Natural Birth
whitney1170
member
If you planned a NB, but it didn't happen...
whitney1170
member
Would you mind telling me why?
I watched The Business of Being Born and am now more confused than ever. The most intruiging part is at hospitals especially, the spiral of events that sometimes aren't necessary and lead to a non-natural birth (meaning use of meds/epi/c-section).
Do you feel that your birth was a spiral of unecessary events or was there a medical reason?
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Re: If you planned a NB, but it didn't happen...
It is so hard to be sure. In my case, I was in labor for a loooong time. After laboring at home for 2 days and 2 nights, my water broke. I was GBS+, so it was hospital time at that point. When I checked in at the hospital (around 5pm that day) I was 5 cm, and they were totally supportive of me going for a natural birth. Unfortunately, by the next morning I was still only at 7cm and had had a really long night of extremely painful contractions. My membranes had been ruptured since 1pm the previous day. I did feel somewhat pressured by the doctor to get the epi and pitocin, but in retrospect I think it made sense and they were really doing everything they could to help me avoid a C-section. I was able to nap a little with the epi and rest up for pushing, and they turned it down when I was getting close to 10 cm so I could feel what I was doing during pushing (which only took a few real pushes). I had minimal tearing and was up on my feet with support within an hour after delivery, without support shortly thereafter. I'm not sure I can really say they should have done anything differently.
ETA: None of the things I feared about an epi/pitocin happened. Labor did not slow down, DD did not suffer any distress, she was alert and looking around at birth and nursed well right away, and as I mentioned I was able to push effectively and get up right away. That probably affects how I feel about things in retrospect.
Go hang out on the birth stories board. There are quite a few stories that sound eerily similar.
Also read "Pushed" by Jennifer Block. I think that will answer more of your questions.
In my case there was a medical reason.
I had planned a natural birth in a birth center with midwives. I had a healthy and relatively uneventful pregnancy other than a few first tri bleeding episodes. I took my Bradley class, exercised, ate well, slept well, had lots of sex, basically did everything I was supposed to do. I was due November 12. I had 10 days of prodromal labor between November 12 and November 22. The last three I did not sleep at all. On the third day (November 22) I called my MW in tears because I had not slept in three days. I'd have very intense contractions while lying down (hence no sleep), but as soon as I would get up they'd pretty much stop.
They told me to come in to the birth center. I was 2 CM dilated. They did a BPP considering I was 10 days late at this point. (Three days before I had a perfect BPP). They couldn't get the readings they wanted at the birth center so they sent me to the hospital to be monitored. Fluid was low and I was very hydrated. The nurse even came running out of the bathroom with my urine sample so excited because she said they never get such clear urine samples from pregnant women! LOL!
Since DD didn't pass the BPP I was admitted. I did get some lunch before I was admitted since it was 1 PM and I had not eaten since breakfast. My doula came and we spent a lot of time walking around. I had intermittent monitoring on the birth ball. I was not stuck in bed. Labored pretty well for about 7 hours in the hospital. I had one cervix check during that time when I am pretty sure my membranes were stripped by the MW. Not pleasant!
During the last session of monitoring DD started having sharp decelerations. The MW checked me and I was still only 4 CM. She asked if I wanted my water broken. I said that I wouldn't do that since my contractions were still not painful and if DD wasn't handling first stage labor well, she certainly wouldn't handle more powerful contractions any better. The same went for pitocin. Just didn't make sense considering the circumstances, so we opted for a c-section. I cried and cried. I was very disoriented.
Between that decision and DD's birth was about 30 minutes. She had the cord wrapped twice around her neck and was basically swimming in meconium. She was definitely in distress. Best guess was she was not engaged in my pelvis against my cervix due to being badly positioned and the cord holding her up. However, on the outside she was perfect. 9/9 on her apgars and screaming like a banshee.
My MWs said even if I'd not had the BPP and ended up in the hospital to start, they'd have carted me off to the hospital due to the decels. My Bradley teacher said I was her most prepared student. Things just happen sometimes. I had no active interventions other than the membrane stripping until the c/s-no drugs of any kind until my spinal right before they cut me. The only spiral resulted from the knowledge of DD's distress which I am grateful for!
Anyway, BFing has gone great, I have learned to love my c/s scar because I had a epiphany one day that DD actually came out of there!! It's all good. In the rare event we decide to have more children I'll still go for a VBAC. MWs said I am a good candidate at this point. I doubt we will have more, but that's good information to know anyway!
