Welcome to the birth of precious baby Cruz, delivered by his beautiful Mumma Alice. I stumbled across Alice’s Instagram (@aliceinhealthyland) when I first started @themidwifemumma. We had mutual friends and many were reposting and praising her healthy eating and lifestyle. In other words, I was a bloated post partum mum seeking some motivation and she gave it to me. From then on, I would regularly visit Alice’s page (yes like a stalker) when I was tossing up rice bubbles for breakfast orrrrrr one of Alice’s super healthy ‘sweet potato pancakes’ – and yes this is a breakfast meal. If you think that is healthy, wait until you see her placenta granola breakfast bars, they are delicious (ok that is a joke).. but seriously she is VERY motivational when it comes to nourishing your body, something that I definitely need to do more of. Definitely guilty of this.
In true healthy Alice style, she exercised, swam and kept active right up to the day she gave birth at 37 weeks and 5 days where her little babe decided it was time to meet his parents. The lovely Alice did a stellar job bringing her babe into this world and it goes like this..

 At 2:00am on the 15th of October 2015, while Alice was dreaming away in bed, she woke up to her waters breaking (this is the classic time for your waters to break by the way..something about those little night hormones going wild in your body). After moments of denial and realizing she in fact hadn’t ‘wet’ her pants (let’s be honest we all think this at least once during pregnancy) she made her way to hospital where it was confirmed her membranes had ruptured and told to go home and rest (yeah right – I M P O S S I B L E). Have you ever heard of adrenaline? It clings to you like glad wrap and makes it hard to relax. And breathe. And relax. And breathe. Yeah No. You get the picture… But Alice being super calm and relaxed as she is, decided she was more then happy with this plan and ventured back home at all hours of the morning until she reached her driveway and realised it couldn’t just be her waters saturating her pants. She was sitting in a pool of blood. Oh dear… Oh no. It is never fun receiving these calls as a Midwife.
In a state of panic, back to hospital Alice rushes (secretly freaking out – hello again adrenaline) where she underwent ultrasounds which confirmed baby and placenta were fine, but none the less, was told by Doctors that a Caesarian Section would be the safest mode of delivery as her blood loss was unexplained. Alice, in shock, all the while trusting her body (you go girlfriend), pleaded with her Midwife for a natural birth. To at least try anyway. Big hats off to you Alice, it always impresses me when women take a stance for what they believe in. Doctors finally agreed to give Alice a bit more time to see if she would commence labouring naturally. By 1:00pm (11 hours after waters breaking) Alice began contracting, nothing regular (like a typical posterior baby), but they were definitely there. You can ask Alice’s back. Alice could sense doctors were watching the clock and once again a caesarian was discussed or she could have her labour augmented by the Syntocinon drip. Baby was always super happy so of course Alice was going to keep going. Labour is a marathon remember.
This was an easy choice for Alice, especially given that she is a nurse so was very familiar with the operating theatre and her desire to keep well away from it. The drip was commenced, and in true ‘jungle juice’ fashion, the contractions continued to roll on in, stronger and faster then before.
Alice remained an active labourer for 17 long hours until the pain in her back could no longer be tolerated. Her legs were jelly, her body was tired, she knew she had been through enough as agreed by her husband and midwife. At 7cm Alice received her epidural and managed some rest. The pain was gone but the pressure was intensifying as expected from the head descending deep through the pelvis into the vagina. Alice knew it was time to push and meet her baby.
45 minutes of minutes of pushing felt like a lifetime, especially when you are so desperate meet your baby and find out its sex. Alice said she was so eager to “touch, smell and see those little eyes”.. gosh doesn’t that take you back to when you met your baby for the first time? That gives me butterflies! After 20 long hours, at 10:02pm Alice and her husband Dave, along with Alice’s student midwife (now a wonderful friend) Jo, welcomed their son ‘Cruz David Bingham’ into their arms weighing a teeny 3070 grams of pure perfection. From birth, Cruz has breastfed like a little champion (with the help of lactation consultants), sleeps like a little prince (good work bubba) and his mumma Alice has taken to motherhood like it is all she has ever known.

Alice is no different to you and I. She is an inspiring mum who did a wonderful job birthing her gorgeous son Cruz. As Alice continues to share her journey as a new mumma I am sure we can all sympathise and relate with her highs (baby smiles, baby giggles and baby babble) and lows (poo explosions, tough days feeding and minimal sleep). So, if you are like me and you want some daily fitness, healthy eating, and motherhood inspo, check out Alice and her blog @aliceinhealthyland. She is such a caring person, who kindly shares her delicious recipes and is always happy to answer your questions. After all, let’s remember that this ‘Birth of the Week’ blog is all about understanding women, supporting them and sharing your own experiences so we can all relate.

Happy Birthing Mumma’s!

Amelia X