Birth Stories

Birth center birth turned emergency postpartum transfer

My son was born 09/27/2010, 11 days after his due date at a free standing birth center. The natural, med-free birth was truly a wonderful experience and although it had a scary ending, I would not change my decision to deliver outside a hospital. 

The birth of my daughter was the typical hospital birth with an epidural, pitocin for not progressing fast enough, and amniotomy at 9.5 cm.  Although I consented to all these interventions at the time, when I learned I was pregnant again I knew I wanted a completely different birth experience.  I originally started my prenatal care with a group of OB's that supposedly supported natural birth.  I read several natural birth books, including:  Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, Pushed by Jennifer Block, Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon, The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henri Goer, and Birthing from Within by Pam England.  Around the 25 week mark I convinced my husband that it would be a good idea to hire a doula.  Although I really wanted a natural birth part of me was scared that I wouldn?t be able to take the pain and would end up getting the epidural anyway.  At 29 weeks I bite the bullet, and made by natural birth dream a very real reality by switching my care to midwives and a free standing birth center.

My daughter was born at 41 weeks and I religiously thought that my 2nd would come sooner.  Needless to say, when my 41 week appointment came and went and I had been having contractions for weeks, I was getting a little frustrated.  I know that babies come when they are ready, but tried many of the old wives tales nonetheless.  At 41w1d I was 3 cm dilated and about 50% effaced. Under the guidance of the midwives, I started a round of Cottonroot Bark which helps stimulate the body?s oxytoxin receptors.  Generally the Cottonroot Bark is followed by castor oil, but I really didn?t want to take castor oil if I could help it.  I woke up that night with menstrual type cramps every 10 minutes which unfortunately went away after a few hours.  I also started to lose my mucous plug at this point. 

At 41w3d I started the 2nd day of the Cottonroot Bark at around noon and the hubs and I had sexy time.  This combination seemed to be what my body needed to get going.  We sent our daughter to the grandparents for the night because I was either going into labor or was going to take the castor oil if things didn?t pick.  The contractions started about 5:30 and I used nipple stimulation to help keep them going.  We just hung out for the next few hours eating take out and I leisurely finished a book I had been reading for a few days.  At 9:00 we decided to take a walk to see if it would help the contractions progress.  I only had two contractions during the 45 minute walk, but they drastically picked up speed and were about 6 minutes apart when we returned home.  I also started having some bloody show about this time.  I called my doula to give her an update and she recommended I try to get some rest since the contractions weren?t that strong yet.   

I drifted in and out of sleep from about 11:00 ? 3:00 and woke up to drastically more painful contractions.  I stayed in bed for awhile working through the contractions by my husband rubbing my lower back and counting upwards to about 40 to get to the end of the contraction.  At 3:30 I decided to get up and time the contractions.  They were about 6 minutes apart and were getting harder to work through.  The birth center asks 2nd+ time moms to call the midwife and head in when contractions follow the 6-1-1 rule.  At 4:30 the contractions jumped to 4 minutes apart, so I shook my husband awake and told him we really needed to start thinking about heading to the birth center.  We called the on-call midwife and started getting last minute things packed and ready to go.  I also called my doula again and asked her to meet us at the birth center.

The drive to the birth center is about 20 minutes and we arrived about 6:00.  I had 4 or 5 contractions in the car, but I don?t remember them being overly bad.  I was able to get the biggest room at the birth center, which surprised me since a baby had been born at 4:00 that morning and there was another laboring woman also heading in the same time we were.  Busy day!  The midwife let me get unpacked and settled in before coming in check me and chat a bit.  I was 6 cm dilated, 90% effaced and baby was already at +1 station.  I decided to wait awhile to get in the tub since I really wanted to use it for transition, so we went and walked around outside until my doula arrived at around 7:00. 

At this point I was feeling tired, so I labored on my side in bed for a few hours dozing off between contractions.  This position kicked the contractions up another notch and I had to start vocalizing to get through them.  They were also about 3 minutes apart at this point.  Around 9:00 I decided to get in the tub.  Heaven!  The warm water really took the edge off the contractions and I was able to joke and hold coherent conversations between contractions.  We hung out listening to Lady Gaga and Black-Eyed Peas.  The midwife joked that I had the fun music. I labored in the tub for close to four hours in a semi squat position.  I thought transition would be fast, but I never had any of the tell-tale signs that I was ever in transition.  The contractions definitely picked up in intensity and I had to vocalize through all of them.  My guess is that they were 2 minutes apart and lasting 60 ? 90 seconds.  The midwife offered to break my water to speed things up, but I declined since I really wanted nature to take its course. My husband was a trooper and rubbed my shoulders through every one of my contractions, and my doula held my hands and constantly reminded me to keep my voice low and my face soft.  The midwife and student midwife kept telling me how in control I was.  I didn?t believe them at the time, but looking back it was a huge confidence boost.

