Brooke’s Pregnancy and Homebirth story

Guts and Girl Bits Episode #53

In this episode I share the rest of Brooke Blair’s journey to conception, her pregnancy and we discuss her home birth. We touch on some of the difficulties she faced with endometriosis, her miscarriage, and her home birth.

 

We also mentioned the documentary Birth Time which you can view via this link with a 20% discount (use this link and enter discount code CICADA20) www.birthtime.world/a/2147503089/XDFWnAKo (this is an affiliate link which provides me a small comission at no extra cost to you).

Listen to the audio:

Transcript

Alison Mitchell  00:00

Hi, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Guts and Girl Bits. It’s been a long time coming, I’ve had a lot going on personally with renovating my house. And I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to live with my parents while this has been happening. And so it’s not really the most conducive atmosphere to record any podcasts or really get anything of anything done at all. So that’s one of the reasons why I haven’t released a podcast episode for a long time. But now I am moved back home. So we’ve had our renovations done, and they’re beautiful. I’m now working from home in a little space, does that let go to external door to it. So I’ve got my massage bed, and I’m building my herbal dispensary. And it’s just absolutely beautiful. And I love coming into this room and doing work and being able to see people and I’m always so grateful for any of my patients that have come and seen me in this space as well. And now that I have this space, it’s also a lot more easy for me to do the things that I used to have a lot more time to do, such as write blog posts, and create podcast episodes. And so I have a few podcast episodes ready to go. Now almost ready to go. But this one here is something that I’ve just recorded recently. And it’s something I’m really happy to share with you because it’s a beautiful retelling of the birth of baby Byron, who is the son of Brooke and Adam Blair. Now, if you’ve listened to previous episodes, then you’re probably familiar with Brooke. She’s a women’s health physio, and I’ve had a lot of episodes with her previously, which I do encourage you to go back and listen to because they’re actually really good information in there. So some of the ones we talked about was hypertonicity. So when pelvic floor muscles are too tight, and what you can do about that, how your body changes during pregnancy, and also spoke about mastitis as well. So there’s some great things that you can go back and listen to. But for now we get to hear about her birth story. And also, this actually follows up from a previous episode that we did where we talked about her health journey, overcoming some issues with her digestive health, as well as talking about why she wanted to become a women’s health physio, and some of the issues that she was having with her periods. And so this kind of wraps that story up to a certain extent, because we’re talking about you know, what happened with her endometriosis and what some of the things we were doing with that, as well as her journey to conceive. And the her pregnancy and her birth. So I hope you enjoy today’s episode. So Brooke is, just a pleasure to chat to you. I had such a lovely time interviewing her. And I hope you guys enjoy. Please leave a review if you enjoyed it. And let me know if there’s any other topics that you’d like to cover in the future. Hi, everyone, you’re listening to Guts and Girl Bits. I’m Alison Mitchell, a practicing Naturopath. And I hope to share with you all sorts of information about women’s health and digestive health to educate to empower you to make informed choices about your own health. Please remember that all information is general and does not replace consulting with the healthcare practitioner.  So I’m joined again with Brooke Blaire. She’s a women’s physio extraordinare. And she’s been on the podcast a few times previously discussing her health journey. And so we’ve got a bit of an update about where we’re up to now. So we’re currently in February 2022. And Brooke has in her lap at the moment have beautiful baby boy.

 

Brooke Blair  03:47

Yes. It’s my little 10 week old baby Byron,

 

Alison Mitchell  03:51

and he is his divine, currently sleeping peacefully.

 

Brooke Blair  03:55

Yes, hopefully it stays that way.

 

Alison Mitchell  03:57

We’ll see how we go. But I’ve had so many episodes in the past where Lara has been chipping away. So I think it’s just like a staple to my podcast episodes.

 

Brooke Blair  04:06

The last podcast, I think we had the dogs and the birds in the background. So maybe we’ll have Byron in this one.

 

Alison Mitchell  04:13

And I think last time we were on the podcast together, we were talking about how you were going with digestion and like a bit about your period journey. And so I guess I’d like to start off there and say like, had How did everything go since then? And how did you go with trying to conceive?

 

Brooke Blair  04:30

Yep. Um, so I think it would have been before our wedding, maybe I can’t remember if it was before or after our wedding that we caught up last, but it was after after. Okay, so two days after our wedding, we went into COVID lockdown. So we had spoken about me coming off the pill after the wedding, but then we thought we’d locked down. Probably not the best time to do that because we didn’t know what we would be doing with work and where we’d be at we just bought a house. So we waited until the August of 2020 which is when I then came off the pill. And so I’d started working with you when with all of our herbies, and we’d already worked on getting my gut health right, which was going so so well, because I’d been having my SIBO, which was causing me to feel short of breath and heart palpitations. Soon as I did the SIBO diet, cut out red wine, reduced my cheese and my sugar. I was perfect, which was good. That’s great. So I came off the pill. And my first period came, I think, nine weeks later, which was like, I never had a period. It was so easy. I had no pain whatsoever. I was going, Oh my God, have I just been on the pill for no reason this whole time. Um, and then I got my next period, maybe six weeks later, just before Christmas, and it was horrendous. It’s probably the worst period I’ve ever had. I had so much pain, I couldn’t go to work the first day of it. I had shooting rectal pains. I couldn’t sit down because of it. I was constipated. It was horrendous. So yeah, that was fun. And then at that point, so that had been what maybe three. So that was August. I don’t remember that was four months after coming off the pill. So we then went to my GP because I thought I can’t have another period that is that horrendous. Maybe I need to get my endo looked at again by the specialist. So we then go on in the January to see my doctor to look at getting a referral to the endo specialists to see maybe I need to have another laparoscopy to get my endo cut out again, before we could then fall pregnant. Maybe unbeknownst to us, I was pregnant at that time, but then a few weeks later miscarried. then, and so this whole time I’d been tracking my cycles, like we’d spoken about. So I’d been measuring my basal body temperature every morning. And so I think I knew straight away that first time that I was pregnant, because that day that my periods should have come. It was still up high. And I messaged you, and I was like, Oh my gosh, what is going on? Yeah, we just had an appointment as well, I think. And then I took a pregnancy test like two or three days later. But anyway, so I didn’t end up going to see that endo specialist, because obviously I could fall pregnant despite my endo being horrendous.

 

Alison Mitchell  07:21

And I think you were concerned about that at the time as well. Like, apart from having a hellish period. You also were like, wondering if it was going to affect your chances of conceiving?

 

Brooke Blair  07:30

Exactly. That was my big thing. I thought I don’t want to leave this too long. And I think the appointment the first appointment that I could get to that was in the Feb, the January in the first appointment I could get was the November of that year was going oh mygod,

 

Alison Mitchell  07:45

it’s been a terrible time for people trying to get specialist appointments.

 

Brooke Blair  07:48

Yeah. COVID has made things very tricky. But yeah, so we had the miscarriage which sucked. But he’s life that happens to a lot of women. And then

 

Alison Mitchell  07:59

one in four?

 

Brooke Blair  07:59

yes one in four. Yep. And so I like being at work with so many pregnant women and women trying to conceive, I was chatting with all of my women about it. And so many women would tell you that they’ve had miscarriages that they’ve never spoken to someone about, which I think is a bit sad, because we told we told both our parents and, and it would told we told all of our families actually that we were pregnant, because we thought you know what, my family members have had miscarriages before and they didn’t tell us at the time. And I think that would have been really tough. So we told all of our family that we were pregnant thinking, if something does go wrong, then everyone knows and they can support us. And it was really weird. It was like I knew that I wasn’t going to stay pregnant because I was talking about the sack of cells. Like that’s what I was calling and I wasn’t calling it like my baby.

 

Alison Mitchell  08:51

So you you didn’t form an attachment to it.

 

Brooke Blair  08:53

No, yeah, yeah, it was it was really bizarre like and I kept saying, you know, if this sticks and just words that I was using, it was like, deep down, I knew that I wasn’t going to stay pregnant.

 

Alison Mitchell  09:03

I think that’s it’s, I mean, it could have been like an aspect of intuition, but it’s also not uncommon, like when it’s your first conception to have that sort of fear always. Yeah, that element of disbelief. Yeah. And because you also had the Endo. Yeah, it would have been like, almost like, this doesn’t sound right? Yeah, exactly.

 

Brooke Blair  09:25

But I’ve spoken to other girls since we’ve had miscarriages and they’ve said the same thing. Like they were just waiting for the news that it wasn’t gonna like that there had had a miscarriage or that the baby hadn’t grown or there was no heartbeat so it was really bizarre. Didn’t make it any easier when I had the Miscarriage Of course. But yeah, so we did that. Then I started tracking my temperatures again, straight away. And through that miscarriage actually we found that I had Hashimotos so I’d gone and had blood tests to check my HCG levels. And we found out that my now you’ll have to correct me on this because I too high or too low

 

Alison Mitchell  10:02

Hashimotos usually expresses with low TSH. Yes. Okay. Oh sorry, no it’s high TSH. Also a high TSH and low T3 T4? And antibodies.

 

Brooke Blair  10:10

Yes, that’s what I had. So my GP said, stop trying, Let’s sort this out first I don’t want you didn’t fall pregnant because if you do then thyroids really important for baby’s brain and development and could contribute to the miscarriage. But I was also frustrated because I was like, Well, I’m having six to nine week long cycles, how long am I going to have to wait to fall pregnant? Again, it’s been six months at this stage since I’d come off the pill. So I was working with you on reducing all of I think we reduced my gluten, dairy and sugar came off all of that. And then I’d had some acupuncture as well to try and help me like to get rid of all of the leftover blood and stagnation and all that sort of thing. Yep. And then I started some thyroid medication. And six weeks later, I was pregnant again. And that was our little Byron.

 

Alison Mitchell  11:09

And how did you feel about at that time, like, did you connect during the pregnancy?

 

Brooke Blair  11:16

I didn’t want to get excited at all. So I kind of like I knew straight away that I was pregnant, because it was March of last year. So we were away on our wedding anniversary. And I’d started to have similar symptoms to what I’d had when I was pregnant the first time, which was like random heart palpitations, really vivid, bizarre dreams and tingling. And so I’d started experiencing those again. And I thought no, like, I haven’t even had another period. Surely I wouldn’t be pregnant this soon. And so then, like, we came home, I took a pregnancy test. I messaged it to you, because I was like, I’m sure there’s a line here. But I could be making it up and you were like, I don’t really see a line. I was like, No, deep down. I know there’s a line. And there really wasn’t I’ve looked back at photos. There wasn’t a line. But you were the first person that I told that I sent this photo to.

