Natural, vaginal, breech birth story

Since I was reading other people's birth stories for fun.  I thought I'd put mine up for other expecting moms. 

Micah's birth story:

here's how the birth went ? at least from my perspective. This is going to be pretty long. I was due September 25th, but Micah decided to arrive September 9th.

Last Tuesday, the 9th, I was awoken right at 1:00am with a lot of pressure in my crotch and then a ?pop? sound. Right away, I pretty much knew my water had broken, but I was pretty sleepy, so I it took a moment to realize what had happened. I was only 37wks and 4-5 days, so I really didn?t think it would happen so soon. I got up, went to the bathroom and then tried to go back to bed, but as I went to lay down, my water gushed out, so I knew, I?d be too excited to sleep. I woke up DH and let him know that my water had broken and that I was going to take a shower to relax.

Since my water broke before contractions started with my first son, I had a feeling we were in for a long labor and that I should start getting my labor going. As much as I told myself that all labors are different, I had the mindset that this one would be a marathon-type like my first. As I showered, my contractions started on their own and very quickly. They were probably only 30-seconds long and about 4-5 minutes apart, but I had to focus and breathe through them right away. I got out of the shower and DH had started digging out the infant car seat, infant clothing, and blankets, etc from the basement ? we really were not prepared. Then he started packing our son?s overnight bag to go to a friend?s house and my bag for the birthing center.

I rocked on the yoga ball, walked the house, and tried to clean the bathroom (must have been my nesting instinct that saw all the dirt in there). All the while my contractions were about consistent, but I wasn?t really timing them. I called the midwife on call, Nancy, at around 3:30 am and told her my water broke and that I was GBS positive, so I would need antibiotics by around 5 or 6 am. She talked with me for a little while and said to call back in a few hours if my contractions were stronger/longer since they still were only 30-40 seconds long. I agreed and told DH to go back to bed for awhile and that I was going to relax and then take another shower. I relaxed and walked around the house for awhile ? mostly b/c I have very tight IT-bands in my quads and that is where I feel a lot of pressure during labor (in addition to my uterus). Walking/squatting and massaging my legs helps me work through that.

By 4:15 or so, my DH had everything packed and was going back to bed to relax for awhile and I was headed to take a candlelit shower. I spent about 15-minutes in the shower and was overwhelmed by how quickly my contractions were coming. I had hoped that the shower would relax me, but instead, I was having 30-40 second contractions every minute. As I look back now, this could have been my ?transition stage,? but it?s so hard to tell since it wasn?t textbook. Needless to say, I got out and told DH we probably should head to the birthing center. Then we called our friends and the midwife again. We told the midwife it would take 40-min to get there and so we would see her around 5:15.

Then we headed in the car and luckily, I was able to ride pretty comfortably and relax through my consistent contractions for 30-min. In between contractions I was still relaxed, laughing, and excited ? not serious or stressed at all. Due to feeling so good between contractions, I still thought I had until 2pm or so before I?d see our new baby.

We got to the birthing center at 5:30 after a very painful stop at a drive through to get DH coffee/juice/breakfast ? it was so potholed that I suggest any woman who wants to go into labor to drive through the that restaurant lot to start labor!

At the birthing center I came in smiling and talkative, only got serious during the contractions, which were still not much longer than 40-45 seconds and about 3-min apart. Since my water was broken and I was a happy camper, I declined to be checked right away and instead was looking forward to relaxing in the birthing tub. My girlfriends (one nestie and another non-Nestie) arrived only a few minutes after us to help out. They were very calming and good to have there.

From my arrival at the Center, things speed up in my mind, so I don?t know much about exact times. Probably about 45-min into hanging out at the center, after some initial baby monitoring with the Doppler and chatting with friends and the midwife between contractions, I went in to go to the bathroom and discovered a considerable amount of meconium in my fluids. I came out and showed the midwives and they decided to check me. By then another midwife, C, had arrived to take over for another midwife, N, but both were still there. C checked me and spent quite awhile fiddling around trying to figure out what was up there ? she determined that I was 9-cm to full and since we saw meconium asked if I could start pushing to get things moving along. I agreed and pushed for about 10-15 minutes while standing at the edge of the bed or squatting. I was making some progress, but also quite a bit of meconium was still coming out with each push. The midwives were monitoring the baby most of the pushing and it was doing wonderfully ? no decelerations in the heartbeat.

