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Giulia: Long Labour, Unplanned Cesarean Birth and A Diagnosis of Hirschsprung's Disease
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Wow, what a story. You will want to stick around for the postpartum discussion and her incredibly brilliant moment which left not a dry eye on the recording that day.
A birth plan can be thoughtful, informed, and deeply held and still get rewritten in real time. Guilia came into labour hoping for a low-intervention, midwife-led experience at Triemli Hospital in Zurich, supported by preparation, hypnobirthing tools, and the belief that staying open to Plan B matters. What follows is a powerful Swiss birth story about patience, endurance, and the strange mix of grief and gratitude that can sit side by side when labour stretches past 24 hours and a very difficult postpartum diagnosis of Hirschsprung's Disease.
We talk through monitoring post due-date and induction choices, including acupuncture, a castor oil cocktail, and the moment an unexplained bleed changes things. Giulia shares what helped her cope during intense contractions, why the birth pool felt like relief, and how it felt to keep trying position after position while dilation and descent stayed stubbornly slow. When exhaustion takes over, she chooses an epidural, and eventually a caesarean section becomes the safest next step. The care and steadiness of the midwives becomes a central part of how she remembers a tough birth with warmth. Her incredibly willingness to truly "try it all" (and then some!) is such a powerful part of this story.
Then, nine days postpartum, everything shifts. Feeding struggles and poor weight gain turn into an emergency visit, NICU separation, and a rare diagnosis: Hirschsprung disease, a gastrointestinal condition that blocks the colon. Giulia walks us through pumping and visiting daily, learning colon flushes at home, and waiting months for major corrective surgery. We also zoom out to the postpartum realities people don’t warn you about, from C-section recovery and breastfeeding pressure to freelance work, childcare costs, and finding a village in Zurich.
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