 

Alison Mitchell  12:09

I think I looked at your temperatures. I was like, actually, yeah.

 

Brooke Blair  12:13

You said maybe wait another two days. And so I didn’t every day after that. I checked and

 

Alison Mitchell  12:20

gradually got a line.. definitely understandable. Yes.

 

Brooke Blair  12:24

But I told Adam, I think that night, I still told Adam so we had friends over. And he hadn’t seen him by himself that whole day. And so he’d gone to the bathroom was doing a poo. And so I chased him in there. And I said, Hey, he’s like, can you just like, Give me a minute? And hey, if if I was pregnant, what do you want to know right now? He was like, Yes, but why are you telling me like this? So I pulled out the pregnancy test. And I showed him and he was like, I’m really happy. But I’m doing a poo. Give me a minute.

 

Alison Mitchell  12:58

Oh, my God. He’s going to love that this is on the episode.

 

13:03

classic classic. I thought to myself, you know, of course, I would do it when he’s doing a poo, not like in a cute way that everyone else does it with their partners. But yes,

 

Alison Mitchell  13:11

like, you know how you’re pushing something? Yeah.

 

Brooke Blair  13:15

In nine months time I will be too. So we had friends over for dinner. So that was sitting at our dinner table. And I’d gone in and told him that we had a little cuddle in a case and we were like, we’re not going to get excited. So we were both kind of guarding ourselves. I think we didn’t really talk about it that much straightaway. But we’re still excited that have the possibility.

 

Alison Mitchell  13:37

And also just that, like you could conceive again. Yeah,

 

Brooke Blair  13:40

yeah. And the fact that it happened quite quickly was nice. Like it felt like eternity. But it was only really six weeks after we’d miscarried. So it was really quite lucky. I think.

 

Alison Mitchell  13:52

I mean, I guess, depending on the reason for miscarriage women can conceive again in the next cycle.

 

Brooke Blair  13:57

Yeah, yeah. Which had heard but didn’t think it would happen to us. So we felt very lucky. And then I think a few days later, I’d had a bleed. And so we just assumed straightaway, okay, well, this is we’re miscarrying again. So I’ve messaged both our moms to say, hey, just letting you know, we’re pregnant, but now we’re probably not we’ll keep you posted. So that was how they found out this time that I was pregnant, which was not all that nice. And I’d actually had an appointment with an obstetrician that day, because I was going to talk about maybe going on um. not progesterone, we thought that I wasn’t ovulating frequently. Clomid, yes, yes. So that was what the appointment was about to look at. Maybe I need to help me to ovulate a little bit more frequently to fall pregnant. And so I went in there and I was like, Okay, well, I took a positive pregnancy test last week, but I’ve started to bleed and I had a miscarriage and this is exactly what happened last time, can you tell me what’s going on? And he did an ultrasound. And he said, I can’t see anything in your uterus. So it could be, but maybe go and get a blood test in a couple of days. And I did that. And a few days later got a call from my GP saying, I’ve got some results on my desk here that says you are pregnant. So maybe give me a call back. And we can chat about that. And I was like, Oh, my gosh, amazing. And so then I think that would have been at maybe five or six weeks. And then a few weeks later, I had another bleed, which was terrifying. Again,

 

Alison Mitchell  15:36

how much were you bleeding?

 

Brooke Blair  15:38

the first time it was probably only spotting, which like that brownie kind of spotting color. The second time was a bit more. Yeah.

 

Alison Mitchell  15:48

And would that have been around eight weeks?

 

Brooke Blair  15:52

Possibly, yeah, seven or eight weeks? It would have been

 

Alison Mitchell  15:54

because often, like when we’ll have a bit of a bleed when their periods would have been due. Yeah. Okay. So like he’d get it could have

 

Brooke Blair  16:01

been related to that, which I think I’d messaged you. And I think you had said that as well. Yeah. Thankfully, at that point, though, because I have an ultrasound at work. I’d been scanning myself really every day. And so became a bit of an obsession very obsessed. It was unhealthy. But I saw I think it was about maybe five weeks and five days that I could start to see his heart beating, which was the most wonderful thing to see. So when I had the bleed, I went to work, and I was still terrified. But I could scan myself and say that there was still a heartbeat there, which made me feel a lot better. I’d still then scan myself before I went home that night, because I thought it’s all well and good that there was one this morning, but that could have changed in the last 10 hours. So yeah, very unhealthily scanning myself all the time. And then it was kind of around that time that we started to get more excited and started to kind of prepare for what our birth could look like. Yeah. So yeah, I’d always loved birth, love birth, in general. It’s just amazing. And working with so many women going through pregnancy and birth, I’d heard so many different birth stories and different ways of going about birth. And so I’d always said to Adam, like, oh, we’ll put the birth pool in the living room? Or should we have it in the bedroom like thinking we’ll have a home birth? And Adam just always was like, Whoa, you’re crazy. Yeah. And so I’ve never actually fully believed that we would ever have a home birth, I was just saying it to rile him up while thinking that would be really cool. And I’d love that, but I don’t think I’ve got, like the confidence in myself to be able to do it. But it was also around that time, that birth time, the film came out. And so it was hosted at Richmond. So I made Adam come with me and watch it. I’d already watched it. I think it was in the February I’d watched it for the first time

 

Alison Mitchell  17:51

where it was at Castle hill.

 

Brooke Blair  17:53

Yeah, when it first came out. And then yeah, we had it at Richmond. So I brought him to watch it with me. And at the end of that, so I would have been nine, eight or nine weeks pregnant at eight weeks pregnant at that point. And so Adam watched it and he was like, that was really cool. I can understand why you want a home birth, because if anyone hasn’t seen it, it’s all about midwifery led care and empowering women to birth the way that they feel most comfortable. And there’s lots of homebirths featured on it. Yeah,

 

Alison Mitchell  18:24

it is amazing. I’ll put a link in the show notes. If anyone does want to have a look, because you can stream it online now.

 

Brooke Blair  18:30

Exactly. It’s amazing. I love it. And so yeah, I brought him to watch that. And he said, maybe we’ll consider home birth as an option. So I think that week was when I started calling around home birth midwives. And because we would do my due date was the 10th of December.

 

Alison Mitchell  18:51

So it’s a bit awkward with Christmas,

 

Brooke Blair  18:53

close to Christmas.

 

Alison Mitchell  18:55

Which you were not happy about

 

Brooke Blair  18:57

No I was not I always said to Adam, I don’t want to be pregnant in summer. So we didn’t plan that very well. But that’s okay. Couldn’t couldn’t really work around that.

 

Alison Mitchell  19:09

I guess. Like it’s not like you had the liberty of like going well, let’s just wait like a little while you wanted to get pregnant? Now.

 

Brooke Blair  19:16

I well. I wanted to be pregnant three months prior yesterday. Um, so yeah, so I’d started calling around midwives and everyone was either fully booked because I’d waited until I was nine weeks or and they booked out basically, as soon as you pee on a pregnancy test people book them. Or they were the midwives weren’t working over Christmas because they worked the previous Christmas being that it was COVID and no one was going away anywhere or doing anything. But thankfully got on to my midwife whose name was Cara, and she was lovely. So we had a chat with her and we booked her straightaway because we just found her amazing and really supportive. And that was kind of where we started our little home birth journey which was exciting.

 

Alison Mitchell  20:00

So when you’d done all your work as a women’s physio, had you, like ever envisaged having birth, like differently, like being in terms of what you knew about potential complications of birth?

 

Brooke Blair  20:12

Yeah. So I, I’d had lots of women who’d had birth trauma. And so I think I’d taken on a lot of that trauma in terms of thinking, Well, you know, maybe I shouldn’t have a vaginal birth, because what happens if I have a postpartum hemorrhage, or what happens if, you know, like, my cervix doesn’t dilate, and then I end up needing an emergency cesarean, knowing all about pelvic floor, what happens if I have a third degree tear, we’ve just covered that at work. We’re talking a lot about third degree tear and rehabilitation and everything like that. And so that kind of scared me a little bit. And I remember when I’d first done my women’s health training, and learning all about tearing and all of the complications that can happen with a vaginal birth. I remember saying, Well, that’s it, I’m definitely having a plan to this area. And because I definitely do not want to tear my pelvic floor. But I was lucky enough when I was a student in my final year of uni, to be on the maternity ward. So I actually got to watch three caesereans into vaginal births. And watching that I specifically asked to watch te caesareans  because I thought, well, that’s how I’m giving birth to save my pelvic floor. So I watched these three caesereans and I, I enjoyed watching the babies be born, but it didn’t. I don’t know. It didn’t excite me. I kind of was like, oh, okay, there’s the baby. Like, that’s really lovely. Had a bit of a cry. Also, I didn’t like the staff that were on at the day. So that probably didn’t make it nice, either. They were just a bit rude. And kind of like it was a production line. Like, right, oh, next person, while someone was already on the table being stitched up. But yeah, it wouldn’t have been pleasant. Yeah, it wasn’t. It wasn’t the like lovey dovey experience that I thought it would be. And so then the next day, I watched two vaginal births. And I was with this woman, it was her first birth, I was with her for the last little bit of her labor before she started pushing. And I was with her as she was pushing. And as the baby was born, like, they let me like, touch the baby’s head. She was amazing. And so the baby was born and I just burst into tears crying, her family was in the room, we were all hugging and crying together. And she let me hold her baby. And I remember leaving that and calling my mom crying, saying I just watched the most amazing thing. Like it was so incredible. And even though she torn like and I watched the tear happen, but it was just the most incredible thing to watch. And so I think after that point, I was like, Okay, no, I’m not having a planned caeserean  unless medically necessary. I really want to try and have a vaginal birth. And then I’ve had so many birth dreams after that point. And I’d always given birth, either at the beach, being in the water and pushing a baby out, or I’d been on the sand and push the baby out. Or I’d been in a hotel looking at the beach. And once I’d given birth, we used to live in a rental property and one of my dreams had given birth beside the bed. And I got back into bed after giving birth to this baby girl. And Adam said to me, God, you did so well doll. I said, I did didn’t I. And I went to sleep. And I was like that would just be ideal. So I think deep down I’d always be pictured having a home birth. Yeah. But I hadn’t really let myself think that that was a possibility up until we’d like agreed on it and booked the midwife and everything like that.