At one point, C was using a mirror to watch me push (standing) and I think started to realize that she wasn?t seeing a head crown, but a bum instead. She had me lay down on the bed with DH and a friend at each foot and her and N right there to check me. When C checked me she had a funny look on her face and then asked N to check also. Then C said, ?That?s a butt, isn?t it?? and N replied, ?Yep, that?s the butt.? At that point, I?m pretty sure I yelled, ?What, the baby is breech ? it?s really breech?? They reassured me that it was breech and that I needed to get the baby out as soon as possible. So I just started pushing as best I could with or without contractions. It was tough and quite the ordeal, but in my mind I was just working super hard and not really involved in the worry that the midwives, my DH, and my friends probably felt. I just knew I could push this baby out ? especially since the baby still had good heart tones and wasn?t in distress. I?m sure my focus was mostly attributed to the adrenaline pumping through my veins, but also mommy instinct. The baby came out within 10-minutes of discovering that he was breech, but the midwives did give me an episiotomy to help speed the delivery of the feet along. It really did take my whole labor team to help get him out ? I had coaches everywhere telling me I could do it and to keep it up and then the midwives were able to get the baby?s head into the right position to push him out backward as if they had assisted in vaginal breech births a hundred times.

When our second son came out, he wasn?t breathing right away, but had good heart tones and was pretty pink (much more so than my first ?textbook? labor and delivery with my son Bryn). The baby got a 6 and then a 9 on its apgars (it took some stimulation to get that second 9). Nobody had to say he was a boy ? his ?goods? appeared pretty much before anything else! He was born at about 6:59am after 24 minutes total of pushing and was 7lbs and 20 1/8 in long ? plus he had such a round head (not a vaginal birth conehead at all)!

I delivered the placenta in another 24 minutes and the midwives encouraged me to start some nursing as they looked at my tears. The midwives all checked me out, but decided they would feel better if I saw a perineal repair specialist. At that point, I nursed the baby one more time and then left DH and the baby at the birth center to sleep and I headed to the hospital to meet with the specialist. We were admitted right away and talked with the specialist pretty quickly after ? he decided it was a minor 4th-degree tear and needed to be repaired under a local with narcotics or an epidural. I chose the epidural and pretty much had to hold back from crying ? it was hard for me to realize that I could give birth naturally twice, but had to have an epidural after. Luckily, I only had to have a very low epidural with no narcotics or sedatives added, just the numbing cocktail and although I didn?t like not having control over my lower legs, it was necessary. I was joking with the anesthesiologist when she asked how much pain I was in 0 to 10 and I replied, ?Zero, bet, a bunch of women on this floor would love the epidural at a pain level of zero.? She laughingly replied, ?Yeah, I rarely get to give one to someone who isn?t in some pain.? I was repaired quickly by a very funny doctor and my DH and the baby were discharged from the birthing center and spent the afternoon in the hospital with me until I could leave. We left to pick-up our son from our friend?s house and head home a little after 5pm. I was so glad to go home.

I wanted to add that our birthing center does not typically do breech vaginal births ? normally, if it was known that the baby was breech (and they do send people for late ultrasound head-checks often), I would have transferred care to one of their supporting OB doctors who try vaginal breech births (usually in the Swedish OR) or have been scheduled for a c-section. I was such a confident second-time mom that I just thought I knew for sure that the head was down, the bum was on the left and the feet were on the right. My midwives say it?s harder to tell with shorter people and second-time moms who get contractions every time you try to feel where the baby is. Their supporting OB, who does the vaginal breech births, told the midwives, ?You?re not doing enough births if you don?t miss a breech every so often and get a surprise.? As both my midwives told me, our little guy just knew where and when he wanted to be born and your body just did what it should with no problems. I feel so blessed that my birth was destined to go the way it did and that my body and birthing team were so wonderful!