On episode 23, we have Adrielle from East Idaho. She was 41 during her pregnancy and 42 when she gave birth to her daughter. She has a blended family with her husband. She has a stepson that is a teenager, two boys of her own and her three-month-old daughter.
It was a blessing. Even though I’m older, we are going to find a way to enjoy one more child.
She was 41.5 at the time. They were not trying; in fact, they had decided their family was complete with the three boys. She was using a fertility app that tells you how fertile you are on a scale from 1 to 10. That day it said her fertility was a one, so that meant she had about a 3% chance of conceiving that day. About 3-4 weeks later, she was feeling queasy. She usually has a strong stomach, but they were driving a lot that day. She asked her husband to drop her off at the dollar store to ‘pick up’ a few things which was really just a pregnancy test. She wasn’t ready to tell him her suspicions until she saw the results. She took the test after they got home, and she called her husband into the bathroom to show him the positive test. She was holding up the test, and ss he saw the positive test, he said, “NOOOO.” She said she was thinking big picture. Even thought it was a surprise and unexpected, it was a big blessing.
She describes her pregnancy as really good. She was gluten-free this time. She was paying attention to eating more paleo and keto prior to getting pregnant. She had digestive issues in her family she was trying to correct and thinks it made a big difference how she felt during her pregnancy. She didn’t gain as much weight, and she had more energy overall. She even thinks her diet helped with abating morning sickness that made it more manageable. She was even hiking and exercising, which was easier than her pregnancies in her 30’s. She thinks she had more inflammation and felt more sluggish because of the gluten in her diet when she was pregnant in her 30’s.
She prefers natural products. During pregnancy she used essential oils and drank different teas: ginger tea, lemon tea, and lemon in water helped with morning sickness in the first trimester. She ate things like walnuts or high protein snacks to help with the insomnia and increase progesterone during the first trimester.
It’s funny she isn’t having dairy while she breastfeeds because she craved soft-serve ice-cream, all the frozen creamy stuff during pregnancy. When she’s not pregnant, she doesn’t eat ice cream or really even want it. She said she was getting some with her cousin almost every day that summer she was pregnant.
Adrielle says she’s more of the planner, the one who likes to know what’s coming down the road, while her husband preferred to keep the gender a surprise. They found out she was having a girl during pregnancy at about 10 weeks. She says one of the benefits of being ‘advanced maternal’ age is that the insurance covers the early genetic testing. It not only told her about the markers for things like down syndrome, but also told her the gender with 99% accuracy. She already had three boys in the house, so it was nice to find out whether it was going to be different this time.
My doctor respected my wishes. It gave me a sense of security and safety in labor that helped me let go of the fear.
Having the labor she wanted was important to her. She wanted to find the right provider, choose the right place to labor, and create a birth plan were all important to her to prepare for. She wanted a doctor that would respect her wishes. It gave her a sense of security and safety when she labored that helped her let go of the fear. Her first two births with her sons were hospital births. This time, she wanted a provider that was more on the natural side and smaller, but she felt limited to what was available in her area. She didn’t want a medicated birth and wanted to avoid interventions. She asked for recommendations in a local mom’s Facebook group and found a D.O. that was open and respected her birth plan. He was three hours from home.
She says setting up a registry and having a few baby showers were helpful, so friends and family knew what they needed. They got a lot of diapers and a fund set up for things they couldn’t afford.
I’ve had one unmedicated birth before, so I knew I could do it, but I wanted to do it without fear.
This was the first birth they focused on keeping it as natural and autonomous as possible. She’s done one other unmedicated birth, so she knew she could do it but wanted to do it without fear. She found a class called Kingdom childbirth online that prepares you for birth from a faith-based standpoint. She says it taught her how to trust her body, your body is made to give birth and knows what it needs to do. It helped her learn how to channel the pain and be confident in her body’s abilities with the birth process. It teaches faith over fear. She found it really helpful during birth.
