Natural Birth

Not-So-Natural Birth Story (Super Long but PIP!)

Sweet Michael arrived on 8/31 - 8 days before our due date! I

My water started leaking the night of 38 weeks 4 days. I wasn't sure that's what it was, so I decided to lay down and see what happened. A few hours later (now 38w 5d) I got up and sure enough, my water broke. With a positive GBS, I was admitted to the hospital right away despite the fact that labor hadn't started yet. The first midwife we saw was suggesting a round of misoprostal to soften the cervix and then perhaps a foley bulb before we went to pitocin. Sadly, her shift ended and the next midwife was very pro-pitocin. We did the miso for 4 hours, the first hour I was restricted to my bed with constant monitoring. Contractions finally started, but were weakening by the end of it. After the first hour I was able to get up and move around, but needed to keep telemetry monitoring on (which really only made it possible for me to go to the bathroom... not much else).

Around 1pm now, I was 2-3cm, -3 station and we started pitocin. I was still committed to a pain-med free birth, even if I couldn't avoid all of the interventions. After 4 hours of rocking through those contractions, I was checked again. Basically NO progress.

After 4 more hours of pitocin, I was starting to really feel like I was making progress. The contractions were stronger, I was feeling some serious pressure and I was starting to feel some pain, albeit tolerable pain. The new midwife (a much better one!) came in to check and sadly I was only 4-5cm and -2 station.

I was officially defeated. I went to the bathroom and just cried and cried. I had been feeling like we were getting close. My emotions were telling me I was transitioning. Everything seemed like I was progressing nicely on the pitocin. The midwife wanted to put on an internal monitor to see what was going on as she was also confused as to why I wasn't progressing. That's when I really hit rock bottom. She was so sweet and I totally understood why she wanted to use the internal monitor. But staying in bed during those contractions was killer.

I lasted another couple of hours but with back labor, I just couldn't hack it. That's when I started asking for pain meds. I decided not to be checked again before getting the epidural because I had no confidence that we had made much more progress.

I wasn't aware, but right when I was asking for it, both baby and I were borderline in distress. Getting the epidural was honestly the best thing I could have done for both of us. I was officially fighting the contractions and I needed something to help me relax. I wish there could have been something less intense than an epidural (besides stadol), but it is what it is.

After I got the epi, I slept for a few hours. They decided to put me on oxygen and an internal monitor on baby's head as his heart rate was taking a little longer to go down than mine was. By 3am (38w 6d), I was feeling ready to push. They checked me, I was 10cm and ready to go.

Around 4am we started pushing and sweet baby Michael was born within the hour! He was 6lbs 8oz and 19in. He had a couple little scratches from the monitor, but nothing serious.

So if you made it this far, I give you this:

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At the end of the day, I had over 10 hours of pitocin contractions with no pain meds, and honestly, I feel like superwoman for that. It took me a while to think about the labor without crying (that one midwife really made me miserable during it) but thankfully the delivery was still beautiful, my husband was amazing, the midwife who delivered the baby was my hero and my baby is very happy, very healthy and downright adorable (biased I know).

Here's to next time - hoping I can go natural then!

Re: Not-So-Natural Birth Story (Super Long but PIP!)

  • Congratulations! He's adorable!  I was determined to go natural and ended up having to have an epidural, too.  I had been in labor for 44 hrs and didn't have the energy to push, so they gave it to me so I could sleep.  It sounds like you rocked it out the best you could under the circumstances and then made the right decision to get the epi.  Here's to both of us going natural the next time! My midwife promises that the second one is way easier Big Smile
  • Congratulations!!
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  • Congratulations super mom!
  • He's super cute and I'm glad you're happy now.

    Just out of curiosity (and maybe something to ask at the 6-week check-up), but why couldn't you just get a round of antibiotics and leave and go walk around/hike/work on starting labor at home for awhile?  Why the jump to interventions right after your water broke?

    Both my sister and I were GBS+ and had our water break first with our first kids and our hospital midwife groups go that route, so I was just curious. 

    Two boys already - ages 5 and 3...

    ...baby #3 is here...

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  • imageRockyMtnMama:

    He's super cute and I'm glad you're happy now.

    Just out of curiosity (and maybe something to ask at the 6-week check-up), but why couldn't you just get a round of antibiotics and leave and go walk around/hike/work on starting labor at home for awhile?  Why the jump to interventions right after your water broke?

    Both my sister and I were GBS+ and had our water break first with our first kids and our hospital midwife groups go that route, so I was just curious. 

    I think it was because my water started breaking at 11pm and by the time I was admitted to L&D it was 7am and there was no sign of labor at all. They wanted to have labor started by the 12 hour mark. Since my cervix hadn't even started to soften, they wanted to get the miso started quickly. I was really bummed they didn't give me a chance to labor on my own. It upset me for a while, but then I realized that honestly, I don't think it would have started on its own within a few hours anyway.

    Also, that midwife was SUPER aggressive. She was so not midwife-ly (if that makes sense at all). The two other midwives I saw (the one at the very beginning in triage and the one at the second half who delivered) would have been a little more forgiving.

    ETA: Also, if anything, it means next time I will have a statement in my birth plan about my water breaking with no labor. I cut it out because they usually give you plenty of time to labor, but the GBS+ threw me off and as I was early I didn't get a chance to update my plan!

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