Hi Mamas! Feel free to share your past labor/birth stories here. It's a great read for FTMs to help prepare for all possible outcomes, and fun for the rest of us to read and reminisce as well! Just in time for Mother's Day Weekend
I’ll give an overview without going into too many details haha.
DS1 I worked the day I went into labor and felt crappy all day. I ended up going to bed early and DH stayed up to watch Avatar, well I woke up before he came to bed because my water broke. We head up to the hospital (45 min drive ugh) and I was 4 cm when we got there. Luckily snagged the last labor room. My nurse was awfullll. We got there early in the morning and I was trying not to get the epidural but contractions are terrible and worse because they made me wear those monitors the whole time and wouldn’t let me get up. (Edited cuz I posted too early lol). I think we were at the hospital 9 hours total? My nurse was mean. I got the Epi around 7 cm and it only worked on half my body. I kept telling DH to press my button lol because there was a button you could press every 15 mins to get more drugs. They ended up breaking my water again because it didn’t break fully and there was meconium in it so a whole 15 people were in the room when I finally got to push. Pushing wasn’t long at all, like 45 mins? I tore and needed 3 stitches and DS1 had a huuuuuge head. I forget the cm now but it was 99th%tile. My sister heard the nurse say she was never working day shift again. Did I mention my nurse was terrible?? I did throw up on her but still.
DS2 was a little more exciting. I was working from home and felt weird but definitely NOT the same as the first time so I didn’t realize I was in labor. DH came home for lunch and I logged off work to take a shower and see if that would make anything happen. He asks me if he can go back to work and I’m like ehhh let’s go to the hospital. I forgot my wallet and realized it like 10 mins from home. I told DH to go back for it but then we decided not to (THANK GOODNESS). We’re doing this damn 45 min drive again and DH is driving through construction like bumping me all around and making jokes about bumping the baby out. We get to the hospital and there’s construction there too so I had to walk really far to the ER entrance. The ER guy was like “oh walk up to labor and delivery, I hear that’s good for labor”. So we walked up there to the third floor and check in to triage. I’m 8 cm! The nurses started running around and putting in an IV while I’m signing papers with my left hand. I ask for an epidural and luckily they were able to give me a spinal tap. A few minutes later the nurse checks me, accidentally breaks my water and out comes DS2 10 minutes later superhero style with his hand by his face. My nurse was really wonderful the second time and took great care of me and DS2 and helped us establish an awesome breastfeeding relationship from the get go. Really glad we didn’t go back for my wallet lol.
I was 41+5 and went to the hospital for an ultrasound since I was overdue. I got home fully intending to take a nap but started feeling crampy(which I now know we're contractions). I had a bath to try to ease the crampiness. When I got out I started realizing the cramping was coming in waves and started tracking them. My neighbour whose wife had a baby the month prior stopped by and told me I should probably go to the hospital. They almost didn't admit me because I was making jokes with my husband while checking in. They checked me and I was 5 cm. I pushed through the pain for a while then got the epidural because the nurses said "If you don't get it within the next 20 minutes you won't be able to get it if you change your mind because the anesthesiologist is going home". I took a nap because the epidural worked really well. I was woken up at one point because my uterus wasn't releasing the contraction. The doctor came in and broke my water and gave me nitroglycerin to release the contractions. Everyone left the room again and when they came back they woke me up to push. I pushed for 10 mins and Isaac was born at 3:00 in the morning. At 7 we were being moved to the mom and baby side where the nurses were awful, the spawn of Satan. They were all very dismissive and rude. Also worth mentioning that the nurses left my son on my chest while my legs were dead from 3-7. I was too scared to sleep and couldn't move him to his bassinet. My husband was fast asleep and I could 't wake him from across the room.
My two birth stories are drastically different. With DS1, I was 23, and single at the time (a long story for another day) and living at home with my parents. I started having contractions so my mom took me to the hospital and they admitted me. I waited what seemed like forever, having contractions. I remember them telling me I couldn't get the epidural yet, but they could give me something else, which I took, but it really made my memories of the night fuzzy. I eventually got the epidural also. After 15 hrs, it was time to push, but I was so numb and doped that I couldn't tell if I was pushing or not. Eventually they determined the contractions were affecting DS1s heart and they said it was time for an emergency C-section. My mom was in the OR with me, and I'll never forget hearing absolute silence when they pulled DS1 out. My mom's face went absolutely white, bloodless. There was a period of, what must've only been a few minutes, but felt like hours, where the medical team worked on my son, trying to revitalize him. He failed his apgar three times, and finally, thankfully, we heard him cry. I still get emotional thinking of that moment. I know we had angels watching over us in that room.
I had complications post surgery as well. I went home and 24 hrs later developed a fever, landing me back in the hospital. They kept pumping me full of antibiotics, but couldn't figure out the cause of the fever. For two weeks, I stayed in the hospital with DS1 and my mom at my side. I saw countless doctors and nurses, even fever specialists, who couldn't figure it out. Meanwhile, I kept telling them that my C-section incision was oozing. I mean, I'm no doctor, but that would seem to be the most likely culprit, no?!? 🙄 They would look at it and say it looked normal. Anyway, eventually they listened and reopened the incision, and found the wound was infected all along. That was by far the most stressful 2 weeks of my life, and a rocky introduction to motherhood, I'll add!
DS2 was a planned C-section and SO much better. That pregnancy was textbook, and delivery was as well. I had my husband at my side, and wonderful nurses.
I had very mild diet-controlled GD with DD1, so my doctor offered to induce at 39 weeks. I was miserable in the TX heat and missing carbs, so took her up on that and we scheduled the induction. By the time the date rolled around, I was already 90% effaced and 3cm dilated, which helped the actual induction go smoothly. We showed up at 7AM, got all checked in, then they immediately offered an epidural. I declined, though I knew I’d want one eventually, because I was curious about the actual labor sensations. Cut to two hours into a Pitocin drip, 5 cm dilated, and I was begging for the anesthesiologist. It turns out I hate pain just as much as I thought!
He came, placed everything, and then I was blessedly numb from the waist down. A nurse did some positioning with the peanut ball for a couple hours and my progress was steady. They finally broke my waters and everything accelerated pretty quickly. I asked for a top up on my epidural, which ended up being much closer to pushing than I thought! Around 5PM, I was fully dilated and ready to go, but felt absolutely nothing. My best friend had told me about a similar thing happening with her labor and how she’d thought of ballet pelvic positioning when pushing, even though she couldn’t feel her actual pelvis. That worked a charm! I pushed for 20 minutes, not feeling a darn thing, then out she came. 7lbs6oz, screaming her head off, and absolutely perfect. I had a 2nd degree tear, but nothing too bad, and was stitched up quickly. My sweet OB kept using the word “textbook” for how everything went, which as someone who also went through medical school made me feel weirdly reassured. I had literally read that textbook! I knew what good news that was!
After spending the summer reading horror stories and knowing the risks of an induction, it all went shockingly well. DD and I were both healthy and the whole thing was such a positive experience. We had one crummy night nurse on our last night there—essentially kind, but kept coming in super loud, chatty, and filled with gender stereotypes about girls—but everyone else was lovely. Our nurse the first night even took DD to the nursery for a few hours, despite them being a “baby friendly”’ hospital, so that I could get some actual sleep. I have my doubts that DD2 and I will have such a “textbook” experience, but one can hope!
