Speaker 1: You're listening to a Mother 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 Cassania Lukic and this is diary of her birth.
Speaker 2: We all know that having a support system is vital
Speaker 2: in pregnancy in birth, but sometimes life gets in the
Speaker 2: way and we're faced with more stressful scenarios than we
Speaker 2: would like. So what do you do when you're thrilled
Speaker 2: to be pregnant but your relationship is collapsing. Today's mum
Speaker 2: had a fairly conventional labor, but within weeks of giving birth,
Speaker 2: found herself in the midst of a breakup and thrust
Speaker 2: into single motherhood. She first hit our screens It's a
Speaker 2: teenager or Australia's Next time Model, and her career has
Speaker 2: seen her model for the likes of Playboy and Guests
Speaker 2: with a wicked sense of humor. This fireball has been
Speaker 2: making me laugh for years. But today's story is about resilience.
Speaker 2: So let's meet Today's mum.
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Simone Holtznegel and this is the diary of
Speaker 1: my birth with baby Ga.
Speaker 2: Simone, tell me about your life before you felt pregnant
Speaker 2: with Gia.
Speaker 1: I had been modeling for fifteen years. I had lived overseas,
Speaker 1: was modeling in la and all around Europe for quite
Speaker 1: a while. I was on the cover of Playboy. I
Speaker 1: word like eight guest campaigns, did lots of really cool things.
Speaker 1: I've done a few TV spots here and there, and
Speaker 1: then yeah, I came back to Sydney right before COVID happened,
Speaker 1: and I just kind of stayed. I love being in Sydney.
Speaker 1: Sydney is the best place in the world. And then
Speaker 1: I was with my now ex partner at the end
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two, those years of COVID,
Speaker 1: who knows the lost years, and then we fell pregnant
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: And that wasn't necessarily planned.
Speaker 1: At the time, it wasn't not planned. We had spoken
Speaker 1: about always wanting to have kids and start a family,
Speaker 1: and we were like next year, twenty twenty three, and
Speaker 1: then yeah, it happened. Like we were very lucky that
Speaker 1: it just kind of happened very quick, so it wasn't
Speaker 1: completely unplanned at least I didn't think. So.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you have mentioned that ex partner, the relationship
Speaker 2: was good, and then our relationship.
Speaker 1: Was really good, and then when I got pregnant, I
Speaker 1: think there was a lot of freaking out, as some
Speaker 1: men tend to go through.
Speaker 2: So I'm told, so you were pregnant, excited, very excited.
Speaker 2: Your sister has a bub your sister's got two kids.
Speaker 1: Three So my older sister was pregnant the same time,
Speaker 1: and I was. Our babies are seven weeks apart.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Yeah, tell me about the pregnancy itself. How
Speaker 2: did you feel?
Speaker 1: It was funny because I had been in the Maldives
Speaker 1: for my thirtieth birthday and literally the day I can't
Speaker 1: believe I did this. On our last night in the
Speaker 1: mal Dives, I had this cocktail that was called a
Speaker 1: cocoa melon. We all know what coco melon is, so
Speaker 1: it's like coconut watermelon whatever, and I posted a photo
Speaker 1: of it on my Instagram story and I was like,
Speaker 1: this is the only coco melon I'm interested at the moment.
Speaker 1: Next day found out I was pregnant.
Speaker 2: It's very fortuitous.
Speaker 1: Yeah, psychic, but yeah. We got home from the airport
Speaker 1: and I was like at baggage claim and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh gosh, I feel very sick. And my ex partner
Speaker 1: he was like, you always do this at this part
Speaker 1: of the trip. You just don't want to get you
Speaker 1: And I was like, no, I feel really sick. And
Speaker 1: all day I was like, feel really sick. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just thought it was flying whatever. And then I did
Speaker 1: a pregnancy test and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: really excited.
Speaker 2: Did you feel sick for your pregnancy.
Speaker 1: I was pretty lucky. I didn't really have any morning sickness,
Speaker 1: but I was quite nauseous that first twelve weeks, and
Speaker 1: just I'm already a tired person, so being pregnant, I
Speaker 1: was just completely wiped out. And then I actually remember
Speaker 1: I had really bad headaches for the first like two trimesters.
