Placenta Previa & C-Section – Birth Story

Describe your birth experience in 3 words:

kind, exciting and magnificent

How did you prepare for birth?

Yoga, healthy eating, rest and visualisation

How did you bring your baby into the world?

C-Section

What most helped you through the birth experience?

Knowledge gained from SheBirths about special things that would help me baby bond and be nurtured from the start in spite of a C-Section.

How did She Births help you?

Knowledge about food, breath work and birth plan suggestions. Yoga.

I found out I had Placenta Previa at 26 weeks and due to the support and knowledge, I gained through SheBirths® was able to advocate for a full-term birth via C-section. Unexpectedly three days before she was due to arrive my wee a by decided to move and I had to go into an emergency situation in a neighbouring town!

I was at a beautiful herbal centre called Anula Healing – far from town waiting for a pregnancy massage…I had left my partner and stepson at the skate park and driven several kms out of town to the centre. I felt a sensation whilst talking to the herbalist – my plug had moved. I went to the bathroom and knew I had to get to the hospital. Fast.

There was no pain but I had started to bleed. The owner took me to the hospital herself, no time to wait for an ambulance! She was so very calming and kind and I laughed with her as I realised I didn’t have any of my ‘things’ with me- no birth plan, oils, clothes or bliss balls or coconut water to get me through! The truth I was a bit worried but I immediately began slow belly breaths as we drove.

Once we arrived ( the same time my partner Jess and stepson Harry arrived in a taxi from the skate park) things got moving fast. The staff were absolutely magical and responded warmly and positively to me announcing that within an hour we would be delivering my wee baby.

Having already processed the reality and sadness I felt about not birthing vaginally over the previous few months, I now felt clear and empowered to share what I needed to with the nursing staff about what I would love to help this birth be as special as possible.

I asked for Jess to cut the cord, for skin-to-skin for the placenta to be kept to be encapsulated and so many more things that I learned from the SheBirths® course that created a safe and magnificent environment for my baby to arrive.

C-Sections are complicated and more so with Previa. I needed two blood transfusions and the baby was handed over to me and popped straight on the boob in spite of all this trickiness. Jess held on to his chest whilst I was in recovery and when I finally returned to the room, the beautiful healer has given us oils and a diffuser and music to soothe our first few hours together.

My stepson held his wee sister straight away and I was plied with all of the best foods – dates and coconut water and all kinds of nourishing broths and casseroles created to repair and heal and feed this new wee being.

SheBirths® empowered me to understand that when complicated intervention processes are needed ask questions, understand what you need, call in your allies to support your babymoon time, and the whole experience of birthing a healthy baby is worth so much more than an idealised view of what a ‘perfect birth looks like.

Sharing my birth story and embracing its twists and turns was an is deeply healing and transformative.

Kate x