 

Alison Mitchell  23:32

I think anyone’s decision in having home birth is going to be very dependent on how their partner feels about it as well. Yeah. So like, the fact that you were able to have Adam be so supportive towards it was amazing. Yeah. Yeah, he, um, I was super surprised, because he always said to me, Oh maybe for the first one, like, let’s just do it in hospital, let’s, you know, make sure we’ve got all the safety around us that just in case knowing like with my Endo, and everything, I think he thought that could have maybe caused complications with the birth. And so we’d always said, Okay, for the first we’ll have it in hospital. And then if everything goes well, for the second, we’ll talk about home birth. Until I’ve had booked in my booking an appointment at the hospital and everything, we’re just going to go with the local public hospital. And I wasn’t excited. Yeah. Like, I didn’t look forward to having that appointment. And so I couldn’t get excited about the birth. It just didn’t feel right. And so I kept pushing Adam, and that’s why he came in watch birth time with me. And then after that, I just kept pushing it. I was like, can I contact a home birth midwife? Will you let me like, Come on, let’s just look into it. And so as soon as we booked her, and he said, Yep, let’s do it. That sounds great. I was excited for birth again. So I think we both knew and he was excited for birth, too. Yeah. So I think we both knew it was the right choice. And we did that. And how did you Mum and Adam’s Mum feel about it? They were nervous. So we weren’t going to tell them that that’s what we had planned on doing. Because I’d mentioned that As like same as what I mentioned to Adam, like, just just like a throwaway comment as a bit of a laugh, and they’d both gone oh, well, you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t do that. And I was like, Oh, okay. So when we booked it, I kind of thought I don’t really want them to be concerned. So maybe we won’t say anything. But then, the day that we booked in my our midwife, I had gone up on a trip with my mom, and I said, Oh, you know, we’ve contacted a private midwife, just thinking, I’ll just say we’re just having a private midwife, but let me think we’re birthing in hospital. She said, Oh, okay, is that to organize a home birth? And I said, Yep, she was like, Okay, fair enough. And she was kind of fine. I said, you know, are you okay with that, like, that’s what we’re gonna do. And she said, you know, you, you know, this space, you understand it, I trust you. And I trust that you know, what you’re doing by making this decision. So that’s fine, as long as it’s safe, when you’re going to be safe and looked after that’s okay. And so I kind of went, Oh, okay, cool. She’s okay with it. I knew my dad would be freaked out. So we didn’t really talk about it all that much. And then a few weeks later, we had a discussion with Adams parents, and they kind of it was when COVID had just kicked off again. And they said, oh, like, you know, it’s a bit a bit scary that you’re doing that, because we’ve obviously never experienced that before. But maybe at the moment with COVID. And it being in hospitals, maybe that is a good idea. You’ve probably worked in your favour.

 

Brooke Blair  26:26

Yeah. Yeah. So then they kind of came around and they were yeah supportive of it. They still kept saying, No, we’re nervous. But they were supportive.

 

Alison Mitchell  26:35

Yes, good. Well, that’s great. Yes, I know. Like I’d originally wanted to home birth, but I had not much support. They are not much encouragement. Yeah, that way. But home birth, for instance, wasn’t like, I mean, birth time, maybe it wasn’t there. And yeah, I would have definitely dragged my husband to see it too.

 

Brooke Blair  26:55

Well, I think up until that point, because I’d had clients, the last three years, a few clients sprinkled throughout each year, who’d had home births. And it was funny when they when I’d say, you know, where are you giving birth, and they’d kind of go or, and almost be a little bit like, anxious to tell me that they were having home births. And so I think there was always this stigma that home births were for, like hippie weirdos, who don’t care about their health and who don’t care about their baby’s health. And it maybe wasn’t until birth time came out that people went Oh, actually, like, that’s really cool. And it’s not this hippie woowoo thing. It’s actually like a really safe option for people who are low risk in their pregnancy.

 

Alison Mitchell  27:36

So yeah, I actually attended a home birth. Back when I was just starting out in naturopathy. And that was just, it was amazing. It was the most wonderful experience there was in her home and birth pool. And I really sort of just like, was excited for birth after that as well. Yeah, it’s amazing. It’s yeah. So good. If everyone I always say now, having experienced the birth that we did, I said to Adam, a few weeks after it, I said, it’s crazy that only the five people who were there know how incredible it was. Because I would have loved for our Mums to experience it because they not had traumatic births, but hadn’t had such a in credibly positive experience that we had with our birth. And it’s almost like we just wanted to like spread the joy to everyone and be like, we want you to have this intense feeling of like, joy and happiness that we experienced with our birth. And it’s so wonderful that you were able to have that experience. Yeah, I think back to what birth must have been like when, like your whole family would have been involved. And like you’d have the young kids there, they’d be watching. And nowadays we have people not have any real knowledge about birth apart of what’s shown in Hollywood. And so like going like back to old times, and having people there all the time and just seeing it as a normal thing. Yeah. Yeah, it would, it would probably help to reduce interventions and fear about birth as well.

 

Brooke Blair  29:05

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We keep talking about now that we’ve got Byron, we keep saying to him, whenever we look at our birth photos, but like and for the next one, you’ll be there watching if you want to. And we’ve said we’ve got our birth photographer, Beth, she was amazing. So she photographed our whole birth. And I said to her, maybe I should invite our moms to come and watch the next one. Adam said, I don’t think you really want more people watching you go through it. And she said, How about we film it? And then you can show everyone how great it was. And so for our next birth Byron will hopefully be there watching if he wants to, and then we’ll have it on video. I

 

Alison Mitchell  29:40

love the video. I actually really liked the ones with the kids are there and it’s standing at the edge of the pool. Yeah, but like in the edge of the room where they’re going. Wow. Yeah, yeah, I still remember this. getting off topic now. But I remember there’s one particular video I watched and there was a little girl and she said, I think there’s two in there and then they didn’t know they were having twins. They had this totally like un-monitored pregnancy. Yeah. And they say when there’s home birth, and all of a sudden she’s just like, placenta is really hard to get out at class and actually having another baby. Wow. But the little kids was just like, I told you how funny. That’s crazy. So real family orientated. Stick in their minds for sure.

 

Brooke Blair  30:21

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So that’s, that’s hopefully our plan for the next one.

 

Alison Mitchell  30:25

Yeah, yeah. And during pregnancy, did you have any, like, moments where you thought, I’m not going to be able to do it, or any fees or challenges like that? Definitely.

 

Brooke Blair  30:35

Um, so we. We did our Hypno birthing course, when I was maybe 28 weeks. And so with that course, we did it with a one of my clients. Her name’s Jamie, and she’s beautiful. She’s a doula and a hypno birthing instructor, but she’s also had home births. And so that’s why we went with her. And so a lot of the discussion is about what your fears about birth are, what you feel like you need how you want to feel during and after your birth. And so I’d gone into it thinking now I’ve got no fears, like, I’m ready to go. I’m really excited about birth, I’ve dreamt of it and dreamt of amazing births. I’m just going to have an amazing birth. And then when we started to talk about our fears, and we’re going through that I was like, Oh my gosh, I actually do have a lot of fears that I don’t think I’ve ever like, brought to the surface. But being that you haven’t allowed yourself. Yeah. Yeah. So I had a string of women all across like the last couple of months, who’d had a lot of trauma who’d had like, postpartum hemorrhages and all the scary stuff that you hear about. And so I thought, Do I really want to risk going through that. And that made me really worried. I also had in the back of my mind for my mom. So I, when I’m chatting with all of my girls during pregnancy, we talk about what their moms and what their grandmothers births were like, just to give us an idea of maybe it could go down a similar path, maybe not. So I knew that for my mum, for all three of us kids for my eldest brother, she went into labor naturally, but she wasn’t dilating. So they had to induce her. And then she got induced from my other brother and for myself, and my grandma had caesarean. So no one had really had like a unmedicated birth being that they’d always had that kind of intervention. And so I thought, oh, my gosh, what if I, what if my cervix won’t dilate without medical assistance, and I’m going to be at home laboring for hours and hours and end up in hospital anyway. Maybe I need to be giving birth in hospital kind of thing. So I went through a big phase of being fearful of that and thinking, you know, have we made the right decision here, because maybe I’m not going to be able to have this unmedicated on intervention birth. But it was really good that I could have my midwife who I knew who would come over every, you know, month at this point, maybe every three weeks, similar frequency to how often you’d see me by for an obstetrician in hospital setting, she’d come over and we’d spend an hour just chatting about how everything was going, how the baby was going, how I was feeling. And this particular day, we spoke about what my fees were. And so she was really supportive. She said, Brooke, if your cervix isn’t dilating, yeah, we will go to hospital. But being that we’re at home, you’ve got all of the oxytocin flowing, you’re not going to be fearful because you’re in your own environment. You’re gonna have your, you know, all of your special things around you that make you feel comfortable. All those things are really conducive to your cervix, dilating and labour progressing, so that should be okay. And then we spoke about some of my other fears, which were things like postpartum hemorrhage, which was one of Adam’s big fears as well. And so all the medication that she has to kind of stop me from bleeding, if that was to be a risk,

 

Alison Mitchell  33:57

theyre kitted out.

 

Brooke Blair  33:58

Yeah, yeah, they’ve got all the things that they need. And she said, and also, I’m going to be with you the whole time. So if I think that you are at risk of hemorrhaging, we’re not staying at home, we’re going to hospital like that’s we’re going to make that call straightaway. And then my other big fear was, I am not great with pain. And so prior to planning the home birth, I’d say to all my girls, you know, everyone, not everyone, but I had a lot of girls who felt upset by the fact that they needed to have an epidural, as if it was, like as if they were weak for having an epidural, which I just think is ridiculous. And I’d said to them, like they kind of went, what are you going to do? I was like, Oh, you better believe I’m having the epidural. I’m terrible with pain. So I’d always thought to myself, of course, I’m going to have the epidural.

 

Alison Mitchell  34:43

Like, was that even an option?