Speaker 2: I had that too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And then everyone was like, oh, it's probably a
Speaker 1: boy because it's like the testosterone hormones in your body
Speaker 1: or some weird doesn't really make sense anyway, it was
Speaker 1: a girl. Think, gosh, did you.
Speaker 2: Have any plans about how you wanted to give birth?
Speaker 1: I really wanted to be completely knocked out and then
Speaker 1: just wake and the baby was there. But twenty twenty four,
Speaker 1: you can't do that yet, which is insane to me.
Speaker 1: I don't know why that's not an option. All I
Speaker 1: knew was I'm such a baby. I don't even like
Speaker 1: getting needles. But I just knew that I wanted to
Speaker 1: be as pain free as possible. A really big caveat
Speaker 1: to that is me saying I hate needles, terrified of needles.
Speaker 1: And then the only way to get my pain free
Speaker 1: birth is to have the biggest needle put into my spine,
Speaker 1: which was the scariest. I think about it now, it
Speaker 1: gives you the haby bbs, yeah, a shudder.
Speaker 2: Okay, So tell me about the last few weeks before
Speaker 2: you gave birth. You were doing March end of March,
Speaker 2: GA is almost one.
Speaker 1: GA is almost one. Honestly, I've kind of blocked it
Speaker 1: out because it wasn't the most stress free pregnancy. I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time by myself, which was nice,
Speaker 1: you know, rather than dealing with other unexpected things, I
Speaker 1: just rested. I just remember being so uncomfortable.
Speaker 2: Tell me about going into labor.
Speaker 1: The day that I actually went into labor, I'd had
Speaker 1: a stretch and sweep the day before, and the day
Speaker 1: that I actually went into labor, I was not at
Speaker 1: my house because I did not want to be at
Speaker 1: my house, so obviously very high emotions, and I was
Speaker 1: with my mum and dad at my family friend's place,
Speaker 1: which I am very, very very lucky that I have
Speaker 1: somewhere to stay when I'm in Sydney. Anyway, we went
Speaker 1: down to the Kuji Path and I ate the most
Speaker 1: insane spicy pizza and I'm not like a spicy flavor person,
Speaker 1: and I had an apparol spirit because I was like, well,
Speaker 1: this baby's coming out within a day or so, so
Speaker 1: this might move the process along. And I'd actually been
Speaker 1: trying crazy old like wife's tales. I do remember that,
Speaker 1: like curb walking and stuff, because I was like, get out.
Speaker 1: And my sister, my older sister, has had two of
Speaker 1: her three babies on her exact JEW date. I thought
Speaker 1: that was normal. So when that didn't happen for me,
Speaker 1: I was like, when that's the worst part that last week,
Speaker 1: Like when you're approaching your JEW date because you just
Speaker 1: you don't really want to do anything because you could
Speaker 1: have a baby within hours. So yeah, I ate a
Speaker 1: really spicy pizza, I had an aperol sprits, and went
Speaker 1: for a very long walk on the beach with my mom.
Speaker 1: And then I was sitting at home texting my sister,
Speaker 1: my little sister Madeline, saying how funny would it be
Speaker 1: if my water broke while I was sat here? And
Speaker 1: then I stood up and then I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I think my water just broke, which was the plan,
Speaker 1: because you know how they say when your water breaks,
Speaker 1: you have to go straight to hospital for you know,
Speaker 1: the infection risk. So I was really worried that I
Speaker 1: was going to go into labor and just be having
Speaker 1: contractions and my water wouldn't break by itself, because I
Speaker 1: was like, if that happens to me and I call
Speaker 1: the hospital and they say, I'll just stay at home,
Speaker 1: absolutely not, because I again I was worried the longer
Speaker 1: I'd stay at home that I'd missed that window of
Speaker 1: getting an epidural that worked out. I got to hospital.
Speaker 1: My mum drove me. She was driving really slow, too
Speaker 1: slow in fact for my liking. Didn't have the baby
Speaker 1: in the car though, but I had maybe two contractions
Speaker 1: in the space of an hour. We got in the car,
Speaker 1: and then it was on. I was still in the
Speaker 1: triage rooms of the birthing unit, and I was the
Speaker 1: person that you get warned about with your midwife when
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, some people vomit.
Speaker 2: That was me, You were vomiting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have the worst pain threshold. I could not
Speaker 1: stop throwing up. I waited about an hour, got an epidural.
