My augmented pain-med free hospital birth

funsies · October 2012

I want to start by saying I didn't have a choice of where to give birth or who my Ob would be, nor did I have access to a midwife. I say that to encourage anyone who finds themselves in less than ideal circumstances due to insurance or geographical limitations. In my case, I live overseas on a small military base and, well, you get what you get.

So, my water broke at 6pm on Oct. 8th and DH and I finished dinner and headed to the hospital to confirm the leaking was indeed AF. I was 10 days overdue with an impending induction date at 42 weeks so I was relieved when the AF test was positive. I was disappointed though that I couldn't be released from the hospital at that point and had to labor there since I had planned to stay home as long as possible.

I had a hep lock (took them 4 tries to get it in, grr) and although they allowed intermittent fetal monitoring it was every 15 minutes which ended up being more intrusive than if I just kept the damn monitor on all the time.

I wish I had tried to sleep before the contractions got too intense but was too excited that it was all finally happening.

I was only once cm dilated and 50% effaced at that point and my Ob wanted to start me on pit right away since contractions were weak and irregular. DH and I bargained with him and held off on the pit for 6 hours. I only progressed 1 cm in that time.

When they started the pit I could still get out of bed but had to be on the monitors constantly and of course had an IV so I had about a 3 foot radius to walk around. I never thought to get an epidural when they started the pit even though the Ob and anesthesiologist were both encouraging me to do so, convinced I wouldn't be able to handle the intensity of the contractions. My DH and nurse, however were an awesome support system the entire time and never once asked me if I wanted to get an epi. They encouraged me the entire time and told me I was doing great. I honestly never felt like I couldn't handle it.

I hit transition 16 hours in (although I didn't ever look at the clock so I had no idea how long I had been in labor at that point) and the Ob broke my last bag of waters. Even right before he did it he was warning me that the contractions would get more intense and did I really want him to do it. Of course dude, get this baby out of me! Not sure what his logic was on that one.

Anyways, he thought it would be another hour or two before I could push since I was at 7 cm but I was sure it would be sooner. Sure enough, about 20 minutes later I knew I was ready, the nurse checked me, and DH coached me through the first couple of pushes since I was not going to wait around for the Ob to get back. I pushed for an hour. People always ask if transition or pushing is worse. I think they're just different. I was happy to push during contractions because it felt like I was doing something and it temporarily relieved the insane pressure I was feeling. What sucked was the waiting in between contractions.

So, 18 hours after my water broke, my 10 pound baby girl was born! No one expected her to be that big (weight estimate was 8-8.5 pounds). I had a third degree tear and felt like the repair was the worst part of labor since the lidocaine only worked half the time and i felt like it distracted me from bonding.

But, I did it! /no epi and I had a great recovery and most importantly a beautiful healthy baby.