My Own Birth #3

It was the morning of October 2. We had another induction scheduled this morning for 6 am. This time I was 3 days overdue and my Dr was going on vacation. I had hoped to have had the baby before the induction date, but she just didn't want to come yet.

I called the hospital and they said not to come in yet because they were full, but to come in around 1 pm. So I went to Moms to drop off the boys. I helped her pick beets and I realized I was contracting! I continued to help her put up beets until it was time to leave.

We got the hospital at 1 and they immediately hooked me up and saw that I was indeed contracting every 4-5 minutes and they were lasting a good 60 seconds! How exciting! They still started pitocin at 3 pm as I hadn't progressed past 4 cm since I had come in. Since I was on pitocin they insisted on monitoring me constantly. My baby kept wiggling around and the monitor kept loosing her heart rate which would make alarms go off. Finally I asked them to please put on an internal monitor like I had for the boys so that I could at least move around. The contractions were coming on hard and strong by now and I desperately wanted to be able to walk, sway, move in any way I wanted to. This is what got me through the other 2 births so I knew it would help. They refused to allow me to have the internal monitor and insisted I lay on my back in bed!! I couldn't believe it....

Needless to say, laboring on your back is horrific and I ended up with an epidural around 7 pm. I just couldn't handle the pain while laying on my back. Things calmed down after the epidural. Mom arrived and she, Matt & I played games and watched reruns of the Andy Griffith Show and other old TV shows. Around 10:15 pm I felt pushy. I could feel pain in my pelvis on one side. I told the nurses that I thought the baby was ready to come, but they said "We have to wait for the Dr." An hour later he arrived and said I was right... it was time to push!

I started to push and she was born within 20 minutes. If I remember correctly it was only 4 pushes. My contractions always slow down when it comes time to push and they come about every 5 minutes at that point. Because of the epidural I could feel my daughter being born but couldn't feel the pain. It was the oddest sensation... I felt her body pass through mine, but had no pain with it. Again, i was able to reach down and pull her onto my chest immediately. I nursed her right away (something I hadn't done with the boys) and held her for hours before they took her away to weigh/measure her. I loved this special bonding time with her and cried tears of joy for being able to spend that time with my daughter.

This birth was amazing. Every ounce of natural childbirth advocate that I now have in me screams against this type of birth. There are SO many things that could have made this birth spiral in the wrong direction and end up with a cesarean. The pitocin, the epidural, the increased pitocin are all starters in that downward spiral to the operating room. None of that happened tho and I look back fondly at this birth... especially the moment of her birth.