh of relief. Things like blood pressure. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: when your baby comes out, it basically is like a
Speaker 2: big boost of blood back to your system. So your
Speaker 2: kind of output goes even up higher straight after birth
Speaker 2: than it did in pregnancy. So the swelling gets worse
Speaker 2: sometimes for a few days before it gets better. Your
Speaker 2: body swelling, your blood pressure can actually be the worst
Speaker 2: on day four and five postpartum. So there are a
Speaker 2: few things to sort of watch out for in that space,
Speaker 2: which is why if you do have pre plants yea,
Speaker 2: we often ask you to stay longer in hospital for
Speaker 2: four up to four or five days after and we
Speaker 2: can really tyitrate your medications. For ladies with GDM, you
Speaker 2: don't have to worry about it. The minute your baby
Speaker 2: comes out, you can go back to it. Well, we
Speaker 2: still want you to be careful because remember there is
Speaker 2: a real risk with GDM that you will actually develop
Speaker 2: type two diabetes within the next ten to fifteen years.
Speaker 2: So we don't want you to go back to chocolates
Speaker 2: and macers forever. But you are very welcome to have
Speaker 2: any real.
Speaker 3: And we don't have to watch your blood.
Speaker 1: You'll the levels, they can have whatever they want.
Speaker 2: Yea, that in those couple of days and things. But yeah,
Speaker 2: so yeah, your body will bounce back. It's remarkable. We're
Speaker 2: made to do this as women.
Speaker 1: So what are the stats on how long it takes
Speaker 1: for your uterus to shrink back to its original size.
Speaker 2: Well, it happens quite quickly, so we monitor that afterwards.
Speaker 2: We like your uterus to be under your umbilical so
Speaker 2: under your belly button or ready by the next day.
Speaker 2: And so you'll get someone who'll come and give this
Speaker 2: nasty rub on your tummy and be like oh, you'd
Speaker 2: be like, oh my god.
Speaker 1: Al leave me alone.
Speaker 2: I just did this thing exactly because we're going to
Speaker 2: check that uterus has shrunk down and it's central. We
Speaker 2: don't want it to be deviated because that can sometimes
Speaker 2: mean there's a bit of percenter left or something like that.
Speaker 2: So you will also check your pad. Now, remember there is
Speaker 2: that chance of bleeding and pregnancy and certainly in birth,
Speaker 2: and we check that pad afterwards to make sure that
Speaker 2: the bleeding is not too excessive.
Speaker 1: What are the stages of how much bleeding is normal?
Speaker 1: And at what point do you call your midwife or
Speaker 1: call the hospital and come back in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great question, And in birth vaginal birth normals up
Speaker 2: to five hundred mils. It sounds like a lot, but
Speaker 2: remember you've got that extra two to three liters on
Speaker 2: board anyway up in a cesara and it's up to
Speaker 2: a litera still considered a big bleed, but we tolerate
Speaker 2: it and we often repeat your bloods the next day
Speaker 2: if you've bled a bit too much in labor. So
Speaker 2: things to look out for in that postpart and period
Speaker 2: is if you're passing clots, unless you've been lying down
Speaker 2: for a long time. Therefore it's just like coagulated and
Speaker 2: you stand up and it comes straight out. There's never
Speaker 2: really a good time that clots should be happening. Abnormal discharge.
Speaker 2: So if it smells funny, if you've got pain, we
Speaker 2: can get endometritis, which is an infection inside the uterus.
Speaker 2: That's a concern if you're bleeding stops and then it
Speaker 2: comes back heavy. That's a concern. So you will bleed
Speaker 2: like a heavy period for two or three weeks can
Speaker 2: be quite normal. Beyond that, we need to investigate, and
Speaker 2: any kind of weird pain and discharge is something we
Speaker 2: need to just review and check because, look, it's not common,
Speaker 2: but there sometimes can be a little bit of placenta,
Speaker 2: a little bit of the membrane still inside, and in
Speaker 2: most cases your body will pass it out naturally, but
Speaker 2: we need to do an ultracent and check that there's
Speaker 2: nothing large, because placentas is something we didn't talk about before.
