Birth Story: Spilling the Milk with Gemma

I have the pleasure of chatting to Gemma today is part of the Spilling the Milk Series. And Gemma is a lovely FitNest Mama member who is a mum of three beautiful young kids all under five. Polly’s four, Murphy’s two and Chloe who is just seven weeks old. So Gemma, shares her story into first becoming pregnant at the age of 26. She describes her different recoveries with each of her children. And Gemma’s chats about her experience with a third degree tier. Her hip pain during pregnancy and life with three children. Gemma describes relaxation strategies and positions that worked really well for her during her different stages of labour. So Gemma provides lots of great information. And I’m sure you will enjoy this episode.

Before we dive in. I want to invite you, if you are pregnant, or you’ve had your baby to come and join the free FitNest Community Facebook group. Simply search, “Pregnancy Birth and Beyond by FitNest Mama”, and the link is also in the show notes to come and join this rapidly growing amazing community of other pregnant and new mums who are all there to support each other and cheer each other on during this crazy and beautiful thing we call motherhood. Alright, let’s dive into this episode with the lovely Gemma.

Hi, Gemma, thank you for joining me today on the podcast.

GEMMA

Thank you for having me.

KATH BAQUIE

Oh we’ve just been having such tech issues. Like third time. Lucky, here we are. So we’re talking with the “Spilling The Milk Series”. And it’s so delightful to have a chat to you today. And you’re one of the lovely members inside FitNest Mama. So thank you Gemma, you are a busy mum. I know.

GEMMA

Thanks for having me. I was actually kind of reflecting before I jumped in on this. And I was like because I’ve been in lockdown pretty much my whole postpartum period. So far, I actually haven’t spoken to a lot of people about my birth story. So I’m really excited.

KATH BAQUIE

That’s great. Now you only have to talk about it once and you can just send them the link.

GEMMA

Yeah, perfect!

KATH BAQUIE

Okay, so could you please give a quick intro into yourself in your motherhood? Like, how many children do you have and that sort of things?

GEMMA

Absolutely. Okay, so I have three kids now under five which is a little bit mad. But we’re getting through it all. So my first very energetic, confident little, nearly five-year-old daughter, Pollyanna. And then I have a son Murphy, who is two and a half and is right in the thick of that beautiful two-year-old stage. And then I have my eight-week old baby girl, Chloe. So motherhood so far is busy. And I live in little town just out of Ballarat, Buninyong, which is you know, in region of Victoria. And that’s pretty much me in a nutshell.

KATH BAQUIE

Oh, that’s brilliant. So cast your mind back to your first baby. When you became pregnant with Polly like what were you doing at the time? When did you decide okay, I want to have family. How’s that process for you?

GEMMA

It was a really lovely process. So I think I was 26 at the time, so I was quite young. I always wanted to be a young mum. And I was really focused on my career. But at the same time, I was like, I think I want to have kids when I was younger and then in my mind, I was like, I’ll have more energy. That’s the motivation behind that.

So yeah, it was 26 and I fell pregnant with Polly which is really exciting. It was a really lovely kind of pregnancy journey and there were no real complications with her throughout the whole pregnancy so it was a really nice kind of introduction into conceiving and pregnancy because it can be so daunting with your first I think so yeah. I was very lucky with it.

KATH BAQUIE

Oh, that’s right. First can be daunting that’s so great. You had a good experience now I was thinking. Hmm… Are we going to chat about all your births? Just fast forward to your most recent birth because I think it’s always great to chat about what’s, you know, really on the forefront of the mind when you’re in the moment. So with your pregnancy with Chloe, how did that compare to your first pregnancy when you already had two young children to look after?

