With her first pregnancy, Kate had a bleeding scare early on which ended up being a subchorionic bleed that resolved itself, and she had an otherwise healthy pregnancy. Kate felt pressured around her due date to get a membrane sweep and induction, but advocated for what she wanted and was able to labor at home until transition. She used hypnobirthing and went very inward and solitary for her labor. She describes her birth as a great unmedicated hospital birth but was frustrated that the staff never called her midwife whom she was hoping would attend her birth. She ended up delivering with an OB from the practice instead. She talks about her good postpartum period physically but unfortunately struggled with undiagnosed PPA.

With her second pregnancy, Kate used the Ava bracelet and got pregnant on the first attempt. She had a rough first trimester with nausea and exhaustion all while juggling a toddler. Kate ended up changing OBs after what happened with her first delivery, but ended up not being happy with her new OB either. She hired a doula who helped encourage her to switch to a birth center at around 28 weeks and she was very happy with her decision.

Kate used spinning babies techniques and saw a chiropractor during her pregnancy and drank tons of red raspberry leaf tea and ate dates every night during her third trimester. She struggled with some anxiety issues and what she describes as pregnancy rages which caused her to have high blood pressure. She started taking 5-HTP which helped tremendously with her moods.

Kate’s second labor was very similar her first as she labored pretty independently but this labor progressed more quickly. Her midwife told her to contact her when contractions were 7-1-1, but her contractions jumped out of nowhere from 8-1-1 to 4-1-1 and they still had a 45 minute drive up to the birth center. She describes that experienced as the worst drive of her life. She could feel her baby descending but didn’t tell her husband because she was worried it would freak him out while driving.

When they got to the birth center and got checked immediately, the baby’s head was crowning. She says her body completely took over, and the fetal ejection reflex happened. Within 6 minutes of getting to the birth center, her baby was born in one contraction without any conscious pushing.

She describes her immediate postpartum recovery this time as amazing. They had one hour of uninterrupted time, and then four more hours after his birth at the birth center before they headed home.

Unfortunately, she had a lot of issues with mastitis due to over-supply but the haaka was a big help. She had to go dairy-free due to her baby’s intolerance and it helped baby a lot. Kate found support for this via a Facebook group.

Resources

Kate Statti Bio

Kate is 31 years old, married to Casey and they have two sons Hudson and Ronan. They live in Davenport, Florida and both work for Disney World as VIP Tour Guides but were unfortunately recently laid off along with 28,000 other Cast Members.

Babylist

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