My long HBAC story, with PIP

lostaspen · March 2012

My birth plan was to have a home birth at my friend Alexis's house. We would have loved to do it at our house, but we had to be within 30 minutes of a hospital, and our house is just outside that time limit. Thankfully Alexis and her husband were gracious enough to let us have a home birth at their house.

Saturday, March 10th, I started having regular contractions around 3:30pm. They were about 10 minutes apart, and didn't hurt at all. By 4:30 they were about 5 minutes apart, and a little stronger. By 7pm they were about 3 minutes apart, and we decided to go to Alexis's house. I also called my midwife, Barbara, to let her know. By the time we got there, the contractions had spaced out again, but within an hour or so they were back to being around 3 minutes apart, and last 45-60 seconds. All night they stayed at that level, and about 6am they spaced out to 10-15 minutes apart. All morning I tried to get them to be more regular (walking, bath, nipple stimulation, eating), but nothing really worked. About 9am I had called Barbara to tell her, and see if she had suggestions. I left her a message, and when she called back I didn't hear the phone and or the message she had left.

Mid-afternoon my mom came over, and we went out to eat. After going to eat, she took my son, Arden, to stay the night with her so we could focus on the labor and Arden could have a familiar place to sleep. My midwife called again and said to come see her at her office to be checked. I was only 2cm, but when she put some evening primrose oil on my cervix, and swept my membranes, I stretched to 4cm. She said baby's chin wasn't tucked, and that's probably why my labor had stalled. She told me to take two benedryls, a warm bath, and then get some good sleep. Then to do a heavy-footed backwards walk, to help get baby's chin to tuck.

I slept for about 2.5 hours, but still woke up for every contraction. I finally had to get up because they got too intense to stay laying in bed. I did the backwards walk for a little while, and ate a snack and before long the contractions were really intense and taking all my focus to get through, so we called Barbara to come. She was there before midnight, and soon afterwards her apprentices were there too.

I labored in the livingroom, mostly leaning over something, with my husband, Matt, rubbing my back, when I had a contraction. The midwives encouraged me to walk around, and to climb the stairs. Once my contractions seem to get really strong, they set up the birthing pool. It took quite a while to get enough hot water in it, so I wasn't able to get in until about 3am. By that time my contractions were coming pretty close together and were really intense, and I was starting to feel a fair amount of pressure with each one.

Once I got in the tub I was able to relax while leaning back on Matt and the contractions spaced out. It was a welcome rest. During one contraction my water broke with a popping sound, which shocked both of us.

By 3:30am the contractions were coming close together again, were very intense and the pressure was really uncomfortable. My midwife encouraged me to change positions, so I kneeled in the tub while leaning over the side. Then she had me feel for where the baby's head was. It was weird, but I felt the baby's head only an inch or so inside of me (I now think baby was about +3 station). I think it was about this time my body was pushing with each contraction, and before long the baby's head was crowning.

When I felt the baby's head at this point, I had no idea what I was feeling. My brain just couldn't wrap around all the different sensations. But I knew I was getting close, and started actively pushing a few times with contractions. A few pushes later and I felt "the ring fire", and a contraction or two later the head was out. Barbara had Matt check for the cord around the neck, and then she checked. I reached down to feel the head, and was upset that someone was moving the head around (which was uncomfortable). Then I realized it was the baby moving it's own head around! On the next contraction I pushed the rest of the body out, and Matt and one of the midwives caught the baby. I had an awkward time of turning around, but they handed the baby to me immediately, and I laid back to rest on Matt.

There was a lot more blood than usual, so Barbara had me get out of the tub and birth the placenta to be checked. I then laid back on the couch to rest and visit with and nurse the baby, which we finally confirmed to be a girl! They ended up giving me a shot of pitocin to help control the bleeding, and I had to get 3 stitches Baby girl was born at 3:49am, weighing 6 pounds, 10 ounces and was 21 3/4 inches long.

It was the most intense, crazy and amazing thing I have ever done. The recovery has been really good, I'm so glad not to be pregnant any more and not have major surgery to recover from! The whole labor and birth experience was like night and day compared to my induction and c/s experience.