 

Brooke Blair  34:45

No, no, no. So that was my fear with my home birth. I was like, Oh my gosh, I’ve completely gotten rid of this whole option of something I thought that I was going to need,

 

Alison Mitchell  34:53

but that probably almost would have helped in a way because you will have gone or it’s not available to me. So I’m gonna find another way to deal with

 

Brooke Blair  35:01

exactly. So I think I think that’s kind of how my mind then worked. But I said to my midwife, you know, what if, what if I’m not coping, and we do need to go to hospital because I need that epidural. She said, Brooke, if you need, like, if you need the epidural and you need to give birth in hospital, it’s not because you can’t cope. It’s because you need to give birth in the hospital with that medical intervention. It’s not because you can’t handle it. It’s not because you’re weak. It’s nothing like that. It’s because that’s where your baby needs to be born. And so that made me feel really good that she was like, like, we’re going to cover off all these things. I’m going to support you as much as possible. When you feel like you can’t do it. I’m going to tell you that you can. So yeah, we kind of spoke about that. And then I felt really prepared and felt like now I’m doing it. I’m having this baby vaginally. But then the whole week leading into having him all I could visualize was a cesarean. So that was a bit intense thinking, oh my gosh, like he could be coming any day now. And all I can picture is that big blue curtain up and me giving birth that way.

 

Alison Mitchell  36:02

So you don’t like it? You’ve created this block to all your previous good visualizations.

 

Brooke Blair  36:06

Yep. Yeah. So I had no positive birth dreams, probably in the two months leading into having him. But thankfully, I was, you know, as we’ll to chat about I was able to give birth the way that I hoped.

 

Alison Mitchell  36:21

Yes, which was nice. And I definitely want to get into that. But did you have any other complications during pregnancy at all, like, um,

 

Brooke Blair  36:29

so I know, we spoke about the bleeds that I had early on, I had another big bleed at maybe 10 weeks. So that was terrifying. I was at work one night, and I just felt this big gush of blood come out of me. And so I went down to I with a client, I quickly raced down to the bathroom and just adrenaline kick, you know, just put a pad in and went, I’ll deal with that later. I’ve got one upstairs that I need to see. So I finished treating her and like deep down was absolutely devastated. So I got my ultrasound, and I checked on him and he was still moving. But I rang Adam

 

Alison Mitchell  37:03

you would have been just like, Come on, finish finish finish.

 

Brooke Blair  37:06

Yeah, I was just like, just please get out. And so I quickly got the ultrasound out and I checked on him. And I could see that he was moving and everything looked fine, but still was fearing the worst. And so I rang Adam and was bawling my eyes out. He came racing over he was just next door, thankfully. And so we just watched him on the ultrasound thinking like, is this the last time we’re going to see him moving? Thankfully, it wasn’t. So I rang my midwife and she said, let’s just go and get a scan tomorrow and we’ll check in on him. But if you’re still moving on the ultrasound, I’m sure he’s fine. So yeah, we had a scan the next day, and thankfully he was fine. So they think I just had a sub chorionic hematoma, possibly. And then I had no other bleeds throughout that time, thankfully, and no other issues. Everything else was smooth sailing.

 

Alison Mitchell  37:53

From there, thankfully. Yeah. And you didn’t get much morning sickness. Did you

 

Brooke Blair  37:57

no I was, I was hoping for it because I thought if I feel sick, that’s a good sign. But I think maybe from seven until 10 weeks, I felt a bit nauseous and was a bit gaggy. But I never vomited because of it. So yeah, it was just feeling a bit off. And then after that felt fine. Okay. Yeah.

 

Alison Mitchell  38:20

And so apart from the midwife, you didn’t really have to go, like you didn’t go through an obstetrician or even go into the hospital or anything like that. Then we both just came to you.

 

Brooke Blair  38:30

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, no, we never went to hospital at any point, which was good. We just had that one extra scan at 10 weeks when I’ve had the bleed. But yeah, everything else was just at home because he his heart rate was fine. My blood pressure was fine. Or my blood tests were coming back fine. So yeah, thankfully, it was.

 

Alison Mitchell  38:50

Yeah. And let’s get into birth story. So how many weeks were you when you started to feel like you were going into labor?

 

Brooke Blair  38:58

Yep. Um, so I told a few actually, I had had birth dreams in the weeks leading up so I had a birth dream that I gave birth to him on the first of December. So I woke up from from my dream. Yes, I am. I said to Adam, I know exactly when he’s coming. It’s the first of December, I had a dream last night the birth pool was in the middle of the lounge room. I pushed him out. It was amazing. And it’s the first and I’m like, Oh, okay. And so the first came and went, I think I would have been that would have been early. So I was due on the 10th. So that came and went and then I thought maybe it was the seventh. So I had my mind

 

Alison Mitchell  39:39

in your dream. Was it like a big number on a calender?

 

Brooke Blair  39:41

I just woke up and I said that was the first? I don’t know. I don’t know why. It was weird. Um, so then that I thought maybe it was the seventh and I got that wrong. And then a seventh came and went. Meanwhile, I’m doing all of the things I’ve been seeing the girls at work to work on, stretching my perineum and pelvic floor and pushing and all that lovely To date, I was eating my day. I was having my raspberry leaf tea. I was shoving evening primrose oil up my vagina. Um,

 

Alison Mitchell  40:09

raspberry leaf actually doesn’t bring it on earlier. Oh, no, it just makes the labour better. Okay, well, I was doing that anyway. I was having labor induction massage and acupuncture. And so I had that once. And the man who was doing it, he kept on like, gosh, it was the most intense massage I’ve ever had. And he kept saying, is baby moving? And I was like, no, he’s still still asleep. And he was like, Oh, he’s very stubborn this baby. We need to get him uncomfortable, then he’ll want to come out. And so after the first day, he did that. The next day, I woke up and I just cried for about five hours. It was like I had this huge emotional release. Yeah, yeah. I just cried. And I everyone, like Adam said, you know what’s going on? I said, Nothing is wrong. I just, I just need to cry, honey. Yeah. So I cried, and mom came around, and my dogs ruined my Christmas tree. So I cried about that, too. So I just had a bath for like an hour and cried, and then felt okay. And then the following week had the induction massage and acupuncture again. And at that point, Adam, I think I was I would have been about 40 weeks I was due. And Adam said to me, I’m sick of going to work and not getting a message from you. I just want to be at home with you waiting for this baby to come. So he decided to finish up work on the Monday, which would have been the 14th I think. So then on the 15th. It was a beautiful sunny day. So we were like let’s go to the beach. All I’ve wanted to do this whole pregnancy is swim at the beach while pregnant and I couldn’t because it locked down. So we packed the dogs in the car. And we went down to Wollongong and we went to the beach. And it was such a beautiful day. And then we had dinner with my parents. We had spicy pizza. And I’d done some curb walking that day as well. And at dinner, my mom and dad, they said to Adam, now you’ve been to the beach, go home, Adam and help get this baby out, go home and have sex. I was like, Oh, I’m too tired. I can’t be bothered with that. We’ll do it tomorrow morning. And so we went home, went to bed. And then at midnight, I woke up and my contractions started. So they were a lot more intense than I thought that they would be at the start. So I woke up and I thought, amazing. I’ll lay back down and I’ll try and sleep through these other two contractors. I was like, No, I am not sleeping through these. So I went downstairs  and So how many weeks are you now

 

Brooke Blair  42:38

I was 40 weeks and six days. Nice. Yes. So six days overdue.

 

Alison Mitchell  42:45

This was the 16th

 

Brooke Blair  42:46

This was the 16. Very morning of the 16. Yeah. Yeah. So I went downstairs, I put my tens machine on. And I hated it. And i thought i would love it

 

Alison Mitchell  42:57

You were looking forward to that

 

Brooke Blair  42:59

I was looking forward to it. We hire them out at work and all of my girls are bar one have loved the tens machine. Some of my girls have left it on up until they’re pushing the baby out. And they’ve all come back saying God, that tens machine was amazing. And I thought I’ve got this covered. I don’t need an epidural. I’ve got a tens machine, but I hated it. hated that. So I took that off. And I came back out and gotten the bath. So actually I think so we’ve gotten home from the beach going backwards. We’ve gotten home from the beach. And I said to Adam Oh, it looks like it’s gonna storm I might just quickly have a bath. And I’m a big bath person. So I had a bath, shaved my legs, washed my hair. Got out of the bath braided my hair. Yeah. And I always said to Adam, I wanted my hair braided for labor. And so as I was doing it, he came in and he was like, Are we having a baby tonight? I was like, No, I just feel like braiding my hair. So it’s out of the way. So had you told him you were having some contractions? I hadn’t started contractions yet. Before we got to dinner with my parents. Gotcha. Yeah. Um, so I think my body knew that things were gonna happen. But I was completely oblivious. I found you know, this dream of having birth on a beach. Yeah, like it was definitely some sort of turth to it yeah, it was exactly what everyone said to me. They’re like you’re brave with all of your birth dreams on the beach, who’s to say you’re not going to go into labor. And my birth photographer she said, I’m down for a beach birth. We just call me I’ll be there. Yeah, so I think deep down in my body, it knew that things were going to happen that night, but I was completely unaware. So yeah, I’d had that bath then so I’d gone into labor I tried the tents hated it. Came back upstairs had another bath. And I then thought I should be timing these contractions. This was three o’clock by this point. I’d been going for three hours hadn’t woken Adam just yet.

 

Alison Mitchell  44:48

But most people like when I was like, I should be timing them. Oh, three minutes. Yeah. off to hospital.

 

Brooke Blair  44:55

Well, I started timing them because I thought this. These are happening far more frequently than I thought that should be like I was expecting one every 20 minutes for a couple of hours then 10 minutes. No, no, I was having 30 There were 40 to 60 seconds long each contraction. And they were coming every three to six minutes.

 

Alison Mitchell  45:12

That’s great. you went bang.

 

Brooke Blair  45:14

Yeah, it was straight into active labor. So I thought, oh, okay, interesting, because your water’s broken, you know, you know, so just the contractions. And my whole pregnancy like the last couple of weeks, I’ve been self checking my own cervix, because I thought that’ll give me a good idea of when things are happening. I totally did that, too. Yeah. And everyone kept saying to me, cuz I’ve been saying it quite a lovely chiro. And my midwife, they both said to me, Brooke, get your fingers out of your vagina. Of course, it’s not going to open if you keep poking it. I was like, I know, I know. But it’s just good to check. And so I promised them I wouldn’t, but I kept doing it.