After weeks of everyone telling me I’d go early, J was induced on my due date since I was high risk for both GD and AMA.
We arrived in the afternoon and they inserted a foley bulb to kick off labor. By bedtime I was in a decent amount of pain, they gave me something to sleep that made me feel out of body. I swear I floated around the room, so weird.
I was 4 centimeters the next morning and they started pitocin. I asked for and got an epidural and they broke my water. Almost immediately J’s heart rate started dipping so they placed the internal monitor. They thought he was laying on the cord so they moved me all over but nothing helped so we became an emergency csection.
The speed between the decision and him being out was amazing. His cry was such a relief.
My mother and baby experience was not great. L&D got super busy and I was put in a tiny room that was just a general gynecology room. There was no where for my husband to sleep so he had to leave at night. Every uninvited family member got to hold my baby before I did. I actually was looking forward to covid protocol this time around with visitors not allowed but it looks like things will clear up by then.
The first night I was not allowed to have my baby since I was a csection and there was no one there with me. I asked them to bring him for feeds (I was working on breastfeeding). They refused saying he needed formula for blood sugar reasons and that they would have to stay with me because of the csection protocol and they didn’t have time to do that. I stayed up all night hoping they would bring him to me and trying to look awake so they didn’t skip it because I was sleeping. My mom actually had to go get him when she arrived the next day.
The night I was no longer on protocol so J stayed with me. I was exhausted and alone and that was hard but I’m so stubborn I just did it. Funny thing is all those invited and uninvited visitors didn’t come that next morning and I called my husband at work and asked him to come help. Things got better from there but I never was able to successfully nurse. But I did get a good EP foundation which continued until J was nearly 1.
ETA: According to the doctors/ultrasounds J was going to be a huge baby (over 9lbs) but he was actually a chicken legged 7lbs 12oz and 20” so super average. They actually started NSTs 2x per week and fluid checks 1x per week at 32 weeks. When I asked my new OB if that would happen this time too he seemed surprised, so now I wonder why...
The short form? I had Polyhydramnios (excess amniotic fluid) and went to the hospital on a Thursday night around 9pm with contractions at 39+2. I was only in pre-labor at 1cm dilated and would have gotten sent home but my BP was pretty high so they kept me for an induction. It was a long haul. They broke my water the next morning (which was INSANE), I bounced and bounced on the birthing ball... finally got my epidural that afternoon and by 6pm I was ready to push. Then I pushed for nearly 3 hours. Needed an episiotomy and finally a vacuum extraction after denying it twice before. At 8:37pm on Friday night she was here!
That’s when the real fun started. I’m linking my blog post on her full birth story, including her surgery and our NICU stay, for anybody who is interested in the nitty gritty!
DS1 - I went into labor at exactly 39 weeks. DH had just fallen asleep and I was trying to fall asleep, and felt a quick contraction out of nowhere that was so sharp I knew right away this was it. I called the midwife, told her I was bleeding on the toilet and contractions were about 2 mins apart or less. We went to hospital right away. When we got there the midwife checked and to everyone's shock I was 10cm dilated. No epidural for me. My water didn't break till right before I was ready to push. I pushed for about 45 mins and had 2 tears. From first contraction to birth labor was 2 hrs and 53 minutes. Because of how fast labor was, baby didn't cry right away and needed some help to clear mucus and start breathing which was terrifying. Everyone told me how lucky I was to birth so quickly, but I did not feel lucky at all. I had PTSD after his birth. It felt chaotic, terrifying, and the most painful thing I'd ever done.
DS2 - because of the history of precipitous labor (which runs in my family BTW so check with your mothers and grandmothers!) I was very closely monitored for dilation with my second. Once I reached 4cm dilated at my appt, OB booked me for induction 2 days later. I was GBS positive this time so I needed to be on IV antibiotics for 4 hrs prior to induction. They were so busy that day, we stayed for 8 hrs on the drip only to be sent home. It sucked. They were able to get us in the following morning last minute. They started pitocin around 8am. I didn't feel anything. The nurses said I was clearly having contractions every 2 mins on the monitor but I just couldn't feel. Because of this I couldn't yet get the epidural as I wasn't considered 'in labor'. Finally I felt contractions at 130pm fast and furious. They called the anesthesiologist and started to get me setup to get the epidural. A short while later my water broke...I yelled F*UCK rly loud LOL cause I knew I wasn't getting that epidural yet again. I pushed for 10 mins and baby was born 216pm. Total labor 46 minutes. Even though this labor was insanely fast it was a much better experience than my first. We were prepared for how fast it was going to happen...pushing with no epidural was hard but not as painful as DS1. I only had 1 small tear.
We have bets going on how fast #3 will be! Its terrifying and I pray I don't give birth on my bathroom floor. The plan is to be induced again once I'm showing ready signs.
2018 - I started getting contractions (although I didn’t know that’s what it was at first) after a stretch and sweep the night before I was supposed to be induced. We went in to the hospital around 4:30am (4cm) and I continued there until around 10am when I got some morphine just to have a break between contractions. Around 1pm I got an epidural (7cm) and slept for a few hours since I had gotten no rest at night. I woke up at 3pm and was at 10cm and we started to push, which was super weird cause I couldn’t feel the contractions at all. After an hour the OB suggested using forceps because she wasn’t moving and her heart rate started dropping with each push. She was born after an hour and a half of pushing at 41w!
2020 - I started contractions after getting a stretch and sweep the day before I was going to be induced (sound familiar?). We had gone to the hospital for an NST after not seeing a lot of movement on a US. When we got home my contractions kept going and I was back at the hospital an hour after we got home (4cm). I went from 4cm to birth in 45 mins! No time for meds or anything but I’m so happy it went so quick. We were home 3 hours after she was born which was great in covid times!
DS1 -- I had a super boring/normal pregnancy which was fantastic! I was 24/25, healthy, and felt great pretty much the entire 9 months. I went to 41 weeks with absolutely zero signs of labor and still completely closed - OB wouldn't strip membranes until I was at least 1cm dilated. I ended up going in for an induction - I don't remember the details concerning what they did first with the induction, but after 24 hours on Pitocin I was still completely closed with zero signs of labor. My OB manually broke my water which is still the most painful things I have ever experienced. She allowed me to wait several more hours and around the 36 hour mark there was still absolutely zero progress. The decision to have a c-section was made at that time and less than 30 minutes late I had my sweet baby boy on my chest! I had an amazing c-section experience and was able to start nursing immediately and still have the golden hour which was really important to us. We had originally decided to do delayed chord cutting, but they don't (didn't) allow that with a c-section so instead we donated the chord blood, which actually felt like a really good decision and we went that route with DS2 and plan to again with this baby. I spent 3 more days in the hospital and had an extremely easy recovery - I honestly felt near 100% about a week after coming home.
