My Birthing Story: Maggie Wilson-Consunji

Maggie Wilson-Consunji, 24 years old
Model, host, beauty queen
Wife to Vic; mom to Connor, 1 year old

SP: Tell us your birthing story.
Maggie: At around 34 weeks I was already having premature contractions so up until the 37th week I was bedridden and on medications. At 37 weeks we stopped the medications already, pero hindi pa sya lumabas. Parang tumigil na talaga 'yung contractions.

One night on my 39th week, I woke up at around 1:30 in the morning and I thought I peed a little bit, so I went to the bathroom. When I thought I had finished, I stood up, walked a few steps, and I dripped. I thought, maybe I’m not done yet, so I go back. I stand up, and I’m still dripping. That’s when it dawned on me that my water already broke. I called my husband and he started to panic, but I told him to relax. I took a shower, knowing that I won’t be able to take a shower for a few days.

I didn’t feel any contractions until two hours later. There was so much pain! I’m sure any woman who has ever given birth would know that. However, I was not dilating -- apparently you’re supposed to dilate a centimeter every hour -- so they gave me medications, but it wasn’t working. Ayaw nya talaga lumabas! Halfway through, they had to sedate me because I was in so much pain already.

Twelve hours later, the doctor tells me that they have to do an emergency C-section because I’ve only dilated 3 cms thus far and my water was running out. The baby was positioned to come out, and he was trying to push down, [but the passageway wasn’t ready]. The baby’s head was swollen already, and his heart rate was dropping, stressed na sya.

They put me on epidural. I was numb around that area but I could still feel the tugging and the pulling. When they finally took the baby out, I was worried because he didn’t cry for a while. I remember saying, “I don’t hear him crying,” and it felt like the longest minutes of my life. Finally I heard him cry, and I gave a sigh of relief. They put him on my chest to breastfeed and then I passed out.

I gave birth to our son Connor Wilson Consunji on February 28, 2012, a leap year. He weighed 8.3 lbs and measured 23 inches in length. He was a big baby. The doctor even said, “bakit parang 1 month old na sya?”

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SP: Did you discuss with your OB-Gyn your options in case she needed to perform a C-section surgery?
Maggie: I really wanted a normal delivery. I wanted to experience the whole thing but sadly I didn’t get to. But it’s good to be ready so I had discussions with my OB-Gyn Dra. Ginny Capistrano that if I was going to have a C-section, it would be a bikini cut, and she did a phenomenal job. You can’t see the cut.

In C-sections, they used to cut the muscle vertically, and when they do that they cut the muscles also. Now, though, what the doctor does is cut the skin on top of the muscle horizontally, then rip the muscles underneath using her hands and push them on the side to get the baby -- there’s no incision on the muscles. If you do that, apparently [the wound] heals faster.

SP: How was your breastfeeding experience?
Maggie: It was the most painful part, probably even more painful than the C-section. St. Luke’s is pro-breastfeeding; they don’t give the baby anything but breastmilk. Since my milk came in very late, Connor was given only sugar water for 4 days. My milk came in on the fifth day. I tried the malunggay capsules, clam soup, everything, but I was able to breastfeed him for only 3 months, which is sad.

SP: It must have been very difficult.
Maggie: It was. I actually got post-partum depression but I caught it right away, so naagapan sya. Breastfeeding was so painful, I lacked sleep, I couldn’t even take a shower properly because Connor would be crying. He kept crying because he was hungry, and I didn’t have enough milk. I felt frustrated. I was crying everyday. I fell into depression for the first 2 to 3 weeks.

SP: How did you know it was post-partum depression?
Maggie: The crying everyday – that’s not me. I consider myself quite a strong person. I also read up a lot on post-partum depression. Based on what I had read, in post-partum depression, you get mad, angry, even at your child, and I was getting upset with my son for crying. But he’s a baby, he’s helpless. You’re supposed to be the one helping him as the parent and I felt hopeless that I couldn’t help him. I couldn’t stand the crying anymore. That’s when I caught myself and called my mom. I asked her to take Connor first because I didn’t feel too good about myself, and I didn’t feel good towards him as well.

I think it was the initial shock -- I wasn’t expecting a C-section and I didn’t know breastfeeding would be so excruciating. I just needed a few days to feel a little bit normal again, relax, get some sleep, enjoy taking a bath, be calm and get myself together. But I would still pump my milk. After a few days, I got Connor back and everything was okay.

SP: How much weight did you gain during pregnancy?
Maggie: I gained 48 lbs, but I was also very skinny pre-pregnancy – I weighed only 107 lbs. I was extremely underweight. It actually took a while for me to get pregnant. We had been trying for 7 months, and I was getting frustrated, but the moment I let [my frustrations] go, there it was. I was pregnant.

I prepared my body well for the pregnancy – I stopped smoking, I stopped drinking alcohol and softdrinks, I stopped eating junk food, no fastfood, no powdered juices, nothing artificial, because I wanted my body to be a very healthy vessel for my baby to be in. I’m very fortunate that my mom raised me to be a healthy eater, so going on this healthy binge comes very natural for me. I craved very healthy things -- greek yoghurt with granola, watermelon and dragonfruit every day. No crazy cravings.

I’m very lucky I have good genes. I was back in a swimsuit four months after I gave birth, and I didn’t have to work very hard at all. I’m also a very healthy eater so my body was able to bounce back very quickly.

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SP: What made you decide to bank Connor’s cord blood?
Maggie: I just saw a pamphlet in my OB’s clinic and I got interested. It’s a great insurance policy in case something happens to Connor or someone in the family would need it in the future. When I asked my parents about it, they had heard of it because the King of Saudi Arabia where I grew up had a stem cell treatment using cord blood, and it gave him 6 more years to live despite his cancer. For us, it’s a good investment. I don’t think it’s expensive because when you think about it, one day it could save a life.

SP: What advice can you give new moms?
Maggie:

1. Read. A lot.

2. Have a lot of support. It’s very important to have your family around especially if your parents are still alive because they know it and they’re the expert because they’ve been through it before. My mom is like a baby whisperer, she’s great with Connor.

3. Don’t think that pregnancy is an excuse for you to eat everything, because it’s not. What you eat is what your baby eats also.

4. Prepare your body for what’s to come before getting pregnant. I did my preparation about a year before; I stopped all the bad stuff and ate well.

5. Start your kids young with healthy food. What you feed them is what they will look for as they grow.

Photos by Vincent Coscolluela