Pregnancy, when things aren't straight forward...

Thank you for hearing my story. 

My pregnancy was complicated from the very beginning. My husband and I were lucky enough to fall pregnant after 2 months, I wanted him to take progress photos of my belly growing each week to see the changes in my body. After the week 8 photo I noticed my stomach was much larger than what it should have been in comparison to every other woman I had known who had been pregnant. 

I went to the doctors for a quick check, who confirmed that my uterus was measuring at 18 weeks.

We were sent to get an ultrasound to see what was going on, which was where we found out that I had a 9cm fibroid growing in the wall of my uterus. 

By 28 weeks, my uterus had grown to full term and the pain and bleeding I was experiencing throughout my entire pregnancy was getting unbearable. One morning I was feeling pain in my stomach, so I drove myself to the hospital to have a check of the baby, by this stage the pain was out of control. The nurses confirmed that I was having contractions that were 3 minutes apart and kept me in the birthing unit for 2 days while they tried to stop the contractions. By day 6 the contractions slowed down to once every 45 minutes (which is how they stayed for the remainder of pregnancy). 

I was going in for routine checkups with my obstetrician every week who was prepping me for the birth of my baby girl that would happen at any time. I had made the decision with my husband that I wanted to have a planned c section once my waters had broken, as I did not want to prolong the pregnancy or pain any longer. 

The morning of my 37th week, my waters broke at 7:30am, I made my way to the hospital with my mum and sister, where my husband met us immediately.

The energy was surprisingly calm and exciting in the room while we waited for my obstetrician to finish up with a patient. By 10:20 I was in theatre prepping for the surgery. I was wheeled in by a nurse to have the spinal done before my husband could be let back in the room, it took 4 tries to get the spinal needle to start taking effect which was quite stressful, but after the spinal worked and my husband was brought in, it was the most incredible and magical experience I have ever been through. My daughter was born at 10:43 am, in the most amazing way. I expressed my concerns about not being able to do skin to skin immediately after she was born, so the Dr. ensured she would be given to me right away.  I was able to hold my little gift right away and experience the most beautiful moment of my life while I was being operated on. 

The best decision I made was to listen to my body and elect the c section as the entire day was the most special and memorable day of my life. 

Marlina Sukkar xx

Incredible story and images from beautiful mama Marlina.