DS2 -- another super boring/normal pregnancy - except for the whole COVID thing! I really wanted to attempt a VBAC for DS2, but I also felt okay about having another c-section, so I prepared for both. My OB was on board with a VBAC but would only let me go to 41 weeks and would not allow an induction, so I had to go into natural labor or have a RCS. I spend most of my pregnancy listening to an amazing VBAC podcast and birth stories podcasts, did tons of excersizes to supposedly promote labor, ate sooooo many figs starting at 36 weeks, had lots of sex in the final 2 weeks, I tried EVERYTHING I could find to safely promote labor...at 40 weeks I was still 100% closed and it felt like DS1 all over again. I got a COVID test at 40W3D and had a RCS at 41 weeks. My c-section with DS2 went fine, but it was a tougher recover than DS1 (I think mainly because I was 5 years older and not in as good of shape as was before). I spent 3 days in the hospital with zero visitors and DH was not allowed to leave or else he could not come back. It was nice to just have time together, but it was really tough not seeing DS1 at all during that time and he was really disappointed that he couldn't come and visit. My c-section recovery took a lot longer, but no major issues.
This time I'm going straight to RCS and scheduling at 39 weeks. It's crazy to think I will have this baby 2 weeks earlier than my first two and I'm worried about him being super duper tiny - DS1 and DS2 were both only 7 pounds at 41 weeks. My OB strongly believes that my body does not "know" how to go into labor but I kinda think my kids just need a little longer to cook.
I was 39+5 and had a planned induction because he was a big baby and my OB was worried about meconium inhalation. I had cervedil the day before, which did basically nothing. They started me on oxytocin and broke my water. I had a doula, I went 9 hours before I asked for pain medication: mostly because it was really painful after they had to manually tear through scar tissue from my LEEP procedure to let my cervix dilate more. I got an epidural an hour after the pain injection. After 14 hours, I was fully dilated/effaced, and pushed for an hour and a half. I could see his head in the mirror, and my husband could tell me he had red hair! However, he was sunny side up and had his 99th percentile head turned to the side, so despite all efforts and using the vacuum, he wasn’t coming out vaginally. I had a c-section, and he was so stuck in my pelvis they actually had to push him back up in to retrieve him surgically. He had a subgaleal hematoma from the vacuum which resolved after a couple months, and I was anemic and had a high white blood cell count that required antibiotics, and he was jaundiced, but those were our only complications. He had a great apgar score and nursed within the first hour of being born.
Sorry this is long but I have a lot of kids. It’s interesting how different all of them were. Plus, you will notice dilation means absolutely nothing.
My first, I struggled to make it to full term and I only made it to 36 weeks. I originally went into labor at 22 weeks and was put on bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy. I also had to take a medication to keep from having contractions. My water finally broke at 36 weeks. I labored without any epidural and planned to just keep going but my mom insisted I get one. I was only 17 so I listened to her. I labored for 15 hours and he was born with zero issues weighing 5lbs 6oz. He was so tiny.
My second wasn’t as easy as my first and I nearly ended with a c-section. I was a week overdue and scheduled to be induced. I woke up the morning of my induction and my water broke. I was getting out of the shower and I kept drying my legs and they kept getting wet and I realized my water had broke while I was in the shower. I was dilated to a 3 when I arrived at the hospital and I was only there for an hour when they started mentioning a c-section because she was already having decels. They had me lay on my side to keep her stable and that worked. They put me on pitocin and I labored with no epidural for the majority of the time. The way she was turned was causing my sciatic nerves to become irritated and shoot pain down the back of both of my legs. They kept checking me which was a big mistake for me to allow because it gave them more of a reason to push a c-section. They kept telling me I wasn’t progressing fast enough. They also told me if I didn’t deliver by the 12 hour mark I would be getting a C because of the risk of infection. 🙄 I finally got to the point I need an epidural and I didn’t let the nurse check me prior to getting it. When I sat up to get it I could feel her head. I didn’t say anything because I wanted the epidural really bad. It was so painful. Then I started pushing and every time I pushed her heart rate dropped. I pushed and pushed but I was so numb from the epidural I couldn’t get her out. The doctor was getting very worried by this point and she tried the vacuum with zero success and ended up giving me a huge episiotomy. When she was born she was white and not crying. They rushed to get her breathing and once they got her screaming she was fine. It took months for me to fully recover from the episiotomy.
My third was the quickest labor, lasting 3 hours from start to finish. I went in to my 40 weeks appointment and was dilated to a 7. Yes, a 7! With no active labor in site. She stripped my membranes and told me to come in again that afternoon to see if I had progressed. I hadn’t so she stripped them again. I immediately started having contractions that were 4 minutes apart. We went home to wait for them to get closer. I asked how I would know to come in and she said, “you won’t be able to talk through the contractions.” Well, I don’t typically have painful contractions until I hit transition. So I sat at home feeling mild menstrual cramps but I was sweating profusely. My mom made my husband take me in. They checked me when I arrived and I was still a 7. I walked the halls for awhile and came back and was an 8. She asked if she could break my water and I said sure. I went from a 3 on the pain scale to a full blown 10. It felt like my body was ripping itself apart. I was shaking uncontrollably and lord help any FTM that heard me screaming because I was very vocal. He was born 15 minutes after my water broke. It was one of the most painful births I have had. That was my first med free birth.
My fourth was easy. So very easy. It was also med free and it didn’t even hurt when I pushed her out. My water broke around 3 am and I went to the hospital. They kept me in triage because a lot of women who wanted epidurals and who needed c-sections came in and they got pushed in front of me. I let them check me once and said not again until I thought I was in transition. DH was helping me relax and I finally got to the point the pressure of the contractions wasn’t going away when the contractions stopped. So I called the nurse to come check me. Well, I was an 8. My doctor wasn’t in the hospital yet so they called her. Then they started preparing to move me to a L&D room. DH (an ER doctor) gloved up because he could tell I was hitting transition and he wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the room. They finally got me there and on the bed and I told him I felt like I needed to push. He got down there to look and then I started pushing and he ended up delivering our second baby girl. This one last a total of 6 hours and I think the slow dilation over the course of the 6 hours is what kept it so painless. The faster you dilate the more painful it is. At least that’s what it’s like for me.
My 5th was a second trimester delivery. I won’t tell that story though.
My 6th was also very painful. It was a 9 hour labor. My water broke at 1:45. I went into the hospital and I was only a 2.5 when they checked me. It took them forever to confirm my water was actually broken. They finally confirmed it when it gushed and I had a bloody show. So they moved me over to the L&D room. I went from a 2.5 to a 10 in 2 hours. It was very painful. I just couldn’t relax. I felt it was likely due to the delivery of my 5th baby and the trauma that entire experience left me with. I pushed him out, all 8 lbs of him. This was another med free delivery.
I prefer to go med free because my recover seems to be better plus I have an easier time pushing. Once transition hits, pushing actually takes the pain of the contractions away. So it feels good to push. I plan to do another med free birth this time.
This will be my 3rd so this isn't my first rodeo, but reading everyone's stories...yall seriously amaze me!!
Both of my births were c-sections, which can I say is the biggest mental mind f--k ever. They both ended up being scheduled which wasn't my original plan, but an upside to that was I was able to get everything planned and ready with no big surprises. Just being able to shower, get everything ready, make sure we had someone to watch the my older kid, etc. helped a lot with the overall stress of the situation.
