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VBAC
s/o laboring at home/doppler - warning, paranoia
I have never been in labor - I have absolutely no idea what kind of pain a contraction will involve for me (and of course, even if I had, every labor is different). Like Reese said in her post, I know that fetal HR is one way of early detection of rupture, and I've also heard that there can be some intense pain felt by the mother. However, because I have no idea what labor will be like, I'm terrified that if I am laboring at home, as the contractions pick up intensity, I'm going to start freaking out and wondering if it's not a sign of something that is wrong (keeping in mind that I'm imagining my emotional and mental stability won't be quite as even keel as it is now). I worry I'm going to get paranoid and run to the hospital when I'm 3 cm and have hours and hours to go. Then, of course, I'll be strapped to monitors for the most part. *sigh*
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Re: s/o laboring at home/doppler - warning, paranoia
Hey, maybe you'll have back labor
But seriously, I know what you mean. I had almost all my pain in my back because of my baby's position, and then I got an epidural at 4 cm. So I have no idea what a normal, non-Pit labor will feel like once things really get going. I'm hoping it's one of those things that would feel radically different from the contractions and that you would just know something was not right.
To be honest with you, the thought of my uterus rupturing never even crossed my mind until I was actually at the hospital. My contractions never got painful enough to deem going to the hospital while at home, but my husband and I were paranoid because they started at 5 minutes apart at 2am and by 8am, they were 2-3 minutes apart. I made the mistake of calling L&D and they told me to come in, regardless of my doctors suggestion to stay home as long as possible(I'm pretty sure any time you call L&D they tell you to come in due to liability) and when I got there I was only 2cm dilated. By that point though, the contractions had gotten INTENSE so I'm glad I went when we did because I got the epi, and was in a much better state of mind. While I did get hung up around 5cm, I was to a 10 by 5:00pm. I was terrified of going to early/getting the epi and ending up with a CS but in the end, I'm glad I went when I did. The pain of labor is just too much for me to take unmedicated. I've been in labor twice and it's incredibly painful for me - I could not imagine a stronger pain in the world, so I don't have a clue how I would have discerned uterine rupture.
I didn't have back labor or pain in the back with contractions of any sort. All of my contractions with both labors were concentrated to the front, and I did note extra intensity in the general area of the CS scar, but it could have just been a coindcidence.
I understand your concern though - my doctor suggested that when I thought I was in labor to come to his office and he would check me and tell me whether he thought I should go home or head to L&D. I went ahead on in to the hospital despite my plan of seeing him first though. Is this an option for you? That way your doctor could check and make sure your uterus was OK and if you needed to be admitted for active labor. Note: I would only do this if I trusted my doctor 100% - it's likely if he/she is not totally on board that they would send you prematurely to the hospital b/c of concern for liability
Interesting thought - is there really any indication of how a scar is holding up though, until it fails? With my GBS status, however, I don't know if I'd actually get to the doctor's before she'd tell me to go in (although even in that, she hasn't tried any scare tactics to get me to go in super early).