The Story of Jill's First Birth
-by Jill
Culver
My 45 week pregnancy was completely healthy and
normal, and although there was a general societal
pressure that something must be wrong, there really
was none from the doctor. She was pretty good,
as doctor's go, in fact she was the only one doing
home births in that area at that time.
I had a biophysical profile and it came
back good, 9 out of 10. I actually in conversation
asked the technician if she's even seen a pregnancy
that long as she was doing the ultrasound
and she said "I've never seen anyone let
themselves go that long." I didn't think
too much about this but after, as I was changing
back into my street clothes, I overheard her telling
someone else in the next room about how she'd
really told me...yadayadayada...as if I was being
so irresponsible for letting this happen and not
just getting induced.
She also during the ultrasound went on about
how there was too little water. I remember we
went straight from the hospital to my doctor's
office because we were a little concerned (Ok,
maybe panicked). We'd really built up a relationship
with the doctor by now and felt comfortable just
walking in without an appt. Anyway she took one
look at us and started to reassure us, she called
the hospital right away for the results of the
test and said "you got 9 out of ten, with
one point missing for not enough water, but what
the heck do you expect, you are 10 months pregnant!
That's a really good result, your baby is fine..."
I had actually decided at 43 1/2 weeks to be
induced. I had had no pre-labour, no signs of
impending birth. They did a pit drip all night
but no labour, fairly anti-climatic. I remember
there was some talk among the nurses of breaking
the waters but then they remembered who my doctor
was and said that she didn't like to do that.
I feel that if they had ruptured them I would
have been a C/S for sure. As it was I narrowly
escaped! Through this whole thing my son's heartbeat
remained good, he moved around, I think thumbing
his nose at our attempt to remove him from his
indoor pool and room service. After the biophysical
profile thing the doctor said that this failed
induction also served as an elaborate stress test
and he had come through with flying colours!
So, other than these inconveniences, I felt great!
I was walking, hiking, dancing, riding my bike
until just before I gave birth. I was huge, but
then again I'm pretty huge now and I'm not pregnant
:). I was eager to meet my baby, and felt enough
was enough, so I went in to be induced again at
45 weeks. Not a decision I would make now, but,
I've forgiven myself. Looking back, I was on the
verge of the birth process when I went in, there
was a bit of show so they didn't do the prostaglandin
gel on my cervix the night before, and I had some
very mild sensations. Why I didn't just leave
then I'll never know!
When they started the drip I started having
sensations immediately. I went from nothing too
4 in 5 minutes, no buildup time, no adjustment
time, no gentle peaks and valleys. Vice gripping,
excruciating agony. I dilated quickly, then pushed
(loudly) for 3 hours with no real progress.
I was more than ready for the epidural, which
made me one happy camper. I didn't realize until
about 4 years later that they usually do epidurals
in the bed, but I had been moved to the operating
room because (Duh!) they were getting ready for
the section.
When my hubbie came back in the room I was all
happy because finally the pain had stopped, he
was in a panic because he had heard two orderlies
talking in the elevator about how they had just
moved me in for a section. (Everyone knew who
I was because I was so loud, but they didn't realize
he was my partner). But, post-epidural I guess
things relaxed and shifted- and after the episiotomy,
out was yanked by vacuum and forceps my bouncing
baby boy. He was 9 pounds 15 ounces. Long fingernails,
a bit of vernix, and he'd swallowed some mec so
they stuck tubes down his throat and kept him
away from me for a few hours. But we were out
of there the next day, very happy to be home,
minorly shellshocked and relieved it was all over.
I really learned from this birth how one intervention
leads to another, how an unecessary section becomes
necessary when preceded by induction, epidural,
ruptured membranes etc. My epidural was one of
the best things that had ever happened to me at
that point, but had I been in natural, not pit,
labour it probably wouldn't have been an issue.
Also, if my son had been aloud to mosy around
into his prefered position instead of being squeezed
by wierd contractions, it would have gone differently.
In fact it did go differently in my home waterbirth
with my daughter, which assuming people are interested,
I will write about another day! -Jill
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