Speaker 2: Actually percentas can usually be round, but sometimes there are
Speaker 2: actually this two percenters there's an extra lobe of the placenta,
Speaker 2: and we just need to make sure the whole things
Speaker 2: come out.
Speaker 1: Why wouldn't they do an ultrasound of your uterus to
Speaker 1: make sure there's nothing of the placenta when you're still
Speaker 1: in the hospital.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of blood in there, and it's quite
Speaker 2: hard to differentiate between tissue and blood associated and the
Speaker 2: uterine lining coming away, So it's initially quite hard. I
Speaker 2: mean you can I certainly there's a big bees oft plercenta,
Speaker 2: you'll see it. And so certainly if someone has a
Speaker 2: retained placenter, which we haven't talked about, but that's when
Speaker 2: after birth, between thirty and forty five minutes afterwards, despite
Speaker 2: having the injection in your leg to help it birth,
Speaker 2: it's still inside and.
Speaker 1: That injection is to help eat up percenter delivery.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it makes the uterus contract to hopefully then let
Speaker 2: it release off the wall. But unfortunately, some placentas do
Speaker 2: get stuck, particularly if you've had a previous arian section.
Speaker 2: It could be around that front of that womb. But
Speaker 2: again that's when we worry about placenta cretors and things
Speaker 2: that's gone. If you've had your baby vaginally, you don't
Speaker 2: have to worry that, but we just need to make
Speaker 2: sure that whole ples center comes out. And they do
Speaker 2: get stuck. It's not an uncommon thing to see. I'd see,
Speaker 2: you know, once or twice a week we get a
Speaker 2: stuck a placenter at my hospital. And so that is
Speaker 2: a time unfortunately, even if you've had a beautiful vaginal birth,
Speaker 2: that you may end up going to the operating theater
Speaker 2: because it's the safest place to remove it.
Speaker 1: And what can we expect hospital stay wise. Best case
Speaker 1: scenario for both a cesarean and a vaginal birth.
Speaker 2: Sure, So I mean we have an I did with
Speaker 2: my fourth women who leave five hours after vaginal birth
Speaker 2: from the birth un it, I mean we have people
Speaker 2: at birth at home. Remember like women are very, very amazing.
Speaker 2: It'll depend so if you've had risk factors, you'll have
Speaker 2: to say a few days. But I'd say most women
Speaker 2: go home. They say, one night in hospital in a
Speaker 2: public hospital and go home the next day. In private
Speaker 2: hospitals you get five nights of free accommodation, lactation consultants,
Speaker 2: peroneal care, and most places even let you leave your
Speaker 2: baby for an evening to go out for a dinner meal.
Speaker 2: So it very much depends on what model of care
Speaker 2: you've had, and so therefore it ranges from sort of
Speaker 2: one to five. And I think it's probably at this
Speaker 2: point when we should talk about a little bit of
Speaker 2: the postpartum stuff. So you need to see your GP
Speaker 2: in about two weeks after earth just to check on things.
Speaker 2: Paraneal care is really important. If you've had some stitches,
Speaker 2: Let's be honest, most people have, it's important to clear
Speaker 2: them really clean and dry, Please don't put any soap
Speaker 2: on them, keep them just you know, change your pad regularly.
Speaker 2: Every time you open your boughs. Wash with warm water,
Speaker 2: no soap, just salty your warm water. If you're concerned,
Speaker 2: call up monitor your cesarean wound. The dressings come off
Speaker 2: usually day five to seven. There's no stitches, are all internal.
Speaker 2: There's nothing to do there. But things to sort of
Speaker 2: keep an eye on are infections, paining your tummy, pain
Speaker 2: in your wounds, feeling sick, feeling hot and bothered, all
Speaker 2: of those sort of things. You need to go back
Speaker 2: to the birth unit, even if you went home on
Speaker 2: the same day.
