2nd VBAC - caught my baby in the tub, unattended, at the hospital!

I posted this a couple weeks ago on the Natural Birth board.  My first baby was born after 17hrs textbook labor and an unplanned cs in the end bc of malposition and premature pushing/exhaustion. My second baby was born via HBAC in a 2 hr labor after I awoke to my water breaking. This is my third child and second VBAC...

Short story -  Adam Silas (going by Silas) was born at 36w1d, on Monday, August 12 at 4:26pm after 40hrs ruptured membranes. Labor took 3.5 hrs once started, and he was born in the water at the university hospital that "does not allow water births", with only my doula and DH in attendance in those few short minutes.  6lb 11oz, and he spent 10 days in the NICU for some breathing help, unrelated to the birth and more related to his age.

Birth Story

Midnight August 11, my water broke in bed.  I was about a week too early for my home birth, at 36w0d. My labor didn't start though right away, as it did with my other two. We waited it out, went to hospital, decided not to go in as I wasn't in labor, had no vaginal exams to keep risk of infection low, consulted with my midwife, waited more for labor, kept up with vit C, got baby checked on monitors at hospital at 24hrs, waited for labor, etc. The chief attending OB obviously didn't want us to wait or even leave the hospital and basically played the dead baby card, but left the choice to us. We felt comfortable giving some more time beyond 24 hours because we were not allowing vaginal exams which greatly increases the risk of infection, and he was very happy inside.  We slept at home and I got a good night's rest, and around 36hrs on Monday afternoon, we decided to do castor oil as per my midwife, to avoid pitocin at the hospital. We felt we were approaching our comfort level with ruptured membranes since he was not full term.  We of course were not going to try to have a home birth and knew that my midwife's guidelines were there for a reason - we just wanted time for me to go into labor but were ready and accepting of a hospital birth.

The castor oil worked awesomely and the cocktail tasted fine.  It took about an hour for contractions to set in, around 1pm, and two hours after that I was ready to go in because my last birth, my first VBAC, was quite fast. We arrived at the hospital outside at 4:00p, in the L&D lobby about 10 min later. I got to the room and started vocalizing through contractions. They didn't really take me seriously when I told them almost immediately upon entering the room that "this is transition for me". They managed to get a vaginal exam in which showed I was 8cm, 90%, -1 station. I pleaded to get in the tub which in minutes previous I had urged them to fill.  I got in the tub, started pushing in the same minute. I kept it a secret from everyone, even my DH and doula who were right there, that his head was out and his body would come next, while I was in the tub on my knees leaning against the edge of the tub. No hospital staff were in the bathroom in these few short minutes. DH knew I was pushing but didn't know how close the baby was, and his help in reminding me to just blow and breathe during contractions helped me avoid pushing him out too quickly.  In between his head and body coming, they came and strapped a BP cuff on me LOL. They saw blood in the water and said it was bloody show, but I knew it was from a slight tear that had already occurred from his head coming out.  I knew exactly what to do when his body was born, and when it came, I caught him with one arm (the arm with the BP cuff supported myself on the tub) and I flipped around and brought him up. DH said, "We have a baby!!" and everyone came in, including the stern chief attending Dr. who we saw the night before.  Silas and I threw them all for a loop which was awesome.  No one knew he was coming then but me. I loved it!

He came out crying, lot of vernix, got delayed cord clamping for 3 min, then they checked him out, and as we were prepared for at 36w, he was having trouble breathing on his own and went to NICU. His cultures are clear of any infection, and they believe he just needs a couple days to get stronger. I'm particularly thankful for the lack of infection because we felt we were in a safe zone with waiting, and I knew the hospital staff felt he landed in NICU because of the membrane rupture. They've been respectful and we've gotten awesome care though. Apparently NICU is not a fan of delayed clamping because it makes their blood harder to draw for tests. We found this to be true.

Despite the hiccup of his time in the NICU, I am really proud of the birth and thankful for how it went. I do wish he stayed in longer and will never know what made my water break, but we're thankful he's here and thankful he basically just had maturing to do while in NICU and he is very stable and healthy now.

How we spent a lot of our days in the NICU!

Here is Silas at 3 weeks