ETA: Whew that was long! Sorry!
My first birth I didn't plan well for a natural birth...just hold off on drugs as long as possible.
I was induced at 39w2d because I had GD and doctor scared me thinking baby would be huge. I was completely diet controlled without any major weight gain though I was overweight when I got pregnant.
We went in at 12am Wednesday for the nurse to insert cervadil. Checked around 8am to find it had slipped out. Started Pitocin soon after that. Broke my water around 1pm. Contractions did not start on their own so Pitocin was kicked up that afternoon. Not much progress. Around 7pm I was exhausted and worried that I wouldn't make it the night without something. Got the epi and at 11pm doctor mentioned c-section because I still had no "real" progress. I was terrified and got tough love from my sister. Told him NO. They cut pitocin off for an hour then restarted. I was ready to push around 7am when doctor came by.
DS1 was born at 8:22am and was a healthy 7 lb 14 oz.
There was nothing medical about the doctor wanting a c-section. Baby and I were doing great. I just wasn't progressing at the 1cm per hour they want to see.
Spiral of unecessary events for the most part.
My water broke but labor didn't pick up fast enough for them. I wanted to go med free, so they "let" me labor on my own for a whopping 4 hours, then started pitocin. They did turn it up slower than normal which helped, but 16 hours later, I was so tired from the constant contractions and feeling like I was getting nowhere, I got the epi...30 minutes later she was out. Thankfully, it didn't kick in fully and I still got to feel her be born (ring of fire and all), but the epi did help with the pitocin contractions.
I know there's a risk of infection from the vaginal exams once your water breaks, so I probably did need SOME labor augmentation, but I wish I would've focused on more natural methods or had them turn the pitocin down once labor picked up.
For all three of my births, I planned for med-free and the least amount of intervention possible. My hospital also is very "hands off" as well.
#1: med-free, vacuum delivery, episiotomy, and antibiotic drip. Reasons: I was GBS+, which was why I had an IV. I pushed for 2.5hours before I requested assistance. She wasn't coming and after every push down, she "sucked" back up. I was pushing primarily in the squatting position or sitting up. I was becoming incredibly exhausted and felt as though I couldn't do it anymore. The episiotomy happened because my Dr. is awesome and did it to prevent a massive tear because I was very tight. Those are a last resort for him and he does not do them routinely.
#2: An epidural and antibiotic IV were my interventions. This time, I went to the hospital because I felt the urge to push and felt ready to push. I get there, get checked, and discover that I was only 3 cm dilated. ugg. By that time, I had already been labouring for quite a while and the contractions were ridiculously strong (compared to my first) and I was already becoming overly exhausted from labouring (I was/am a fit person and exercised a lot), so I requested an epidural. It wasn't very strong and I could still feel everything. It took the edge off, which allowed me to breathe through the contractions. I ended up pushing for 30 minutes and only had a tiny tear this time.
#3: I barely made it to the hospital in time to push him out. There were absolutely no interventions.
I do not feel that any of my births were a spiral of unnecessary events at all. I'm sure it would be easy for onlookers to critique my choice of an epidural for my 2nd as unnecessary, but I don't think it was. As for my 1st, the interventions I had were completely necessary.
This is extremely long. I apologize. I've done a ton of reading, researching, and reflecting since the birth of DS. I was very disappointed with how it turned out.
My water broke at 37w3d. I never thought in a million years that that would happen to me. I was mentally prepared to go overdue. I was sure that I wouldn't be one of those few women whose water broke first.
My water broke at 5 am. DH and I were only comfortable waiting for a few hours prior to going in. I would make a different decision next time. I think I would wait 12-ish hours (assuming fluid was clear, I was full term, and I was GBS-) and do everything to make contractions start in the meantime.
We went in at 9 am. I hadn't had a single contraction. My first BP reading freaked them out (160/100). However, it came down to 140/90 in subsequent readings. It stayed there throughout my labor. Still high, but not nearly so bad. I was then told that they needed to do lab work for pre-eclampsia. I was then told that several of my labs were elevated. I didn't ask to look at the specific results. I would change that next time. Later, I ordered copies of my medical records and found out that I only had a couple of things that were a tiny bit elevated, and it is normal for those particular values to be elevated in normal, healthy pregnancy. Basically, I was lied to. I think they just weren't comfortable with my being in the hospital associated birthing center. I don't know why because epidurals and a surgical suite were available in the building should my situation have become an emergency. I was transported across the street to the "real" hospital and told to stay in bed.