The first c-section was pretty straightforward, but when they pulled out my son, one of the first things I heard was someone say "Is that normal?" Turns out, they were just commenting on my son's impressively-sized balls 🤣 My husband was so proud lol.
My second was pretty normal at first, but when the doc was doing the procedure, she noticed I had a huge cyst on one of my ovaries. She explained to me that it was so big, that there would be almost no way to separate it from the ovary, and I needed to make a decision: 1) let her remove the cyst and ovary right there and now or 2) leave it but then I'd have to go in for another surgery to get it removed at another time, but she was worried the cyst could rupture. So, I ended up having her remove it during the c-section, but what a crappy decision to have to make in a split second! They did testing on the cyst and turns out it was a dermoid cyst, which if you want to haunt your dreams, google it. My cyst had freaking bones, lung tissue, brain tissue, and hair in it. Ughhh. It was benign so that was good, but how gross is that?!
Overall, when it comes to the c-sections though, there is just something about lying on that table completely aware of what is happening that was hard to get over. I have a true phobia of needles, so the whole spinal block thing was tough for me to get through as well. Looking back, the spinal actually wasn't that bad, but in the moment...not fun.
At the end of the day, I got two healthy, awesome boys, so it all ends up being worth it.
@emeraldcity1214 it's so crazy how different all your labors were! I've never had the epidural, but I do agree that med-free is a very nice recovery. With both mine I was up walking almost immediately. I kinda want to experience the epidural just for my own sake to compare...but I doubt I'll get the chance haha.
@penny624 I'm right there with you with the fear of needles. I spent my whole first pregnancy terrified of getting the epi and so much anxiety about it, only to not have the chance to get it anyhow. But what a waste of worrying! lol I hear they try to administer it as you are having a contraction so that way you barely feel it?
@nasalot188 The anxiety about getting it was definitely the worst part! And I can't speak from experience about when they do it during actual labor, but I've heard that as well! I never went into labor for either one of mine, so I was fully aware what was about to go down.
@nasalot188 You aren’t missing anything. I feel like if I had not gotten the epidural with my second I could have easily pushed her out and avoided the episiotomy. The recovery from that was long and hard and had lasting effects due to nerve damage. I don’t recommend it. Especially if you are able to manage a med free labor and delivery.
@nasalot188 I had an epidural with my first and not with my second. The difference in labour is crazy, but because of the epidural I couldn’t feel a thing and I think it made everything go slower. I’m hoping to go med free again this time (probably won’t have a choice anyways lol) just because it went SO much faster and I was able to respond to my body instead of just pushing when the monitor showed a contraction. Also with covid I was able to leave 3 hours after giving birth which I wouldn’t have been able to do post epidural!
Nutshell story, I might go into more detail in the FB group later if anyone's interested: Induced at a terrible hospital I'd never visited before at 39 weeks for pre-eclampsia. Labor lasted 35ish hours ending after 4 hours of pushing. Because of all of the things I was hooked up to during labor, I couldn't walk around at all, and had to call the nurse every time I needed to pee. I ended up with a narcotic and epidural after laboring for most of that time without pain management, so I was pretty out of it due to the combination of meds, and baby got an internal heart rate monitor because he was showing decels while I pushed, though they had trouble keeping his vitals visible throughout the entire labor on the very bulky monitoring devices. I finally managed to push out my 6 lb peanut after an episiotomy and being threatened with a vacuum/c-section. The nurses were pretty awful in labor, and possibly worse in mother/baby. My room in mother/baby was essentially a prison cell, and DH's rollaway bed wasn't delivered until 11pm that night (baby was born at 5am) when they just rolled it to the door and left. So at less than 24 hours postpartum, with a 2nd degree tear, I had to help hubby rearrange the room so that we could fit my hospital bed, the rollaway, and DS's cot. Since then, those providers have stopped using that hospital. I will say on a positive note, that all 3 midwives that I cycled through during my labor and delivery were INCREDIBLY amazing, and I'm almost certain that I would have ended up with a c-section if not for them. That said, it took a long time for me to start entertaining the idea of going through another birth.
I live in a totally different state now, and my local hospitals have MUCH better reviews for their maternity teams, tubs for laboring, AND portable and waterproof monitoring devices, so I'm hopeful for a much more pleasant experience.
@Aerialmrs First, I am so sorry you had to go through that. It's so incredibly sad to hear first-hand that there are places that function like this, with no consideration for any type of support or help. I'm glad you had good midwives to watch out for you, but as far as the hospital goes, why would people choose to work in a hospital where the main focus should be the patient if they literally don't care about the patient!
Glad you are in a better location now with access to a better hospital...it really does make all the difference in the world!
I'll preface mine with a TW for traumatic birth and NICU baby.
The start was at my 36 week appointment they noticed that my fundal height was measuring low and I had been on track for my whole pregnancy. I was low risk, seeing midwives, had no other issues so they scheduled me a growth u/s for the next week. At 37+3 we had our growth u/s and baby was measuring 3rd percentile and I had very low amniotic fluid. We immediately went to my midwife appointment where my BP was high and I was diagnosed with mild pre-e (I was like duh my BP is high I just came from an u/s where they told us our baby is IUGR). So she says we will need to have an NST and be induced. If the NST goes well we can come back at 8 pm for the induction but if not we will go straight to L&D. The NST went well, we went and got lunch, I went to work and finished up some things and told my boss I was going to go have a baby and we went back to the hospital at 8 pm.
They started with cervidil that night and like @williams-jen that did basically nothing. The next morning I had a folly bulb inserted and that started a wave of very intense contractions for about an hour but it was nothing. I walked and bounced all day trying to dilate because they said when I got to 5 cm the bulb would fall out. Well they finally came to remove it and the midwife said that it would have never fallen out because they way overfilled it. That night I was started on pit and told to sleep. Yeah right. The whole time my BP was extremely elevated and the only way to keep it under control was to be on my knees resting on the back of the bed. I had a cuff on doing automatic readings every 15 minutes and it would set off an alarm because my BP was so high. At 6 am I told MH that if I wasn't ready to push I was going to get the epi. I was that lady on L&D screaming and yelling likely in transition while I waited for the epi. They placed the epi and I was set up on the peanut ball and told to rest but baby was having decels so they came to check me and I was fully dilated and ready to push about 20 minutes after getting the epi. Couldn't feel any contractions and they had turned my pit down to rest so they had to crank it back up and feel my uterus to tell me when to push. Three pushes and the tiny guy was born 36 hours after induction, only a minor tear for me. He was 4 lbs 11 oz and we knew he was going to need to go to the special care nursery.
They took out my IV but my BP didn't go down after delivery so now I was severely pre-eclamptic and was transferred to the OB care (which should have been done from the beginning IMO) and given an IV of magnesium sulfate for 24 hours. It was at this point that DS also started having seizures. They could no longer care for him at the special care nursery where we were delivered so he was ambulance transferred to the children's hospital. MH went with him and I was still on my IV so I was alone at the hospital I delivered at. One funny thing that happened is at one point I ran out of pads in the bathroom so I pressed the call button for a nurse. Well they all knew I was alone and apparently a call from the bathroom is like a significant call for them so like 6 nurses came rushing in and I was just sitting on the toilet like can someone just get me more pads.
