Birth Story Part I

After two weeks of trying every known old wives tale except acupuncture (yes that means I did castor oil... twice!) I gave up mostly because my OB has a week time limit post due date.  On day 8 post due date, John and I met my cousin Megan, her son Sully, my aunt and uncle, my parents and John's mom prior to my induction at Einsteins for a celebratory pow wow. We then left for Paradise Valley Hospital at 7 am with a smile on my face.

My OB who I love (Dr. Shannon Moorehead) called me the night prior to discuss the induction options.  I wanted to go with the less invasive prostaglandin gel placement instead of pitocin.  I was hoping it would kick start labor for me and I wouldn't have to have pitocin.  I was avoiding pitocin because I have heard many stories of pitocin making labor more intense sooner than if labor starts naturally.  I really wanted a natural labor.  I read like 5 books and practiced many relaxation techniques with John (using the Bradley Birthing method) in order to do so.

However, when I got there, the nurses didn't like the heart rate of our baby.  They said it was staying too stable oreven dropping during contractions.  They apparently like his heart rate to be bouncing around more.  The nurse hooked me up to an IV and pumped a ton of saline water into me hoping it was just dehydration affecting the heart rate.  It did help but the baby didn't like it when I was reclined or sitting up on my back.  Because of this, the nurse strongly urged me to do pitocin because you have to lie on your back for an hour after the prostaglandin gel placement.  Plus she said that once they put the prostaglandin gel in they couldn't take it out if the baby's heart rate didn't do well with the contractions.  I was encouraged by the nurse because she had 4 natural labors with pitocin!  I thought "if she could do it, then I can!"

One thing that I didn't appreciate, but its not really the nurses' fault, is that they tend to throw the 'c-section' words around quite liberally.  I know they may do that to prepare you in case of an emergency but I also like what my brother Lowell said about threatening a c-section... He said they do it to "control you" lol!  But it is kind of true... To a certain extent, OB's and labor nurses track too much information such as every single heart beat.  Millions of women in the world have normal labors without all this tracking.  The c-section rate in the US has currently risen to 30% while the recommended rate is 5-10% by the WHO.  Studies also show that tracking fetal heart rate does not improve the outcomes of fetal mortality but only increases the number of c-sections performed.  Ok... off my rant of obstetrical practices in the US and back to the birth story....

So by 8 am I was started on pitocin at the lowest level...1.  The nurse planned to up the level every 30-45 minutes depending on how the baby's heart rate responded.  At first she wasn't liking the heart rate.  I decided that when she left I would down some of the honey sticks I packed in my hospital bags.  I know you're not supposed to eat food during labor but I also knew my baby.  I had always noticed he would increase his activity (and thus heart rate) after I ate sugar.  Within 1 minute of honey ingestion, the heart rate would improve and the nurse would come back and say something like "I guess baby likes it when you are on your side"  I would nod and smile but know that it secretly was the honey.  I did this every hour or if she would come in and complain about the baby's heart rate.  Sometimes she would give me oxygen also to see if it would help.

Three hours later, 11 am, my OB came in and broke my waters.  By that time the contractions still weren't painful and I was only 2.5 cm dialated.  There wasn't a lot of fluid but there wasn't any meconium in the fluid either which I was happy about.  When you go over the due date there is often a decrease in amniotic fluid which can be concerning.  Looking back at the whole event, it seems like the nurse and OB (probably unintentionally) liked to point out that the reason for lower amniotic fluid and a heart beat that "they don't like" is because I was 8 days late.  It was almost to a point of making me feel bad about it.  My thought is that babies eventually come out.  God created labor so perfectly that babies do come out and have been doing so for thousands of years without tons of medical intervention.  I wanted my baby to get the chance of making his debut on God's timing.

Within 15-20 minutes of breaking my waters, the contractions started to increase in intensity.  I had John ask anybody other than him and my mom in the room to leave because I wanted to be able to concentrate and focus on the contractions as they were coming.  After every contraction I would look up at the monitor to see what the heartbeat was doing because I wanted the baby to be doing well.   I sucked down tubes of honey as needed :)  Around 2 pm the contractions had gotten VERY intense.  I could no longer relax my body like I was supposed to.  I would tighten my fists and squirm my whole body.  Sometimes I would try to bite the pillow (John claims I would try and bite him but I'm pretty sure I didn't do that!) John was there alongside me the whole time coaching me and encouraging me to relax.  When you tense up the rest of your body, your uterus can't contract as efficiently. 

After about an hour of these crazy contractions I asked the nurse to come check me and I was only at 4 cm! So after 7 hours of contractions and laboring, I had only gone 2 cm! Still 6 to go!  At that point I was thinking, "is this going to last another two hours?" I reasoned in my head that if it was less than that I could do it, but not if it was more than that.  I called my mom in to talk to her because she is the reason I was so inspired to have a natural birth.  To me I liken it to running a marathon... is it painful? yes.  Do you have to prepare for it? yes.  Is it worth it? to me... totally!  In the end, I decided to get the epidural.  I was feeling contractions at 4 cm that I was expecting to feel at closer to 7 or 8 cm.  Once I made the decision to get the epidural, the anesthesiologist was in my room pretty quickly.  He went through the whole rigamaroo of getting consent and asking about my medical history.  I was still experiencing the whopper contractions so John had to help me answer them.  By 3:30 he had administered the epidural which it took another 10 minutes to take effect but I could feel the pain diminishing with each contraction.  5 minutes later the nurse checked me and I was at 5 cm.  She said she wouldn't then check me until 7 pm (which I assume is when she changed shifts). 

The pain relief was WONDERFUL!  I felt like a whole new woman.. appreciative of not feeling the pain.  I invited in all the family that was there that I had previously banned from my room and could talk and joke with them.  I think John felt huge relief because he hated seeing me in so much pain.  I don't regret getting the epidural because I knew myself and I know what I could handle and I could not handle that. 

Next I will post the excitement that comes next!