I was checked again about 12:30 and was found to be 9.5 cm with just a tiny lip of cervix, and baby was at the +3 station.  I was told I could go ahead and push to get the last bit of cervix gone, but I had no desire to push and it hurt badly if I tried.  At this point I started thinking I couldn?t do this any longer and I just wanted the baby out now.  Thankfully, part of my brain was being was being rational and I hung on through a few more contractions.  I finally asked to have my water broken because I was ready to be done.  The urge to push and bear down hit about 1:10 and it literally made me jump a little.  What a strange feeling, and so much different than pushing with an epidural.  After being reminded that I had to push through the burning I was able to start effectively pushing through the next 4 or 5 contractions before experiencing the ring of fire.  By this point the contractions had spaced way out and the most uncomfortable feeling was the stretching of my perineum while waited for the next contraction to start.  After bearing down through one last contraction I was able to deliver my son?s head and shoulders during a few more pushes.  Jude Martin was born in the water at 1:31 PM on 09/27/2010.  Hearing him cry was the absolute best sound in the world and he received 9 and 10 on his apgars, which is pretty unheard of for a Colorado baby.  Everyone kept commenting how big he was and the midwife guessed he might be close to a 10 lb baby.

By law we had to stay at the birth center for at least 4 hours following the birth.  During that time I delivered the placenta, was checked for tears (I had none!), breastfed, ate, spent time getting to know my new little man, and taking my postpartum herbal bath.  The midwife did the newborn assessment, and Jude weighed in at 8 lbs 14.5 oz, was 20 ?? long, and had 13.5? head.  He was a whole pound and half heavier than his big sister, but his head was a half inch smaller.  About three hours postpartum we started talking about the last few things that had to be done before we could go home.  I got up to use the bathroom and felt light headed.  This is where it got scary.  I felt nauseous; dry heaved into a bucket and felt a bunch of blood gushing out of my uterus.  My doula was getting ready to leave, but instead had to rush out to find the nurse and midwife.

From this point forward things got a bit blurry, but I know my blood pressure plummeted and for some reason my uterus would not clamp down to try and stop the bleeding.  I was given two IV?s, a shot of pitocin, a shot of methergen, and a dose of cytotec given rectally (ouch!) to try and get the bleeding to stop.   I had someone constantly massaging my uterus since that was the only way to keep me from gushing blood.  Since my uterus refused to clamp down it was decided that I would be an emergency transport to the hospital half a block away.  I was rushed via ambulance up the street and whisked upstairs to L&D to an awaiting OB surgical team.  They did a quick ultrasound and it was found I had blood clots and possibly some retained placenta or amniotic sac in the upper portion of my uterus.  The OB recommended an emergency D&C and if the bleeding wouldn?t stop worst case scenario would be a hysterectomy.  I signed a consent form and was whisked back to the operating room where I had to have general anesthesia since I had eaten only a few hours earlier. 

I woke up in recovery very drowsy, but luckily the D&C had been a success and stopped the bleeding.  My husband said I had only been in surgery for about 30 minutes.  I obviously had to stay in the hospital overnight and my hemocrit was low enough I was given two units of blood.  Overall, it was thought I had lost somewhere between 2 and 2.5L of blood.  My wonderful doula brought Jude over from the birth center and waited to make sure I was OK.  The birth center sent over some banked breast milk, but I was able to breastfeed starting at about four hours after I came out of surgery.  We were discharged from the hospital about 4:00 the next afternoon.  Recovery hasn?t been too terrible, I just need to remember to take it slow and not push myself.  At 10 days postpartum I feel pretty much back to normal.

In spite of the emergency transport and surgery I do not regret not having a hospital birth at all.  Being able to experience a natural, med-free birth was amazing.  No, I didn?t get a gold star for it, but I am truly awed at what my body can do and what I accomplished.  Having the right mind set is definitely the key to being able to go med free.  Feeling empowered, keeping a light mood, focusing on one contraction at a time, and knowing that there was an end is what got me through.  I would also highly recommend a doula!

 

Mom to Adelyn 02.08 and Jude 09.10

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