Now I was trapped in bed. Still no contractions. Pit was started around 1 pm. I may have ended up needed pit anyway, but I wish I would have been able to walk and try nipple stimulation first. If I had stayed home, I would have been able to do these things. I was told that they would increase the pit very slowly and would be able to turn it down or possibly turn it off once regular contractions were established. This was lie #2.
A resident discovered I had a second bag of water during an exam at 4 pm. I was caught off guard when she said she'd like to break it. I'm not sure what decision I would make next time, but I would definitely ask for a few minutes in private to discuss the issue. Instead, I agreed. My contractions picked up significantly after that. Almost instantly, I went from noticeable contractions that I was able to talk through to very intense contractions with zero break in between. Despite this, they continued to turn up the pit (whatever happened to maintaining or turning the rate down once I had regular contractions?). They never once informed me that they were turning up the pit. They just did it. DH told me later that several times he noticed what they were doing and asked them not to adjust the rate and come back later. Next time, I will ask that I or DH be verbally informed prior to any adjustment of any medication. I will also only consent to smaller, less frequent increases in pitocin, and only up to a certain point.
At 6:15 I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't catch my breath. I was stuck in bed and unable to cope. I asked for the epidural. I was informed that the woman next door had just asked for one a few minutes before, so I was second in line. I almost burst into tears. Once the nurse left, I begged DH to get them to turn down the pit. Once we made the request, they begrudgingly abliged. Later I found out that I was on an insanely high rate of pit.
I received the epidural a little after 7. I'm not sure whether it was because the pit was turned down resulting in finally having breaks in between contractions or because I had the epidural, but I dilated quickly after that. I went from 6 to 10 cm in about 30 minutes. Luckily, my epidural was not that strong and I still felt the urge to push. I was also able to move my legs.
I pushed about 30 minutes. After DS's head emerged, everyone shouted at me to keep pushing. I did, even though I was not having a contractions. I later found out that it is perfectly safe (assuming the baby is ok) to wait for another contraction to push the baby's body out. DH said it was this last push when I tore. It was a 2nd degree tear, and I had problems with it for almost 6 months until I had some tissue burned off with silver nitrate. Next time, I will make sure that my provider knows not to shout at me to push.
I am not sure if I will birth in the hospital next time. If I do, I will definitely be using a different provider. I have learned the name of a natural friendly OB, and I think I will meet with him first. If I'm not comfortable with him after the first few visits, I may indeed switch to a homebirth. Either way, I will definitely be hiring a doula. I will also having some information that I will likely forget in the middle of labor (e.g. pit dosing, normal lab values in pregnant women) written down to take to the hospital with me for DH's and my reference. I will also fight tooth and nail out of being transferred from the birth center to the hospital. I found that the nurses there were much more helpful and accomodating that the ones in the hospital.
I ended up choosing a medically beneficial epidural at 55 hours into labor. LO was OP and stuck and he started not tolerating labor in a reassuring way. At over 2 days into labor, a cs was becoming a real possibility for his health and because my strength was simply giving out. The epidural facilitated some more natural ways of moving him and relaxed my pelvis enough that he eventually descended. I ended up delivering LO vaginally--to the shock of the doctor on call. He was born OP/transverse with a hand by his head. I had a third degree tear plus partial. His first APGAR was a 2, but he quickly went up to a 9.
The long labor--63 hours--paired with my already traumatized body from extreme pubis symphysis separation that started at 24w into my PG actually did long term damage to my body that I am am still (6 months post partum) in weekly medical care for and I am in daily, often non-stop pain in my pelvis and lower back. Even now, no one is sure that I will fully recover. Also, I recall very little from the first 2 weeks of LO's life because of exhaustion and, honestly I think I had some PTSD. Because of the back labor and my pelvis issue, it was like being tortured non-stop for those 55 hours before the epidural, and I am no lightweight when it comes to pain tolerance.
It was so, so hard for me to process that I got an epidural, but I understand fully now that it had a genuine medical benefit for me and was the path to a still relatively low-intervention birth given what I faced. Unfortunately, for me--it actually may have been better to chose an intervention earlier because my body may have been less damaged. But, my case of pelvic separation is very rare in its degree.
