February was a busy month for births – I attended 10 of them over the course of the month at both Ikuryo Clinic and Aiiku Hospital. Here are 4 of them…with the rest to follow in another post!
Birth 1 – Ikuryo
This birth happened on February 5th. This birth was a planned c-section.
I met my client and her husband late in the pregnancy when she was already over 30 weeks pregnant. She had been referred to me by the lovely Julien and Sebastien at Tokyo Therapy & Wellness Center. Originally, she was going to have her baby at Aiiku but felt that Ikuryo better suited her hopes/preferences for having a baby, so I helped her with the switch.
At 34 weeks, her baby was breech (baby had been breech for a while), so a c-section was scheduled for the 38th week as is typical policy for breech babies. Surprisingly, by the week before the c-section, baby had turned to a normal head down position! So it goes to show that anything can happen!
The doctor was in favour of cancelling the c-section (as is also normal if baby flips back). However, my client felt quite unprepared for this and was already mentally accepting of the planned c-section (plus perhaps had some anxiety over a vaginal birth). So she asked to keep the original plan and go ahead with the c-section.
On February 5th, baby boy was born. A smooth operation with baby born just after 1:20pm. New dad got to hold baby while my client was being stitched up after the operation and as soon as she was back in her room (less than an hour after birth), baby was given to her for skin to skin which was lovely.
Birth 2 – Ikuryo
My client’s waters broke in the early morning of February 9th, so she went to Ikuryo. She was having some contractions but nothing major. By midnight, she was 3cm and decided to get the epidural as she was feeling things and couldn’t rest.
On the morning of February 10th, an induction was started just after 8am (as is common if labour doesn’t establish after waters have broken plus with the epidural which slows it all down too).
By just before 11am she was 4-5cm and was feeling the contractions again. By 1:20pm, she was 5cm and feeling quite emotional that things hadn’t changed much. She got more epidural to top up at this point and also tried the active chair (Ikuryo allows being off the bed with the epidural assuming all is fine physically).
At 2pm, the midwife consulted with the doctor who suggested Buscopan (used in some facilities to help relax the cervix to help dilation when labour is already well underway). She was again feeling the contractions very strongly so got another top up of the epidural.
By 3:15pm, she was 6cm and got another shot of Buscopan. The feeling of contractions had gone at this point. Finally, an just over an hour later, it was time to push. Due to how baby was doing – there was some stress that was concerning during pushing – there was a very quick change of plan and a doctor was quickly brought in by the midwives to do an assisted delivery. This all happened very quickly. Thankfully after a quick check after birth, baby was able to go to mum for skin to skin time…and I had to hurry off to the Taylor Swift concert!
Birth 3 -Aiiku
Baby was born on Feb 13th!
This was a rather tough labour & immediate post-partum for my client but she handled it as well as anyone could. Originally, she planned to have her baby at a clinic in Chiba close to where she lives but due to a potential issue with the placenta (it seemed that there was a chance the placenta may be too fimrly attached to the uterus – accreta) , it was decided that a hospital birth would be more suitable. There were no options near her that allowed partner and/or doula support, so I suggested Aiiku as they could handle this complication. And while Aiiku was far for them, it wasn’t too difficult train-wise to get to.
Around midnight at the start of Feb 10th, my client’s waters broke. Although there was some cramping, there was no active labour yet through the course of the whole day and next night. As a result, an induction was started on the 11th in the morning. She was 3cm dilated at this point. By 2pm, she was 3.5-4cm. I came by to see how things were going.
The doctor did an ultrasound check at 3pm – baby was facing up and the fluid levels were very low. The doctor mentioned there might be the possibility of c-section if baby gets distressed or if there was no labour progress by the following day.
By 4pm, there was still no change to the cervix with the induction, so the induction was paused for the day and my client decided to get an epidural that evening to rest because she was still feeling the cramping.
On Feb 12th, the induction was restarted in the morning at 8am (she was still around 4cm). By 10am she’d got to 5cm.and by 3:30pm she was 8cm.
As she had to be on the bed due to the epidural, she used a peanut ball to try and help. She was starting to feel bottom pressure around 5pm but dilation was still around 8.5cm.
At 6:30pm, baby was side-facing and they did a cervix stimulation (a stretch) to try and help – this got her to 9cm.
The anaesthisiologist came at 7pm and did another top up of the epidural. By 8:30pm, she was now fully dilated and it was time to try pushing. The doctor came again and said there was a chance of c-section and things were prepped for this just in case.
By 11:30pm, the contractions had spread apart and were weaker overall despite the induction (partly due to my client being tired, partly due to the epidural, partly due to baby’s position). The doctor came and decided vacuum would be necessary. At this point, 9 members of staff entered the room – this is a lot of people. It seemed the vacuum wasn’t working and they needed to switch to forceps – they called in the head doctor of Aiiku for this (rarely happens). Finally, baby was born at 12:30am on Feb 13th. Baby was checked and then immediately taken to the nursery (forceps delivery – Aiiku’s policy).
Immediately after birth, my client started haemorrhaging significantly as her placenta wasn’t detaching. Her blood pressure dropped to very low levels, and all manner of treatments were needed from literally scooping the placenta out by hand, to using uterine tonic medicines, to using a uterine balloon to stem the bleeding. She also needed a blood transfusion straight away. It was understandably quite worrying for her husband to see but he stayed calm, as did she. She was in good hands. This kind of complication is pretty rare overall. After an inital stay in the MFICU (maternal fetal intensive care unit), she picked up quite quickly (impressively so, I’d say).
Baby 4 – Aiiku
This baby was also born on February 13th in Aiiku. Just as the above labour finished, another client messaged to say they were heading to Aiiku due to contractions (they’d started on the 12th late afternoon and had gradually got stronger).
After the previous labour finished, I popped in to see how my client and her husband were doing. She was 3cm at 3am. I went home to get a couple hours’ sleep as things were still in the early stages.
By 6:30am, she was 6-7cm and I headed back over. At 9am, she was 9cm. She was doing great with her breathing – she wanted an unmedicated labour (no epidural) as far as possible.
Just before 10am, oxytocin as started on the doctor’s suggestion as contractions were spaced a bit too far. Bottom pressure started to get stronger and by 10:45am she was fully dilated. Her baby was also rotating to the side.
At 11:45am, her water broke. More time was still needed to help baby rotate into a better position (she was also trying to help this along by being upright and sitting instead of lying down.
By 1pm, baby seemed to have rotated well and pushing was underway. Baby was having a bit of a tough time, though, and the doctor indicated that an assisted delivery was needed.
Baby was born by vacuum at just after 2:10pm. After initial checks and after the post-birth checks and stitching was done on my client, she was finally able to get about 15 mins of skin to skin time with her baby. Her husband also got to hold baby before he was taken to the nursery.
This particular client was Japanese, although she had lived in the UK in the past, and her husband was British. They wanted to work together as much for the support for her husband, so he’d understand what was going on in labour, as for herself. As it was, she did great staying very calm and collected with her non-epidural birth.
Tokyo Doula Support 