On episode 44, Jenna, from Sheboygan, Wisconsin shares her rainbow pregnancy story at 43 after four loses in a row. She has five girls with her high school sweetheart. Jenna’s journey to motherhood began in high school when she was just 17 years old. A few years later she wanted her daughter to have a sibling, so she had her second daughter at 20 years old. They were busy with two children and life, and knew she wanted more. She thought 35 was her deadline for having children even though she had two more girls at 34 and 38 with a miscarriage in between. Her husband desperately wanted a boy, and her family didn’t feel complete. She was hopeful when she fell pregnant but four miscarriages later, she always thought maybe next time… One specialist could only fault her age for the losses and told her IVF with donor eggs would be her only hope of getting pregnant. She went to another specialist that was also doomsday about her fertility. Jenna didn’t agree with either doctor and wanted to prove them both wrong.
While she tried to get pregnant, Jenna tried everything: she took up to 20 different supplements and joined as many online groups as possible. She did anything that helped someone else get pregnant. She even went to an herbalist. The herbiest gave her an infusion of stinging nettle and red raspberry leaves. It tasted horrible, but she drank it for nine months straight every day. She also changed her diet to excluded processed foods. She contracted a virus that made her very sick, so she stopped everything but the prenatal vitamin.
Two months later she was late on her cycle, and she knew, because she is so regular. The test was positive and soon after the nausea started in strong. On the test, it was the control line that was so dark which is called a dye stealer. She took this as a good sign. She tried not to get too excited after what they’ve already been through, so she didn’t want to get her hopes up. At nine weeks she started bleeding heavily. She had no doubt this was another miscarriage. They were on vacation in St. Louis when she went down a slide and broke her hand and her tailbone. The urgent care doctor sent her to the hospital because they couldn’t do anything about the miscarriage. The hospital staff did an ultrasound and found a healthy heartbeat. The baby was fine! At home, she stayed off her feet so her tailbone could heal. Shortly afterwards, she was back to throwing up 10-12 times a day. For the first two trimesters, she continued to vomit regularly until she was about 26 weeks. That’s when all of a sudden, it went away, and it made her worry. At 10 weeks pregnant, through genetic blood test, they found out she was having her fifth daughter. They told her to keep the old pink baby clothes. She remembered the name Avalon which means “longed for.” The name was perfect and stuck.
Jenna had gestational diabetes during her pregnancy before this one and was able to control it through her diet. She was very strict about it. She ate a lot of omelets and chicken. She was very strict and scared about taking insulin because she wanted to be as natural as she could. She feels fortunate not to have to use insulin. She also had gestational diabetes with this pregnancy, so she changed her diet right away.
At 17, she was in high school and she took birth classes there. There was such a gap between her second and third babies, she needed to take classes, but she did not take classes for the rest of her babies. She really didn’t do any of the breathing like the classes teach. She loved one of her previous doulas, so she wanted a doula for this birth too. She also wanted a doula to help her labor at home as long as possible before going to the hospital. Jenna wanted a natural birth: natural labor, no pain medication, she wanted to pull out her own baby, and breastfeed immediately. Pulling out the baby was something very important to her, and she made sure her doctor knew it. She met with the doula beforehand to make the plan.
Two days prior, she had consistent contractions about every half hour, but they never got closer. Then they just stopped. Two days later, they started again where they left off: consistent and a little stronger. She thought it might be false labor. Then they began getting stronger, a gradual progression. She liked feeling the natural process because it was a slow progression. Jenna wasn’t ready to call the doula yet, her husband called for her. The doula showed up at her door and got down to business. She had Jenna in many different positions to keep the labor going. At the last ultrasound, the baby wasn’t in the right position, but the doula thought she could correct that. The doula had Jenna sit on knees on the couch with hands on the floor during the contraction to help get the baby in the right position. Every contraction, she would lean forward to the floor. She also used a piece of cloth, called a Robozo to help support her belly while she was on her hands and knees. It helped with the pain. Between contractions, Jenna also sat on the birthing ball, bounced and did circles with her hips.
Jenna got to the hospital with her doula and husband when she was 5 centimeters dilated. She had planned to do a lot of walking, but the baby’s heart rate wasn’t doing what they wanted during a contraction. She was stuck on the monitors, so she wasn’t allowed to walk around. She felt so defeated at 5 centimeters because it seemed like she had been in labor forever and the contractions came with so much pain. Her doula kept her husband involved which made it a loving experience.
Jenna eventually had a pain shot, but not an epidural. She wanted to feel and move as much as possible. The baby’s heart rate began to drop a lot, so the doctor broke her water to speed things up. Breaking her water made the contractions so much stronger! It was horrible. An hour later she was ready to push. She remembers feeling so out of control. She had to ask the doula if she could handle pulling her baby out while she was pushing. Jenna was insistent before that she wanted to pull her baby out, that the doctor and the doula were stern about reminding her of the plan. Jenna flipped on her back as she was crowning, she got her hands down, pulled her baby out and onto her chest. She delivered her daughter! The staff cut the cord, but she decided she didn’t want to keep the placenta.
She did skin-to-skin, and she told them to delay putting the eye medication in her eyes. She also delayed her baby’s bath, so the Vernix could stay on her skin longer. Her baby’s first bath wasn’t until she got home. Jenna wanted her baby to be familiar with her scent, so she delayed taking a shower until the next day. She didn’t know if it made a difference or not.
Jenna felt very lucky that she did not have postpartum depression with any of her babies. She also felt very fortunate not to need an episiotomy with this birth. She believes she healed quicker without one. She finds the more the baby nurses, the more milk she produced. She was determined to breastfeed her baby even through the challenges.
Jenna is now 47 and her daughter is three years old. She’s still breastfeeding and thinks she’ll wean herself off at about four years old since her babies are breastfeeding longer with each one. She feels very grateful she’s been able to breastfeed all of her babies.
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