 

Alison Mitchell  45:52

i wash My hands.

 

Brooke Blair  45:52

Yeah, of course. And so then while I was in the bath, and I was having these contractions, I thought, just gonna stick my fingers up my vagina and check my cervix have never felt a cervix that was dilating before. So I don’t know what I thought I was checking for. But in hindsight, I think I was probably two or three centimeters dilated because I could kind of like spread my fingers and feel something

 

Alison Mitchell  46:10

it would have been like a little bit, like softer as well.

 

Brooke Blair  46:13

Yeah, it was just different to what I’m what I know, a cervix feels like. And so at 330 I messaged my midwife to say, hey, just letting you know, these are what my contractions are doing. I’m going okay, though. I’m just in the bath. And so I just kept putting off waking Adam up and then at 430.

 

Alison Mitchell  46:30

So he had he does he know yet?

 

Brooke Blair  46:32

No, let’s still asleep. So I was like, yeah, so at 430 I’m fully naked. I walk into the bedroom, and I woke him. I was so just shook him and I said a doll. And he was like, Yeah, I said, I’m gonna need you soon. So I’m fully naked on the bed. And he was like, Okay. And then he went back to sleep. I was like, no, no, like, I’m gonna need you. It’s like, why? He said, I’m in labor. He was like, oh, okay, and went back to sleep. So I woke him again. I said, No, no, like, really. So he got out, went to the toilet, went back to bed. So then I had to wait. This is the guy who struggles to sleep but had no problems at this point sleeping. And so I said, told him again, and he was like, oh, okay, psyche, it clicked all of a sudden, you’re like, half asleep, probably when you were telling him. Yeah, yeah. So he’s woken up, made himself a coffee, and we’re straight downstairs to set up the birth pool. I’d love him to set everything up downstairs without me telling him to do anything. And so I’m just upstairs laboring away. Meanwhile, our dogs were at home. And we weren’t planning on our dogs being here, when I had the baby, because we thought, anytime I make a loud noise, we’ve got the two dogs and our youngest one, he jumps up on me when I make noise as if, like what’s going on. And I thought I would be quite allowed labor, which I was. But they were both really calm. So we have a girl, dog, Hazel, and she just slept the whole time wasn’t fazed in the slightest, and our boy dog scene, but he’d been following me around for a few hours and just watching me every time I’d have a contraction. So Adam said to me, you know, should we call your mom and get her to come and pick up the dogs? Or what do you want to do? And I said, no other dogs are fine. We’ll just leave them. So we kept the dogs for the whole labor, which was amazing. So yeah, I was up and down the stairs laboring away, and Simba, our boy dog, he would just follow behind me, you know, twos, always two steps behind me. Quiet as anything, never made a fuss must have known. I think they both knew. And so when I’d have a contraction, you just lay down by my side. And then I’d get up and move again. And he just followed me again. So

 

Alison Mitchell  48:33

so when you see up and down the stairs, like even like we going up and down, like to help with the contractions.

 

Brooke Blair  48:37

So no, I was just like, I’d kind of move around the house just to see where I felt more comfortable. Yeah. And eventually I ended up just staying downstairs because that’s where the birth pool was. That’s where all of like my affirmations and everything, kind of that I’d visualized that I wanted around me where. So I’d kind of go and sit on the toilet and have some contractions on the toilet. And then I lay on the lounge. And wherever I was, we’ve got all these photos of him just being like right by my side, like with his head on the lounge looking at me, and it was very sweet. And so I then found because I didn’t have my 10s machine because I hated it. I then thought well, I’ll get in the shower. So I’ve had at this point, I’ve had two baths. So before we went to mom and dad’s for dinner, and another one that morning, then I got in the shower, and I thought I’d had a five minute long shower when Adam came and said, Okay, Darl, you should probably get out we need to save hot water to fill up the birth pool. And I was like, I haven’t even been in here that long. What is he talking about? So I got out and I laid it on the lounge again. And it was it sucked. So I got back in the shower. And he was like, No, really, we’re going to run out of hot water. And I said What is your problem? I’ve been here for two minutes. He said Do you last show was over an hour long and now you’ve been here for 30 minutes. Oh, yeah.

 

Alison Mitchell  49:53

So that’s time distortion. Yeah, but

 

Brooke Blair  49:55

I had no idea how long I’d been there. Which people To say that to you, like you’ve got no concept of time, but until you’re in it, you have no idea that it’s true. Like,

 

Alison Mitchell  50:05

I think my active pushing was like an hour, but I felt like it was 10 minutes. Yeah,

 

Brooke Blair  50:10

it’s crazy. Crazy. Um, so then I was in the shower for the second time, Adam got me out of it. That’s okay. Um, and then we turn the shower off. And Adam started to feel the birth portfolio. And he was like, Oh, good. We’ve run out of hot water. So I just had, yeah. And I just looked at him like, well, you deal with it, mate. It’s not my problem right now. I’ve got other things  too. So

 

Alison Mitchell  50:40

he’s he goes the kettle. And

 

Brooke Blair  50:43

Adam said to me, later, not at the time, he said, my first thought was, oh, my God, I’m going to have to build a fire in the backyard so that I can boil. So. I was like, Oh my God, thank God, you didn’t say that to me. I would have like, murdered you having that thought. He said, so then I came upstairs and I realized, Oh, we’ve got a stove so I can boil water that way. He was gonna go all caveman on us.  Oh, Bubby. Um, and so he then contacted our birth photographer and midwife again. Because they were here. They weren’t here just yet. So I think that was maybe at like, 830. He contacted them. And he said to my birth photographer, by the way, she’s just down the road. He said, By the way, do you mind bringing your kettle we’ve run out of hot water. So she arrives with the kettle, and she God love her. She was helping him go up and down the stairs to fill the birth pool with all of our boiling water. And our midwife wasn’t here still at this point. And so I think I think it may be nine o’clock, Adam had called her and I was in the middle of a contraction. And so she heard me moaning in the background. And she said to him, that’s all I need to know. I’m on my way right now. And she came because I was vocalizing quite a bit. And she comes from Leura. So we knew it was going to take her about an hour. So then she maybe arrived, I think she arrived just out to 10. And at that point, I’d been in labor for 10 hours, so I was exhausted. So I got on the lounge and got into child’s pose and stuck my bum in the air. And so I took his head off my cervix and completely slowed my labor down. So I’ve gone from having a contraction every, like three minutes now consistently to having one contraction every 10 to 15 minutes. Yeah. Which was great for me.

 

Alison Mitchell  52:46

Did you know that was gonna happen?

 

Brooke Blair  52:48

I think I did. But I thought I don’t care. I need a break. Yeah. So I just laid there and slept for a bit in between contractions. And I felt terrible because I thought, oh my gosh, now the second midwife had arrived. I thought they’re both here. Think watching having this baby soon. Yeah. And here I am sleeping. Yeah. And now they probably think that I was lying or something, which they didn’t. But they were up here just all sitting around the coffee, but coffee table, having that tea and a cuppa. And then I think they’d let me sleep for maybe an hour. And then my midwife came downstairs and she said to me very gently, she said, Brooke, do you want to meet your baby today? I said, Yes. She said, Me too. How about we get you up and moving and put his pressure his head back on your cervix so that we start things up again? And I was like, Okay, fair enough. Because I didn’t want to because then it was going to be uncomfortable again.

 

Alison Mitchell  53:41

You escaped the pain for a bit.

 

Brooke Blair  53:43

Yeah, exactly. Um, so then she had me properly walking the stairs to start things up again. So Adam and I together would go up and down the stairs like 10 times. And then we’d walk up and down the backyard, and then I’d go and sit on the toilet and have contractions on the toilet. So my water still hadn’t broken at this point. It was maybe 1130. And then, so we kept doing that. And then I went and sat on the toilet. And I kind of been doing a little bit of pushing and kind of checking my cervix. And then I had a little bit of a bloody show very slight, bloody show when I’d white. So we did some more walking came back to the toilet, and I’d wiped and I pulled out my mucus plug. And I was so excited. I wish there was a photo of my face. When I pulled this mucus plug out. Adam was bent down putting a new pad in my underpants for me and I pulled this thing out next to his head was like my mucus plug How amazing. Um, because to me, that was a sign that things were actually progressing. So my midwife came in and checked it she said, Yep, that’s definitely mucus plug. How good and then I think I’m unsure of the timing of this, but I’m pretty sure then I stood up off the toilet, because Adam said come on darl. You’ve been there for a while. Let’s go and do some more walking and I stood up there. Yeah, I stood up and my waters broke all over our feet. And it really I always listened to birth stories of people saying, I wasn’t sure whether I wet myself or it was my waters broken and I thought surely, you know, I had no idea. I was like, Ah, I think I could have wet myself, but I think it could be my waters. I’m really not sure.

 

Alison Mitchell  55:19

It’s probably so numb down there.

 

Brooke Blair  55:22

Yeah, I just have no idea.

 

Alison Mitchell  55:25

I think mine was like, I all of a sudden notice that everything’s wet.

 

Brooke Blair  55:29

Yeah. Yeah. Bizarre.

 

Alison Mitchell  55:32

Like you don’t feel it happening. Like, yeah, I was. I think I might have heard like a bit of a sound you ever thought remember now? Yeah. Well,

 

Brooke Blair  55:39

I don’t remember feeling a pop. I just remember going Oh, yeah. Like, I’m, something’s coming out of me. And it felt like it could be urine. But I didn’t know. And my midwife came in and she said, No, no, it’s clear. It’s definitely your waters. How good. And so I sat back down on the toilet. I thought, well, this is working. So I’m going to stay here. So I sat down on the toilet and had a few more contractions there.

 

Alison Mitchell  56:00

This is where they use birthing stools.

 

Brooke Blair  56:01

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But also, I think, because we were at home and I was walking outside, I thought, I think I was subconsciously holding on my pelvic floor, because I was like, I don’t want to weigh myself outside and have possibly my neighbors see that happen. So being on the toilet, I could just constantly we and relax. Yeah. So that’s I think when things started to progress a lot more.