GEMMA

Yeah, it was pretty intense. Pregnancy with Chloe was different in so many ways. So I fell pregnant when we’re in the middle of the Victoria lockdown, COVID lockdown. So having that was a bit of a blessing in disguise in some way because I was working remotely so my kids were a day-care during the day which was lovely and I was you know, sitting working remotely so that whole first trimester when you’re racing to the toilet not feeling 100%. I was able to do that in the privacy of my own home. I wasn’t having to do that in office. So I was really kind of grateful for that but at the same time I really struggled to get out and a bath obviously with two young kids. Really struggled to stay active and that’s kind of how I found FitNest Mama because I wanted something that I could tap into when I have time for. Do some exercise. I found it really helpful to do on my lunch break at home in the living room. But I quickly found that it was actually a really lovely community to be part of. And was a really great way for me to prepare for my third baby and from a birth perspective. So I guess I was really lucky with Polly, my first pregnancy or with my birth. She was quite an easy birth I guess you could say. Shouldn’t really say that because it’s not easy. Like there were no major complications. It wasn’t you know a very long. I was in labour for six hours and subsequently I think I was really complacent when it came to Murphy my second because I had had in my mind. I was like this was a great birth, the first time round. Second is going to be like that. I just wasn’t prepared at all.

You don’t realize how much you forget in between babies. Maybe that’s just your hormones kind of making you forget what birth is like as well. So I didn’t actually really prepare for Murphy at all. And that was to my detriment I was caught by surprise in a lot of different ways and I still had a great birth. But I think going into my third with Chloe there was just so many resources in FitNest Mama that I was like just lapping up and loving and I just changed that whole mindset of the birth.

KATH BAQUIE

Oh that’s great to hear. Sorry you just glossed over a few things I want to dive into there. You mentioned you have a third degree care with your first but was the recovery, you mentioned recovery is pretty good. Is that right?

GEMMA

Yeah so recovery was pretty good. Obviously, it was very painful but there were lots of you know icing and just I think the key thing for me that one of the midwife said to me which really stuck with me she was like, “Don’t let the pain get on top of you. Stay ahead of the pain. This first couple of weeks, don’t feel like you shouldn’t be taking pain medication. It’s uncomfortable. So make sure that you get on top of that.” So that was a really big one for me. And I think, you know, first time mum did a lot of resting. Second time mum, did not do a very good job with the whole postpartum thing I was walking around. I think Kath, you told a story about you know going out and going for lunch or a coffee with friends going for a walk and then coming home and going oh my gosh, I think I did the same thing. I was like I need to get out and go for a walk with the you know Bubba and the toddler and yeah got home at night was like, woah, what have I done?

KATH BAQUIE

What were you feeling?

GEMMA

Oh, just like so much heaviness and just like pain so I, you know, just remember what wanting to lie down and that was probably maybe like day 10 with Murphy and I was like I just you know I was just constantly icing after that. Because I was like this is so, I just went too quickly with trying to get out there and walk and do all those kinds of things. So yeah

KATH BAQUIE

And that’s so common, and I can totally see why because you feeling good. Like maybe you’d had a good night’s sleep the day before. And to go out for how long did you walk for? Like what most probably?

GEMMA

It was probably a 20-minute walk. Up in the playground. Grabbed a coffee. Kind of was you know, you had your sleeping deprived. Polly was playing, you know, the walk time so it was probably like an hour out on my feet walking around. And it wasn’t bris. It wasn’t vigorous. It was like, I think yeah I remember getting home going, that was too much. What have I done?

KATH BAQUIE

So hard. And I feel like postpartum, you either feel great or you know you’re feeling I’m pretty good. Or you feeling terrible. There’s no warning. Once you get home from the walk, bang it’s like too late already. Yeah.

GEMMA

And that’s when your baby or you know, want to cluster feed or something like that.

KATH BAQUIE

Yeah. Okay, so how did things change up with once you’d had your third baby, Chloe?

