08| Shannah Clarke: Premature Birth, NICU, Homebirth, Fast Labour

Shannah is mom to 3 year old Rhett and her daughter Willow Grace, she is from a small town in New Brunswick where she lives with her partner Shawn as beginning homesteaders. Shawn and Shanna are from the same town so they grew up together and when they were in their 20's they had started dating; once they were ready to try for a baby they got pregnant very quickly but Shannah didn't find out until she was around 8 weeks because she says she was in a bit of denial that it could have actually happened that quickly.

"I still will say to this day, I've never been as exhausted as I was in those first weeks of Rhett's pregnancy"

Shannah did a pregnancy test which she initially read wrong thinking it was negative but when she went back the next day she peaked at it again and realized it was positive. She went on to see her family doctor who she actually ended up following all the way up to delivery because she wasn't set to meet her OB until 36 weeks but she ended up having Rhett before then. She did have a birth plan but since Rhett was a preemie things didn't go quite the way she had hoped. It was a stressful time during pregnancy for their family, at 18 weeks Shannah's house burnt to the ground and then she says her dogs deiced to "join in the fun" and got pregnant. The night before Shannah went into labour herself, her dog ended up having 11 puppies which she assisted in their birth; when Shannah went in to check on them the next day at 8 pm her water had broke at 35+3 and so they headed into the hospital. Contractions started up around 1 am and they moved her into they labour unit, close to the end of labour she got a fentynal drip to help with the pain. 1 pm he was born, he was quite small and they had taken him right away to work on him and check him over, it wasn't until about 8 hours after birth she was able to hold him. They struggled with nursing and used a nipple shield to help get a better latch but Rhett was also a 'lazy nurser' which is a common thing for early babies. Postpartum was hard on Shannah, they had a lot going on in those early days and it did take a toll on her.

"Looking back I definitely walked a line that was close to being - You know, I definitely had days where I would 110% say I had postpartum depression"

Rhett is a very strong, determined child so that made Shannah a bit nervous to have another child because he is a lot for her and demands a lot of her times and attention but they did decide to have another baby. Sadly, Shannah did get pregnant but lost that baby Dec 2018, and then got pregnant again with Willow February 2019, she found out at about 4 weeks pregnant. Shannah had a great pregnancy with Willow and no major symptoms. Since Rhett was considered a stress induced preemie Shannah wasn't at risk for another preemie so she met the requirements to be accepted into midwifery as she had her heart set on a homebirth this time around. When she called they were already full but they put her on their wait list, luckily she ended up getting in at around 26 weeks and was then able to start planning her homebirth. At the clinic Shannah was at, they worked in teams of two so she would rotate her prenatal visits to get the chance to connect with both of them and the guarantee is one of them will be the one present for birth. Close to the end of pregnancy the midwives came to check out the birthing space at home, leave the birth pool and birth kit for baby day! The plan was to have her sister, her mom, grandma, her Shawn's moms and grandmas as well. Shannah made it to 40+3 this time with Willow, though she did think because Rhett came early that she would as well so the last few weeks really dragged on. She was having false labour for 3 weeks before before Willow actually made her entrance, since she was having all of these false alarms she called her sister over around 6 pm just in case it was the real thing. Rhett wasn't wanting to go down to sleep so Shannah was still trying to get him down right up to 10 pm and once she finally got him down her body really geared up and she went right into active labour. She went into her room in the dark to lay quietly and listened to a certain song and coached herself through each contraction for about a half hour and then went into a warm bath until about 11 pm. When she got out her mucous plug had fallen out and from there she went and sat on the toilet. She stayed there for about 25 minutes, her water broke while on the toilet and so had some bloody show. When the midwife walked in Shannah was already pushing and she slipped off the toilet and delivered Willow on the floor. They waited some time before cutting the cord, Shawn cut the cord and placenta was delivered without any trouble. Willow started rooting around and she latched right on for her first feed without troubles!

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Connect: https://www.instagram.com/shannahclarke/