 

Alison Mitchell  56:24

Yeah. And that really goes to show that sort of element of fear and tension. Yeah. And selfconsciousness  Yeah, hold that thought ever. Yeah. And I mean, our neighbors weren’t even home. So I don’t know why I was thinking that but I was. Yeah, I just kept saying to Adam, no, I don’t want to weigh myself in front of people. Um, so I was having more contractions on the toilet. And then Adam came me. I don’t know how long I’ve been there. But Adam came into the bathroom. And he said, Don’t do get in the pool. Because I hadn’t even considered the pool. At this point. I thought it looked really hot. Yeah, I feel this pull up for you. And because I think I was still thinking in my head that I wasn’t I wasn’t having this baby. vaginally, I still had my last couple of dreams in my head of I’m having a cesarean blue curtain. Yeah, yeah. Um, and so I didn’t want to get in the pool because I thought, Oh, well, we’re just gonna have to call an ambulance to transfer me to hospital soon anyway. So he came in and said, you want to get in the pool. And I thought I would love to be in the pool right now. That would be great. And my midwives said later, they were like, we just kept waiting for you to get in. And you just kept on like sitting on the toilet and going somewhere else. And we’re waiting for you to say I can’t cope. And then we tell you to get in the pool, and just sat in the toilet, you didn’t do anything. So I got in the pool, finally. And that was a huge relief from all of the pressure that I was feeling. Because I can’t really remember like, Adam says to me later, I never said that I had pain. But he kept saying that I kept telling you, I was experiencing a lot of pressure in my bum. And in my tummy. So also on the toilet, I’d been involuntary, maybe voluntary pushing, but I didn’t want to tell anyone because I didn’t want to get in trouble, which I wouldn’t have. But in my mind, I was like, No, I shouldn’t be doing this yet. I don’t think my cervix is out of the way enough. So they’ll tell me to stop if they know that I’m pushing that you were doing it consciously?

 

Brooke Blair  58:17

I think so. Okay, um, either way, whether it was conscious or not. I was pushing

 

Alison Mitchell  58:21

we had you experience the bearing down like, yeah, when you like when you’re actually pushing like, we can’t control it?

 

Brooke Blair  58:30

I think so. Like, I think I think that’s what was happening. Like, I think it was spontaneous pushing, but I don’t think I also knew that I was pushing with it, maybe. But I kept thinking, No, my cervix isn’t fully dilated yet. I shouldn’t be doing that. So yeah, so I got in the pool. And then I’d started doing some pushes. But then I’d also started self checking my cervix again, classic.

 

Alison Mitchell  58:56

And I kept saying to my, my guess was a bit like even the ultrasound. Yeah,

 

Brooke Blair  58:59

exactly. I knew that. I shouldn’t do it, but I kept doing it. Yeah, exactly. But I kept checking my cervix. And I was saying to my midwife, my cervix isn’t even fully dilated yet. I shouldn’t be pushing. It’s in the way she was like, that’s okay. Brooke, everything that you’re doing sounds great. Keep going. Um, so then I got on all fours. And I was kind of in like a W sit so like my knees in and my feet out? Yeah. So open up open the pelvic outlet. And I was having lots of contractions quite frequently and I was pushing with each of them vocalizing a lot like that really low key, I guess that mooing sound that you think that you can replicate? But I don’t think I could ever replicate until I’m in labor again. Oh,

 

Alison Mitchell  59:41

I think I did the cow noise Yeah, I remember looking at it. I had a little bit of a birth video and I was like, I don’t even I’m like I’m scared to look at the video. The noise

 

Brooke Blair  59:50

Yeah, it’s just like it’s otherworldly. And so Adam was in front of me like and I was squeezing his hands every contraction and I was pushing and bearing down on Meanwhile, our dogs are still there. So Hazel still was upstairs, but simple was downstairs just watching he just sit by my side, like not in the pool, obviously, but right next to the pool and just watch the whole thing silently. And then I said to Adam, I was like, he’s just not coming down. My cervix is still there, and my midwife had the mirror. And I think that you could start to see that everything was stretching and his head was coming. I wasn’t crowning yet. But I still was thinking that I wasn’t having this baby. I don’t know why. And Adam said, doll, I can see his head. He’s definitely coming down. And I was like, No way. And then my midwife said, Brooke, check, check against sticky fingers up your vagina, check again. Can you feel his head? And I was like, Oh my gosh, it’s his head that I’ve been feeling this whole time, not my cervix. And she said, does he have any hair? And I said, Not no hair in this photo is and he definitely has hair. A little bit too slippery. Yeah, I had no ID. Um, and then so I kept pushing. And I said to Adam, again, he just won’t get out. And Adams had no doll. He’s coming. I can see he’s got your eyes. And I was like, shut up, Adam. So he was just like having a joke with me at this point in my midwife was like you are going to be murdered if you keep trying to joke with her right now. We’re tied up. Yeah, exactly. And so I’d been pushing and I could say I’d started to crown and I could feel his head come out maybe one or two centimeters. And then my contractions would stop then in sync back away inside. And then it happened again, and come out a bit further and sink back in. And in my rational brain, I knew that was a good thing. But in my irrational brain, I was like, just get out of me. Like, I just need to push more,

 

Alison Mitchell  1:01:41

get out and stay out

 

Brooke Blair  1:01:42

so that it can come out. And I thought like it had been happening for a while. And I was thinking surely there’s not much head left that has to come out like surely it’s happening soon. And my midwife kept saying you’re doing so beautifully, bro. He’s stretching you perfectly. This is great. So she was so encouraging. And I’ve got my hand there the whole time feeling how much of his head was coming out and trying to like guard my perineum and move my parents out of the way to try and avoid tearing.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:02:09

Are you still in your W sit? Yes.

 

Brooke Blair  1:02:11

And so because it just kept on happening like that. My midwife said, How about we try maybe getting into a lunge, put one of your legs forward, and let’s just try a different position. So I put my left leg forward and was in a really deep lunch, and then my next contraction, I think that’s when his head came out. And I was expecting his head to sit there for a bit and like my contractions to stop and then have more contractions and push the rest of him out. But his head came out, then this arm flung out of me that his whole body just slip it out all at once. was surreal. It’s crazy. Um, and so then I just reached down and I just like I because I had my hand and that whole time, I grabbed him and I grabbed him around the neck. And I put my other hand under his bum and just like lifted his whole body out of the pool to show Adam because Adam couldn’t see what was happening at this point. Because I was bent over. And the midwives were all like, going, yay. Like how amazing Adam was like, what’s happening, what’s happening. And there’s photos, they’re so beautiful. There’s photos of where I’ve just started to lift Byron up out of the pool, and you can see Adams face and he’s just like, so happy and so excited. And then there’s another photo of my face when I’ve got him out of the pool. And I’ve just got like this huge grin on my face like oh my gosh, we’ve just done this. Yeah.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:03:28

no blue curtains

 

Brooke Blair  1:03:29

Yeah, no blue curtains here, no ambulance here. And so yeah, he was out. It was just so amazing. Like the fact that he was finally here is like the most surreal thing ever. And so straightaway, I like sat back and like put him on my chest. And his umbilical cord was quite short. So I could just get him onto my chest, but I couldn’t properly sit down in the pool. Because it felt like I was tugging on my placenta. And so we sat back and the dogs were there. So 10 minutes before he was born, Hazel our girl dog she came downstairs, and the second midwife said Oh, Hazel’s here, that means that the baby’s coming soon. And 10 minutes later, he was born, so it was crazy. We also throughout I forgot to say we had a dragon fly, because we had our doors all open downstairs. We had a dragon fly that kept flitting in and out and like landed on our walls and would land on our birth photographer Beth, and our midwife Google that afterwards. And she said that it’s a symbol of transformation and change. So that was crazy, because I could like I wasn’t aware of the dragon fly, but I could hear them say oh, the dragon flies back again. Like while I was having contractions and things. So that was pretty amazing to know that that was happening. So we’ve got photos of the dragon fly too. And so he took maybe 30 seconds to start breathing so which also felt like two seconds like I was not concerned in the slightest. But the movements were saying just breathe on his face. Bonnie’s face, give him a little tap. And he started to cry. And as soon as he started to cry, Simba started to cry out boy talk. We’ve got videos of that as well. Yeah. And so that was him. He was out. And we were a family of three. Our little Byron was here.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:05:16

Oh, and he’s so cute. He’s so content right now.

 

Brooke Blair  1:05:20

I know. He’s such a good boy.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:05:24

Oh, that’s wonderful. Okay, and so then placenta came out fine.

 

Brooke Blair  1:05:29

Yes. So we had I had a bit of a bleed after, like when my placenta was due to come out. So I’d given birth to human, I reckon we’d maybe spend 10 minutes in the pool. And while I was sitting there, I’d said, I feel like I’m about to lose a lot of blood, like I just had this sensation vaginally that something was coming out. So I had quite a big gush of blood. And my midwives weren’t concerned, but I think they were kind of going, we really want to check where that blood is coming from. And I thought I’d be stressed by that. And I thought Adam would be stressed by that. But we were both just like, so in love with him. And I felt so fine, that I wasn’t concerned that there was this blood there. So we got out of the pool. And I wouldn’t hand him off to anyone, like I was holding him while everyone was helping me out of the pool. I was like, no, no, no one’s taking my child from me. Um, and then as I got out of the pool, I had another gush of blood. So the my midwife said, Let’s just give you this Syntocin injection, which I had no concerns about having because as long as he was fine, and I was fine, and we didn’t have to go to hospital. After having everything happened at home, I thought, Nah, that’s fine. I don’t care what you need to give me from this point forward, do whatever. So I had this syntocin injection. And then we did a little bit of like, she was helping my placenta to come out sooner to try and stop the bleeding. So yeah, maybe 20-30 minutes after he was born, we birth the placenta. And we obviously had delayed cord clamping, they’d waited until the cord was completely clear. Before Adam then cut the cord, and we think it was just maybe we don’t really know where the bleeding came from. But we think because the umbilical cord was so short, maybe when I pulled him out, I kind of tugged on the placenta, and that’s where the blood came from. Straight after the injection, I had no more loss of blood, like abnormally large loss of blood, which was good. So yeah, it’s just kind of laying on our lounge downstairs having skin to skin time with my baby. And the placenta came out and I didn’t even like I felt it come out because I was having to push a little bit to help her get the placenta out. But it wasn’t painful at all. It’s kind of just the global. Yeah, yeah. It was just like I felt a bit empty. After that. Yeah. Which was weird. Yeah, and so they were just checking the placenta to make sure that there wasn’t anything retained when it had come out which it all looked fine. And I tried to latch him on because I thought if I can get him on my boob, I was also had lots of breastfeeding dreams. Oh, and so even pre pregnancy, I would like wake up sad that I didn’t have a baby on my breast when I woke up that morning. So I was super excited to try and breastfeed him. But we couldn’t get into latch straightaway. So we’ll just then having cuddles and then Adam had cuddles. And then my midwives were packing everything up. While we just laid there and enjoyed our new baby. They put a load of washing on they brought me some food and a cup of tea. For some reason. My I thought I was going to have the baby overnight, not at four o’clock in the afternoon. So I had pancakes thinking we’ll have pancakes for breakfast, that’ll be nice. But what I asked for was an apple and a cup of tea. That’s what they brought me. And yeah, so then we did all the baby checks and everything. He was perfect. Everything looked great. So from there, we then the midwives helped me in to have a shower, and then got me dressed and we went upstairs and laid in bed and tried to feed him again. So we ended up syringe feeding him that night. And I think it maybe seven o’clock, the midwives left. So they’d been there from by 1030 that morning. And we were just tucked up in bed with our puppies and our baby and bliss.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:09:16

