DIARY OF A BIRTH: 'I thought I was in early labour. Then my husband told me he could see my baby's foot.'

Monika Radulovic is one of those fortunate women who can use the word "relaxed" to describe her first labour. Well, most of it…

It was New Year's Eve, 2020. The former Miss Universe Australia and Survivor star had woken at 6 that morning to light cramping and leaking water, which continued as she moved gently through her day. 

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She had readied a room in her Sydney home for a home birth, complete with an inflatable pool, crystals, essential oil sprays, and affirmation cards featuring empowering messages penned by her friends. She had phone calls with her midwife and doula, both of whom assured her she had a long way to go. She even went to a New Year's Eve dinner at a friend's house (she had promised to bring the dessert, after all), pausing between bites of berry crumble to breathe through her intensifying contractions.

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Monika was so relaxed that when they were back home later that night, after one year had rolled into the next, her husband, Alesandro Ljubicic, fell asleep on their bed. Until Monika's panicked voice called out to him from their bathroom.

"Alesandro! Come, quick! Something's come out!"

Recounting the story on Mamamia's Diary of Birth podcast, Monika said she had gone to the toilet to wee when she was overcome by an intense cramping sensation in her abdomen. She needed to push. It was involuntary, entirely instinctual. Just one, singular push. Then she felt something "pop" out of her vagina. Too scared to look herself, fearing she'd suffered a vaginal prolapse, she urged Alesandro to peer between her legs.

"The next words that I heard sent a chill down my spine," Monika said. "He says, 'Oh my god! I see a foot.'"

An entire, perfectly formed foot was hanging out of Monika's body.

While most babies turn head-down as they approach the final month of pregnancy, roughly 3 per cent remain laying head-up in what's known as a breech position. It's usually detected by a doctor or midwife feeling the abdomen or performing an ultrasound. 

No one knew Monika's baby was a breech. Not her midwife, not an obstetrician friend who examined her belly, and certainly not Monika.

Her mind racing, she grabbed a phone and dialled her midwife, a woman with more than two decades of experience. The midwife had listened to Monika's contractions over the phone a short time earlier, and believing Monika was still in early labour, hadn't even left her home in the Blue Mountains — roughly 1.5 hours away.

"I call my midwife, who screams on the phone, 'Call the f***ing ambulance! Now!,'" Monika said.

Monika's midwife advised her to call an ambulance as soon as possible. Image: Supplied.

Paediatrician Dr Daniel "Golly" Golshevsky told Mamamia that while most breech babies are delivered via cesarean, vaginal delivery is possible. However, it comes with a higher risk of complications and is therefore not suitable for a home birth. There is a higher incidence, for example, of perineal tearing for the mother and post-partum haemorrhage, as well as the risk of injury to the baby — including broken bones. Plus, there is the possibility of an emergency in which the baby's head becomes trapped.

"If you have a body that is delivered but a head is not there's a risk that it just gets stuck in the birth canal. It can lead to oxygen deprivation, and then, of course, potential brain injury, which is the really scary thing," Dr Golly said.

"A lot of these risks are mitigated by having a controlled, hospital-based delivery with teams on the ready."

Though it was a long way from her birth plan, that was what Monika ended up needing to guide her baby safely into the world. 

Once the paramedics were on their way to her home, Monika was able to return to that earlier sense of relaxation. She employed her breathing techniques and kept her eyes closed. 

"No matter what was happening around me, which is quite scary and intense, I didn't see it," she said. "I just had my eyes closed, and I was in my own bubble."

She didn't see the four ambulances arrive, or any of the journey to the Royal Hospital for Women in Sydney's eastern suburbs, or the team of staff waiting to respond, or the on-call midwife helping free her baby's other leg and guide him down, feet first.

She didn't open her eyes again until her son was delivered safely onto her chest.

"He was out at, I think it was 1:47am, or something like that. So he was the first baby born [at the hospital] of the year," she said. "My little Luka."

Looking back, Monika describes her birth as utterly surreal.

"I had this plan, I had this dream, and of course, it didn't come to fruition. My birthing room was not utilised whatsoever, but my bubba came safe and sound," she said. "It was surreal, but the most incredible experience of my whole life."

Monika has since had another baby, Matteo, who was also delivered breech. But that's another story…

Read more of our featured stories in Diary Of A Birth:

• DIARY OF A BIRTH: 'I didn't realise I was pregnant until I gave birth in the shower.'

• DIARY OF A BIRTH: 'I struggled to fall pregnant. I had a breakdown when I found out I was having quadruplets.'

• DIARY OF A BIRTH: 'I thought I'd have a fast birth. Then my baby got stuck.'

Feature image: Supplied.