'My baby nearly fell into the toilet’
CATHERINE’s labour sped up so suddenly that baby girl ISLA nearly made a splash landing in the ensuite toilet at their home.
By Practical Parenting
December 20 2016
My contractions weren’t sore when they started. They were uncomfortable and came on every 10 minutes, so I didn’t feel the need to alert anyone.
I waited for a few hours then woke my partner, Caleb, at 6am and called my midwife to give her a heads-up. She asked about my contractions, I told her by this point they were seven minutes apart and not painful. She asked me to call back when they were closer together.
An hour later the contractions were painful but still irregular. I called my midwife again and she said to call when they were regular and four minutes apart. She told me to have a warm bath and rest. I ran a bath and got in but the water didn’t help, so I tried lying down to rest but the pain made it impossible.
COMING TO A HEAD
At 8 am I rang my midwife but her phone diverted to another midwife as she was delivering another baby. I told the new midwife my contractions were still irregular but the pain was unbearable. Once again I was told to call back when they were regular. Ten minutes later I called her back. “Didn’t I just speak to you?” she said. “Yes,” I replied, “I really need to push.” Caleb took over the call and the midwife told him to get me to the hospital. I was sitting on the toilet and told them all I didn’t think that I could. I had to push and I was holding our daughter’s head, trying my best not to let her come out just yet. Caleb hung up and called an ambulance.
CATCH OF THE DAY
Caleb spoke to a paramedic and he told him to get me off the toilet and onto our bed. He tried, but as I stood up our daughter fell out into his arms! It was lucky he caught her otherwise she would’ve fallen into the toilet! He passed her to me so I could breastfeed. For some time it was just the three of us sitting in our ensuite, Caleb and I watching our baby girl breathe. I think we were all in a bit of shock. Five minutes later the ambulance arrived, which was a big relief as I’d started to haemorrhage.
I was rushed to the hospital and straight into theatre. I lost five litres of blood and also had five bags of blood in blood transfusions due to a partial placenta abruption. Thankfully, our beautiful little daughter, Isla, was born perfectly healthy. She measured 3.6kg and 52cm. I now say that her dad will always catch her when she falls, just like he did on the day that she was born.