Speaker 1: What about those who feel quite a lot of anxiety
Speaker 1: around the first pooh.
Speaker 2: Yes, your boughs get very particularly with cesarean sections, because
Speaker 2: it's sort of being moved around in that cason space.
Speaker 2: It feels weird having done it multiple times, it just
Speaker 2: feels uncomfortable. You can sometimes have and it's very normal
Speaker 2: to have a bit of flatus in continents. In other words,
Speaker 2: you fight and you can't hold it in.
Speaker 3: Very normal.
Speaker 2: It comes back to usually comes back providing your hat
Speaker 2: haven't had a big fourth degree tere in a couple
Speaker 2: of in a couple of days, if not a week.
Speaker 2: I think the big thing to highlight there is if
Speaker 2: your urinary contents is the same, you're not going to
Speaker 2: make it to the toilet half the time. You're going
Speaker 2: to be sort of waddling to the toilet.
Speaker 3: You're going to leak. Again.
Speaker 2: That's very it's just been stunned during the birth. It
Speaker 2: comes back over a week or two. I am a
Speaker 2: big believer no matter what birth, you have to book
Speaker 2: in with a pelvic physiotherapist. It's really strongly believe in it,
Speaker 2: no matter what birth you've had. Women as a approach
Speaker 2: perimenopause and menopause are going to have problems within continents
Speaker 2: and bladder issues. So preparing yourself to retrain after birth,
Speaker 2: to me is a no brainer. So if you're having
Speaker 2: excessive concerns, see it earlier. Otherwise start looking at that
Speaker 2: process in about six weeks. I'm also a big believer
Speaker 2: if you choose to breastfeed, to get a breastfeeding consultant
Speaker 2: because they can just sort of nullify some of the
Speaker 2: issues that are flying around in your head.
Speaker 1: For my toolkit, again, it's just questions. I'm just I've
Speaker 1: got you here at the end I cut you here,
Speaker 1: so I'm just gonna mind you for knowledge. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about two things. If you have a birth
Speaker 1: plan that you don't get and the mental health around that.
Speaker 1: That's the first one. So what are the risk factors
Speaker 1: when someone does have a plan and it doesn't plan
Speaker 1: go to plan? And I mean risk factors for their
Speaker 1: mental health? Certainly, obviously some people are going to be
Speaker 1: like who cares? But there are some people who are
Speaker 1: going to be very traumatized, very traumatized, and well really
Speaker 1: held onto an idea of how they wanted it to go.
Speaker 2: I think that's a huge thing to unpack. But I
Speaker 2: think most people don't get the birth they thought they
Speaker 2: were going to have. And I think if we go
Speaker 2: in with that attitude of with a really open mind
Speaker 2: of this is what I would love to happen, but
Speaker 2: I accept that it may or may not be that way. Again,
Speaker 2: a bit like the breastfeeding consultant and the pelvic physiotherapist,
Speaker 2: I think booking in a psychology appointment after birth, no
Speaker 2: matter how your birth is, is a great idea. We
Speaker 2: know that women are going to get postan or blues
Speaker 2: on day three to four. Anyway, it's as your milk
Speaker 2: comes in and your hormones change and everybody cries. The
Speaker 2: strongest woman will have a good cry and it's appropriate
Speaker 2: and normal, and we see is reassuring, but that can
Speaker 2: sometimes last longer than that having an identifiable or someone
Speaker 2: in your world that can actually identify that you're out
Speaker 2: of character and knowing where those resources are to go
Speaker 2: and get help, so you know there are lots of
Speaker 2: good online and good resources to try and look at
Speaker 2: from a postcanner depression perspective, but birth trauma definitely can
Speaker 2: make it a lot worse because if you're going there
Speaker 2: wanting and desperately hoping this is what your birth's going
Speaker 2: to be, and then it doesn't go to how you plan,
Speaker 2: it's a really hard language to say to yourself, well,
Speaker 2: I did everything humanly possible for it to plan, it
Speaker 2: didn't go that way, and I'm proud of myself. Most
Speaker 2: women just feel defeated by it. And I think it's
Speaker 2: actually our responsibility, particularly people like you and I who
Speaker 2: get on social media and talk about this, to be
Speaker 2: able to really highlight that it doesn't regularly go to
Speaker 2: plan and therefore you have done brilliantly. Even if you
Speaker 2: end up with a really bad case scenario, because there's
Speaker 2: no person that goes into that situation with that idea
Speaker 2: in mind. You go in with the best intentions and
Speaker 2: no matter if as long as you come out knowing
Speaker 2: that you tried the best you can and even if
Speaker 2: you didn't, even if you went in there with a
Speaker 2: whole plan and then bailed the first time you had
Speaker 2: a contraction, that's okay too, because there are no heroes
Speaker 2: in the birth environment. There's just a happy, well mum
Speaker 2: and a beautiful baby at the end of it.
