My Story
When I had my first babe, I was fortunate to have a number of friends and family members who had recently had kids. My cousin, Penny, in particular, had her second babe just three months before I was due with Tilly, and she brought me along for the rollercoaster ride of her postpartum - it was the best education I could have received.
I learnt about breastfeeding and how to troubleshoot bub’s latch, I learnt what to really expect in the first few days - the sweats, the milk drop, the blues, and I learnt that my priority in the early days and weeks after giving birth should not be bouncing back and going for walks, it should be resting and recovering from pregnancy, labour and birth. Allowing my body time to heal, my brain time to adjust, and my heart time to grow.
I was still in hospital and had some lovely midwives, two in particular, who picked up the pieces and helped me back on track. I started a course of antibiotics, we learnt how to handle Tilly in her harness and I started triple feeding in order to nourish my girl, and bring my milk in.
Within a week or so we were back on track and able to stop the triple feeding. Tilly stayed in the Pavlik harness for three months and, thankfully, her hips developed well.
Once we got home, my mum came round most days to care for us. Friends dropped meals round that Mum then prepared for us. She tidied our home and made sure we had the support and care we needed. We were so fortunate.
Eddie arrived in a flash almost two and a half years on; a spectacular, Hollywood-esque rupture of membranes, and he made his noisy entrance mere hours later, crying out before he was fully delivered. Our days in hospital proved that he was as different to Tilly as was possible, aside from another hip dysplasia diagnosis, nothing was the same.
Eddie cried, a lot. He was challenging to feed, challenging to settle and had sandpaper rough skin all over his body due to eczema. Within a week I had suspicions of a dairy intolerance (we have a strong family history of it in bubs’) and after consulting our paediatrician he agreed and advised us to remove all dairy from my diet. He recommended we cut soy if we didn’t see much change after two weeks and noted that he also suspected gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) was in play and gave us a prescription to try if the eliminations failed to resolve our difficulties.
suspected early CMPI
eczema
Reflux
living at kuringai
I was induced for my first, and what followed was unfortunately a somewhat traumatic experience. The labour was long and drawn out, I had an epidural to give me some relief, and finally, delivered a healthy 3.5kg baby girl. She arrived calmly, without a sound, and just looked around. I only the other hand required extensive labial and perineal stitching and was in such a state of shock it took me a while to realise what I’d just achieved. Tilly was a very easy babe, she fed well, she slept well and she liked her own space.
On her third day of life she was diagnosed with severe bilateral hip dysplasia and we were told she would need to go into a Pavlik Harness for at least 12 weeks. That same day I began experiencing symptoms of an ascending uterine infection, the blues set in and (due to the infection) my milk wasn’t coming in and my colostrum had dried up; I was a mess and I had no idea where to turn for support.
When I fell pregnant with our second, Eddie, I was aware that I had a grade 2 prolapse from my first pregnancy so I proactively protected my pelvic floor with regular physio led Pilates and remaining conscious of my capabilities. I stopped carrying Tilly, then 18 months old, and made sure that others helped with heavier lifting, such as groceries and wet laundry.
I had also started listening to Australian Birth Stories podcast and became fascinated with traditional postpartum care. I read Heng Ou’s The First Forty Days and sought out stories, recipes and practices that I could incorporate into my postpartum. I filled our freezer with easy to heat and eat meals and one-handed snacks that were full of nutrients needed for healing and recovery, and I set up systems of care for those initial weeks so that I had help with Tilly, and care for me and bub.