Between singing along to the songs on my playlist during contractions and my husband providing counter pressure, that’s what got me through an almost pain-free birth.
At midnight, the contractions were 5-6 minutes apart, and were regular up until about 5 am. They live three hours from the birth center, so she didn’t want to wait long to head that way. That’s about the time she felt was right to start the drive to the birth center. They couldn’t check-in at the birth center until she was at least 2 cm dilated; she was 1 cm dilated. They told her to come back. Now they had to decide whether to drive the 3-hours back home and worry she might give birth on the side of road or get a hotel room in town. They got a hotel room, and she did lots of walking at a nearby park.
They checked in with the doctor in the morning to see how she was progressing. He stripped the membranes to progress things, and then she was back to walking. She felt a lot more intensity 6-7 hours after the membranes were stripped. They checked-in with the birth center because they could finally say she was at least 2 cm dilated. They spent the night at the birthing center. In the morning, he suggested breaking her water, and that’s when things really got going she said.
In the birth room she set up a Bluetooth speaker that had a playlist with worship songs and calming music. It was also important to set up a computer with zoom for her parents that are out of state. There was a birthing ball, and she used the bathtub and shower quite a bit a few hours before she gave birth. She used the railing on the bed to do low squats and lunges. She used the elevated rails on the top of the bed to get on all fours towards the end. The last couple hours it was just her and her husband in the room doing hip squeezes to provide counter pressure which was a game-changer. She says it was really nice not having a lot of people in the room, so she could be in the zone. They didn’t come back in the room until she was really yelling with the last two contractions to push her out. They wondered if her husband would have to catch the baby because it was happening so quickly. They came back just in time! She says between singing along to the songs on her playlist during contractions and her husband providing counter pressure, that’s what got her through an almost pain-free birth. She says she didn’t feel pain or extreme discomfort until the last two pushes.
My doctor told me my placenta and water bag were very strong for my age.
It took about 35-40 hours from the first time she started timing regular contractions to birth. The doctor had to break her water to get enough dilation. The doctor said her water bag was so strong, it had to have five or six cuts before it would give up. Her strong water bag was keeping the baby from engaging all the way to cause her to dilate. From there, it only took five to six hours after that. The doctor told her the placenta and water bag was very strong for her age. She believes it had something to do with the cod liver supplement she was taking. The doctor was shocked at the condition of her placenta. It was strong and stretchy which is not expected for someone over 40 he said. She took the placenta with her, and she’s still deciding if she’ll use it.
Her body bounced back really quickly, and her uterus got back to normal pretty quickly, too. She dropped the 35 pounds of the weight she gained during pregnancy in just three months. Her challenge with all three of her recoveries is that she gets deficient in progesterone which causes anxiety and insomnia. Supplementing is helping her sleep and be in a better mood. In the past, she’s taken a low dosage of Zoloft to get her over the hump. This time, the progesterone allows her to sleep all night without her feeling the anxiety. Her doctor is switching her to a more effective version that is bioidentical. Instead of the pharmaceutical oral pills, she’ll be using a topical cream that should help her feel better overall.
Breastfeeding has gone ok she says. Her daughter has a lot of reflux which has been a challenge. They have been troubleshooting to see if it’s a tie in the mouth or a dairy intolerance. Her daughter had a posterior tongue tie and a lip tie clipped so she is ingesting less gas when she feeds. Adrielle stays up longer with her after a feeding to make sure that she’s upright and spits up less. She even has a wedge in her bassinette, so she sleeps a little upright. She says she still gluten-free, but she stopped eating eggs and dairy, too to figure out what could be wrong. She said it can be depressing when you’re already on the verge of depression she said through a laugh.
Here are the topics we discuss in this episode:
- Gluten-free diet
- Natural birth plan
- Morning sickness
- Selecting the right provider
- Faith-based birthing class
- Supplements
- Unmedicated labor
- Breastfeeding
- Postpartum anxiety
- Posterior tongue tie and a lip tie
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