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Hospital Birth with Interventions
A few years after getting a Lichen Scleroses diagnosis, Emmalina and Cam were expecting a baby. Her pregnancy was pretty textbook and she lost her mucous plug at exactly 40 weeks. She went into labor the following day. After 16 hours of intense labor, Emmalina received an epidural and was able to fully dilate. She pushed for 2 1/2 hours and then found her her baby was posterior and stuck.
The on-call OB performed an episiotomy and needed assistance from forceps and vacuum. Ruby-May was born at 1:06 am, May 7th, and spent 5 days in the NICU for inhaling fluids. After delivery, Emmalina’s placenta detached but didn’t deliver, requiring manual removal. At 9 weeks postpartum, Emmalina passed placenta tissue and had to have a D&C surgery. At 11 weeks PP, she passed the final piece of placenta and was able to begin a journey to physically and emotionally recover from her birth. Recently, Cam and Emmalina discovered Ruby-May had Sagittal Craniosynostosis- Premature fusing of the skull plates and underwent skull reshaping surgery. Ruby-May’s skull diagnosis helped give Emmalina closure and reasoning for her difficult and traumatic birth.
Emmalina Rooney Bio
Emmalina lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with her husband Cam and their daughter Ruby-May. Before becoming pregnant, Emmalina was an Early Childhood Educator and worked as a nanny for 4 years. Currently, Emmalina is working on her certificate to become a birth and postpartum Doula. You can connect with Emmalina via email at emmalinarooney@gmail.com, read her blog at respectthekids.wordpress.com or see her public Instagram at @respectingbirthdoula
Resources
- How to Heal a Bad Birth
- There are also online forums for women who have Lichen Sclerosus and I believe they have a birth category so women can go online and read others’ experiences giving birth with the skin condition. This is a good site for info in LS
- The app, BWOM was the pelvic floor health app that helped me so much with prolapse/leakage. It’s a great resource, especially if people don’t have coverage or access to a pelvic floor physiotherapist.
Local Resources to Canada
- In Alberta, we have the Alberta Health Link which can be reached by dialing 811 and you reach a Registered Nurse who’s able to help with medical info/direct you to the next step to get medical help.
- In Calgary, we have The Alex Community Health Centre which is where our breastfeeding clinic was. It’s only accessible via referral but the nurses who do home visits can put in the referral so if anyone is having struggles with nursing they can ask their home visit nurse to refer them and they should get in right away.
- The Perinatal Mental Health Program here in Alberta is great too and offers 12 free sessions with a licensed birth therapist and is available upon referral as well.
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