Speaker 1: Scariest moment of my life. My partner was there, but
Speaker 1: I told him to get out of the room. They said,
Speaker 1: you can only have one person in the room while
Speaker 1: you're getting an epidural. I think it's just like in
Speaker 1: case people faint or something.
Speaker 2: So tell me about getting the epidural as someone who
Speaker 2: is terrified of needles.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. I asked him so many questions, and
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, how long have you been doing this?
Speaker 1: And I'd read heaps about it because obviously, as they say,
Speaker 1: knowledge as power, so I read all about it beforehand.
Speaker 1: And then at that point I was like timing my
Speaker 1: contractions because I was like, you have about four minutes
Speaker 1: or however long it was, and I was like, okay, go,
Speaker 1: if I close my eyes, I can literally go back
Speaker 1: to that moment, which makes me feel sick because I
Speaker 1: hate needles, and I was so scared, but I was
Speaker 1: just holding onto my mom. I'm not a religious person,
Speaker 1: my mom is, and I knew she would be doing this,
Speaker 1: so I was just I think I was saying, like,
Speaker 1: hail Mary's. Yeah, I've never been more still in my
Speaker 1: entire life. Is truly terrifying.
Speaker 2: Because what they do is they set you up. They
Speaker 2: set you up. You have to kind of bend over
Speaker 2: and hug. You hug a pillow.
Speaker 1: I had my arms around my mum.
Speaker 2: And you hug someone and do you hear this sound
Speaker 2: when they opened the packet?
Speaker 1: Is this take cace like I'm getting hot?
Speaker 2: And then they put that better Day and all over
Speaker 2: your back.
Speaker 1: And then in that time as well, I was okay stop.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, because I started to
Speaker 1: have a contraction. And then I'm like, okay, go go go,
Speaker 1: go go coming up. She came and picked up the placenta,
Speaker 1: it was on ice, took it, cleaned it, did whatever,
Speaker 1: came back with a little protein shaker that had a
Speaker 1: three centimeter piece of my placenta in it, with coconut water,
Speaker 1: frozen banana, and frozen berries.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you have your epidural rule.
Speaker 1: I have my EPI dury, my ex partner orders McDonald's,
Speaker 1: and then my mum and John. I fell asleep on
Speaker 1: the floor. I had a bit of a sleep, but
Speaker 1: I was just so excited and so nervous that I'm like, okay, like,
Speaker 1: let's get this show on the road. I think I
Speaker 1: slept for a few hours, and then I touched up
Speaker 1: my makeup and watched RuPaul's Drag Race, and then I
Speaker 1: was like, let's go, everybody. I was almost fully dilated,
Speaker 1: and then at seven or six thirty in the morning,
Speaker 1: they came in. They're like, okay, you're fully dilated, but
Speaker 1: almost ready to start pushing. And then they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: we just have to wait because we're doing stuff. Changeover,
Speaker 1: and then they came in. By the time we started pushing,
Speaker 1: I think it was eight. Turns out it's not like
Speaker 1: the movies, and pushing is a lot harder than what
Speaker 1: you actually think it's going to be. Had I known
Speaker 1: that something I would do differently, I would go to
Speaker 1: a women's physio and learn how to push properly. Because
Speaker 1: I had no idea and I couldn't do it, and
Speaker 1: so I ended up pushing for about two hours, So yeah,
Speaker 1: it started about eight. Gea was born at ten sixteen
Speaker 1: on the thirty first. But yeah, I just couldn't do it,
Speaker 1: and I had my legs and stirrups and did you
Speaker 1: have an epigero I did you know when they're like
Speaker 1: you won't feel pain, but you can feel the contractions coming.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even really feel that.
Speaker 2: So did you not feel any pressure when she was
Speaker 2: coming out?
Speaker 1: I don't remember, Like, I don't think I did. So
Speaker 1: what happened was I just couldn't do that last part,
Speaker 1: you know when it's like turn they say, or like
Speaker 1: that last because obviously you're sitting down, legs up, stirrups.
Speaker 1: That last little like dip sounds like a ride, but
Speaker 1: it's not. I could not do that. And then they
Speaker 1: called in a bunch of doctors. John I was eating
Speaker 1: a croissant. It was Easter, and we had friends who
Speaker 1: worked at the hospital, so they dropped off bake goods anyway,
Speaker 1: so we kind of had a break and then a
Speaker 1: bunch of doctors came in. We could see the monitors.
