Rachel’s Story

Tell us 5 things about yourself.

I work in the real estate industry & am passionate about helping people find their forever home. I always have longed to be a mum since I was really young! I met my now husband on tinder. Since having my baby I have become increasingly passionate about care for new mothers in the 4th trimester. For the past year I have started on a new journey of finding & connecting with my spiritual side.

Describe your pregnancy with Mason.

I had a wonderful start to my pregnancy, in terms of the “perfect pregnancy” I pretty much had it, little to no morning sickness, fell pregnant very quickly (I know how lucky I am that that happened) the first & second trimester were a breeze. Midway through my third trimester I started having excessive swelling, I had worried about having preeclampsia however my blood pressure etc were all fine. My swelling got so bad I stopped working at 34 weeks. Other than the swelling I didn’t face many other difficulties.

Can you tell us more about what the term ‘cascade of interventions’ means?

‘Cascade of interventions’ is a term used when one intervention (ie. induction) leads to another intervention (ie. waters broken) and so on until the entire process feels like it is out of control.

Did it impact your delivery of Mason?

‘Cascade of interventions’ definitely impacted my labour. I was induced at 39 weeks for having low blood platelets. This is a cause of concern for the hospital as you are at a higher risk for bleeding out. My count was at 18 when it should be between 150-400. I arrived at the hospital at 3cm dilated which was amazing. They broke my waters & started the drip. Immediately starting the “cascade of interventions’ from the get go. I had a fast labour in total from start to finish was 6 hours & due to having low platelets I was unable to have the epidural.

My form of pain relief was gas & air. By the time I was pushing I had pushed for 2 hours with no luck. I would also like to add that at no point did they change my position to assist with the delivery it went from pushing to the doctors/midwifes advising that they would have to conduct an episiotomy & use forceps. At this stage I was completely out of it & agreed to do whatever it took to deliver baby safety. After the birth of my beautiful son, I was then injected with morphine & stitched for 2 hours.

What would you tell other women facing inductions and interventions? What do you want them to know?

I think that being my first baby & coming to the end of my pregnancy I really wanted an induction, I was over being pregnant & really anticipated the arrival of my son. I used to say to my sister in law all the time how badly I wanted to be induced. She has previously been induced & spoke against induction but I was set on thinking that having an induction meant I could get my baby in my arms sooner & also not be pregnant anymore.

After being induced & having the forceps & episiotomy I would highly encourage other mums to go into their labour’s understanding what the outcomes could be. Research the ‘cascades of intervention’ & educate yourself as much as you can about when & why certain interventions are used & how necessary they are. Try to speak with your midwife about the concerns of interventions & ensure your voice is heard. I now speak with a lot of my friends who are midwifes who are really passionate about not interfering with the ‘natural labour’ process & have really learnt so much from speaking with them about my experience.

I also want to note that if you have had a birth that wasn’t what you expected or you feel like things happened that really shouldn’t have please speak with a professional, it really helped me get through the darker times & helped me take back my birth & be inspired by my birth story!