Author: Alison Craddock

My doctor knew I wanted to birth my twins naturally, even if one was born breech.

On the 6th July 2017 I had an appointment at the Mercy Hospital for woman in Heidelberg, I was 35w 2d pregnant with my boy / girl twins. During my pregnancy I always knew that my son was head down and my daughter was transverse which means she was laying across under my ribs, my Doctor knew I wanted to give birth vaginally so was always upfront with me and informed me of possible birth scenarios, one being my daughter may be born breech.

I woke in the morning to a slight waters rupture so I waited for my appointment in the afternoon to discuss with my Doctor. I was admitted into hospital on the spot and my Doctor was hopeful I would go into natural labour overnight but if not, I would be getting induced in the morning.

I woke in the morning to my Doctor coming up to the ward to see me to advise that I would be getting induced.

I was wheeled up to the birthing suite at 9am with my husband, mum, sister and midwife student by my side, and at 10:30am I was given the epidural.  During the course of the day the Doctor kept coming in to check dilation, at 7pm I was only 2cm. Due to the epidural I did not feel any contractions but at 9pm I noticed that my breathing had changed to a slow deep inhale and a deep exhale.

At about 10:30pm my husband decided to go downstairs to buy a drink, he was gone maybe 3 minutes when I started to feel strange, I looked at my sister and said “I feel like I need to poo, which means I need to push which means I am about to have a baby” she looked at me, and ran out to get a Doctor. The Doctor came into the room to examine me and I had reached 10cm and it was time to start pushing.

I had reached 10cm and it was time to start pushing.

With my legs in stirrups, my poor husband walked in the door to me starting to push, all of a sudden approximately 10 other people started walking in the room and setting up what looked like a little work station in the corner of the room.

At 11:11pm after five pushes baby Jack Robert entered the world weighing 2.455kg.

After 10 minutes of multiple Doctors and Nurses prodding my stomach my Doctor manually attempted to grab my breech twin b by the feet to help bring her birth on, with no developments another Doctor attempted but during the course the doctor only grabbed one leg and her other leg was above her head. Due to baby stress, the doctor had to be quick with getting my daughter out and with a few pushes, and help from my doctor, baby Poppy Louise was born at 11:33pm weighing 2.625kg.

Due to breakdown of placenta during Jacks birth, Poppy was not breathing when delivered and had to be worked on for approximately 4 minutes.  She was then rushed off to Special Care for brain testing which all came back clear. After 4 nights in NICU we were lucky enough to then be able to spend a night in the family suite at the hospital along with our babies for both my husband and myself to get into the swing of things before going home.  Knowing there was 24 hour support from the hospital staff was very comforting. The next day after some medical checks we were lucky enough to bring our 2 healthy babies home from hospital.

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