I met Karli at our meet & greet at the Forks over the weekend! Her baby girl is beyond cute, and I am super grateful to be able to share her stories with you! Thank you Karli!
Who are you? What do you do for a living? How many kids do you have? Tell us a little bit about you!
Hi, my name is Karli, I'm 22 years old and I have 2 children, ages 5 & 1. I have a full time daycare in my home and I'm also a Tupperware consultant. I love to cook, get crafty with pinterest DIY's and I enjoy spending time with my family.
How did you come to know that midwifery was an option to you and your family?
I found out about midwives after I had my first, a video had shown up on my Facebook and when I clicked on the link I watched and listened to a beautiful water birth story. My first thought was I want to experience this with my next baby. A couple years went by and I became familiar with water births and discovered I could only have one with a midwife, so when I found out I was pregnant with my second at 13 weeks, immediately called the intake line to apply. A few long weeks later I got a letter saying I was denied because there wasn't a midwife who had room to take me on. About a week later we went to our first appointment with the OB she couldn't find the heart beat and we went for an emergency ultrasound the next morning. We had found out I was only 8 weeks along and this changed my due date from December 27th to January 28th, so I went home and called the intake line again to apply, and I got approved, I actually cried and might have let of a screech of excitement when they phoned.
How far into your pregnancy did you apply for midwifery care?
I applied for a midwife at about 8 weeks but later re-applied at 13 weeks. I never knew how hard it was to be accepted until I found out why I was denied the first time I applied, with my next pregnancy I will make sure I apply as soon as a test reads positive!!
When did you find out you were accepted into care?
I found out I was approved for a midwife a few weeks after I applied; I was about 15 weeks when they called to tell me. I was so happy!
Are you willing to share your birth story/stories with us? We would love to hear them!
I am more than willing to share my birth story, not every woman gets to experience carrying a child. I'm proud of my body, and grateful to have been able to carry and delivery 2 beautiful & healthy children.
I'll start off by briefly talking about my son, although I didn't have a midwife with him I feel like if I had, I would have been way more educated then I was. On my last day of work I started having contractions. I later went home to head pack up and head to the hospital. When we got there, I spent 5 hours walking the halls at women's with no progress so I was sent home at 12:30 am. I didn't sleep that night and when 5:30 came we headed back to the hospital as my contractions had become stronger and very painful. I was given the gas to help with the pain but all it did was made me laugh, the pain was still horrible. My water broke at about 9 am on September 11th 2010 and I pushed for an hour and Dominic Royal was born at 10:03 am weighing 7lbz 1oz. The reason I felt so unprepared is because after he was placed on me the nurses started pushing on my stomach and I asked them what they were doing, the reply was, delivering your placenta. I was 16 years old and no one informed me about this part, I was clueless and felt so stupid. We went home 3 days later. He was a beautiful, healthy baby.
My second baby gave me a run for my money. My pregnancy was rough. I was constantly in pain, often couldn't walk because the pain was so bad. I was in the hospital once with contractions at about 27 weeks; I was set up on an IV for dehydration and was later sent home. I was going to chiro 3 days a week to help with all the pelvic pain which really helped. On January 27th I was out at a baby group with my son and I had started feeling sick, I blamed this on just being pregnant, this was also the night when the city was placed on the water boil advisory due to the traces of ecoli in the water. That night I kept waking up having to pee but I never got up to go. At 6:30 am I finally got up with my boyfriend and went to the bathroom. I then discovered I filled the toilet with blood, and freaked out and called Andy into the bathroom and told him today is the day. My contractions started about 10 minutes later. We called my midwife and started getting everything ready to leave. I called my mom who lives an hour and a half away and she packed up to come in. We then called my brother in law and his fiancé came to watch my son. My contractions were very mild for a while so Andy went into work. I then got my son ready for school and walked him over to school at 8 am. About 9 am came around and both my mom and Andy got home. At this point my contractions had picked up and they started to hurt more n more. We had breakfast and at 1130 we finally decided it was time to head to the birth center. When we arrived, we went into the room and was about 5 cm's dilated. I then received some bad news, I was unable to have a water birth due to the ecoli traces in the water. I was so upset, my heart was set on this, so I labored in the shower for over an hour instead. I finally got onto the bed and it became time to push, and I pushed in every position possible and there wasn't much progress, just a lot of pain and I was about to give up. My midwife decided to check my cervix and she discovered that the amniotic sac was bulging out of the cervix and babies head wasn't. So she broke my water and I felt this huge rush of relief. The pain had pretty much gone away instantly and finally I pushed a few more times and my mom assisted in helping my baby out. Emma-Lee Riza Noelle was born at 3:45 pm on January 28th weighing 7lbs 12oz. My midwife instantly informed me she was born with what's called strider, which she could hear in her cries/ breathing. After a couple hours, 7:30 pm we were able to head home. Dominic was just in love with his baby sister and he was so happy we were home.
What, in your opinion, was the most important aspect of the care you received?
To me the most important part of the care was the friendship that was made. Every visit was personal and I was given time to ask any questions I needed and to take the time to just talk or if I needed to just sit in silence for a bit on my bad days. I was never rushed out which was nice. There was a lot of trust as well which is huge!
Would you recommend midwifery care to friends/family? If so, why? If not, why not?
I always recommend friends to go with a midwife, I even give them the intake number to call. I talk to all my friends about my experience and how I'll never go without a midwife (as long as I can help it).
Finally, who were your midwives? Do you have a message you want to send them?
My primary midwife was Maren and her co-workers Susan, and Danielle. Susan was the one who attended the birth of Emma-Lee and Danielle had popped in and out as she could.
I want to say thank you once again for making my pregnancy, labour and delivery as comfortable as you all could. You guys are amazing!
**If you are looking for ways to help, you can sign the petition supporting our Midwives and Midwifery care in Manitoba. It can be found HERE.
***If you would like to be a part of this series, please email me at [email protected] . I would love to share your story!
Cheers!
