E10| Natalie Bergham: Two Birth Centre Births, Hypnobirth,

Natalie and her partner Scott have been together for 4 years, they are from Ottawa ON. Scott has a son from another relationship, Brodie who is now 12. September 2018 they welcomed their son Cove and Eden joined their family January 2020. 2 years into their relationship, October 2017 they found out they were pregnant and when they went to their first ultrasound at 8 weeks sadly there was no heartbeat. Natalie said she had read miscarriage is rare and not to worry so she was very blindsided and did not think it would happen to her, after she found out the baby was gone she did decide to pass the baby on her own at home. They decided to try again right away and January 2017 they found out they were pregnant with Cove which she was very thankful for because she really was struggling with the lost of her first pregnancy. She said during the early days of pregnancy to keep the fear of losing that pregnancy she would try to remind herself to be thankful for being pregnant that day and embracing each day she was pregnant.

She was pretty nauseous that pregnancy up to around 16 weeks but thankfully it did end up going away so she didn't have to deal with it her entire pregnancy. During her first pregnancy that she had sadly lost, she had already decided she wanted to go the midwife route but in the city where she lives is super busy so it can be quite hard to get in but since she called right away she was able to get in when them and started seeing them since early pregnancy. Natalie did a private Hypnobirthing class with a local doula that she loved and she did also end up hiring a doula to attend her birth. Natalies plan was to have a water birth at the local centre birth, she describes it as a large room with a fire place, a sofa and huge tub you can birth in and a bed and for a small extra fee they also offered to provide food for dad as well. Near the end of pregnancy everyone kept telling her to to expect to be pregnant to 42 weeks since this was her first pregnancy and to based on her Fertility Tracking she actually was counting to 43 weeks. Much to Natalies surprise on the Saturday around at 37 weeks Natalie had a maternity photo shoot booked at the farm to do with her horse and she was starting to have some contractions during that shoot. The next morning when she woke up she had this feeling that something was happening, she rang her doula and sadly she was away so she had to set her up with her the back up doula. Later that evening her doula listened to her having a contraction she asked her to head in the shower and see if that would effect her contractions at all so her doula headed over and made it there for around 6 pm. Natalie laboured at home on her hands and knees until around 10 pm, at this point she called her midwife, again the midwife listened to a contraction and agreed they should head over to the birth centre. While she was driving into the birth centre Natalies water started to trickle a bit, when she made it to the birth centre and had a pelvic exam her waters kept leaking and at that point she was already 7 cm. She got into the tub to relax her body and she also put on the Hypnobirthing Rainbow Relaxation track that someone practicing hypobirthing listens to daily through out their pregnancy in prep for labour. During transition around 9.5 cm started to feel the desire of wanting an epidural, the birth centre doesn't offer that so she would have had to transfer to hospital and that didn't sound appealing to Natalie so she deiced just to stay put in the tub at the hospital. Around 1:30 am her body began pushing, around 2:45 the midwife spoke to Natalie and said she strongly believed if she got out of the tub Cove would be born quickly after. So at 2:50 she decided to get out of the tub, went over to the bed on her hands and knees and 2:52 Cove was born. The midwife scooped Cove and brought him right up to Natalie to have some immediate skin to skin and they enjoyed a nice long cuddle as they waited for delayed cord clamping and placenta delivery. After a while Cove started to show interest in eating and he put himself on for his first feed. Their breastfeeding journey was tough in the beginning and they learned he has a lip tie ad tongue tie and over time it did end up stretching itself out.

"I'm a type A personality, I prepared like crazy to have Cove and one thing of the things I never prepared for was breastfeeding. I would urge people who are pregnant or listening to this to get prepared for breastfeeding, there are prenatal classes for that. That's one thing I wish I would have done."

Natalies got loads of support from family and friends that she says was so helpful during those early postpartum days and she felt very loved and supported.

Natalie said she always knew she wanted two, her cycle had returned at 5 months postpartum. While she was at an Early ON play group they were talking about birth control and thats when she realize she hadn't had her period in a while and Cove was around 6 months at that time. She waited it out for a week and when she decided to test she was quite surprised to find out she was pregnant again.

"Being pregnant again so early was really scary because I was still in that stage of 'oh I can hardly handle one, who will I handle two'."

She didn't start having any signs super early in pregnancy, she said she did start to experience some wild nausea that lasted throughout her entire pregnancy. She found being pregnant with a +7 month old a bit of a challenge but she said she had loads of support that she found helpful. She followed care with the same team she had with Cove and she also decided this pregnancy not to find out the gender. Natalie thought she would have another birth centre birth, after chatting with her midwife they had talked about the fact that she had quite a quick active labour that maybe a planned homebirth would be the better option so that an unplanned homebirth wouldn't happen. Natalie was quite sure she was going to have the baby close to 38 weeks like Cove but it didn't quite work out that way. About a week before she went into labour she had a false alarm that was frustrating after she had sent Cove to be with her parents and was sure that it was baby day. After that experience she began doubting herself and her ability to know what true labour would be like. A few days before babys due date Natalie woke up to some mild cramping, she told her husband Scott and since he only works about 5 minutes away they decided he should go to work; she calledd her doula and she said she had a yoga class and would be out by 11:15 am. She really did not want Cove there as he was still young and very active so she had her parents come to pick up Cove just incase anything were to happen. Natalie went back to bed around 9 am and thats when she realized she was in labour and called Scott for 10:30 and he made it home for 11 and started filling up the tub. Her doula made her way over to the house, at this stage Nataies contractions were unpredicatable she hadnt called her midwife but when the doula heard her having a contraction she said they should call. The doula made it for around 12:15 and they called in to the midwife and as they got on the phone with her Natalies body began pushing. The midwife told them they needed to call the paramedics because she wasn't going to make it and that she needed to get out of the tub for a few reasons. Once out of the tub after 2 pushes Eden was out, her doula ended up catching the baby because the midwife didn't make in. Everything checked out and the placenta was birthed soon after the midwife made it to her house. The paramedics kept asking if baby was a boy or a girl she kept saying she didn't know and once she thought to check she was very surprised to see she was a girl as she was quite sure she was a boy. Natalie noted that she really noticed the placenta birth much more this time around as well as the after pains she found to be more intense.

"The morning that I went into labour I had read a really beautiful saying id like to share with you"

The midwives that attended her homebirth didn't take the placenta so they left it behind with Natalie so she has decided to keep it in the freezer and plant it with a tree.

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