Speaker 1: I really like this clip that you actually played just
Speaker 1: before we started recording, which is I don't know if
Speaker 1: they're obstectric. Yeah, I'm saying that this sentence is so
Speaker 1: problematic of you were given a baby you were meant
Speaker 1: to birth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you can't grow a baby that you weren't
Speaker 2: meant to birth, or your body is made to have
Speaker 2: this baby.
Speaker 1: Can you talk about why that makes you so angry
Speaker 1: that statement?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's just more it doesn't make me angry,
Speaker 2: it makes me sad, because yes, most of our bodies
Speaker 2: are you know, we create a baby that fits the
Speaker 2: size of our body, but some of us are five
Speaker 2: foot tall and marry six foot five husbands, and those
Speaker 2: babies are naturally going to be bigger. There are also
Speaker 2: babies that get themselves in the craziest positions and what
Speaker 2: we call a synclintic, which means their little head's getting
Speaker 2: completely stuck in the wrong part of the pels and
Speaker 2: it doesn't matter how well she pushes, it's not coming out.
Speaker 2: And she can try, and she can try, and she
Speaker 2: can try it, bubby won't come. There are also babies
Speaker 2: that will get stressed as soon as they get hugged
Speaker 2: by a contraction.
Speaker 3: And that's what I think. Can you imagine if I
Speaker 3: came over to your.
Speaker 2: Grace and hugged you and hugged you and hugged you
Speaker 2: and hugged you and hugged you for four or five hours,
Speaker 2: over and over and over again. It's tiring, and sometimes
Speaker 2: these little babies can't make it, and it's hard to
Speaker 2: say that. There are also some disorders like diabetes that
Speaker 2: me and your babies are much bigger than your body
Speaker 2: would normally create your baby, And so there are circumstances when,
Speaker 2: no matter how hard we try, our bodies aren't made
Speaker 2: to have the baby that's inside us. And that's where
Speaker 2: women three four hundred years ago would die in labor.
Speaker 2: All those babies would pass away, And so we need
Speaker 2: to be aware that in most cases, we hope your
Speaker 2: body can do this, but if it can't, it's okay.
Speaker 2: And that's where the medical world comes in to make
Speaker 2: sure that your baby meets this world and you have
Speaker 2: hopefully the best experience out of what your birth can offer.
Speaker 2: And we just want women to know that they have
Speaker 2: not failed, they have done everything right, and that we're
Speaker 2: there to support them in that process.
Speaker 1: My other question is around recovery. I feel like we've
Speaker 1: talked about the vaginal side of recovery in terms of
Speaker 1: stitches and things like that, but for a sea section
Speaker 1: scar one, how long is it and when can you
Speaker 1: start applying oil to try and reduce that?
Speaker 2: So sea section scars they look a lot bigger when
Speaker 2: when it first happens, because I've see you can imagine
Speaker 2: if you had a tattoo, it all stretched it up
Speaker 2: when it goes back down and saying about ten centimeters
Speaker 2: and it usually hides below your undies. Caesarean section wounds
Speaker 2: are they get their heal on their own. We just
Speaker 2: want you to leave it alone. There are you can
Speaker 2: go and put a little silicon gel patches. People could put
Speaker 2: botox in them, bi oil. Not for the first six weeks.
