Emergency C/S Story
As I'm writing our birth story I'm still wrapping my head around how crazy the whole experience was! My first son's birth was so calm and relaxed - this one, not so much. I was induced just after 39 weeks for a rotated pelvis, a condition that threatens to snap my pelvis if the baby is too big. It also causes me extreme pain during the end of the pregnancy. Little did I know that my pelvic issues would pale in comparison to how our delivery went!
I went in on a Tuesday morning at 8am and was a stretchy 3cm, effaced and starting to contract on my own. My midwife broke my water and started pitocin pretty confident that we would be delivering later that evening if all went well. Pretty quickly the contractions became consistent and more intense. I was feeling pretty good for the first couple hours and was hoping to get pretty far without pain meds.
Around 10am the monitor wasn't picking up LO's heart rate and our nurse came in to try and pick it back up. She was searching for a long time in my lower abdomen and finally decided to try up higher. She finally found it above my belly button! Immediately she called my midwife and requested an ultrasound to make sure LO hadn't flipped. Ultrasound came in and found that he was still head down...that was about all they told me. However, the u/s tech started to take lots of pics. Both DH and I thought that was odd, but were so relieved LO was head down that we let it go.
About 45 minutes later my nurse ended up changing to a different area, so we started checking in with a different nurse. She informed me that if I wanted an epidural I needed to give her half an hour notice so she can push IV fluids. At this point I was willing to wait, so I called my Mom to let her know how we were progressing. A couple minutes later our original nurse came in and lowered my bed. She informed me I was not to move or get up for anything. I got off the phone quickly and started to get very concerned. All of a sudden the contractions picked up and I couldn't take much more. I called for the nurse and this is where things went crazy.
The nurse asked if anyone had explained what was going and why I couldn't have an epidural. She explained that the u/s showed that LO's cord was between his head and my cervix and we were 99% headed for a c/s. They started to prep me for surgery while waiting for my midwife to call back. DH changed in to scrubs and within 10 minutes we were ready to go. My midwife called back and wanted me to get on all 4's in an attempt to float the cord back up and out of the way. While doing so LO's heart rate started to drop with each contraction and they stopped me from moving around again. This is where the contractions became unbearable and all I remember I crying uncontollably.
Finally my midwife came in and did an internal. Immediately she called for anesthesia. We had a prolapsed cord and were almost delivering it, The next 20 minutes were a blur. I was informed not to move, wheeled back to the OR and had a spinal tap started. Less than 10 minutes later Nathan Ryan was born 8lbs 9oz and 20 1/4 inches. Only the next day did my OB tell me how rare and serious our situation was. We were so blessed to have such an amazing medical team and a now a beautiful, healthy son.
It wasn't at all how we imaged it, but now that everything is said and done I couldn't be happier!
Re: Emergency C/S Story