Very long unmedicated birth center turned emergency hospital transfer

I had my 41 week midwife appointment on Friday (9/19) with my favorite midwife. She did a NST test and confirmed that Lila was perfect in there so I got the okay to wait another week between appointments and see what happened. I was 4 cm an 75 % effaced at that point and she felt like I would probably go into labor over the weekend anyway.

Saturday afternoon around 3 pm I started having a few random painful contractions but nothing I could time I also started losing lots of mucous plug and having a lot of bloody show. Gwen and I did some walking and went to the park in the evening and by 11 pm I was having more regular contractions but they were 10-15 minutes apart. I went to bed and slept through most of them until 3 am when I had to get up and focus on the contractions a little more. I stayed out of bed and rocked around on the birthing ball and timed contractions which were about 8-10 minutes apart at that point. I also cleaned the living room and kitchen and washed a load of diapers so Gwen would have clean diapers to wear. Jeff and Gwen woke up around 7 am and by that point the contractions were pretty consistently 6-7 minutes apart and I had to stop what I was doing to get through them. We decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood and see what happened and I called my midwives to let them know I would probably be on my way shortly. When we got back from the walk the contractions had gotten a little more intense so we decided we should get ready to leave. We all took showers and Jeff loaded the car with our snacks and drinks for the birth center.

We hit a little traffic and being in the car made the contractions slow down a little so when we made it to Chapel Hill we decided to get some lunch and not rush to the center. After lunch we headed over to the birth center so the midwife could check me, I wasn't sure I was making a lot of progress because while the contractions were painful they were nothing like what I experienced with Gwen. But I was 6 cm and 100% effaced at that point so we decided to stay at the birth center and call my mom to head on. We walked around the parking lot of the birth center and the nature trails of the YMCA next door for about 1 1/2 hours and then decided to come in so I could soak in the tub for a while. Gwen decided she wanted to soak too so the two of us hung out in the tub for probably another hour. It was about 5:30 pm at that point and my mom got there shortly after.

I felt like walking some more so we walked outside for several hours (until about 7:30) then came back in and got back in the tub. Contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart but still they were nothing like the pitocin contractions I had with Gwen. Around 9 pm the midwives came in because I was starting to feel a lot of pressure and was moaning through the contractions. They had me check myself and I was able to feel my bag of waters bulging so they said it probably wouldn't be much longer before I felt like pushing. They had talked about it though and they were concerned since Gwen had shoulder dystocia that Lila may too so they didn't think it was a good idea for me to try a water birth. I was a little disappointed but ok with it.

A little before 10 Gwen came back to the birthing room and wanted to nurse so I got out of the tub and got in bed with her so she could. She dozed off pretty quickly. At 10 pm I started pushing and my water broke after about 15 minutes. There was a little thin meconium but they weren't concerned since it was thin and said it was very common in post date babies. After an hour and a half of pushing and no progress one of the other midwives checked me and at some point a "lip" of cervix had come down over the back of Lila's head and was keeping her in. All the pushing and pressure made my cervix swollen and irritated though so I had to stop pushing and they put me on my back and propped my butt up with pillows to get her head off my cervix to let the swelling go down. I also got 2 doses of Belladonna which is used for cervical swelling and the midwife iced my cervix for about an hour. Not being able to push when you need to is the worst feeling in the world.

At this point it was almost 1 am and the swelling finally went down and my cervix was gone again. I started pushing and pushed for about 30 minutes when the birth center lost power so the midwives pulled out flashlights and candles and we kept going. I pushed for another hour and was still not making any real progress, her head would come down but never very far and I was exhausted. They started thinking she was bigger than they had expected and with the power out they were worried what would happen if I got her head out but then she got stuck so the midwives decided we needed to go to the hospital and have the Dr meet us there. They had me stop pushing again and called 911 for the transfer, by the time EMS got there I wasn't able to stop pushing anymore so we left for the hospital with lights and sirens. One midwife and one birth attendant riding with me and Jeff following in my moms car. We left Gwen at the birth center with my mom since she was sleeping.

We got to the hospital and they were waiting on us with an entire NICU team a family practice dr and they were waiting for the ob to get out of a csection. It was about 3 am at this point and I had been pushing off and on for about 5 hours. The family practice dr evaluated me and said she really didn't think Lila was much over 7 lbs but after checking me out thought I had a very bad shaped pelvis and they would probably need to use a vacuum to get her out. She offered and epidural but I refused. They got the room set up and we were just waiting on the OB to get out of surgery because they apparantly have a policy where an OB has to be present for a vacuum delivery in case of emergency. Finally she got to the room around 3:30, I had been pushing but just enough to get rid of the urge. Once the OB got there they told me I had 3 strikes with the vacuum before I got a csections which would have been under general anesthesia at this point. The vacuum popped off the first 2 times and then the 3rd they were finally able to get her head and right shoulder out but her left shoulder was stuck it took my midwife, one of the male NICU drs and a nurse sitting on my bed and pushing her under my pelvic bone to finally get her out. Her head and right shoulder were born at 3:37 and the rest of her finally at 3:40.

Luckily she was perfect. Lila Paige was born kicking and screaming at 9 lbs 6 oz 21 inches long. They took her away to check her over and I ended up having a pretty severe hemorrhage. They said it was due to the extended second stage labor combined with a baby that was way to big for me to deliver. I ended up with 2 blood transfusions on Monday to combat the blood loss and we were released on Tuesday afternoon. We are all feeling great now and Lila is nursing like she's been doing it forever. Gwen loves her and is very concerned when "the baby" cries