CalinAZ's 4 day induction turned c-section birth story

CalinAZ · May 2014

Short Version: Evan Thomas was born via c-section on April 20th at 2:19pm after baby stopped tolerating an induction that began on 4/17, due to preeclampsia. He weighed 9lb 13oz and was 22.5 inches long.

Long (long) version: I never thought I would end up with a c-section. My midwife practice has a 4% c-section rate, plus I did the Bradley training. I thought I was set for a natural labor, but I was very wrong

. At 38w1d, I went in for my regular midwife appointment. I'd just started maternity leave that week and had been busy the past few days trying to check things off our list. However, we were convinced we'd go to at least 41 weeks, so there didn't feel like there was a rush. I did have the presence of mind to at least start laying out the components of our hospital bag on the bed before I went to the appointment, since it seemed like a good thing to do. As I was soon to learn, this was a good call.

When I got to the appointment, the nurse checked my blood pressure, which was oddly high (140s over 90s). My midwife came in and let me know that those high numbers, plus a +2 on my proteins, was a little concerning. However, she was fairly confident it all would be fine, and we proceeded as normal through the appointment. At the end, she checked my blood pressure again, thinking it would be back down to normal. Instead, it was 165 over 110. She was still positive that I was probably just stressed out, but sent me to labor and delivery just in case, guessing they would test me for a few hours and then send me home for a 24 hour urine catch.

Well, numbers in triage stayed in the high range, and the midwife on call, along with the physician on call, decided I should stay overnight to do a urine catch. At this point, I was concerned, but still sure we had more time before I'd be having this baby. After all, I'd been healthy the whole pregnancy, always had low blood pressure, and didn't have any of the classic preelampsia symptoms like blurry vision or intense headaches. Still, by 10:30 the next morning, my blood pressure numbers were still in the scary high range, so it was decided I'd be induced via cervidil, regardless of my protein numbers. The next 12 hours I was bedridden, except to use the bathroom, while the medication took effect and caused painful contractions lasting 4-5 minutes that I really had to work through.

The cervidil came out at 3am and I got a few hour break to rest before I was checked at 6am Friday. I went from 0cm to 1cm, which my midwife considered excellent progress, so we moved on to 4 four hour doses of cytotec to continue getting my cervix favorable enough for pitocin. My blood pressure was doing better, so in between each dose, I was given a 40 minute break to come off the monitors, take a walk, and take a shower. This was fantastic, and a super helpful break before the next labor phase. No real contractions, but it did dilate me another centimeter.

Friday night, it was time to start the pitocin. The first 24 hours on this were very mild. We started with a dose of 1 milliunit/minute and it was upped by 1 every 2 hours until we hit 6. The idea was to mimic natural labor to make it less stressful on mom and baby. I didn't really get strong contractions with this, so it was mostly another day of rest. Saturday evening, they decided to start me on the magnesium drip and antibiotics for GBS and we also decided I should get an epidural. While I really didn't want an epidural, my blood pressure was still high, and epidurals can lower blood pressure, so it seemed like it was worth a shot. At 3 in the morning, the anesthesiologist arrived and gave me the epidural and then, once it kicked in, my midwife broke my water. This, plus the increasing pitocin did the trick and by early morning, I was definitely in real labor. Despite the epidural, I was really feeling the contractions, some strongly enough that I felt like I was going to be sick. The nurse kept wanting to call back the anesthesiologist to up the epidural, but I actually appreciated feeling something, and I didn't want to do anything to slow down the labor, since I knew that being on the 4th day of this induction was starting to make the doctor on call nervous. Plus, DH and I got to work as a team through them and I got to use my Bradley strategies.

At 10:30, I was checked and was dilated to 6-7 centimeters! We were all so excited that things were actually happening. I was checked again around 12:30, and was at an 8, which was a little less than everyone wanted, but still made me happy. My parents were also on their way, and we were all excited to think about the end of this process. However, a little while later, as the nurse was moving the monitor to pick up baby's heartbeat, a bunch of alarms started going off and my room flooded with people. They started flipping me side to side and tilted my bed down so that my feet were up higher than my head. I heard them say that baby's heart rate had significantly dropped to the 50s. After what seemed like forever, our baby stabilized, but the whole tone of the room and my labor team changed. Baby wasn't handling the pitocin anymore, and I wouldn't be allowed to use it after this point. I was checked and had just a lip of cervix left, but I was sort of out of options. Both the doctor and midwife talked through the options: keep laboring without pitocin or have a c-section. They let my husband and I talk, but the choice seemed clear. I knew pushing could be hard on babies and was so scared of him being in danger. Plus, in the 30 minutes since they had turned off the pitocin, my contractions had been slim to none, and I honestly didn't think my body was going to labor without the drugs.

Thankfully, my parents showed up just when I needed them, and gave me such great emotional comfort and support about going into the c-section. I'll admit, I was pretty terrified about having major surgery and about the safety of our little one. It also made me sad that as we were getting ready to meet our son, there was so much fear and sadness rather than joy. I luckily had a wonderful anesthesiologist who was very kind and talked me through everything to keep me calm. During the operation, I had DH tell me one of our Bradley relaxation stories about running on our favorite redwood trails in California, to distract me. It very little time, the doctors told me they were pulling out our baby and I heard our little Evan cry! I saw them holding him above the blue curtain and then they brought him up to my face to that I could kiss him and touch him. He was perfectly healthy - 9s on the Apgars, and a very big boy at 9lbs 13 oz.

So, this was obviously very much the opposite of the labor I'd wanted. I feel like I had almost every intervention in the book, but I don't regret any of it. My body just wasn't ready at 38 weeks to be in labor and while it did the best it could, it just couldn't overcome being in labor early and fighting against the magnesium, that is a muscle relaxant and can slow contractions. My midwife thinks that also, since Evan was so big, he got a little stuck in my pelvis as he descended, which was when his heart rate dropped, so I'm not even sure that I could have pushed him out, without the ability to labor in upright positions.

A week later, I'm still a little sad that I didn't get to have a vaginal delivery, but I know I was a case where medical intervention was absolutely necessary for a healthy mom and baby. I am beyond thankful that our Evan was born safely and healthy, and that I am mostly back to normal (still on blood pressure medication but otherwise okay). As my midwife reassured me, we can try for natural on the next one.

If you made it through that, you are awesome! A 5 day stay leading up to delivery will do that to a birth story

rtv3 · May 2014

Congrats on your little blessing and on making it through such a long labor process with such a positive attitude

You are awesome and baby Evan is adorable!

Asheebeth · May 2014

Congrats hes adorable!!

olenkapdx · May 2014

Congratulations! Such a cute little man!

allyandmike24 · May 2014

I really admire how, despite it not being what you envisioned, that you really are owning your birth experience. It's so hard to come out of it with a positive outlook, but I'm so glad you were able to! It sounds like you handled a tough situation like a rock star! Congratulations on little (not so little!) Evan! He is insanely cute!