as I spent that week in prelabor I read a lot of birth stories and enjoyed them, so I’m going to share mine.
Aiden decided not to wait for my t-shirt quilt. And in true ironic fashion my water broke about 1:30 Sunday morning. I didn’t want my water to break (did you know that it breaks before hard labor in only 10-17% of pregnancies). I didn’t want my water to break because I was afraid of going into the hospital before active labor. They don’t let you eat once you check into the hospital and so I’d been wanting to labor at home. But when your water breaks they want you there with in two hours.
So we show up to the hopital at 3 am. My contraction are regular, strong, and close together. The staff is quite good about my wishes though they obviously usally don’t get someone who insists on no iv (hep lock) and the ability to drink liquids. They check with my group’s on call dr and once he okayed those things i was good to go.
except that my body decided, well, let’s not actually have a baby today. (hence why I was checking my e-mail during labor, sarah) I really wanted to avoid pitocin (the synthetic hormone used to induce and agument labor). I had heard that it makes the contractions way more intense. and so in order to try to avoid the epidural I really wanted to avoid the piochen. The doctor was great about it. He let me walk another couple of hours (we walked from 3 am to noon) and then I finally accepted the fact that i was going to need help. It was way more important to avoid infection (once the amnotic sac is compromised, an infection certainly develops within 12-24 hours).
so at 12:30 I got the pitocin. My nurse was great and helped me into a number of different position to help with the ever increasing pain of contractions. Through out the whole time it was really frustrating to not be able to be checked to see the progress of dialtation due to the infrection risk. At 2:30 ( i think) i could not stand it anymore and asked for something to just take the edge off of the pain. The narcotic, i was told, would take away about half of the pain for 2 hours. I decided to do it as there was no way i was going to survive the next 5 cms and pushing (they estimate that one would dilate 1 cm/hr). They gave it to me and my body, not use to any drugs, started feeling really strange and I just passed out asleep.
45 minutes later, I hear, I woke up screaming that the narcotic was not working and that i must have an epidural. They check me again – 7 cm. They got the epidrual person and while they were trying to figure out if I really could sit still for the spinal tap (I could not, though insisted that i could) i felt the need to push. the ob resident did not believe me when i said that the baby was coming (normally for a first baby it is 3 hours of pushing). the nurse did. she check and felt the head right there. a bunch of activity commenced as they quickly broke down the bed as i pushed through 4 contractions (complaining about the OB resident between contractions as he was trying to help me not tear but it was hurting and i just wanted the minute of rest between the pain of the contractions. Aiden made his appearance at 3:48 beating the OB dr into the room (they call him at 7 cm and usually that gives them plenty of time).
I was totally out of it as I gazed in wonder at this child on my chest that had just been in my belly for 9 months. Ben cut the cord. I couldn’t really concentrate on breastfeeding (as my plan) as I was still complaining about the OB resident repairs that were going on (that’s what I get for all the fast pushing). But it was okay b/c at that point i was so tired that i passed for an hour while they washed the baby and did all the usual tests and shots and stuff with ben supervising.
They transfered us around the corner to mother and baby about an hour after i woke up. Aiden has taken nicely to breastfeeding, so really i have no regrets about my pain management decisions. I am very glad that i didn’t end up getting the epidural and am happy with my use of the other drugs. i do feel that it was due not just to the strength of the contractions, but more importantly the speed. Your body can release natural pain relievers in response to contractions if given enough time. So maybe next time I’ll do it without any drugs.
I am also really happy with my hospital choice. Everyone was really supportive of whatever decisions i wanted to make while also maintaining a focus on the health of me and the baby. They helped me maintain my focus on no epidural while also focusing on the fact that i did not want the baby to end up in nicu (which would have happened if i had gotten an infection).