Speaker 1: Ga was fine, her heart rate and everything was fine,
Speaker 1: and they said they were like, she's right there, Like
Speaker 1: we can see the top of her head. She's got
Speaker 1: lots of hair. And the doctors came in and they
Speaker 1: were like, okay, like we've got to decide what we're doing.
Speaker 1: We can either do vacuum or fourceps or episiotomy or both.
Speaker 1: And I was like, absolutely no episiotomy. Don't come near me,
Speaker 1: nightmare fuel. So I was like, can we just try
Speaker 1: and do fourceups? So they did, and the doctor who
Speaker 1: did it, she was amazing and literally she just grabbed
Speaker 1: onto a little noggin and gave her a little tug
Speaker 1: and then she was right there. So I didn't have
Speaker 1: any tearing, No apisiotom me, no nothing.
Speaker 2: She comes out does she goes straight onto your chest?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What was that moment meeting her for the first time.
Speaker 1: I just remember I was just like so happy. I
Speaker 1: just had like the biggest smile on my face, and
Speaker 1: I like I cried a little bit, but I was
Speaker 1: just more like, oh my God, like so excited. I
Speaker 1: mean to think back on it, it's really such a blur. Yeah,
Speaker 1: every photo I have my face Like, even thinking about
Speaker 1: it now, my mouth hurts from smiling.
Speaker 2: What was your recovery from the birth, Like totally fine.
Speaker 1: I had one internal stitch. Actually that's a lie. I
Speaker 1: mean I did have one internal stitch. I had a
Speaker 1: spinal injury. Can't believe I forgot this. I had a
Speaker 1: spinal injury from my epidural but it wasn't in my back,
Speaker 1: it was in my leg. I walk in to be
Speaker 1: able to have a baby come out and can't walk properly.
Speaker 1: So basically because I was in stirrups for so long,
Speaker 1: I had a neuropraxia of the femeral nerve, and that
Speaker 1: essentially means that my nerve had been like crushed or something,
Speaker 1: so I could not feel and I still kind of
Speaker 1: can't feel it like a patch on my leg that
Speaker 1: goes up around my knee. I'd have had injuries on
Speaker 1: this leg, like disslcating my knee a few times. That
Speaker 1: was the worst part for me recovery. I had obviously
Speaker 1: appointments in the hospital like lactation consultants and stuff, and
Speaker 1: I had GA in the basinette, and I was so
Speaker 1: scared to walk and like getting in and out of
Speaker 1: bed because I felt like I couldn't put my full
Speaker 1: weight and I couldn't put my full weight on my leg.
Speaker 1: So I saw everybody. I saw new people after I
Speaker 1: had the baby. I saw physios, lots of different visitors
Speaker 1: to my hospital room trying to figure out what was
Speaker 1: wrong with my leg, and I ended up having to
Speaker 1: go and do this is months I'm talking later, like
Speaker 1: it did come back, and they were like, look, we
Speaker 1: don't want to tell you it's going to be back
Speaker 1: in two weeks, because it could be two months, it
Speaker 1: could be six months, but it will eventually come back.
Speaker 1: I had to do nerve testing with the neuro team.
Speaker 1: They basically said that they were trading it as if
Speaker 1: I'd had a stroke. It was like the connection between
Speaker 1: this and this go on.
Speaker 2: You're pointing at your brain and your leg leg. I
Speaker 2: can't believe you'd forgot to tell me that.
Speaker 1: It's funny because I guess when people talk about their
Speaker 1: like birth recovery, they're talking about like their vagina and stuff.
Speaker 1: I'm going about my knees.
Speaker 2: No, No, I mean I think there's there's so much
Speaker 2: to it. There's you know, the first toileting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't remember, Like honestly, it was pretty stock standard.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like, oh my god, I'm coming back next week.
Speaker 1: Let's do it again. But I think I'd heard so
Speaker 1: many horror stories or had such expectations of how bad
Speaker 1: it could be, and then it wasn't that, and I
Speaker 1: was like, this isn't so bad. But I know I'm
Speaker 1: extremely lucky, and I know there's a lot of like
Speaker 1: my mum talks about she had like a really bad
Speaker 1: episiotomy with first baby, my older sister, and I guess
Speaker 1: my recovery would have been different. But again, I drank
Speaker 1: my placenta. Have I told you this?