GEMMA

Well, I guess it was mindset with Chloe. Like the whole pregnancy. Again, maybe because I had more time at home during lockdown to reflect on things. But going into my birth with Chloe, I did another birth class. So my first birth class with Polly was at the hospital. It was like watching you know videos from the 80s. It was like a lady with a great perm giving birth. And you know, sitting in a circle handing around forceps kind of thing. It was really disturbing. So the second one I did was with Tiny Hearts first aid. So they did virtual birth course. And it was really good because I learned so much more. And I think again, mindset reflecting back on to your previous births, you start to understand more about birth, and I felt a lot more empowered, having more information. So because I’ve been so complacent with my second, third time around, I was like, I really want some information. And I wanted to kind of have a little bit more of that kind of calm, birthing experience. I wasn’t, you know, so to the point of I’m not going to use pain relief for you know, I just was really intrigued by calm birth. And I had also listened to a module that you had in the pregnancy section of the member hub, around calm birth and decided to understand so much more around the role that hormones play, and how mentally you can prepare for birth. So I felt really empowered for my birth as opposed to, here we go again.

KATH BAQUIE

Yeah, that’s brilliant to hear. Okay, so you’re pregnant with your third. Your wrangling two other children. Were there any issues with aches and pains during pregnancy? Like how did your pregnancy transpire?

GEMMA

Yeah, but overall, it was pretty good because I had, in previous pregnancies, I had had a lot of hip pain, and had to do a lot of clinical Pilates. And again, being in lockdown with this one, I really struggled because I was like, I want to do that. I didn’t have as much hip pain with my third, which was a blessing in disguise. But I did have a lot of discomfort, purely because I was still being really active all the way into that third trimester with young kids. So lifting a toddler, and doing all those kind of things. And I think it wasn’t until, you know, around 30 to 33 weeks that I was like, come on Murphy, you need to climb up onto the bed for me to change your nappy, like you need to climb out of the car seats you’d like I was trying to teach him to do those things so that I wasn’t just second nature lifting him all the time. So yeah, there was still a lot of like, you get to the end of the day, and especially physically exhausted from doing all that lifting.

KATH BAQUIE

Yeah, absolutely. And in the days leading up to giving birth, like how did you know you’re on birth? Was there any warning in the lead up?

GEMMA

It was really different. And everyone says that every pregnancy and birth is different. But with Chloe? I was in a lot of like, not like muscular pain, but everything felt tight for that last kind of two weeks. And so I had a lot of Braxton Hicks so I was probably from 38 weeks I was waking up or 37 weeks waking up in the middle of the night for like two or three hours having like Braxton Hicks contractions and that starts to plan in your mind because you go, ‘Is this the real thing into labour?’ So it felt like I was kind of preparing for that for a long time. And yeah, I just felt like everything internally was just so squished, like all those organs. And at like 39 plus two weeks, I went into labour and was in labour for like six hours at home. Labouring, and had a contraction definitely starts, starting. Got to hospital. And they were like, oh, you’re only about two centimetres. And I was like okay, and then they said so we think we we’d like you to go home. You know not that far from the hospital. Go home, rest is probably not going to have over here.

Just keep going, you’re doing a really good job and we’ll see what happens. But again, we some pain relief, and I went home and they said, rest, try and sleep, because you’re really in a really early stages. And so I got home and then I woke up in the morning and I was like, nothing’s happening. Like, I think I got home at three o’clock in the morning and I woke up at six and I was like, Oh, it’s all just fizzled out. So I had this false labour kind of thing, which just I was so disappointed because at that stage, I was like, get out. So that was like a bit frustrating. And then I had a couple of days of just being like I was at Forrest Gump. I was just walking nonstop. I was just trying to get these baby out, trying to bring the labour in any way I could. And then I think after a couple of days of being quiet, like a mad woman just walking around everywhere. I was like, right, I’m saying my obstetrician on my due dates. I’m just going to say induce me like I’m over this thing. I remember how my appointment at one o’clock on my due date. And that morning, kids went off to kinder and day-care. And by about nine o’clock, I was like, Oh, that’s odd. I think that’s contraction and then it was on and my partner Sam was working from home and I remember like sending him a text saying keep going. You’re on like in your meetings and stuff. But I think that we’re going to have the baby today and he wrote back saying, okay, we’ve had some I feels like we’ve had so many false starts for the luck. Yeah, so he kind of he was like, what do you want me to do? Just keep working and I’ll just kind of I just put it around really.

