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Hannelore Canessa-Wright's Birth

We had planned on a home birth from the very beginning. I had been present at the birth of my nephew (hospital birthing room, epidural/pitocin, extensive 2nd degree tears) and niece (homebirth, unmedicated, slight 1st degree tears), and I knew which option was for me!

My case was complicated in that we moved to a new community when I was 7 months pregnant. I had a hard time finding a doctor who would back up a home birth for a first time mother, but with the help of the community midwives, I finally found a marvellous GP who was very experienced and supportive.

During week 35 I had a small antenatal bleed which sent me to the hospital for tests. There they gave me an ultrasound scan and discovered that I had a very low-lying placenta. Although it was difficult to see because of the way the baby was lying, it was not placenta previa, but nonetheless, the hospital personnel strongly urged a hospital birth. With my GP's backing, I declined, but also made sure that the house we rented was a short ambulance ride from the maternity hospital!

The last few weeks proceeded normally, and further scans showed that the placenta was moving up away from the cervix. Everything seemed set for a home birth.

Two days before my due date, I had a particularly uncomfortable day. I was having mild contractions all day, along with some sharper pains which I weren't sure if they were uterine or gastric. I went to bed thinking that something was imminent.

Around 1:30 am I awoke feeling wet. "Alright! This is it!" I thought, "My waters have broken!" I got up to go to the bathroom and discovered to my shock and horror that it wasn't amniotic fluid trickling down my leg, but blood. My partner phoned the GP, the hospital and the ambulance, and within minutes we were in the admitting ward. My GP met us there and was really wonderful, making sure that introductions were made and the hospital personnel treated me, my partner and my sister as human beings, not pieces of meat or nuisances.

I was put on the fetal monitor, and my relief at seeing that the baby's heart was strong and regular was almost overwhelming. My own blood pressure was sky high (probably from fear!), and the bleeding was not slowing down, so it was decided that an emergency Caesarean under general anaesthetic was in order. An abrupting placenta, or placenta which is prematurely pulling away from the uterine wall, is nothing to fool around with. If the placenta continues to pull away, it will sever the baby's only source of oxygen. The mother is also at great risk because the point at which the placenta has detached continues to bleed copiously, and the mother can die from blood loss. Since it is impossible to tell how quickly abruption may progress, it was very important to get the baby out as quickly as possible, and my high blood pressure was an indication against any kind of spinal anaesthetic.

So holding my partner's hand, I was wheeled into the operating theatre and quickly put under. About 15 minutes later, I was half-conscious, asking the nurses "is it a boy or a girl?" "A girl" they told me. "Oh, Andrew will be so pleased" I thought, and feel back asleep.

Meanwhile, Andrew and my sister bathed beautiful Hannelore and then brought her straight into the recovery room. I roused again and with my sister's help put Hannelore to the breast. I cannot describe the utter bliss I felt, the joy at being alive and my baby being alive, and lying back against the soft pillows, packed in warm blankets, with my loved ones around me and my baby at the breast.

Although we in the home birth movement tend to concentrate on all the unnecessary Caesareans being performed, my case is an excellent example of a necessary one, a medical intervention that rather than causing problems, saved my life and the life of my baby. And now we're looking forward to a home VBAC!