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March 23, 2010

Harriet's arrival




Phew! It's been a big week for us, but we finally have a moment to announce the arrival of our little girl, Harriet Tully Jones Smith on Monday 15th March at 1.09am. She was 7 pounds 2 ounces and 55 cm long.

It was a very, very fast and easy birth. The homebirth midwife only arrived ten minutes before I was pushing. While in the birth pool the baby descended and I reached down and felt what should have been her head and it was soft. We realised it was a bum! Marilyn (our midwife) called the ambulance just in case (as it is protocol not to birth breech babies at home) and I ended up pushing her out just minutes after arriving at the hospital.

The whole labour, including mild contractions in the restaurant to the birth of the placenta was only 6 hours, the midwives only counted it as 3.5 hours! Harriet is perfect and the birth was unassisted.

About an hour later however I began to bleed alot. I lost 2.2 litres of blood which is a very frightening thing. I needed surgery to stop the bleeding and two blood tranfusions. I am recovering surprisingly quickly, and gathering strength every day.

I feel very happy that I got the best of both worlds. If I'd planned a hospital birth then Harriet would have been almost definitely born by ceasarian, as vaginal breeches are rarely attempted these days, mainly due to a lack of experienced doctors. But the care I recieved for my bleeding was excellent and I am incredibly grateful to the hospital and modern medicine. If I had not had access to a hospital I'm not sure I would have survived, and even if I were at a smaller, less specialised hospital I may have ended up with a hysterectomy.

As it is I had a beautiful, natural, drug free birth, followed by the best medical care on offer. I feel very fortunate, although it was more dramatic than I had hoped!

You can see for yourself how beautiful she is! Her head wasn't squashed like head first bubs, though her bottom is a bit bruised and pointy! We're enjoying falling in love with her and spending those first precious weeks together drenched in Newborn Baby Smell, but having to fight off family for cuddles.

18 comments:

Anna said...

Julia - many, many congratulations to you! Well done! I agree with what you said in the post - lucky to have had a natural birth (and the high quality medical care). That's how it should be. And you gave yourself such a happy, healthy pregnancy. She's so sweet. How fantastic all round!

Passionate Goof said...

Congratulations. She is such a sweet baby. God Bless! I hope you are all healed up and well soon. Take care of the both of you, and soak in all that love!

kalyani said...

A biiiiiiiiiig CONGRATULATIONS!

kkiirrti said...

ooh! Harriet is beautiful :)
Congratulations !!

Whatsup said...

Congratulations :) She is looking beautiful.

Me said...

Great news! Congratulations!!!

Aarthi said...

congrats...she is beautiful

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Julia...
Harriet's so cute.
Now get well soon n enjoy motherhood.
-Swapna

Julia said...

Thank you all! We're doing really well. I'm observing my six weeks rest as is traditional in Ayurveda and most traditional cultures. Really enjoying self massage and massaging little Harriet (she loves it too!) Eating lots of soups and sweets and garlic and Harriet's gained half a kilo in her first week so we must be doing something right!

Kay said...

Harriet is a beautiful name for such a beautiful girl!! Congratulations Julia!!!

Take care and get plenty of rest.

TNL said...

Many,Many best wishes and blessings coming your family's way!

xoxox
trupti
the spice who loved me

Alex said...

Congratulations, she is beautiful and you look so happy and comfortable together!

lothi said...

Congratulations julia..She looks so cute.

Tracy said...

Congratulations Julia. Nothing is more special then starting your own family.

Anna said...

Is your blog coming back? I have enjoyed reading.

Julia said...

Hi Anna, very sweet of you! I won't be blogging any time soon. Harriet's started crawling already and we're moving house and my husbands traveling a bit for work...life's generally too busy right now. One day maybe.

Svini said...

Congratulations!! You have a beautiful baby :) Massaging definitely helps, I think my granny and mom would massage me with pure almond oil when I was a baby (I'm pretty sure turmeric for a glowing complexion was used too).
I just read about the art (can I call it that?) of Jala Neti - you can read about it on

http://somethingnewlearned.blogspot.com/2010/10/jala-neti-free-snoring-alternative.html

I tried it (using an old steel pot with a spout) for a couple of nights, and I woke up refreshed the next day! If you do happen to try it out, keep me posted!! :)

kamidi said...

welcome to the word baby.congratulations.