KATH BAQUIE

So you’re both at home? Did you say he was working from home?

GEMMA

Yeah, so that was good because it was just really calm like I you know, had my playlist going and I think it was probably about 10am I was like yeah, we’re definitely like we’re on. I’ve got pack contractions happening in patterns here. So I started timing them got the 10s machine on which I used for my two previous pregnancies of births and loved the 10s machine. So got that on and I guess I was just really trying to relax at home but also was just really like pacing around and trying to get into comfortable positions for contractions and trying to stay really calm so trying not to be like yeah, this stage was I, Wooohh, but just trying to keep a little on that and focus on just being relaxed and letting things progress.

KATH BAQUIE

So how did you stay, did you have any strategies to staying calm and relaxed when you’re by yourself at home?

GEMMA

Like I kind of went into a bit of an introvert stage because I’m getting kind of popping his head and was like you okay? you’re down? Like, leave me bae. Like I’ll come and get you when I need you kind of thing. And so I was really just I was listening to I made myself like a bit of a playlist and I was just like relaxing and listening to that. I had like a heat pack which I kind of just kept putting onto my back like in between contractions but I remember in between contractions trying to relax as much as possible and trying to relax my pelvic floor. And so I think you said in quite a few other pregnancy Pilates ones you know really think about that drop and flop kind of let it all kind of relax which was so hard to do when you feel so tight and like a round balloon almost in pregnancy. So I was really just trying to relax so much like all of my muscles in between contractions which was really good.

KATH BAQUIE

Is that with deep breathing as well?

GEMMA

Absolutely. Well I think some of those big calm techniques kind of came in once I got into the hospital so it was probably around midday that I got to hospital because I’m five centimetres dilated. So they’re like great job keep going and then within like two hours I was like I want to push like this, get this baby out and then I was pushing for quite some time and probably was about 14 minutes and they said we’re just going to check again to see how far along you are like. You’re in the eight centimetres, we want you to start pushing for a little bit to see we can add a little bit further and at that stage I just turned to the midwife with like probably rude a slip on my face. I was like I’m going to need some guests in so I think that was really the hardest thing because in that mindset, I was like mum, I was just trying to listen to my body. It was telling me to push and you’re telling me not to.

So I got so frustrated, had some gas and then that’s when I really had that mental mind shift of being like okay, you need to use some distraction techniques to get through these contractions to be able to, you know, get a little bit further along. So on the on the bed, there was this kind of green mat which I think is like a waterproof mat on the hospital bed and at had these wiggly scenes all through it. And I started counting those, I was kind of lunging up against the hospital bed, just counting these seams in the match constantly through all the contractions. And then when I got to the stage where I was like, yep, we’re pushing again, a baby’s coming. So I come up onto the bed, and you can kneel up against the back of the bed. And I couldn’t really verbalize but I wanted Sam to take that match. Because I was like, this is my technique is working, I want to keep looking at this. So I was like, Sam, grab that and put it over there. He’s like, what? And I was like, that bit of material needs to go over there. And he’s like, what am I have to keep counting? He’s like, what are you doing? Like I’m counting. The midwives are laughing because I obviously kind of could save a lot doing. So he is standing next to me that this is birth support partner, one on one with this piece of material that was on the bed. And I’m like counting these things through my contractions as the baby’s coming out. And he’s just like, and again, like as a support person, he was like, I just want to stay up ahead. I don’t want to cut the cord or be down there or anything. I was like, that’s fine. Stay there, like hold the mat, do your thing. As she’s coming out. He was like, Oh, no, I need to see and then just left. I was like, I don’t know what to count. Drastically looking around the room for something to count, because that was what was working for me at the time. So it’s pretty fun.

KATH BAQUIE

Did you know that you enjoy counting? Like did you know that was helpful for you before you’re in?

GEMMA

I’ve done it in some of that when we would had done the pregnancy Pilates ones, they make us sit up against the wall. And I had done that like looking at like the pattern in the rug in my living room before. And so I’d enjoy like not enjoyed it, and found that that was really useful. And I think some of the breathing ones were helpful. But at the stage of when I was like breathing through the gas, that kind of helps slow down your breathing anyway. For me, the counting thing was probably the most effective to distract me through the contractions. That was really good.