Speaker 2: Just let your body heal and knit really nicely back together.
Speaker 2: You'll probably be too busy with your baby anyway, but
Speaker 2: realistically it'll hide under your rundies and hopefully you know
Speaker 2: it just becomes part of your beautiful wound that is
Speaker 2: a representative of the fact that you birth the baby.
Speaker 1: I want to end by the moment, Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cry it so silly. I want to end
Speaker 1: on the moment you actually become a parent. Joanna, can
Speaker 1: you talk me through the moment the baby is plumped
Speaker 1: on your chest. I've been told this is just so magical,
Speaker 1: But is it as whimsical and wonderful as everyone says
Speaker 1: it is?
Speaker 2: For me, it was I felt that such a beautiful
Speaker 2: connection when that little one was placed on my chest,
Speaker 2: and it was all the efforts, all the heartache, all
Speaker 2: the things that have gone through that pregnancy, the hyperomises,
Speaker 2: the sick anything that you've been through. Every reason as
Speaker 2: to why that happened is lying in front of you now.
Speaker 2: And remember, we've always got to be positive. But some
Speaker 2: women don't have that automatic connection.
Speaker 3: It will come and that's okay.
Speaker 2: It takes time sometimes, but you know, capture those moments
Speaker 2: because and even those that do take a few days,
Speaker 2: I know, I expected lots of women that later they
Speaker 2: say I still remember. I still remember vividly the smell
Speaker 2: of the baby and the fact they often like try
Speaker 2: and find the nipple and have that really beautiful bonding moment.
Speaker 2: So you know, ultimately, pregnancy can be.
Speaker 3: Tough, but it is. It is the best thing I've
Speaker 3: ever done.
Speaker 2: Hence I've done it six times or five times and
Speaker 2: six babies, and you know, we can only encourage women
Speaker 2: that they're incredibly strong. You know, they're very powerful, and
Speaker 2: we're so lucky that we have the opportunity to be
Speaker 2: able to carry babies, and you know, supporting women who
Speaker 2: are going through that fertility challenge and who are in
Speaker 2: early pregnancy at the moment and being fair for them
Speaker 2: for their journey going forward.
Speaker 1: What is your favorite part about your job of watching women.
Speaker 3: I have to say that the favorite part of my
Speaker 3: job is birth.
Speaker 2: I absolutely love being in the birth unit, being with
Speaker 2: that woman and seeing the expression on her face when
Speaker 2: the little one comes out that very first look and
Speaker 2: that shock and that joy and those tears and that excitement.
Speaker 2: You can just see in their face that everything they've
Speaker 2: been through is worth it. And I particularly love the
Speaker 2: dads too, when they start crying and they just realize
Speaker 2: that this enormous thing has just come into their life,
Speaker 2: and this change and this opportunity, and how incredible their
Speaker 2: partner is. It's a pretty special job and I feel
Speaker 2: so incredibly privileged to be in that sacred space.
Speaker 1: I think that's the perfect place to end it. Good
Speaker 1: luck to all of our listeners who are awaiting their
Speaker 1: baby and are about to become parents for the first time.
Speaker 1: I hope you have found this useful and enjoyed the
Speaker 1: newborn bubble. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Hello Bump.
Speaker 1: We have so many episodes of this series filled with
Speaker 1: tips and stories from women and experts who've been through
Speaker 1: it all before.
Speaker 2: You can go back and listen to everything else Hello
Speaker 2: Bump related in this podcast feed.
Speaker 1: And while you're there, we'd love if you could give
Speaker 1: us a flying star rating and maybe APIs a review
Speaker 1: or even shared this episode with a friend.
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by Courtney Ammenhauser, with audio production
Speaker 2: by Tom Lyon.
Speaker 3: We'll catch you next time.
Speaker 1: This episode of Hello Bump was made in partnership with Huggies.
Speaker 3: Bye Bye, m