And so, dogs have been fine with him having

 

Brooke Blair  1:09:19

they lay him. Yeah, they love him. I think Hazel being that she’s older, she’s about 13. So I like to think that she knew that you know what was happening? And she thought no, I’m not going to respect their space and not go down there until the baby’s nearly here. And Simba was just so excited like he just wanted he wanted to try and just kiss him and kiss me all over which we wouldn’t let him obviously but he was just so interested in Byron and he would whine whenever Byron cried and he’d be right there checking on him like what’s going on? What can I do to help?

 

Alison Mitchell  1:09:56

So that was really sweet. Yeah, yeah. And breast feedings being good?

 

Brooke Blair  1:10:01

Breastfeeding has been so we had a little bit of difficulty initially. So we couldn’t get him to latch. Until maybe the third or fourth days, we were syringe feeding and with my colostrum up until that point, and we managed to get him to attach on to my right breast, we had to like flip my nipple into his mouth. And we got that to happen a few times. But we couldn’t get the other breast to happen. So we started using nipple shields. We maybe used them for a week. And my midwife had said, maybe on the second day, I think that he could have a tongue tie. And being that it was so close to Christmas, it was the 16th that he was born in December. So we called straightaway to booking with a lactation consultant, and we got in with her. I think, just after Christmas, maybe on the 27th. So we were using nipple shields maybe for seven to 10 days. We saw her and she kept his tongue tie. He had quite a decent tongue tie. Use nipple shields that day in the next day. And then after that, we were off nipple shields, and he was latching beautifully. And everything’s been great since I had a bit of oversupply. my left boob is an overachiever and likes to produce a lot of milk, which he didn’t like straightaway, because it would shoot him in the back of the throat. So he’d just be like coughing and spluttering. And there’s milk all over his face and all over everything.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:11:24

And then they take off, take off and then and then it’s just like spraying their face and then trying to stop it.

 

Brooke Blair  1:11:30

Yeah. And then he’s like, looking at me, like, what are you doing to me, Mum? Um, so since that, that probably took maybe seven weeks to kind of settle down. But yeah, otherwise, everything’s been going great, thankfully, which I’m so glad about because I desperately wanted to breastfeed. So I’m feeling very lucky that we’ve been able to get

 

Alison Mitchell  1:11:49

that to work. Yeah, that’s wonderful. Yeah. And how’s your pelvic floor

 

Brooke Blair  1:11:54

pelvic floor is good. So being being the pelvic floor physio that I am as soon as we’d given birth to him, and my midwives were checking, and they’d taken the placenta out, or helped me birth the placenta, and then they were checking to see if I’d had any chairs. I was like, I wonder if I can squeeze my pelvic floor right now. So I gave it a squeeze. And I said to them, girls, I can still squeeze my pelvic floor right now. Stupid. But then they were like, please don’t do that. You just push the baby out. We don’t need you doing that right now. But I thought that’s great, wonderful tip. So I did have a second degree tear, which we stitched up to the second day after I’d given birth to him. Because we weren’t sure if we were going to stitch it or not my midwife, she tends to kind of leave tears. Because her thoughts are the vagina is not like this open vessel, it’s closed and shut and generally your legs are together. So it tends to just heal itself. But I kind of had this random little flap that she wanted to stitch back on. Being that I should know better. But I chose to go against all of my knowledge. A few days after that, maybe the day after she’d stitched me went for a walk up to a cafe vocally. And I had him in a carrier on my chest. I was like, let’s show off this baby of ours. Three day old baby. Yeah, exactly. Our fresh newborn people were going that baby’s very younger, like, yes, he’s three days old, though, like, Wow. Um, and so I told my stitches, unfortunately, which was quite uncomfortable. I just felt a bit stiff and a bit sore. And I thought that doesn’t feel right. And I’d taken a few photos and showed my midwife said, oh, yeah, your stitches have come away. Do you know when that happened? And I said, Oh, could have been I was walking would have been that walk that I shouldn’t have gone on. So yeah, they came away. And that was quite uncomfortable for a few weeks. So I just had to kind of keep my legs together and not do as much as what I had been trying to do. Basically, all the things that I tell my girls to do, I saw listen to, like, taking your Yeah, it’s like I needed one of the girls from work to like, text me all of the information that I give out and go, you know, this book, but here and then I would have gone. Ah,

 

Alison Mitchell  1:14:05

of course. That’s always the way Yeah, we don’t listen.

 

Brooke Blair  1:14:10

So yeah, once that had healed, everything’s been fine. Thankfully, I was constipated for maybe six days. So that was terrifying. But the first poo was okay. Um, but yeah, so I’ve had my six week check with the girls at work and my pelvic floor is still functioning really well, which is nice. We kind of grade pelvic floor strength out of five. And at the moment, I’ve got a four which is good. And I wasn’t really having any issues or concerns. I had a little bit of like a bubbly sensation, which is a sign that there could be a prolapse there just feels like there’s something there that shouldn’t be there. And I’ve got a family history of prolapse. So I was kind of expecting that when they checked me that I would have a prolapse and most women within the first six weeks nearly everyone who’s had a vaginal birth has some degree of mobility of their tissue. So prolapse being like extra descent of either the bladder uterus or the bowel. And so I had a little bit of movement of my bladder. And so we’re kind of just monitoring that. And I’ve got some herbs from you to try and help with lifting everything back up. But now that I’m what 10 weeks postpartum, I haven’t really felt that sensation for probably four weeks now. So I just need to remind myself, because I’m easy to take it easy still. Yeah. And they had a baby 10 weeks ago. So as much as I’d love to go for a run, I’m not I’m just kind of keeping everything low intensity. For now. We’ve been at the gym, but you’ve been taking it easy. Yeah, yes. I haven’t been doing any jumpy activities just yet. And I haven’t been lifting heavy weights. But I’ll start to kind of increase my activity. I’ve got another physio appointment in a week or two. So we’ll check in see where things are at. And then I’ll hopefully start to increase my activity. Yeah. Which is good. I’m looking forward to

 

Alison Mitchell  1:15:54

that. Yeah. I bet you are, very much sp. So Brooke was saying before, she just really wants to go out for a run. But yeah, she’s like keeping yourself under control.

 

Brooke Blair  1:16:03

I am I went for a swim yesterday, instead of a run. I thought I just need to move my body, what’s the best way to do it? And I said to Adam, I’m going to go for a run. He said, No, how about you go to the pool and you go for a swim. So I took that option instead? But yeah, I guess for sure.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:16:22

But when you were when we were planning this, you did a question on your Instagram. If anyone has any questions about your birth? Has there been anything anyone’s asked that we haven’t covered? And so the main questions were just asking kind of like to tell the whole story. I had one question, I think from another pelvic floor physio who she asked if I’d ever considered like, did I feel pressured into having a vaginal birth being that I’m a pelvic floor physio? Or did I have fears about it and consider maybe having a cesarean because of the risk of having a third degree tear? Which I guess we’ve kind of answered. And one of the questions was, how did I keep the oxytocin levels high? Which I guess kind of being at home being in your own environment, I had my dogs he like symbol would always give me cuddles. Whenever I bent down, give me a little case. And I had lots of photos around that made me feel really happy. Yeah.  And I think feeling safe. Yeah,

 

Brooke Blair  1:17:22

yeah, exactly. Just being at home. It just felt right. And obviously having Adam with me, the whole time was nice and not have to kind of worry about who was coming in and out. We knew the only other three people who were going to be there was my midwife who I, you know, we’d built that rapport with. So we knew her and I felt really great when she’d arrived. We had a birth photographer, Beth, who was lovely, she’d been so supportive through the whole pregnancy, knowing that we’d had the miscarriage and like knowing all of our plans. And then the second midwife who arrived Her name was Natasha, she was so beautiful. She was so lovely. She was always giving us like, encouraging words. And she was helping Adam fill the pool and padding the dogs. So I think just being at home in the people, but we’re here really helped you. Yeah, I think that was probably the biggest thing that kind of kept me stress free and feeling all the wealth.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:18:14

Yeah, like that’s a that’s a quiet amount of support. Like your partner and three other women there. Yeah, of course, you dogs, whereas in a hospital setting, often they leave you alone in the room. Yeah. That can be really scary. Yeah, lonely. Yeah, exactly socially, in COVID times as well, when, like, up until recently have been able to have a doula or birth support.

 

Brooke Blair  1:18:35

Yeah, I think it was the day that we were talking about it after I’d had him. So that day, the 16th, they just bought back in that you could only have the one support person. So up until that day, you could have to support people in hospitals. So we were going in or if we do have to transfer for whatever reason, I’ve got Adam and at least I’ve got my midwife being able to come in with me, just in case, because we’d obviously planned for if that was, you know, to be the need to birth in hospital, which could always be the case no matter what happens. So we’ve kind of planned for that of what that might look like. And then yeah, that day, they’d brought in only the one support person. So knowing that I could have my full kind of support people there was amazing.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:19:21

Amazing. Yeah, yeah. And going through COVID times as well. How did you go in terms of navigating that and like in immunization? How How was that for you?