DS ended up with a brain bleed from my high blood pressure during delivery which caused the seizures. He was sedated to stop the seizures and we just had to wait for the blood to be reabsorbed and the sedative to wear off to see if his seizures came back. Because of his size he was on fortified breastmilk for his first year so I EP'd and we mixed my breastmilk with formula powder. I had bruises from the BP cuff, never really got to "recover" from birth being in the NICU, had post partum pre-eclampsia and was on BP meds for months and had to go in for repeat BP checks.
*TW LC*
Me & MH: 32 DS: 6/1/18 (Pre-E; IUGR; seizures; NICU) TTC #2: 12/2019 Sept 2020: HSG possible blocked right tube Nov 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFN Dec 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFP!!! EDD 9/18
I was induced at 41 weeks and had a really good experience with it.
I went in to be assessed and do the NST in the morning; baby was really low, they could feel him right where he should be, but I was only dilated 2cm so I got cervidil and did another NST and then they sent me home and said to call in 6 hours and they'd decide if I should come back or keep waiting. Even before we left the hospital I was starting to feel more contractions and pressure, I tried to sleep when we got home but my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. About 4 hours after getting the cervidil I had what I guess was bloody show (sorry TMI) and my contractions were consistently closer together so I called the hospital and they told me to come back to be checked since I wasn't actually sure what the bleeding was at that point.
I was admitted at that point since I was dilated to 4cm and was having strong contractions at a good pace. Laboured for a while and held off on the epidural so I could keep moving around, but around 6/7cm moving stopped helping enough and I got my epidural and was happyyyyy as could be. Slept on and off, they broke my water around 8cm (which I didn't feel at all), and then it was another couple hours for me to get all the way to 10cm. They did some positioning stuff to help baby move down a bit to try and reduce pushing time, I pushed for about 40 minutes and he was born 7bs 12oz just over 14 hours from when they first started the induction. Ended up with a 3rd degree tear (my husband says our son's head sort of popped out as opposed to being more controlled so that probably didn't help) and more bleeding than expected after delivery, and then passed out when they took me to the bathroom...whoops...so I was on an IV for 24 hours which was a pain to deal with.
I loved our L&D nurses, maternity ward nurses not so much. I felt very judged for the fact that we couldn't get the hang of nursing instantly and like they thought I just wasn't trying hard enough, when in reality my son had a bad tongue tie and hurt me really badly trying to nurse after delivery. We were in the hospital most of 2 days; he had a little dimple at the base of his spine and they needed to do some extra scans and make sure that nothing was tethered in the wrong spot, but that also meant we were able to get his tongue tie revised before we went home which was a huge help with nursing.
All in all nothing crazy, and being induced worked really well for me. They said he was super low and right in position so I probably would have gone into labour anyways within the next few days, being induced just sort of kick started things for me.
So many intense stories! Lots of warrior mamas in this group! 💗
For DS1 I had told my OB I wanted to try to avoid being induced if possible, but he said he'd only let me go to 41 wks before he'd want me to be induced due to my petite frame. At my 40+2 appt, my BP was elevated and he said he'd give me 24 hrs to go into labor before we'd need to induce. My body showed no signs of impending labor, so I agreed to go in for induction that evening. They started pit at 1830 and I had crazy back labor all night. They attempted (and failed) to break my water twice. At 5 AM I finally agreed to a shot of fentanyl to attempt to get some sleep before my OB came to break my water again. At 0515 my water broke on its own. My pit was up so high at this point that my contractions were basically one long contraction. I got my epidural an hour later, was dilated to 3, and was able to sleep til 11 when they checked me and found I was a 10. I pushed for 39 min, had a small episiotomy, and pulled my 6 lb 8 oz little guy onto my chest. It was a great experience once I got my epidural, haha.
For DS2, I had scheduled my induction for 39+5 because my OB was out of town until that day. I ended up going into labor on my own at 39+1 (huge thunderstorm went through the area), got to 5 cm on my own before my body stalled out and they broke my water. An hour later nothing had happened so they started some pitocin and I requested my epidural. My epi was positional, so every time I was on my back my BP would plummet, so I had to stay on my sides until pushing time. I was fully dilated at 0825, pushed for 20 min, and was able to pull DS2 out and onto my chest, delivering intact this time around.
I'm hoping I get to pull this LO out too, so we shall see how it goes! My husband got great pictures of our delivery of DS2 so I would love to capture the birth of #3 too!
Wow, so many stories about horrible nurses and care.
First off TW. My story is pretty unique and only happens in less than 1% of all births. One nurse had been in L&D for 10 years and I was her first.
I went to 41 weeks pretty comfortably, and had been dilated at a 2 for a bit. OB did a sweep and my water broke the next day around 6:30. When I say it broke I mean it broke broke lol like straight out of a movie, exactly what a birthing class says will probably say wont happen with your first. I didn't feel contractions but so we took out time and checked into the hospital about 2 hours later. I was feeling really anxious and since i couldn't feel many contractions I just kept walking circles around the L&D floor. A nurse came over to check on me and told me I really needed to stay in bed while they got our room ready. Our room was ready in about 15 min after that and I was hooked up to an iv, and the usually monitors. I kept telling me hubby that I just really needed to walk I didn't want to lay in the bed. He laid down with me and turned on the tv( I didnt know he was watching the baby's heart beat on the monitor and he noticed it looked off) probably 15 min later my nurse came in to check my cervix. As shes checking me, she pushes up onto the bed and pulls a red cord and says" cord I have cord in room#", she looked me in the eyes and said " the cord is coming before your baby and your baby's air will be cut off before you can deliver, we are doing an emergency c-section right now". About 6 nurses came in and flew me down the hall way to the OR, they were amazing, they kept holding my hand telling me my baby was going to be fine. I was put under anesthesia bc I had not had an epidural yet. My husband wasnt allowed in the OR bc of me being put under so he had to wait outside, I'm so glad my mother was with him. In less than 5 min they brought him our baby. I was taken to recovery and was woken up. Probably the funniest thing was we had waited to find out the gender. My nurse knew so she had told all the nurses to keep the surprise so hubby and I could find out together. Well my anisesiologist came into check on me and said" mama you had one beautiful healthy baby girl" I replied " I did??" The nurse actually yelled at him to get out lol!!! My hub was brought back and I was crying because he waited so I got to tell him we had a girl.
My recovery was really hard the first 12-24 hours after that because I didnt have a spinal block, I had to be put on pain med drip. I dont remember much of our first night and she had to be bottle fed bc of the medications I was on. Thankfully once I was able to get off iv pain meds, a lactation nurse came in and helped us breast feed. She was wonderful and came back as many times as I asked. I truly think we had a good breast feeding experience bc of her and a few of the other nurses that would sit with me anytime I asked for help.