KATH BAQUIE

Yeah, cool. And for those that are listening, who are thinking, what are you doing on mats? we practice quite a lot of squats, wall squats in our classes. And we practice a different distraction technique throughout that wall squat, because we can’t mimic a contraction. But we can sort of get our bodies in a position of discomfort, hence a wall squat and practice some different distraction techniques. Because I’m a really big believer. Like with my first baby, I did not practice anything because I thought how easy is it to breathe. I don’t need to practice counting. And I couldn’t recall it when I was in the midst of the thick of it. And whereas for the third one after I practiced it was so much easier to bring upon what you’ve practiced. Is that what you found?

GEMMA

Absolutely, yeah, it was in that heat of the moment when Yeah, the midwife said to me stop pushing. And I kind of got really overwhelmed thinking, you know, what are you telling me to do here? Like, I’m going against my instincts. And that said, I was like, Yes, I want some more pain relief. I need some gas. But as well as like, what do I have in my toolkit to help me through this, because it kind of just intensified so quickly. And then straight away. I was like, I can count in. That’s one that I practice. And it was so simple, like literally counting the scenes on a piece of material. But it was just that total distraction and being able to concentrate on that and not kind of let all that other kind of jumble that’s in your head at that moment. Yeah.

Yeah, so they put the back in the bed up for me. And so I was kind of pushing against that whilst I was on my knees, and that’s how I had closed. So that was a really comfortable position for me just to be able to kind of like push my elbows into the top of the bed and get through it that way. But because I had torn with my first two, that was probably a little bit of a fear that I had with the others and so that when I got to hospital, that was probably one of the big things that I spoke to my midwife when they say what’s your birth plan, I was like, I’m really worried about tearing. And it was really interesting because at the hospital in Ballarat, they have this kind of new practice now where they have like warm compress, which they apply as babies coming out.

So they have a midwife kind of helping baby out. And another one really applying quite a bit of pressure to your cranium with warm pads almost, which was very different to my previous births to have that kind of sensation as bubs is coming out, but it was much better. I only had a first degree tear with Chloe, which was very surprising because she was a big baby, like talk quite a bit too, you know, in that final stage to get her out. And I remember that final push getting her out the midwife saying Whoa, she’s a whopper, which is not what you want to hear while birthing your child.

KATH BAQUIE

Was that the first thing you heard?

GEMMA

Yeah, yeah. And when I finally turned around, sat down and they handed it to me, I like swore I was like, Wow, she’s huge. So she was 4.3 kilos, which is like on the 98 percentile. My other two had been, you know, around that three and a half kilo mark. So she just she seemed like an eight-week old baby. Yeah, that was quite strange, but sort of all of a sudden, it’s quite heavy baby. And she was long. And she was obviously really squished in my tummy in it because I wasn’t measuring really big. So like, thank goodness, someone hadn’t said to me, hey, you’re going to have a huge baby, because I think they would have planned on my mind.

KATH BAQUIE

Yeah. Interesting. And did you know you’re having a girl?

GEMMA

Yes, I did.

KATH BAQUIE

Yeah. Lovely. Okay, so once they popped you on your chest, what happened then?

GEMMA

So she kind of latched on pretty quickly and fed and was sucking for quite a while and the obstetrician came in had a look and was like, Look, you’ve only got a first degree tear. But because there is a scar tissue from your previous babies there, we’re going to give you a couple of stitches anyway, just to help with your healing, which was good, because my healing after birth was not that bad with number three. So I was really happy that they did that. Because Chloe was such a big bubba, they did a heel prick test to check her blood sugar levels, and her blood sugar was really low.

