Very thankful for my story

CCL1-5-08 · July 2012

Well, I went in after laboring for 24 hours I decided to go to the hospital and get some pain meds. I had originally wanted a med free birth, but decided that focusing on having a VBAC was the main goal. It would make it easier for me to focus and remain calm and since I had not had labor with my first son, I didn?t know what pain was. When I got to the hospital I had contractions every 3-5 mins but was only 1 cm. I thought they were going to send me home.

The practice of doctors I was a patient of has 7 doctors I had been told that 6 of the 7 did VBACs. Well the person on call only does vbacs if you are 6cm when you got to the hospital. I was not happy to say the least. I was scared and felt I had gone through the long waits in the office for nothing. Well the doctor said she would call another doctor and see if she would be willing to take me even though she was not on call. The doctor she called was GREAT and took me even though she was not on call.

I was admitted and had them try for an epidural because I had had back surgery and was a difficult case for an epidural. I wanted to know if I could even have the epidural work. The anesthesiologist was great he tried 4 times before I had the darn thing worked it ended up being a spinal, but I didn?t care as long as I had it work. If in the end I didn?t have a vbac at least I could have a c-section I remembered and could be awake with this birth.

I had my water broken about 10 hours after getting to the hospital because my contractions were irregular. After this they became closer together. I ended up having in laws and parents in the room at one point and I had my husband kick everyone out, except my mom. I needed to rest and dilate. As long as I had some progress the doctor was going to let me labor and try. Around hour 45 the baby?s heart beat would drop with some contractions and he was also not looking down. The nurse was turning me side to side to get baby to look down. At hour 47 baby had a big drop in heart rate and doctor said she was going to check me. I was 9 cm and baby was +3 so she would let me try and push.

I was like ok try and push. I pushed my heart out because after 2 tries doc was like if you don?t get the baby out in the next 3 pushes we are going to the operating room. I don?t know if she was just trying to get me to the baby out or if she was really going to have me go for a c section. They did use a vacuum the last push and my son was out after 5 or 6 pushes. The cord was loose around his neck and was causing the drop in heart rate. He was born healthy and happy. I did get a fever during labor so son had to go to nicu. I was very happy with the whole thing minus the drop in heart rate issue. Every time that an obstacle came up like the epidural, the dilation, the pushing my husband and I just prayed together and God seemed to answer right away. If I could give any advice I would say pray when you have an obstacle come up.