By Casey Neill
Alexandra Barton-Johnson’s birth didn’t go as planned.
“Being 40 for my first baby, Healesville considered whether to have me or not because I was considered high-risk, and they said that they would,” she said.
“It’s very stressful for a mum to know that she has to travel such a long way to even start the birthing process.
“Having it half an hour away eased my anxiety greatly.”
The Millgrove mum said the proviso was they could only give her a natural birth and if any intervention was required she’d have to go to Box Hill.
“McEwan was upside down and back to front and I only made it to eight centimetres in dilation and I was not getting to the 10,” she said.
“At the 26-hour mark, having been in labour, sitting on a yoga bounce ball, sitting in the hallway with my arms on the rails squatting…they put a monitor inside my womb to monitor what was happening to McEwan whilst I was having contractions.
“At the top of my contractions McEwan’s heartbeat was failing.
“They said ‘we need to take you to Box Hill. You’re going to have an emergency caesarean’.”
Alexandra took a non-emergency ride in an ambulance and it was “spectacular”.
“I had four contractions and two naps,” she said.
“I had a midwife holding my hand the whole way down.”
At Box Hill, they tried using forceps before administering an epidural and performing an emergency caesarean.
McEwan was born at 7.22pm on 14 August 2008.
“I think I was in Box Hill for three days recovering,” she said.
“Then I was allowed to drive back to Healesville to learn how to be a mum.
“The midwives at Healesville taught you how to bath them, how to latch.
“It was so beautiful at Healesville to be able to sit in the room and look out the window and watch a pair of pigeons making a nest in the courtyard.”
