SilentSiren Birth Story - Birth center water birth at hospital with NICU assist - Long, PIP

The goods - Charlotte Lynne was born 1/23 at 9:56 a.m. She weighed 8lb 3 oz. and was 19.5 in long.

Charlotte Lynne was expected to be due on Thursday, January 23, 2014, and in homage to her former journalist mother, she arrived right on deadline.

I knew from my dates that my expected delivery date was actually sometime overnight Wednesday into Thursday, but I also knew that expected delivery dates meant nothing. One of my best friends had just delivered 10 days past her expected due date on January 6, and the year before another good friend with the same due date (January 23) had delivered on Dec. 29. Still, if I was forced to guess, I would have predicted Charlotte would be born slightly early or exactly on time.

Starting Sunday, I had been having contractions off and on that were not really that painful, but were five minutes apart, though they would fizzle out after one to two hours of timing them. I was trying my hardest not to go to labor and delivery unless I was sure, and because we were planning a birth center birth at the hospital, I wanted to be sure.

Monday, I reported to work and trained the admin who would be “covering my desk” while I was gone. I let her know I thought it would be soon, as I had for the week before. I also told my other coworkers, including the one who is not my supervisor but handles my reviews and signing off on leave. Everyone continued to tell me because I was a first-time mom, I had another week, if not two or more to go.  At my midwife appointment that day, I consented to my first cervical check and was 3 centimeters, with her head “really, really low”.

Tuesday, Ohio was hit with a snowstorm, which was not unusual given this had already been one of the snowiest Januaries in a while. The drifting snow made for a tough commute, so I opted to call off and told work I was continuing to have contractions and did not want to risk being at work. I continued to time them throughout the day. Kyle stayed home and called into work saying I was in labor but laboring at home. Trying not to get my hopes up, I was not so sure. The contractions would always fizzle out as soon as I thought it was time. Wednesday, was pretty much the same, and I was starting to feel stupid for calling off of work. What if it was another two weeks? Then I would never hear the end of it, and I would have lost two weeks out of my short maternity leave time with Charlotte.

I went to be Wednesday at 10 p.m., knowing my “expected” due date was Thursday and trying not to let that bother me. At 11 p.m., I woke up to go to the bathroom, and immediately began having contractions again. This time, they were somewhat painful, but fully expecting them to fizzle out, I laid back down. Still, I timed them, just in case. They were 2-3 minutes apart for an hour. Because they were closer together, after an hour, I called the medical society (on call doctors) and they connected me to the midwife on call, who had been the midwife I saw the last 6 visits, so I was comfortable with her. She told us to make our way to the hospital, check into triage, and then we would be transferred to Family Beginnings, the home-like birth center environment at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton.

We arrived at the hospital at 12:30 a.m. Triage was everything I did not want to experience throughout the birth. I was on a hospital bed, hooked up to machines and Charlie was being monitored for movements, as my contractions were being timed. The midwife said she wanted the baby to wake up a little more before she signed off on transferring us to Family Beginnings, but almost as soon as she said it, she must have started moving enough to satisfy her, because we were then transferred and admitted to Family Beginnings.

I knew going in that I would really like a water birth, but also that in the heat of the moment the water might not feel as good as I thought it would, so I was open. I was told I was not far enough along (4 cm) to enter the tub, as they were afraid it would stall things. I decided to labor on the ball, as I had been doing all week. Right after I sat on the ball, I stood up, and my water broke. Contractions became stronger, and I labored in the double bed or standing with my arms around Kyle’s neck. After about an hour, I had progressed to the point I was allowed in the tub. At the center, they are large Jacuzzi-type tubs with LED lights and jets. I did not like the jets, but the water immediately made things better.