I did many of the "right" things--Bradley classes, two doulas, supportive DH, minimal internals, solid relaxation skills, staying nourished during labor, laboring in water, walking in labor, spinning babies techniques, going home after a day in the hospital rather than getting pit and laboring 8 more hours at home before returning, allowing my water break naturally (twice, as I had a forebag), etc.
Had I been under the care of a MW for my whole PG, maybe I would've been encouraged to chiro care during PG to help with the extreme pelvic separation (which I now know is associated with mispositioning) and maybe we would've realized sooner that LO was transverse and actually pushing apart my body and then it would've been possibly helpful to know that LO was OP after the version so we could've done more moxibustion, etc.. But, that is more care decisions rather than birth decisions. In terms of actual hospital stuff, doing the monitoring every hour meant I had to move out of the water and that used up some of my emotional and physical reservoir.
All in all, it came down to the rare nuances of my body. I remain a firm believer in low-intervention births and that they are very possible for the majority of women.
More Green For Less Green
More Green For Less Green
With DS1, I was flagged for having low amniotic fluid and being past 40 weeks, so I had a few non-stress tests for that. When I called my the hospital to let them know I was in early labor, they suckered us into coming in by telling me we could go home after a non-stress test. After the test, even though I was barely 2cm and DS1 wasn't showing a huge deal of stress, they bullied us into staying.
Long story short, I labored from early afternoon until midnight, and thenpushed for 4+ hours, and only then was it discovered my son was OP. The only option left at that point was a c-section, as he wasn't in a good position for the vacuum.
He was in a sh!tty position, but I think being stuck in the hospital to labor didn't help anything, as I was hungry and beyond exhausted for a lot of it. I had one student MW palpate me, but no one checked for positioning. I didn't have anything to eat except for some bananas and a sandwich from home. We had taken classes, hired a doula...I dunno, all I can say is that providers are really good at manipulating pregnant women, even if it's not coming from a malevolent place. Who knows if things would have ended differently with him if someone had actually paid attention to his position, or if I was able to labor at home longer, but things really weren't helped by me being there.
FWIW, I had a completely med-free VBAC with DS2 this past fall. I showed up at the hospital pushing, which I had hoped to do. He was 10.5 lbs - a full 2.5 lbs bigger than my first.
I agree with MsGreeko - read Pushed. The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth is a good resource about what sort of interventions to expect in the hospital. And the blog Birth Sense has lots of good posts, too.
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
I planned a NB with the twins.
It was going fairly well, even though I had PPROM at 33w3d. Labor started picking up ~24 hours after rupture (I was on ABX as they were hoping I would not go into labor on my own for a few more days). We were asked to consider having an epidural placed, but not dosed (or dosed extremely low) in case of an emergency once labor got into full swing. We never even got to the point where this would have been done.
Dinner was at 5, and I was still having minor contractions 5-10 minutes apart. Then at ~7... everything changed to about 2 minutes apart, lasting about a minute - and we were starting to use our Bradley relaxation techniques to get through them. I got up to use the bathroom and while I was in there I noticed Baby A's cord was prolapsed.
From there - it was a crazy, crazy whirlwind of activity. The nurses held her head off the cord, and I was rushed into the OR for a c-section under general. They were both out in <15 minutes from DX of prolapse.
It was absolutely necessary - it just sucked. A c-section under general is the absolute worst. I couldn't read most of my breastfeeding books because of the "and after they're born, bring them to your chest to nurse" - I didn't even get to see the babies for a few hours (huge kudos to my hospital, they wheeled me into the NICU in my bed after I got out of recovery).
This. Thank you for letting us all vent to you. IRL everyone I have tried to talk to about this either (understandably) doesn't want to hear it b/c they are planning their own natural birth or says something along the lines of "OMG why would you WANT to experience a natural birth?" I'll give the highlights here, but my full birthstory is here: https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/52615132.aspx if you care to read it.
I developed PIH at 37 weeks and it turned into PreE b/w 38 and 39 weeks. I was induced with pitocin b/c of the PreE at 39 weeks, 3 days and it was entirely necessary b/c my labs/BPs were looking very bad. If anything, I wish I would have been induced a little earlier so I could have avoided Mag Sulfate. Mag = the devil. Having had both, it's totally worse than pitocin.
