Doula Alice’s two very different positive birth stories
The story of doula, Alice Worthy’s, two very different hospital births that she loved. Her births to her daughters – born just 17 months apart – included a positive epidural experience where she was amazed by her body and one “mostly unmedicated,” “primal” birth where she felt her body working “in all its power.”
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How would your describe your births?
Both my births were very positive in different ways. With my first birth, I was just amazed at what my body had achieved and felt so in love with my beautiful baby. My second birth, which was mostly unmedicated, was positive because I had felt my body work in all its power, but it also overwhelmed me a lot too.
Where did you give birth? Hospital
Top things you did to prepare for a positive birth
1. Birth education (private birth course)
2. Physical prep (chiro, women’s health physio)
3. Hired a doula.
What tools/support did you use during birth?
In Billie's birth, I had my mum and Phil as my support people, but really didn't have a lot in the way of 'tools,' especially for pain relief. I look back now and think: “"GIRL WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!!”"
Second time around I had it all: a doula, birth combs, a TENS machine, a rebozo, hip squeezes - all the things.
Alice’s birth stories
The story of Billie’s birth
When I first fell pregnant in 2020, with my daughter Billie, I really had NO education on pregnancy and birth. I thought it was just something I had to endure to have my baby. It wasn’t until I did a private birth education course that I realised ‘WOW’.
From about 20 weeks, I deep dived into everything pregnancy and birth. I then began to envision my totally intervention-free waterbirth with my mum and my husband by my side. I had full trust in myself and my body, and just thought “I’ve got this”, “my body is made to birth”. However, at the first ‘fork’ in the road, it was clear that my positive thinking wasn’t enough.
My waters broke on August 1 in the afternoon (while we were in total COVID-19 lockdown) and I remember thinking “it’s HAPPENING!! TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT!!!” Except, nothing began at all. The next day, I called my mum wondering what was wrong with me – all trust I had before had left the building. I went into the hospital and they gave me a vaginal exam (something I didn’t really understand I could decline) and they confirmed my waters had broken (duh).
I was then seen by an obstetrician who told me if labour didn’t start that night, that I’d need to be induced and likely have a C-Section. I was totally freaked out as C-Section was NOT in my preferences at all. I went home, begging for labour to begin and, that evening, had some very mild contractions. I was woken around 11pm with more contractions and I started to get in my own head. Was it time to go to hospital? I wasn’t sure who to call and felt so out of my depth, thinking: “They’d told me I needed to go into labour by tonight, is this what they meant?”
My mum encouraged me to stay at home until contractions increased in intensity, but they felt quite strong. We made our way to the hospital and I had another vaginal exam. I was 1cm and my midwife immediately offered me the gas (even though I had asked not to be offered pain relief). This really began the ‘menu’ of pain relief for me and after trying morphine, the shower and the bath, I began involuntarily pushing. Midwives told me to stop, but it felt impossible. My body was taking over.
I had another vaginal exam and was told I was “only” 4cm and that my cervix was swollen. I opted for an epidural, feeling defeated. I had a very positive epidural and by 6pm on 3 August, I was ready to push my baby out. After 42 minutes, my girl Billie was on my chest and I was in total bliss.
I had a small second-degree tear, which was stitched up. Billie had a few infection markers, so we were advised to stay in hospital for a precautionary round of antibiotics, so we began our five-day stay. Although this was tough, I was lucky to receive lots of great breastfeeding support, which really helped us get through.
The story of Lola’s birth
Eight months later, I was surprised to find out I was, you guessed it, pregnant with #2! We always wanted siblings, but it was a REAL shock. I knew immediately I wanted to do things differently and had to work through some limiting beliefs like “my babies will always be posterior” or “I can’t birth without an epidural”. I wasn’t and still am not ‘against’ epidurals, but I did want to know I was capable of birthing without one as I feel like this opportunity was taken away from me in my first birth.
My labour with Lola began spontaneously in the afternoon in my 39th week of pregnancy. The contractions were mild at first and I went to bed with my earphones in and my TENS machine on low. By about 11pm, I could no longer lie down and began a long night with just me, my music and the TENS machine. I had called my doula earlier that night and she had told me she was at another birth and wouldn’t be able to make it. Whilst I was devastated at first, I was relieved to have had a back-up doula organised.
The doula arrived about 5am and we made the call to go to hospital. After hours and hours of contractions and no baby, I opted for a vaginal exam, because I felt like I wasn’t making any progress. I knew rationally this wouldn’t predict the future, but thought it might help if I was having another posterior baby. I consented, but asked not to know the answer. I hopped out of the bath into the shower for some deep squats as my doula confirmed what I had feared, baby was most likely posterior and needed some help getting on the cervix.
From there, things ramped up very quickly and I began to lose all hope and requested another epidural. This felt like a huge failure to me, after all, I am a doula now - I should be able to do this. Instead, I was distracted with gas, which did really help take the edge off. I was scared to get back in the pool as it had seemed to slow things down with both my labours, so I ended up on the bed facing the headrest on all fours and began to scream, thrash and roar.
I was screaming again for an epidural, and was told the anesthetist was in an emergency surgery and wasn’t available. Between the TENS machine and the gas, it just wasn’t cutting it and I was bearing down and roaring with every surge as they completely took over my body.
When the anaesthetist finally arrived (over an hour and a half later) I was relieved, but there was no way I could sit still enough. They asked me if I’d like another vaginal examination to see if I still wanted the epidural, which I consented to, but before they even did it, the anaesthetist took their gloves off and said “we’re not doing this today”. I was distraught, wondering where the hell they were going, until the midwife told me my baby’s head was right there.
I fell down with such relief and knew I could do the rest on my own. In a couple of contractions, my baby girl was born and I lifted her to my chest. Such relief!
The placenta came out quickly afterwards and it was confirmed that my perineum was completely intact. I now know that when I had the first vaginal exam, I was 4cm and within 2 hours my baby was born, so those positions and stretches REALLY helped!
I loved both births, but was totally overwhelmed with how primal Lola’s birth was. I felt totally out of control, loud, messy and was so overwhelmed by this display of my birthing instincts - it really shocked me. But hey – that’s what birth is all about! And I’d do it all again in a heartbeat!
Alice Worthy is a birth and postpartum doula based on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia. You can find out more about her on her website, The Modern Doula.