So that was something different for me, because then the next 24 hours were much more intense than I guess I’d had with my previous bubbas. So with low blood sugar, they then want to try and obviously get that blood sugar back up. So they want to try and feed bubba as much as possible. And then she was having like sugar gels on the inside of her mouth. And then every three hours, she was having a blood test to see what was happening about blood sugar. And then, after two tests, she was still not up to the level that they wanted her to. So they transferred her to the special care. Which was again, quite strange, because I was like, well, she was born in energy day, like she’s a healthy big baby, like your kind of think special care nursery prem babies. So that first kind of 48 hours was really intense, because they wanted her to feed so much. And you don’t have any milk come that have come in at that stage. And thank goodness, I’ve done some expressing prior to birth. So some expressing of colostrum, probably for about 36 weeks, and I had a small reserve at home. And again, that was just something that I picked up in that birth class to say, look, it can sometimes help. You never know what’s going to happen after your birth. So to have a bit of a reserve there for Bub, just in case. So I was like, okay, that’s great. So I think when I had that because you’re trying to work out how to breastfeed again. And then try to pump as well at the same time. And then those three hourly feeds happen so quickly, like if you’re feeding trying to feed for an hour, and then you’re pumping and then you might sleep for 40 minutes and then it’s time to do it again. So that first 48 hours was just relentless in terms of blood tests and yeah, it was strange.

KATH BAQUIE

And how did the breastfeeding compare to your oldest, Polly?

GEMMA

I think because I was waking up with that first 48 hours we’re waking Chloe to feed every three hours plus she was on a drip as well to try and hydrate her. She just wasn’t really interested in feeding like normally you have bub, you know you have the birth. Your kind of have like one kind of big first breastfeed and then they might sleep for a stretch of time. Whereas we were trying to wake her constantly to feed so she was just not interested. So then I was having to yeah express and then they were feeding her through the little syringes as well to try and get that in. And there was almost this kind of obsession about numbers because I was like, you know when you’re breastfeeding you don’t know how many meals a baby’s having. But when you’re expressing into a compliment trying to feed her through a syringe it’s like okay, so she’s only had three meals and then when you’re comparing that to your blood test levels, it was really quite strange and I thought I’m really stressed here because with my first it was latch on and it was all about really kind of trying to learn how to breastfeed and get that that correct latch. Well with Chloe, she just wasn’t interested at all because she was so sleepy that I just couldn’t get that get it a latch on. And eventually that like once she was out of the special care nursery once her blood sugar levels are back up once I could let her sleep for longer than three hours. She actually was more interested in trying to find something trying to find food. So latching on, as suppose to just having it forced into it. So yeah, it was it was a totally different experience. Like I was just quite shocked by the whole thing because I had had two babies. Had been both full term. They had both kinds of come out and latched on and we had just kind of started this breastfeeding journey. This was completely different than I was. So I was quite stressed in that first 48 hours of going issue going to yet have issues latching and breastfeeding. So yeah.

We weren’t in lockdown. This is the week before lockdown, but they were still like quite strict with COVID rules. So there was only one visitor allowed to the hospital per day, which was okay it was my partner at that time. Yes, I know parents or the kids is also like, you know, Polly and Murphy couldn’t come in and say that was you know, they were just enjoying time with Nana apart.

KATH BAQUIE

And how was that reunion? Well, how was that? The first time they saw their little sister and how is that?

GEMMA

Yeah, it was pretty sweet. Yeah, Polly just squealed a lot. And was just so excited. And she still is so excited. Like, I think I have to say, about 200 times a day. Please don’t touch her face. Like Stop touching her face. No, no, stop touching her. Like, you know, I’ll put her in the play gym. And she’s like in there. And Murphy. My two-and-a-half-year-old does that. Oh, yeah. And that’s about it. He is excited to say yeah, but then it’s like, oh, she doesn’t do much.

KATH BAQUIE

Yeah, it’s so funny, isn’t it? I, that just brought memories to me with my third. Because my older two had been at kinder and childcare. And I remember one of them had a snotty nose and I brought this new baby home and it actually physically impossible to keep them apart. Remember, my third baby, she was a week old and she had her first snotty nose aboard darling but um she was okay.