Breathing was my best coping mechanism, and with each contraction, Kyle would remind me to breathe, and I would get through it. He held my hand through every contraction in the tub. If I reminded myself the pain was temporary, that helped as well. I was told by the nurse and midwife, I was moving along really well. My midwife, Mic, was off at 7 a.m., but another from my practice would be coming in at that time. The nurses joked that with how well I was progressing, I might just have her before my midwife was off. Until my cell phone, which was being used to play my playlist, sounded my alarm to get ready for work, I thought this was a possibility as well. When the alarm went off, I knew that meant my midwife was now off and another would be coming on. Thankfully, I liked her, though this was the first I was meeting Melissa.

At 8 a.m., I started pushing. I HATED this part. They would tell me to push into the burn or stinging, and I wasn’t feeling that, so I couldn’t push into it. I never experienced a “ring of fire.” I also couldn’t tell you when I hit transition. It was all about breathing through one to get to the next. I pushed, and they would tell me I was getting closer, so I went with it. I remember the midwife and nurse telling me she was getting close, and they could all, including Kyle, see her hair, which they used as motivation for me, as I really was very curious to see if she had hair.

Toward the end, pushing in the tub was starting to take its toll a little. There wasn’t really anything to grip onto, so with every push, I would slip and slide a little. . I remember saying, “This feels very ineffective,” and they all continued to urge me on.

Finally, I felt her head. I knew it had been there, but now that I could feel it, I was newly motivated. I pushed again, and chaos erupted. They didn’t yell at me, but strongly urged me in a calm way that I had to get her out this time, and after two hours of pushing, she was born.

This I could feel. I felt her body move through me. It was very surreal. They immediately put her on my chest. She wasn’t breathing and her head was purple. They cut the cord, and blood went everywhere, including our faces. I could hear and see people coming in the unit, and it felt like chaos. I looked at my midwife and asked, “Will she be ok?” and she said, very matter of factly, that yes, she would, and then the NICU team took her.

 Kyle had been hugging my head, and I had to force him to follow the baby. Being that I was in the tub, in pain and in a stage of shock, I could not jump out and follow her. They wouldn’t let me, and I knew it would have been a dumb move until I recovered enough not to pass out.

After I continued to beg him to please go to our baby, he left to go into the other room, where they gave her two minutes of oxygen, and I heard her cry.

The midwife explained to me while I was recovering in the tub, that it was a shoulder dystocia and would likely happen again with my next child and we would need to talk about that when I became pregnant again. I was thinking I had no desire at that time to talk about a next one; I just wanted to know if Charlotte was ok.

The midwife and nurse helped me from the tub, and I went to the other room, where they helped me onto the double bed, and I watched the NICU team continue to check her. Finally, they handed her back to me, asked me if I had any questions and left. I still didn’t really know or understand what had happened. I didn’t ask for her APGAR scores because I didn’t want to be scared. I found out two days later, they were a 2 at birth. They were a 9, two minutes later.

We had requested an hour to ourselves with the baby and any necessary medical team members before our families came in. I told Kyle to go make sure they knew she was ok. I had no idea what things looked like from their perspective. After 45 minutes, I told Kyle, he could go get our mothers.

His mother went to the baby, my mother came directly to me crying. There had been an emergency call made over the PA system requesting NICU to Family Beginnings. From the waiting room in the center, my mom heard the call, saw them rushing into the room, and she and all our family had been panicked. My mother-in-law, who is a NP at the hospital, heard the call and that it was to Family Beginnings and dropped everything to run to the center. We all suffered a little shock and traumatic worrying that day, but having been reassured multiple times that she was ok, things started to calm down.

I was so pleased to have been in a hospital for my water birth. I can’t even fathom what would have or could have happened if we hadn’t been. One of the main reasons I chose Family Beginnings was that it was a the hospital and across the hall from NICU. I hated that I needed that amenity in the end, but I was so happy it was there.

In the end, we ended up with a beautiful little girl. She weighed in at 8 lb, 3 oz and was 19.5 inches long. Since then, Charlotte Lynne has been such a blessing in our lives. Her latch may not be perfect, and her screams may sound like a howler monkey—when she does cry, but we are so lucky to have her.

ETA: pics