I know this is long but I really want to talk about my experience with pain meds after we were sent home. I didn't cry about our labor experience until we got home. I became really sad that I was woken up and on so much medication I couldn't even hold her without help. I have no real memories about her first 12 hours. I was also sent home with quite a few different pain meds. I was shaky and confused at times. About two days after being home my husband sat down on the couch with me and asked me if I was ok. That he had noticed I wasn't holding her and I seemed in a trance. I told him I felt like I was going to fall though the couch to the floor and I was scared I was going to hurt her, I didn't feel like we had bonded and I cried and cried. He got out all my pills, googled them, called and asked his mother to help us. I stopped taking everything but the ibprophen. He and his mom watched me like a hawk for the next day or two. I felt completely different about 24 hours later, I mean 180. I was cooking and holding her, laughing, and truly joyful. Please please please tell someone if you are feeling off. Its normal to not feel like yourself completely, but its not normal to feel like you are going to fall though a bed or a couch. I truly credit him for watching me and taking notice.
Sorry I should have added its called a prolapsed umbilical cord, what made our experience so rare was that I had not had an epidural yet. I tried to edit my post
DS1- started with contractions in the early morning hours at 40+5. I wasn’t sure it was labor as it felt more like uncomfortable menstrual cramps but enough to wake me up at 4am. I was starving and ate cereal while i waited for H to wake up. I texted my doula around 6a and agreed to keep her posted. By 1130, my contractions were enough to interrupt eating/talking, I had my bloody show, and we decided we should start getting ready. We took an Uber and arrived at 115p. My contractions were intense. I was only at a 4 when we arrived, they went to check on a room as I wanted to use the birthing center. They agreed to admit me about 20 minutes later and I was at a 6. I painfully hobbled to the bathroom and apparently my doula told my H at the time that “I thought I was in pain but this was nothing” (compared to what was coming).... but I think I was in transition. They put me in a wheelchair to take me to the room and I could hardly sit in the chair or put my feet on the footholds because I was writhing. As i crawled into the bed my water POPPED and I started panicking because there was so much pressure. They came into check me and said it was time to push, in the time I’d been moved into a room I’d escalated from a 6 to full 10. Which explains the unbelievable pain. I was NOT ready to push and desperately wanted to escape the situation. I’d expected to have hours of laboring and using the tub, not to immediately have to push against unreal pain. I hated the instructions they gave me (hold my breath, count to ten, and push), I found it entirely unintuitive and couldn’t get the hang of it in my panic. I pushed for 55 minutes before the doc threatened to cut which motivated me sufficiently to push harder and get him out. He was born at 2:55pm. I had no tearing thanks to savvy and painful handwork from my OB but experienced months of pelvic floor pain and later more than a year of PT. The fast delivery was mentally and physically traumatic. We left the hospital after one day and DS ended up with jaundice so we had to return, which sucked. DS2- on Saturday night at 40w I noticed low movement and at L&D they found my fluid was low. They wanted to induce me that night but I wasn’t mentally ready and we decided I could drink lots of fluids, rest, and wait for a check on Sunday. On Sunday things were the same so we agreed on Monday morning induction. I started my abx for GSB and then a foley. The foley was done in about 45m and fell out. Not fun but manageable as i paced the halls and H did hip compressions. We had to wait for my abx to finish so I ate and took a nap. Once they were done they broke my water around 2pm. Labor intensified immensely and after one hall length I couldn’t stand. I laid on my side and asked for the nitrous oxide mask. It does virtually nothing but gave me an anchor. Within an hour I felt the pressure and knew it was time to push. I delivered DS2 side lying at 314p and with far less pelvic trauma. I didn’t stop bleeding so had to do like 12h of meds which made uterus contract, miserable. We stayed in the hospital longer than with my first which I actually preferred. im delivering DS3 at a different hospital and don’t love all their policies so I’m hoping it’s ok. The hospital is supposedly really nice but further removed from a birthing center experience so more rules.
My birth story wasn't super eventful. I had a scheduled induction at 38w6d because I had high blood pressure throughout pregnancy and it was getting higher at the end, no pre-eclampsia though. They had me get to the hospital at 3am (ugh) and they finally got me checked into a L&D room around 4am. Then they inserted the foley bulb and gave me misoprostol to help ripen things. That went quicker than they thought it would, then they gave me the pitocin and broke my water with ease when it was time I remember dilating super quickly too, my doctor was surprised. I waited until about 2pm to get my epidural and started pushing about 4pm. Baby was out at 6:50pm. I ended up with Chorioamnionitis, so they got me meds for that and were going to send her off to the Chorio nursery for monitoring, but they ended up taking her to NICU because she also had a stridor and they wanted to make sure that was okay. They brought her by on the way up to the NICU and MH went with her to see where we would need to go, then I didn't see her the rest of that first night, but honestly, the mostly uninterrupted sleep was great and much needed. Thankfully, she got to come home with us when I was discharged after 2 nights stay. I'm kind of hoping for another induction because the first went pretty well and I like having a plan, especially since we're going to be inviting grandparents to come stay with DD1 until we're home.
DD: Started with terrible back labour late at night, tried my best to labour by myself so DH could get some sleep since he had just gone to bed. That lasted for what felt like forever, eventually things picked up and it got too intense and I had my MIL/SIL drive us to the hospital just after dinner (we didn't drive back then).
When we got there I was only at 3cm so we were told we could either go home or try to labour further in their little waiting room since they couldn't technically check me in yet. Around 11pm or so my water broke but it wasn't like a big gush or anything, it just felt like I peed a little. I was already wearing a pad at that point because I was losing my plug which was handy. I told the ladies at the nurses desk and they checked me and confirmed. By that point I had progressed just enough to be checked in.
Once checked in, I was able to just hangout in my room and labour more privately (there wasn't ever anyone in the little labour waiting room) and I was eventually allowed to labour in the jacuzzi tub for awhile. After 30 hours of the worst back labour with no meds, a nurse convinced me to take the epidural because I just wasn't progressing. I was so terrified of getting one but I just broke down crying and said okay. I immediately fell asleep once it kicked in because I was so exhausted from essentially clenching my whole body for 30 hours. 8 hours later she was born. The OB had just pulled his scissors out and was about to give me an episiotomy and I said NOPE and pushed her out lol I ended up tearing a tiny bit and needed 1 stitch but I'd highly prefer that over being cut.
Re: Labor/Birth Stories
DS1 I worked the day I went into labor and felt crappy all day. I ended up going to bed early and DH stayed up to watch Avatar, well I woke up before he came to bed because my water broke. We head up to the hospital (45 min drive ugh) and I was 4 cm when we got there. Luckily snagged the last labor room. My nurse was awfullll. We got there early in the morning and I was trying not to get the epidural but contractions are terrible and worse because they made me wear those monitors the whole time and wouldn’t let me get up. (Edited cuz I posted too early lol). I think we were at the hospital 9 hours total? My nurse was mean. I got the Epi around 7 cm and it only worked on half my body. I kept telling DH to press my button lol because there was a button you could press every 15 mins to get more drugs. They ended up breaking my water again because it didn’t break fully and there was meconium in it so a whole 15 people were in the room when I finally got to push. Pushing wasn’t long at all, like 45 mins? I tore and needed 3 stitches and DS1 had a huuuuuge head. I forget the cm now but it was 99th%tile. My sister heard the nurse say she was never working day shift again. Did I mention my nurse was terrible?? I did throw up on her but still.
