"Birth and complications"

Our beautiful daughter was born in Sept at the Angliss Hospital. Unfortunately, a complication of the epidural meant that my wife had to return to the hospital two days later to receive an assessment and management of a post-dural puncture headache.

After a long day in the emergency department a few days later, a procedure to manage the complication was organised for the following morning in the Angliss day procedure unit. Despite a delay in the procedure, it was performed expertly the next day and my wife was able to come home that night with a telehealth follow-up organised.

Angliss Midwifery service. Throughout the entire pre-natal process, the birth and post-birth, care has been exemplary. Despite the ongoing covid restrictions on visitors, the services were dynamic and flexible in their provision of care. We did FaceTime during the appointments which allowed me to listen and ask questions. The midwives were each exemplary communicators, providing detailed yet not overly technical explanations, straightforward answers and clear expectations. They welcomed our external birthing class information, building a shared model of care for the kind of delivery we wanted.

When finally the big day came, we made early and intermittent contact via phone with the birth suite to keep them up to date. Each time they made expedient but thorough assessments over the phone as to the progress of the labour, the health of time and our unborn daughter. They made sensible suggestions, giving sound advice and direction.

Later, when the labour became more intense we made our first visit to the Angliss birth suite. Our midwife was a highly experienced clinical midwife specialist. Beyond her impressive clinical acumen, she was a highly capable communicator, advocated strongly for my wife, and provided clear direction to us on the progression of the labour. At that point, she determined that, despite a 24-hour labour, we were still early in the process. We were given options, however, given guidance that returning home to labour in our own environment would likely be the most comfortable, especially given our wishes for a minimal-intervention birth.

One small issue my wife and I later agreed was the provision of a ‘stretch and sweep’ by the midwife during an examination. While my wife had previous had a stretch and sweep performed, a repeat was not discussed and was only offered during the exam, which meant that a rapid and somewhat unconsidered decision had to be made by my wife (and I) in the moment.

After leaving the labour pain intensified significantly. Finally, after around another 12 hours at home, and with little sleep, we made the decision to return to Angliss.

On arrival, we were cared for by the Grad Midwife El. I cannot describe to you how overwhelmingly impressed my wife and I were with El. During our recent journey through Angliss, we met many highly capable, professional, caring and empathetic healthcare workers, but El was the standout. One of the other midwives later said of her “She’s got her head screwed on, we’ve really gotten lucky with her”. To me, this was an understatement. To have a grad midwife so thorough, so straightforward, so caring was obviously a huge benefit to my wife and I, but demonstrated her mastery, and the extraordinary training and clinical support that I believe Angliss hospital provides early-career midwives.

Unfortunately, that didn’t mean completely smooth sailing. El's assessment was that labour had not progressed from the night before - a ‘spurious’ labour - and we had to make some tough decisions. After some difficult conversations, my wife and I decided that we could not continue as we had, and with the guidance, education and support of El and the AMUM Gemma we decided to deviate from our original plan, moving toward an epidural and induction.

El handed over to midwife Alli, who proceeded to efficiently and expertly arrange a series of necessary interventions with practised ease. Cannula in, IV fluids hung, Anaesthetics reg organised and plan for induction arranged. The Anaesthetics reg came and performed the epidural, clearly explaining the procedure, the risks and benefits before proceeding. The patient-controlled epidural was set up and explained, and within a short period, my wife’s pain was significantly reduced. Finally, after around 36 hours awake, both my wife and I were able to sleep soundly.

The following morning things had progressed very well. Alli handed over the Midwife Sarah. Sarah glowed with happiness, care and optimism. She was exactly the kind of midwife we needed for our birth - straightforward in her communication, caring, expert but a bit of a twisted sense of humour. She was the perfect match for us! We met the Obs/gynae reg, Dr Dee, briefly who reviewed the CGT. With Dr Dee was Dr Alina, an HMO who had never seen a vaginal birth without instruments. We had said from the start that we have no problems if students want to come and see the birth, and we felt Alina eagerly took up the offer.

Then the time came. Sarah and Dr Alina delivered our beautiful little girl, allowing me to ‘catch’ her and cut the cord. Sarah was focused and expert - my wife commented afterwards that when Sarah entered the room beforehand she was carrying only two things - a torch and a mirror. We knew we were in good hands.

And then we were three! Sarah handed over to midwife Carly for the afternoon. Carly shone like every midwife we met - capable and caring. She provided the after-birth care, giving us tips for swaddling and some coaching on feeding. Carly eventually took us over to the post-natal ward and to Midwife Rebecca. At the six-hour post birth mark, and without any issues, we were given the option to go home if we wished, an option we eagerly took up - we wanted to sleep in our own beds. Midwife Renee performed our baby daughters top-to-toe exam, finding a mild talipes and providing us a reference to its simple management. And from there, we were home!