Mission Natural Labor: Not So Possible... Olivia's Story

MaggitobeBrooks · August 2009

Well Olivia is now 11 weeks old, and I?m just posting my birth story, here it goes, I hope it helps some future moms out there!

I will start by saying that I had my heart SET on having natural labor, unfortunately that didn?t end up being the case.

Olivia was due on Mother?s Day (May 10), Mother?s Day came and went. I was scheduled for an induction on Wed., May 20 (assuming I didn?t go into labor before then). Of course I made it to May 20, and DH and I arrived at the hospital at around 9 for them to start me on Cytotek (same thing as Cervadil) in hopes that it would help me start dilating. (I should point out that I was 75% effaced with NO dilation). They monitored the baby and I for hours, and finally let me go back home at about 12:00 a.m.

On May 21, I went back to the hospital a 5 a.m. to start another round of Cytotek and check my progress, of which there was none ? no contractions, no dilation, nothing. At this point they decided to keep me, so I was moved to what would be my delivery room. Later that day they decided to start me on Pitocin to see if they could get some contractions going.

Within the hour, I start to feel little contractions, and DH and I got PSYCHED! Unfortunately, they checked me again after about 3 hours - still no dilation, but I had effaced a little more. Because of my lack of progress, they started upping my Pitocin, then the contractions started really coming! I will admit probably one of the worst things I have ever felt, but steady breathing really helped. So they checked me again, nothing? the frustration set in. At this point we were about to finish a full day of contractions with no progress, and I was writhing in pain and crying and it was awful. The contractions were coming back to back to back without much relief because of being induced. Finally, I said uncle and asked for an epidural. The thought of another day of that with no relief was unbearable. The Epi was GREAT ( a little rough going in, I?ll leave out those details so as not to scare ) but regardless, it was totally worth it.

Late on May 22, they decided to try a new method as I still had not dilated at all! They used a modified foley catheter which was inserted into my cervix. This was the miracle of all miracles, because they had start bring up the ?C? word, and I was getting really scared. The catheter worked like a dream. It helped me get dilated to about 5 cm and the Pitocin took it from there.

In the morning on May 23, the baby was at Station 0, I was approaching 9 cm and almost at full effacement. At about 12 p.m. I reached 9.5 cm, but still had a lip. The Dr. started talking c-section again, as they thought my labor had arrested. They put an internal monitor on the baby?s head and were preparing to put an internal contraction monitor in me. In the process of doing so, the Dr. looked up with a surprised expressions and asked if I?d just had a contraction, I said no, and she said ?well the lip just went away and you just reach 10 cm!? I started crying I was so happy, I couldn?t believe the time to meet my little girl was here.

At 1 p.m. I started pushing. I could feel her moving down (even with the Epi) but there was no pain. Thanks to the Epi I didn?t experience the infamous Ring of Fire when she crowned. At 1:59 p.m. Olivia Nicole came into this world and I started crying immediately at how beautiful she was!!! 6 lbs. 14 oz. and 19.5 in. long. Absolutely perfect! They later told me that the cord had been wrapped around her neck twice, but she was fine. She is the love of my life, and even though it was such an ordeal, I would definitely do it again for number to, because Olivia is such a blessing in our lives. Good luck mama?s to be!!!

P.S. Sorry so long!