Once I was put on the Mag, I was not allowed out of bed (it's a nervous system depressant and makes you crazy dizzy), had to be continuously monitered, and wasn't allowed to eat/drink (although I did in secret b/c the Mag didn't make me sick like it does to some people). I described the feeling of being on Mag as flying, but not in a good way. After having been on it for hours, I couldn't focus on anything easily and was SO dizzy. It's nasty stuff.
Several hours into the induction, a nurse informed me that my platelets were low (a PreE complication). In fact, they were just above the level where they could give me an epidural. I was told that if I waited, they wold probably drop lower and if I did need a C-section it would have to be under general anesthesia. In my mind, the possibility of not being awake for the birth of my son was worse than an epi, so OKed the placement of the epi. For a while, I considered just having the catheter placed, but without the meds added (besides the test dose). I WAS dealing with the contractions very well. But then I realized that almost every reason that I had for not getting the epi was out the door at that point, and went ahead and had them added.
The final intervention that I had was a forceps delivery. DS's head was turned and despite over 3 hours of pushing, I couldn't get him out. I tried the pushing positions that I was strong enough to try, but they didn't work. When the OB mentioned forceps, I agreed. Maybe if I tried pushing for longer I could have done it on my own, but at that moment, I totally didn't care. I just wanted the whole ordeal to be over. Because of the forceps delivery, DS had to be immediately evaluated by a pediatrician (he was fine). In retrospect, this is the part that I am most sad about. I wanted to see my son right after he was born and for him to be put on my chest all new and gooey. Rather than that, he was under a warmer for his first 25 minutes of life and despite me asking to see him multiple times, they didn't bring him over until they were done fixing me up (I had two large tears and lost a lot of blood due to the platelet issues). This is really the only part I'm bitter about.
Even with all this, as well as the lingering fear that I'll get PreE again, I'm looking forward to my next birth (we want to try for more kids in the future). I still really want to experience the natural birth I was so excited for and still lurk on this board all the time even though I don't feel like I really belong here anymore. Thanks for listening :-)
BFP#2: EDD 2/11/14, MMC confirmed 7/15/13 (growth stopped at 6 weeks), D&C @ 12 weeks 7/25/13
Wow, thanks to all of the ladies for sharing their stories, I definitely don't feel so alone. I have a very similar story to many already posted. I had a very, very long labor (>65 hours) that ended up as a c-section. I labored naturally for the first 50 hours, then started pitocin, then got an epi ~55 hours in. From there I rested to 63 hours before I pushed (~2.5 hours). My cervix swelled pretty quickly and I ended up with a c-section. I was very well prepared, and also very stubborn. I did everything "right", had a midwife that was very laid-back and let me do my thing, and a killer birth plan. The thing about labor though, is that you can't plan it. There is no way of knowing what is going to happen, and the decisions made at the time might be different then the ones that you would have made before or after.
I don't blame myself or my midwife for how things turned out, but I also believe that things could have gone differently. Not that I had the opportunity at the time to steer things in a different direction, just that in such a complex, intense time decisions were made that changed the course. I am a firm believer in natural birth, and hope that the next time around I can have a natural VBAC. That being said, I think that we (the natural birth community) do ourselves a disservice by talking about "plans" in such a rigid way. Yes, we should do everything in our power to set the stage for a natural, healthy birth (supportive provider, birth class, knowledge of birth, positive environment, knowledge of interventions, etc), but we cannot control birth. That isn't to say that we shouldn't have birth plans, or that we shouldn't visualize the perfect birth, but that we should be understanding with ourselves when things turn out differently.
I do this too! And I respond to posts when I have something to add that is helpful. Even though I ended up with a c/s I still did a lot of NB preparation and have a lot of knowledge to share. I think that is probably true for you as well!
With DD#1 my plan for a natural childbirth did not work out. I went into labor during night and had a 41 hour labor, so I was literally awake for days. I lasted until hour 35 at home and then went to the hospital because contractions were less than 3 minutes apart (we lived one mile from the hospital).
Up until that point I was doing great with managing the pain, but when I got to the hospital I was so exhausted that I lost focus and my body started shaking uncontrollably, so I decided to get the epidural at hour 36. Everything worked fine for me after that point and I didn't have any bad reactions, but I was so disappointed that I came so far only to have the epidural.
I am hoping baby #2 will have a much shorter labor so I don't run into the same issues resulting from exhaustion. I will also try to sleep between contractions at the beginning. I was too excited to sleep the first time around and had no idea labor could last as long as it did. You live, you learn, right?