Speaker 2: You haven't told me that you drank your placenta. So
Speaker 2: did you put it into capsules or.
Speaker 1: Did you Yeah, so put it into capsules. Then the
Speaker 1: lady who does said encapsulation, she came and picked up
Speaker 1: the placenta, was on ice, took it, cleaned it, did whatever,
Speaker 1: came back with a little protein shaker that had a
Speaker 1: three centimeter piece of my placenta in it, with coconut water,
Speaker 1: a frozen banana, and frozen berries. You have to sign
Speaker 1: a thing saying that no one else is allowed to
Speaker 1: have a sip because technically you're eating like an organ,
Speaker 1: like a human organ. It's just like the legal form
Speaker 1: of cannibalism. It's true, I did that because I was
Speaker 1: really concerned, and I know we've talked about this before.
Speaker 1: I was really concerned about postnatal depression because I dealt
Speaker 1: with like anxiety and depression stuff years ago. So I
Speaker 1: was really worried about that. And because my at home
Speaker 1: life relationship wise, this was obviously very new for both
Speaker 1: of us, and I was concerned about that level of
Speaker 1: support from my partner. So yeah, I was really worried
Speaker 1: about all of that stuff. So I did a lot
Speaker 1: of research. I knew I was going to do the capsules,
Speaker 1: and then I saw she offered the lady whose service
Speaker 1: I used offered this smoothie thing. So I did that
Speaker 1: and I feel like it worked amazing. Also, like you know,
Speaker 1: could it just be a place ebo effect. I don't know,
Speaker 1: but ten out of ten would recommend I stopped bleeding
Speaker 1: after three days, three or four days, which apparently that's
Speaker 1: unheard of. That is unheard of.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So I mean, look, you had a physically
Speaker 2: really great Yes, Physically it was kind of textbook. It
Speaker 2: came out perfectly healthy. You didn't really struggle with breastfeeding much.
Speaker 2: That all came really naturally, But you'd were left kind
Speaker 2: of as a single mom relatively quickly after she was born.
Speaker 1: Left as a single mom when she was three weeks
Speaker 1: old when my partner when I were on a boys trip,
Speaker 1: and then I was left as a single mom when
Speaker 1: my partner went to Thailand because he was tired when
Speaker 1: she was seven weeks old. So it was an easy
Speaker 1: decision at that point because I'd already been doing everything
Speaker 1: by myself anyway. So what was the difference. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: I just made that decision.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we talk a lot about the fourth
Speaker 2: trimester on here, and I think that that's like something
Speaker 2: that's really interesting is you know that part of a
Speaker 2: newborn is really challenging. It's such a shift in how
Speaker 2: you go about life, like being a new mom and
Speaker 2: then also emotionally for you, you know, the end of
Speaker 2: a relationship and being a new mum. It's a lot.
Speaker 2: But you always has such a great positive outlook and
Speaker 2: I love how you're like I can just I've got this. Well.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things where it's like if you
Speaker 1: don't laugh, you'll cry. So the whole looking after babies
Speaker 1: been newborn just kind of comes very naturally to me.
Speaker 1: I had a lot of experience my older sister's first baby, Miller.
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time with her. I mean
Speaker 1: I still do, but particularly in the first like two
Speaker 1: years of her life. I looked after her a few
Speaker 1: times a week and I've just always I mean, who
Speaker 1: doesn't love babies. Honestly, it didn't feel completely scary. Of course,
Speaker 1: there's the moments when you first get home and you're like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I'm a mom. That's scary, but I
Speaker 1: wasn't completely going and blind, Like I knew how to
Speaker 1: burn a baby and you how to rock a baby.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I knew how to get a baby settled, give a
Speaker 1: baby a bar, yea, all that kind of stuff. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess that's the lucky thing of having siblings have children.
Speaker 2: I think there is a lot, yeah, unsaid, but I
Speaker 2: think the core of it is you went through a
Speaker 2: birth and a labor during a very emotional time, but
Speaker 2: you are thriving.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I know. It sounds really like, obviously this is
Speaker 1: not how I planned for it to be. And you know,
Speaker 1: young me, when I would think about my life when
Speaker 1: you're older, you're like, oh my god, I'm going to
Speaker 1: be married by the time I'm twenty and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have seven babies and like a house and you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, Like when you're a little girl and
Speaker 1: you think about that and you think about your wedding
Speaker 1: and stuff. I never thought that i'd be firstly having
Speaker 1: a baby before I was married. Like I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: that I'm like a super traditional person, but I just
Speaker 1: that's how you're supposed to do it. I didn't plan
Speaker 1: for it to be like this, but turns out it is.