My two birth stories are drastically different. With DS1, I was 23, and single at the time (a long story for another day) and living at home with my parents. I started having contractions so my mom took me to the hospital and they admitted me. I waited what seemed like forever, having contractions. I remember them telling me I couldn't get the epidural yet, but they could give me something else, which I took, but it really made my memories of the night fuzzy. I eventually got the epidural also. After 15 hrs, it was time to push, but I was so numb and doped that I couldn't tell if I was pushing or not. Eventually they determined the contractions were affecting DS1s heart and they said it was time for an emergency C-section. My mom was in the OR with me, and I'll never forget hearing absolute silence when they pulled DS1 out. My mom's face went absolutely white, bloodless. There was a period of, what must've only been a few minutes, but felt like hours, where the medical team worked on my son, trying to revitalize him. He failed his apgar three times, and finally, thankfully, we heard him cry. I still get emotional thinking of that moment. I know we had angels watching over us in that room.
I had complications post surgery as well. I went home and 24 hrs later developed a fever, landing me back in the hospital. They kept pumping me full of antibiotics, but couldn't figure out the cause of the fever. For two weeks, I stayed in the hospital with DS1 and my mom at my side. I saw countless doctors and nurses, even fever specialists, who couldn't figure it out. Meanwhile, I kept telling them that my C-section incision was oozing. I mean, I'm no doctor, but that would seem to be the most likely culprit, no?!? 🙄 They would look at it and say it looked normal. Anyway, eventually they listened and reopened the incision, and found the wound was infected all along. That was by far the most stressful 2 weeks of my life, and a rocky introduction to motherhood, I'll add!
DS2 was a planned C-section and SO much better. That pregnancy was textbook, and delivery was as well. I had my husband at my side, and wonderful nurses.
DS2 - because of the history of precipitous labor (which runs in my family BTW so check with your mothers and grandmothers!) I was very closely monitored for dilation with my second. Once I reached 4cm dilated at my appt, OB booked me for induction 2 days later. I was GBS positive this time so I needed to be on IV antibiotics for 4 hrs prior to induction. They were so busy that day, we stayed for 8 hrs on the drip only to be sent home. It sucked. They were able to get us in the following morning last minute. They started pitocin around 8am. I didn't feel anything. The nurses said I was clearly having contractions every 2 mins on the monitor but I just couldn't feel. Because of this I couldn't yet get the epidural as I wasn't considered 'in labor'. Finally I felt contractions at 130pm fast and furious. They called the anesthesiologist and started to get me setup to get the epidural. A short while later my water broke...I yelled F*UCK rly loud LOL cause I knew I wasn't getting that epidural yet again. I pushed for 10 mins and baby was born 216pm. Total labor 46 minutes. Even though this labor was insanely fast it was a much better experience than my first. We were prepared for how fast it was going to happen...pushing with no epidural was hard but not as painful as DS1. I only had 1 small tear.
We have bets going on how fast #3 will be! Its terrifying and I pray I don't give birth on my bathroom floor. The plan is to be induced again once I'm showing ready signs.
DS2 -- another super boring/normal pregnancy - except for the whole COVID thing! I really wanted to attempt a VBAC for DS2, but I also felt okay about having another c-section, so I prepared for both. My OB was on board with a VBAC but would only let me go to 41 weeks and would not allow an induction, so I had to go into natural labor or have a RCS. I spend most of my pregnancy listening to an amazing VBAC podcast and birth stories podcasts, did tons of excersizes to supposedly promote labor, ate sooooo many figs starting at 36 weeks, had lots of sex in the final 2 weeks, I tried EVERYTHING I could find to safely promote labor...at 40 weeks I was still 100% closed and it felt like DS1 all over again. I got a COVID test at 40W3D and had a RCS at 41 weeks. My c-section with DS2 went fine, but it was a tougher recover than DS1 (I think mainly because I was 5 years older and not in as good of shape as was before). I spent 3 days in the hospital with zero visitors and DH was not allowed to leave or else he could not come back. It was nice to just have time together, but it was really tough not seeing DS1 at all during that time and he was really disappointed that he couldn't come and visit. My c-section recovery took a lot longer, but no major issues.
This time I'm going straight to RCS and scheduling at 39 weeks. It's crazy to think I will have this baby 2 weeks earlier than my first two and I'm worried about him being super duper tiny - DS1 and DS2 were both only 7 pounds at 41 weeks. My OB strongly believes that my body does not "know" how to go into labor but I kinda think my kids just need a little longer to cook.
Both of my births were c-sections, which can I say is the biggest mental mind f--k ever. They both ended up being scheduled which wasn't my original plan, but an upside to that was I was able to get everything planned and ready with no big surprises. Just being able to shower, get everything ready, make sure we had someone to watch the my older kid, etc. helped a lot with the overall stress of the situation.
The first c-section was pretty straightforward, but when they pulled out my son, one of the first things I heard was someone say "Is that normal?" Turns out, they were just commenting on my son's impressively-sized balls 🤣 My husband was so proud lol.
My second was pretty normal at first, but when the doc was doing the procedure, she noticed I had a huge cyst on one of my ovaries. She explained to me that it was so big, that there would be almost no way to separate it from the ovary, and I needed to make a decision: 1) let her remove the cyst and ovary right there and now or 2) leave it but then I'd have to go in for another surgery to get it removed at another time, but she was worried the cyst could rupture. So, I ended up having her remove it during the c-section, but what a crappy decision to have to make in a split second! They did testing on the cyst and turns out it was a dermoid cyst, which if you want to haunt your dreams, google it. My cyst had freaking bones, lung tissue, brain tissue, and hair in it. Ughhh. It was benign so that was good, but how gross is that?!
Overall, when it comes to the c-sections though, there is just something about lying on that table completely aware of what is happening that was hard to get over. I have a true phobia of needles, so the whole spinal block thing was tough for me to get through as well. Looking back, the spinal actually wasn't that bad, but in the moment...not fun.
At the end of the day, I got two healthy, awesome boys, so it all ends up being worth it.
@penny624 I'm right there with you with the fear of needles. I spent my whole first pregnancy terrified of getting the epi and so much anxiety about it, only to not have the chance to get it anyhow. But what a waste of worrying! lol I hear they try to administer it as you are having a contraction so that way you barely feel it?
I live in a totally different state now, and my local hospitals have MUCH better reviews for their maternity teams, tubs for laboring, AND portable and waterproof monitoring devices, so I'm hopeful for a much more pleasant experience.
Glad you are in a better location now with access to a better hospital...it really does make all the difference in the world!
The start was at my 36 week appointment they noticed that my fundal height was measuring low and I had been on track for my whole pregnancy. I was low risk, seeing midwives, had no other issues so they scheduled me a growth u/s for the next week. At 37+3 we had our growth u/s and baby was measuring 3rd percentile and I had very low amniotic fluid. We immediately went to my midwife appointment where my BP was high and I was diagnosed with mild pre-e (I was like duh my BP is high I just came from an u/s where they told us our baby is IUGR). So she says we will need to have an NST and be induced. If the NST goes well we can come back at 8 pm for the induction but if not we will go straight to L&D. The NST went well, we went and got lunch, I went to work and finished up some things and told my boss I was going to go have a baby and we went back to the hospital at 8 pm.