GEMMA

Oh, the exact same thing. Yeah, Murphy had like the snotty nose and I don’t know maybe it’s because we’ve they’ve had like, you know, 12 months of COVID and so they’re like pretty good with washing their hands and stuff like that. So before we have a hold on, you know, use some hand sanitizer and stuff like that, thinking that that would help but no, yeah, Chloe have, you know, the snaffle nose within a couple of days. And I was just like okay, this is just the bubbas whereas I think with Polly she was you know, first she’s wrapped in cotton all for a long time.

KATH BAQUIE

Yeah, yeah. Bit expected totally. So you had the first degree tear. And how has your recovery been the first few weeks that you mentioned that first walk the big walk but apart from that big walk?

GEMMA

Yeah. So I was much better with my postpartum recovery with Chloe. I think because I’d had this mindset of you just need to rest like and I think again, in one of your modules, there’s like a little PowerPoint that you go through and it shows you how many how many minutes you should walk week one, week two, week three I screenshotted that and I sent it to my partner and I was like don’t let me do more than this. And he’s like cool, great. So I think third time around I did a lot more resting a lot more line down. And this double edged sort of being in lockdown was a blessing in disguise. So we were lucky that you know we went into lockdown and Chloe was I think maybe 10 days old. So we did get you know grandparents and aunties able to come and meet her when she was a first couple of days old but then then we’ve kind of been in lockdown since and so that it’s been hard not to have you know all these beautiful friends come over and say you baby. We haven’t had any of those you know crazy days of having lots of visitors or anything like that so it’s been this really permission to have this restful period.

KATH BAQUIE

So it’s got its pros and cons all though that lockdown.

GEMMA

It does. Yeah.

KATH BAQUIE

Really well thank you so much for sharing I guess your story and I to finish off with what are your words of wisdom for pregnant mums that might be listening today or from a season mum of three who’s recently given birth?

GEMMA

I think when it comes to pregnancy, I think for me like that whole preparation for my third, like I said, it was really empowering to have information behind me and that’s really hard with your first because you don’t know what to prepare for. You don’t have anything to refer back to. Like I even remember getting in my first birth midwife saying do you want more pain relief and me saying how far I’ve ever asked Are we like I don’t know how much more painful this is going to get. It’s really hard because you don’t know what you don’t know. My advice is you know, for second third time months, give yourself that time to be able to prepare for your birth because I didn’t do that with my second and I had a much more positive birth experience with my third just because I went into it with that mindset of having more information, arming myself with you know, just some more techniques because you don’t remember them. So that’s probably my personal wisdom I guess. And if that so hard because there is so much information out there you don’t want to overdo it but you just take what you think is going to work for you.

KATH BAQUIE

Oh, well, you’re a star mama and I’m super proud of every time I see you join a class or we’ve got a spring challenge at the moment and posting online, everything you achieve, but your kids entirely like it’s just beautiful, beautiful to see so well done. I think being able to invest in your body. I think it’s just so important because pregnancy and childbirth go for nine months and you’re after birth recovery. It’s for life. So absolutely, yeah, super proud of you. And thank you for chatting today. Gemma.

GEMMA

Thank you! It’s been really fun.

KATH BAQUIE

Oh good. We’ll catch you soon.

GEMMA

All righty.

KATH BAQUIE

Before I sign off, remember my team and I will be putting together the Show Notes for this episode, including how to join our free fitness community Facebook Group at www.fitnestmama.com/podcast. Have a fabulous day everyone and I look forward to you joining me next week for another episode of the FitNest Mama Podcast.

Thanks for listening to the FitNest Mama Podcast brought to you by the FitNest Mama Freebies found at www.fitnestmama.com/free. So please take a few seconds to leave a review, subscribe, so you don’t miss an episode. And be sure to take a screenshot of this podcast, upload it to your social media and tag me, @fitnestmama, so I can give you a shout out too. Until next time! Remember, an active pregnancy, confident childbirth, and strong postnatal recovery is something that you deserve. Remember, our disclaimer, materials and contents in this podcast are intended as general information only and shouldn’t substitute any medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. I’ll see you soon!