By Casey Neill
Lauren Green’s son made an unconventional entrance to the world – into a toilet.
Lauren can see the funny side seven years on, but the sudden birth left deep scars she’s still coming to terms with.
The nurse had always wanted to be a mum and completing a half marathon flicked a switch in Lauren and spurred her to try for a baby.
Finance Nick was hesitant at first, but Lauren told him it might take time.
“Then I think we pretty much got pregnant the first time we tried.”
At 38 weeks and one day, Lauren and Nick decided to have one last date night at their local pub.
Lauren went to bed and woke to contractions at 1am.
“While I was sleeping I was obviously dilating and I didn’t know,” she said.
“I thought ‘I’ll just let it happen for a bit, it could be Braxton-Hicks or it might go away’.
“It got pretty intense pretty quickly so I woke Nick up.”
Nick ran a bath for her but she soon got back out.
“I was restless, it didn’t feel right. I was walking around the house remembering my Calmbirth sessions, breathing through it and being mindful.
“I felt comfy on the toilet. The position that your body is in when you’re on the toilet is quite natural for that process.”
Lauren had a TENS machine on her back and was timing the contractions using her phone.
They got closer together and more intense so Nick called the hospital.
On learning that Lauren was only three hours in, the midwife told her it’d be a while longer and she should take some Panadol.
“I thought ‘they’re two minutes apart and they bloody hurt. What do you mean I can’t come in yet?’.
“I had a funny contraction that felt very different from the others.”
Lauren felt like her body was pushing.
“It happened again and I felt Otis’s head coming out.
“On the third weird contraction, he came out into the toilet.
“Nick came barrelling into the bathroom and got him out.
“He was passing him through my legs.
“It was scary.
“I just put him on my chest and said to Nick, ‘You need to call an ambulance’.
“I just sat there then, in shock.”
The ambulance arrived in less than 10 minutes.
Lauren started having contractions again once she arrived at the hospital.
“That hurt more than the ones I’d had before Otis was born,” she said.
“I asked for pain relief.
“They said to me ‘You had the baby without anything so you’ll be OK’.
“I was lying on the trolley with Otis on my chest and my placenta still inside me.
“After that I felt very calm and I had a beautiful midwife who helped me through the process of delivering the placenta.
“I think my body was fighting it. I was so stressed.
“Once the placenta was out I finally just got to rest.
“Otis was completely fine.
Lauren lodged a complaint with the hospital following her experience.
“I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what would have happened if he wasn’t breathing,” she said.
“I do spend a bit of time thinking about that – less these days, but more in the year or two after.
“It’s definitely left me with some scars.
“It’s changed the way I think about things.
“We had floated the idea of just having one child before we had Otis anyway, but after that I was like ‘nope, I’m done, I can’t go through that again’.
“I don’t want to go through that again.”
