The first thing I asked my nurse was if my baby had survived
A new mum was relieved when she went into labour because it would stop her morning sickness, but her pregnancy would soon take a turn for the worse.
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Pregnancy for Danielle Mitchell had been a rough experience, with weeks of severe morning sickness. So, when she finally went into labour it was a relief.
However, after struggling through more than 20 hours of labour, nothing could have prepared her for the trauma of waking all by herself after emergency surgery.
“The first thing I asked the nurse was, ‘is my baby dead?’,” the 30-year-old tells Kidspot.
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“The last thing I heard from the doctors (before the general anaesthetic) was that she (her baby) was putting too much pressure on the cord which could have resulted in her dying or cerebral palsy.
“I felt there couldn’t be a good outcome.”
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"Should I just be enjoying pregnancy?"
Danielle said she felt relief when her labour began in December because she wouldn’t be pregnant anymore, and her morning sickness would end.
“I knew I’d get morning sickness and it would just be vomiting a couple of times a day, but it was 15 times a day, up to 34 weeks pregnant. I had no idea it would be that bad,” the Brisbane TikTok influencer shares.
“When I shared how much I wasn’t enjoying pregnancy it was met with a lot of hate and I was told I should just be grateful. It left me with a lot of guilt wondering if I should just be enjoying it and why I wasn’t.”
Danielle had created her social media profile to share her journey through bipolar and eating disorders, so when she became pregnant she wanted to be just as honest about the experience
However, she didn’t expect the backlash she received.
“I wanted other women to not feel as alone as I felt in that moment,” she explains.
“I wanted it to be this magical rainbows and unicorns experience like it should be, but I needed to be medicated on ondansetron and Restavit twice a day.
“If I wasn’t sleeping, I was vomiting.”
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"Everyone was rushing into the room"
Danielle said she went into birth without a plan as she didn’t want to panic if things didn’t go to plan.
After labouring at home for 12 hours, Danielle and her partner Nathan went to hospital where they were told she was only dilated one centimetre, so they returned home to try to sleep.
However, ten minutes later her waters broke, and they went back to hospital.
When the midwife checked her again, Danielle was seven centimetres dilated but she immediately reached for the red buzzer announcing she had cord. Suddenly everything changed.
“It felt like a movie. Everyone was rushing into the hospital room,” she recalls.
“Nathan was getting dressed in his scrubs and they were saying they needed to do an emergency caesarean, which I had prepared myself for, but not to the extent of what happened next.
“They needed to flip me over onto all fours and hold the baby up because the cord was coming out before the baby. Every contraction I had put pressure on the cord cutting oxygen and blood flow to the baby which can cause death or cerebral palsy.”
The nurse got on the bed and put her hand inside Danielle to hold the baby off the cord.
“I just tried to breathe through it and tried to stay calm. I was screaming and hyperventilating, not knowing what was going to happen,” she says.
“The nurse rode along on the bed with me holding Bette off the cord.”
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"I wondered if I'd even be waking up"
The next few minutes were a rush and a blur as doctors tried to explain to Danielle that she had a cord prolapse, an extremely dangerous and rare situation which means the cord was coming out before the baby.
“Nathan was getting dressed in his scrubs, so I thought he’d be in with me, but in the last seconds they said, ‘wait what’s he doing in here?’,” Danielle says.
“I was already in hysterics but that was when I felt really alone. Everything was rushing through my head, and I wondered if I’d even be waking up.”
For ten minutes Nathan waited to hear if Danielle and his new baby were alive and alright.
“He just sat there and thought he should have read all the books I gave him,” Danielle laughs.
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"I was wondering whose baby this is"
Still in a drowsy state after the general anaesthetic and having been cut from hip to hip, the fear of thinking she’d lost her baby consumed her.
Finally, three hours later Bette was placed on Danielle’s chest.
“It was a shock of wondering whose baby this is,” she said.
“I struggled with the connection with her. It was overwhelming.
“I felt a lot of love, but thought, ‘is this baby even mine?’.
“Once I did skin to skin and breastfeeding the bond started.”
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"Time really does heal all"
Returning home four days later was very traumatic, and Danielle suffered PTSD.
“Every time I closed my eyes everything came flooding back like out of a movie,” she said.
“The nurses pushing the button and hearing the sounds of the machines. I ended up in hysterics.
“Every time I stepped into the shower I’d cry. And being alone was scary because all the thoughts and flashbacks would come flooding back.
“But as time has gone on it really does heal.
“I was told I’d forget about how bad pregnancy was and labour and I’d just be in love, and they were right. Time heals and it does slowly get better.”
Having battled mental health issues throughout her life she expected the post-partum experience to be a lot harder.
“I thought it would hit me like a wave. I do have to keep on top of it, but I’ve been on to it when I start to feel a certain way and have a support network,” she said.
“I still have my moments and try to sweep it under the rug, but it’s been a better recovery than I anticipated.”
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"She has been such a good baby"
Bette has truly healed the pain of pregnancy and the trauma of birth and despite swearing while pregnant she’d never do it again, Danielle says she now wants 100 babies.
“She has been a good baby so thankfully something went right,” she beams.
Obstetrician and president of the Australian Medical Association, Professor Stephen Robson says cord prolapse is not common but is a feared complication requiring urgent action to avoid loss of the baby.
“You need to get the baby delivered as soon as possible and there is no time for delay. A general anaesthetic is usually required to act immediately,” he explains.
“It’s disorientating and distressing to have a general anaesthetic and often women are confused when they wake up. They haven’t had the opportunity to see the baby be born and are highly concerned about the baby.”
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