The Birth Story of my Second Baby

I have been sharing my birth stories over the past few weeks, starting with my fourth, then my third and now I am onto my second. I gave birth to my second daughter, Alba, in February of 2020, right before our world shut down due to the pandemic. I was induced with her due to her small gestation. Here is the birth story of my second baby, Alba.

Before I gave birth to Alba, my pregnancy was riddled with waves of depression and constant monitoring due to her small gestation.

At 10 weeks pregnant, depression hit me like a rock. This baby was a welcome surprise for us. We were still living with my grandmother, I was trying to finish my university degree and my husband was unemployed for the first few months of my pregnancy.

Due to these circumstances and my body recovering after breastfeeding my eldest daughter for the past 16 months, which probably meant I was significantly lacking in various nutrients, meant that I was more prone to feelings of depression.

Thankfully throughout the course of my pregnancy, I began feeling better. I went to counselling and I asked God to be with me during my low days. I wanted to be positive about this pending new baby of mine and experience joy even when I felt out of control.

But of course, the pandemic hit not long after she was born, so I continued to experience waves of depression in her first year of life. But I’m sure I wasn’t alone in that.

Nevertheless, we gave her Joy as her middle name because we believed she would epitomise the word. She will be five next week and sure does bring us immense joy each day.

Now onto my birth with Alba Eliza-Joy.

Alba’s due date was the 29th February, 2020. Of course it just had to fall on the leap year- ha! Well, there was no way she was coming on her due date anyway, because the doctors were concerned about her growth from about 33 weeks gestation.

I had several ultrasounds in the last month of pregnancy to monitor her growth. At about 37 weeks and 3 days pregnant, I went into the hospital for monitoring.

One doctor came to rule out some explanations as to why Alba’s growth was so slow. He was a young doctor, so when he told me that he thought that Alba might be shunting blood from the brain to her liver, I was keen to get a second opinion.

Thankfully another more experienced doctor reassured me that it was not the case and that there seems to be no explanation from the scans as to why her growth is slow, but that they will need to induce me over the next few days.

Looking back, I don’t remember being overly stressed or alarmed. I just wanted my baby to be safe, so whatever the doctor had advised, I trusted.

Since having given birth four times now, I probably would have pushed for more investigation to be done to see if there was any way out of being induced. However, it was my second birth and my priority was Alba’s safety over my birth preference.

The doctor looked at his computer for an ideal induction time slot, jotted down the date for me to be induced and passed the slip of paper to me, as if I was being given a card for my next dentist appointment, not for an induction to deliver my baby. It just felt so medical and as if I was just another number in their system (which I was!).

Nevertheless, I surrendered to the idea of being induced and trusted that this was part of God’s plan for Alba to enter the world.

The day before

The day before I was induced, we took our eldest daughter, who was not yet two at the time, out for a date. Then, we went to the hospital to get my cervix to be ripened.

That afternoon, my husband drove me to the hospital. I was admitted for the night for preparation for my induction the next day. The midwives ripened my cervix via a balloon catheter.

I remember having a very disrupted sleep that night, with contractions coming and going all throughout the night. It was preparing me for newborn sleep deprivation of course!

The morning of

The morning of the 13th February, 2020, the midwife took me to a birthing suite. I remember the lights being so bright in the room.

My sister, mother-in-law and husband were going to be in the room with me. Even though there were many people in the room, it felt so peaceful.

They broke my waters and contractions came on soon after.

My mother-in-law was praying, my sister and husband were both supporting me, so I felt very looked after.

I had worship music playing, clary sage lingering throughout the room and within two hours of my waters breaking, I felt the urge to push.

I remember having the urge to kneel on the bed with my hands clinging to the bed head. This was the position I was most comfortable with.

The ring of fire sensation was so strong because Alba was coming out fast. And after about half an hour or so of pushing, she was out at 1.07pm.

They put her on my chest after just under three hours of labour. My little 2.4kg bubba, with lots of dark brown hair. She looked a lot different to her sister, so it was a beautiful surprise.

After my first birth, which was semi-traumatic, this birth was redemptive. Short, filled with God’s presence and family and no major vaginal tears.

Thankfully, there seemed to be no reason that the doctors could rule out as to why Alba was small, but I was grateful that she was here in good health.

The gift of a healthy newborn baby; nothing like it.

And then seeing my biggest baby meeting her little sister was one of the sweetest moments. They are to this day, the best of friends.

To God be the glory.