 

Brooke Blair  1:19:35

That was tricky. So when they first brought out the vaccines, they weren’t saying that they were safe yet for pregnancy. And so Adam was more than happy to get his vaccine he was very comfortable with that. I when they then said that pregnant women were recommended the vaccine I felt a little bit uncomfortable about it, just not knowing enough about it yet. It was so so new. Yeah, yeah. So I felt a little bit uncertain about it and didn’t like the idea of getting it for myself. And I’d spoken to the girls at work, who’d had babies, and we’d kind of gone like, they’d all gotten their vaccine. And they were like, you know, I don’t know what I do if I was pregnant, to be honest. So being that was the case, I kind of we waited the first couple of weeks. But then it was getting quite bad. And I was terrified of catching COVID, we’d had an instance where Adam was a close contact at work in trading someone who had COVID. And so we had an isolation, we had the 14 day isolation, and during that time, I’ve made myself sick with worry about what would happen. I think I was 25 weeks, and was so stressed and concerned about what would happen if I’d caught it. And I’d read all of these stories online about pregnant women having to deliver via emergency cesarean and all sorts of horrible things that made me terrified. And so that’s when I then got in contact with you, actually. And I said, Help me, what should I do? Tell me, I think you said to me, What’s your concern with getting the vaccine and so I explained, you know, I just don’t know enough about it, what happens if something happens, you know, a year, or two years or five years or 10 years down the track to my baby. So we had a really good chat about that. And you explained the process of vaccines and how they work. And we kind of spoke about why we both thought that then having that chat, it was safe for me to have and probably encouraged for me to have being that I was still at work and in contact with so many people. And Adam as well was in contact with so many people that risk of catching it was just that bit higher than if I could work from home. And I spoke to my GP about it as well. And she was quite encouraging of getting it. So then we kind of booked it in after that. I took a lot of herbs. And we did what vitamin C and D and a bunch of other things.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:21:48

Yeah, a few a few pregnancy friendly things that help to reduce potential side effects. So yeah, like improve the, the way that the immune system responds,

 

Brooke Blair  1:21:58

yeah, yeah. So I started taking those and then I we booked in and I still felt nervous having my first vaccine. But I had absolutely no symptoms whatsoever, no side effects, nothing. And then, by the time that I was it was almost like when I was driving home from it, I had my 15 minute wait, and I was like, No, I feel fine. I feel normal. Everything’s okay. It was almost like this weight off my shoulders that I’d done. And I was like, Okay, I’ve made my choice. I’ve done it, it’s fine. So then we had the second one. And I wasn’t nervous for that one other than the possible side effects because Adam had had horrendous side effects. After his second one with the second one. He was really quite unwell. I had mine and I was fine again. So yeah, that was good. But yeah, it was a stressful time. Like I spoke to a lot of clients who were also pregnant at the time. And we’re all kind of working out what we wanted to do and what we felt comfortable with. And there was lots of my clients had already had it. And they felt very strongly in their decision that they’d had it. There was lots of clients who felt really strongly against it. So yeah, it was kind of one of those people would ask me what I felt. I was like, I don’t know what I feel yet. I have no idea. Um, so yeah, it was really stressful making that decision. But then once I’d kind of made it and once I’d had the vaccine and went from there, it felt I felt much more protected being at work. Because up until that point, I thought maybe the best option for me is just to work from home and do telehealth consults only. But yeah, then I felt more comfortable being at work after I’d had it. So

 

Alison Mitchell  1:23:29

that is hard in your line of work as well. If you do want to have that physical nature

 

Brooke Blair  1:23:33

to it. Yeah, yeah, I would have been working from home because that would that was September, I think so would have been like three months of working from home and not seeing people in the clinic, which I didn’t. I didn’t like the idea of that. I wanted to be there.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:23:48

Yeah. And like, you’re so busy. Yeah, like that would have made a big production. Yeah.

 

Brooke Blair  1:23:53

And I think also, because a lot because of COVID. A lot of our clients who were birthing in hospitals, they weren’t having those face to face sessions with their health providers. So maybe seeing us as physios was the one person like the one health professional that they were getting that face to face contact with. Yeah. And so I thought if I then move to telehealth, of course, they couldn’t see the other girls at work. But I just felt like I wanted to support women face to face in person as much as possible when they weren’t getting that elsewhere. Yeah,

 

Alison Mitchell  1:24:23

I think that I think that’s definitely important. Yeah, treatment, isn’t it? Yeah, exactly. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about? Or any other words of advice, like looking back that you wanted to impart?

 

Brooke Blair  1:24:37

I don’t know. I just think birth is amazing. Yes. Um, however you birth I know that like there’s all these things about some people portraying one type of birth is better than another type of birth. And I just think that women as women who can birth amazing, and however you can birth is incredible. Obviously, I feel super lucky that I got the birth I said I’d hoped for. And I really wish that all women no matter how they birth really felt that way. And they felt really encouraged and supported and empowered no matter how they give birth, because it is such a life changing experience

 

Alison Mitchell  1:25:12

so much. And like, if anything I learned from the birth time documentary as well is that it’s all about as long as you feel like you’re not having something done to you out of your control exactly. And other knowledge, that’s the main thing. So as long as you’re okay with your decision, then like, that’s, that that’s the main thing.

 

Brooke Blair  1:25:30

Yeah, I think as long as we can. And I mean, that’s what I love about our work so much is being able to help women, be informed. But I think as long as women are informed about their choices and feel supported in the choices that they’re making, no matter how they birth, then that’s kind of what we asked for. I think birth trauma comes from being uninformed, and not knowing and feeling forced into making decisions, as opposed to knowing that you’re making the decision that’s right for you at that time.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:25:57

Yeah. And you were obviously in a position where you had a lot of knowledge about birth and pregnancy. And I think that’s a really powerful position to be in as well. Yeah. I see a lot of women who have had birth, and then when they’re pregnant with their second they think I wish I knew what I knew. Now, for my first one. Yeah. And so being educated and empowered about birth is such an important thing.

 

Brooke Blair  1:26:22

Yeah, yeah. At times, I think having more knowledge was scary. And my midwife kept saying to me, we need to switch off the physio side of you that has all of this knowledge, and you just need to be a birthing woman. Which I think we were able to, I was able to do during the labor and during the birth and definitely in the postpartum because I did not think of any of the important things that I tell my girls. I was definitely in the newborn bubble. Yeah. But yeah, having that knowledge and being able to make that decision and having a supportive partner who was able to go, you know what, this is how you feel most comfortable giving birth. This is, you know, really important to you. Let’s look into it and make sure it’s safe. In our head.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:27:01

He sounds like he was amazing.

 

Brooke Blair  1:27:03

Yeah. Oh, he was so good. Yeah. He, I said to him, when we’d set up where the birth pool was going to be, we bought a lounge for downstairs to be beside the pool. I said, just in case you pass out, you know, because I’m expecting that you’re faint. At one point during this whole process, which he didn’t hear is amazing. Like, faint like, Oh, yes. Yeah, he’s he’s not good with pain or blood for himself. And so I thought that watching mean pain might be intense for him. But he was amazing every time like when he’d be walking up and down the backyard and I’d be squeezing holding him so tight. And he just like give me little kisses or little cuddles. I just been there. He offered me my water like every after every contraction and make sure I had a drink of water so that I was staying hydrated. Yeah, he was he was so amazing throughout the whole thing. And even since having Byron has been incredible, though, just nice.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:27:58

It makes such a big difference to have that support.

 

Brooke Blair  1:28:00

And yeah, even now, like yesterday when I said I just desperately wanted to go for a run. And I because I didn’t want to drive to the pool and swim and then drive back. So I thought then I’m away from the baby for a bit longer. And I’m said no, go. Go and swim. You know, that’s better for you than running is right now. Take some time. Have some time to yourself. We’re fine here. So yeah, even just having him to go. No, no, I’m cool. I’ve got the baby. I’m a dad. It’s okay. You can leave the house. It’s okay. That’s been a big help to you.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:28:30

Yeah, I’m so glad that you’ve been able to have this experience.

 

Brooke Blair  1:28:35

Just amazing. Yes. Go back to sleep again.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:28:40

such a beautiful age. Yeah,

 

Brooke Blair  1:28:43

it’s nice. It really is. A lot of people have asked me how it is and I was worried about the first couple of months thinking that I’d miss a work and I you know, I feel a little bit down for missing work, but he has just been such a dream. I haven’t missed it. I’ve been still going into work occasionally. But I’ve loved loved this change so so much. It really is more like more incredible than what I thought it would be like I just feel very blessed. Yeah, it’s such a beautiful time. I could have 10 babies if it was all like this.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:29:21

And I just keep them just like repeat this stage and like repeat it and then not have to deal with them when they’re four.

 

Brooke Blair  1:29:27

Yeah, well, I would have said to Adam, because we have agreed we only really want to I’ll see after have my second if I’m done but in an ideal world we prior to having babies we said no we just have to one baby and one dog in each hand for each of us that works. But I said to him if all of my pregnancies because other than the blades that my pregnancy was amazing. I felt so beautiful during my pregnancy. I loved having my belly. So if all of my pregnancies and my Labor’s and my births were the same, I could do it 10 times. So how about I just, you know, surrogate for women? If Adam was like, I don’t know, you kind of your brain doesn’t function too well when you’re pregnant. So maybe we can’t afford to do that 10 times. But yeah, I love it that much.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:30:14

I know. I mean, I’m very happy with my two kids. When I was coming here, I was thinking, I want to have a birth again,

 

Brooke Blair  1:30:25

so nice. It’s crazy that it’s 10 weeks ago, already.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:30:31

A lot more joyous moments to come.

 

Brooke Blair  1:30:33

Yeah, we love him. And all the changes that we keep seeing.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:30:37

Your smiley little boy. Thank you. Thank you for sharing your story and so that anyone who’s listened as far along, thank you.

 

Brooke Blair  1:30:51

Thank you for listening. Thank you for having me and chatting with me about my birth and supporting me throughout all of the phases.

 

Alison Mitchell  1:30:58

Absolute pleasure. Bye, everyone.

 

Brooke Blair  1:31:01

Bye