The Arrival of Ethan Thomas Shaw. A story about a breech baby and a perfect caesarean! We found out we were pregnant at long last just in time to give the grandma-to-be the wonderful news on her birthday, which was the next day. This baby was to be the first grandchild and great grandchild on my side of the family so the news was, by my mum’s standards, the best birthday present she could ever have.
We settled down to what was then to be a “text book” pregnancy with no complications. That is until week 23 when our obstetrician advised us that the baby was in breech presentation, but we had no need to worry as the baby had plenty of time to turn around. Our obstetrician advised us he had two weeks holiday planned and our due date fell on the week he got back and if the baby had not turned by then, a caesarean would be planned.
I started to worry, I was desperate to avoid a caesarean at all costs. I tried everything, I did exercises, I laid on my left side in bed, nothing worked. I had heard about acupuncture to turn babies from breech presentation so we headed off to the acupuncturist. An hour long session later, which involved two needles in both little toes and burning moxa sticks alternating warming the needles, we left optimistic with follow up sessions if need be and moxa sticks to burn at home to carry on the procedure. We were positive, after all we still had two weeks to go.
We had a lovely home cooked Sunday lunch at a relatives place the next day and on the way home I started to feel ill. We carried on our exercises with the moxa sticks that night until I had to cut the session short as the burning sticks made me feel worse. I ended up with a bad case of gastro and was up periodically throughout the night. Hubby also went the same way and we spent a sleepless night feeling like hell.
Off to the doctors the next day to describe to him a bout of what we could only assume was food poisoning from our Aunty’s lovely meal. That day I felt exhausted and was getting periodical pains across my abdomen. Thoughts of labour passed through my mind but I quickly dismissed these pains as stomach cramps from the food poisoning. I went to bed early as I was completely exhausted.
The next morning I woke as usual and decided to lay in bed for a while. My husband had called in sick to his work as he was still not feeling well either. He was putting the bin out when I was having my usual kicks from my bump when all of a sudden I felt one almighty kick down below which caused a little bit of pain. I was quickly assured that my waters had broken. I told my husband that he may want to keep the car out of the garage as we would be needing it.
Hubby then went about ringing the hospital who advised us to come straight in given that the baby was breech. The trouble with that scenario was that I had not yet finished packing my hospital bag. To my husband’s dismay I then went about calmly packing my bag for the next half hour – we still had a forty minute drive to the hospital. I was amazingly calm.
We arrived at the hospital at about 11.30 am and were put on a trace to hear the baby’s heartbeat, it was reassuringly strong. The colleague of my obstetrician was called upon for a c-section. He arrived shortly after and advised that he had finished his scheduled surgery for the morning and he was able to do the c-section now!! I was whisked off to theatre without a second thought and yet I still remained calm. It wasn’t until I was placed on the operating table and having the epidural administered that I started to feel fear. I wanted to cry but knew there was no way out.
It was only minutes after the epidural had taken effect and the obstetrician had started operating that our gorgeous son, Ethan Thomas was born at 1.47 pm weighing a healthy 3880 g (8 lb 9 oz). He was whisked off to have oxygen and his Apgar testing, which he passed with a 9 then 10, and it wasn’t until I heard his cry across the room that I started to cry tears of joy. The midwife and hubby brought Ethan around to see me. I could not believe he was ours and he was finally here.
Needless to say, hubby and I quickly got over our sickness and I really believe it was because my husband and I are inseparable that he suffered the sympathy sickness also.
Ethan now gives us days of endless happiness and has a smile that would melt the iciest heart. We count our blessings every day and would not have changed a thing about the whole experience.
For those of you considering acupuncture for your breech bub, I felt the baby move when it was being administered and I feel that it would have worked and it was only that Ethan was too large and had run out of room that he didn’t turn in time.