Speaker 1: At They're probably the best outcome for me.
Speaker 2: I love it. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: Here at Diary of a Birth. We want you to
Speaker 2: be armed with all the information and today we have
Speaker 2: obstrution and gynecologist Dr Bronwin Devine here to answer all
Speaker 2: of our burning medical questions. So what is the science
Speaker 2: behind encapsulating a placenta?
Speaker 3: So look, there are a number of people who will
Speaker 3: either organized for someone to take their placenta and encapsulate it,
Speaker 3: and then they'll take it as a tablet, which is
Speaker 3: sometimes for some people, a more palatable way of consuming
Speaker 3: your placenta post birth. Other people will be very brave
Speaker 3: and cookt or incorporated in some other sort of food,
Speaker 3: which it sounds like Simone's done with the smoothie. The
Speaker 3: science and the understanding of why this is done is
Speaker 3: still there's a lot of mysticism around it, and there's
Speaker 3: not a lot of really clear, high quality scientific data
Speaker 3: that says it's definitely the right thing to do, But
Speaker 3: there's more and more people who believe that it is
Speaker 3: a good approach to take. I think the sort of
Speaker 3: understanding is that all the you know, so the rationale
Speaker 3: is that post birth people do go through a huge
Speaker 3: flux in their hormones and that can be associated with
Speaker 3: significant mood change. And so the belief is that if
Speaker 3: you don't just take your placenter or have your placenter
Speaker 3: of birthed and then thrown in the bin, then at
Speaker 3: least you can, you know, in some way recuperate some
Speaker 3: of those very potent hormones that the placenta makes, because
Speaker 3: the placenta is an amazing hormone factory and it makes
Speaker 3: so many incredible mediators and hormones and proteins and things
Speaker 3: like that. So the rationale behind consuming your placenta in
Speaker 3: some form post birth is to really sort of ease
Speaker 3: yourself into a more gentle transition to the post birth state.
Speaker 3: As I say, not a huge amount of really high
Speaker 3: quality scientific evidence to support that, but there certainly is
Speaker 3: more and more people who are electing to either have
Speaker 3: their PERCENTA turned into tablets or to consume it some
Speaker 3: other way.
Speaker 2: And how common is the injury that's some mind sustained.
Speaker 3: Bearing in mind I'm not in anithetis, so this will
Speaker 3: be a fairly simple explanation. But neuropraxia is just usually
Speaker 3: some temporary trauma to a nerve, often pressing on a
Speaker 3: nerve for a prolonged period of time that can cause
Speaker 3: the nerve to get a little bit damaged, but it
Speaker 3: usually recovers fully, but it then can have effects like
Speaker 3: numbness and tingling, or sometimes weakness of the muscle supplied
Speaker 3: by that nerve, and often femeral nerve. Neuropraxia is not
Speaker 3: so much due to the epidural but things like the
Speaker 3: position that people might be in when they're pushing, or
Speaker 3: the position that people might be in when they're lying
Speaker 3: in a particular position for a long time as a
Speaker 3: result of having a regional block like an epidural federal nerve.
Speaker 3: Neuropraxia is not uncommon with childbirth, but it's often more
Speaker 3: associated with being up in stirrups, not so commonly associated
Speaker 3: with epidural anesthesias. Happen you've got pressure on a nerve
Speaker 3: after being in a position for a fairly extended period
Speaker 3: of time. Usually with the neuropraxya of the nerve recovers
Speaker 3: completely and the muscle weakness resolves, or the numbers and
Speaker 3: tingling resolves. So it's not something that requires anything further
Speaker 3: than just a bit of rehability of stuff, maybe some
Speaker 3: physio things like that.
Speaker 2: Dary over Birth was hosted by me Casanulukitch with expert
Speaker 2: input from doctor Bronwin Devine. If you have a birth story,
Speaker 2: we'd love to hear from you. Details are in the
Speaker 2: show notes. This episode was produced by Tina Mattalov and
Speaker 2: myself Casanu Lukitch, with audio production by Leopordiz