They started with cervidil that night and like @williams-jen that did basically nothing. The next morning I had a folly bulb inserted and that started a wave of very intense contractions for about an hour but it was nothing. I walked and bounced all day trying to dilate because they said when I got to 5 cm the bulb would fall out. Well they finally came to remove it and the midwife said that it would have never fallen out because they way overfilled it. That night I was started on pit and told to sleep. Yeah right. The whole time my BP was extremely elevated and the only way to keep it under control was to be on my knees resting on the back of the bed. I had a cuff on doing automatic readings every 15 minutes and it would set off an alarm because my BP was so high. At 6 am I told MH that if I wasn't ready to push I was going to get the epi. I was that lady on L&D screaming and yelling likely in transition while I waited for the epi. They placed the epi and I was set up on the peanut ball and told to rest but baby was having decels so they came to check me and I was fully dilated and ready to push about 20 minutes after getting the epi. Couldn't feel any contractions and they had turned my pit down to rest so they had to crank it back up and feel my uterus to tell me when to push. Three pushes and the tiny guy was born 36 hours after induction, only a minor tear for me. He was 4 lbs 11 oz and we knew he was going to need to go to the special care nursery.
They took out my IV but my BP didn't go down after delivery so now I was severely pre-eclamptic and was transferred to the OB care (which should have been done from the beginning IMO) and given an IV of magnesium sulfate for 24 hours. It was at this point that DS also started having seizures. They could no longer care for him at the special care nursery where we were delivered so he was ambulance transferred to the children's hospital. MH went with him and I was still on my IV so I was alone at the hospital I delivered at. One funny thing that happened is at one point I ran out of pads in the bathroom so I pressed the call button for a nurse. Well they all knew I was alone and apparently a call from the bathroom is like a significant call for them so like 6 nurses came rushing in and I was just sitting on the toilet like can someone just get me more pads.
DS ended up with a brain bleed from my high blood pressure during delivery which caused the seizures. He was sedated to stop the seizures and we just had to wait for the blood to be reabsorbed and the sedative to wear off to see if his seizures came back. Because of his size he was on fortified breastmilk for his first year so I EP'd and we mixed my breastmilk with formula powder. I had bruises from the BP cuff, never really got to "recover" from birth being in the NICU, had post partum pre-eclampsia and was on BP meds for months and had to go in for repeat BP checks.
DS: 6/1/18 (Pre-E; IUGR; seizures; NICU)
TTC #2: 12/2019
Sept 2020: HSG possible blocked right tube
Nov 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFN
Dec 2020: Letrozole + TI - BFP!!! EDD 9/18
I went in to be assessed and do the NST in the morning; baby was really low, they could feel him right where he should be, but I was only dilated 2cm so I got cervidil and did another NST and then they sent me home and said to call in 6 hours and they'd decide if I should come back or keep waiting. Even before we left the hospital I was starting to feel more contractions and pressure, I tried to sleep when we got home but my contractions were getting stronger and closer together. About 4 hours after getting the cervidil I had what I guess was bloody show (sorry TMI) and my contractions were consistently closer together so I called the hospital and they told me to come back to be checked since I wasn't actually sure what the bleeding was at that point.
I was admitted at that point since I was dilated to 4cm and was having strong contractions at a good pace. Laboured for a while and held off on the epidural so I could keep moving around, but around 6/7cm moving stopped helping enough and I got my epidural and was happyyyyy as could be. Slept on and off, they broke my water around 8cm (which I didn't feel at all), and then it was another couple hours for me to get all the way to 10cm. They did some positioning stuff to help baby move down a bit to try and reduce pushing time, I pushed for about 40 minutes and he was born 7bs 12oz just over 14 hours from when they first started the induction. Ended up with a 3rd degree tear (my husband says our son's head sort of popped out as opposed to being more controlled so that probably didn't help) and more bleeding than expected after delivery, and then passed out when they took me to the bathroom...whoops...so I was on an IV for 24 hours which was a pain to deal with.
I loved our L&D nurses, maternity ward nurses not so much. I felt very judged for the fact that we couldn't get the hang of nursing instantly and like they thought I just wasn't trying hard enough, when in reality my son had a bad tongue tie and hurt me really badly trying to nurse after delivery. We were in the hospital most of 2 days; he had a little dimple at the base of his spine and they needed to do some extra scans and make sure that nothing was tethered in the wrong spot, but that also meant we were able to get his tongue tie revised before we went home which was a huge help with nursing.
All in all nothing crazy, and being induced worked really well for me. They said he was super low and right in position so I probably would have gone into labour anyways within the next few days, being induced just sort of kick started things for me.
For DS1 I had told my OB I wanted to try to avoid being induced if possible, but he said he'd only let me go to 41 wks before he'd want me to be induced due to my petite frame. At my 40+2 appt, my BP was elevated and he said he'd give me 24 hrs to go into labor before we'd need to induce. My body showed no signs of impending labor, so I agreed to go in for induction that evening. They started pit at 1830 and I had crazy back labor all night. They attempted (and failed) to break my water twice. At 5 AM I finally agreed to a shot of fentanyl to attempt to get some sleep before my OB came to break my water again. At 0515 my water broke on its own. My pit was up so high at this point that my contractions were basically one long contraction. I got my epidural an hour later, was dilated to 3, and was able to sleep til 11 when they checked me and found I was a 10. I pushed for 39 min, had a small episiotomy, and pulled my 6 lb 8 oz little guy onto my chest. It was a great experience once I got my epidural, haha.
For DS2, I had scheduled my induction for 39+5 because my OB was out of town until that day. I ended up going into labor on my own at 39+1 (huge thunderstorm went through the area), got to 5 cm on my own before my body stalled out and they broke my water. An hour later nothing had happened so they started some pitocin and I requested my epidural. My epi was positional, so every time I was on my back my BP would plummet, so I had to stay on my sides until pushing time. I was fully dilated at 0825, pushed for 20 min, and was able to pull DS2 out and onto my chest, delivering intact this time around.
I'm hoping I get to pull this LO out too, so we shall see how it goes! My husband got great pictures of our delivery of DS2 so I would love to capture the birth of #3 too!
First off TW.
My story is pretty unique and only happens in less than 1% of all births. One nurse had been in L&D for 10 years and I was her first.
I went to 41 weeks pretty comfortably, and had been dilated at a 2 for a bit. OB did a sweep and my water broke the next day around 6:30. When I say it broke I mean it broke broke lol like straight out of a movie, exactly what a birthing class says will probably say wont happen with your first. I didn't feel contractions but so we took out time and checked into the hospital about 2 hours later. I was feeling really anxious and since i couldn't feel many contractions I just kept walking circles around the L&D floor. A nurse came over to check on me and told me I really needed to stay in bed while they got our room ready. Our room was ready in about 15 min after that and I was hooked up to an iv, and the usually monitors. I kept telling me hubby that I just really needed to walk I didn't want to lay in the bed. He laid down with me and turned on the tv( I didnt know he was watching the baby's heart beat on the monitor and he noticed it looked off) probably 15 min later my nurse came in to check my cervix. As shes checking me, she pushes up onto the bed and pulls a red cord and says" cord I have cord in room#", she looked me in the eyes and said " the cord is coming before your baby and your baby's air will be cut off before you can deliver, we are doing an emergency c-section right now". About 6 nurses came in and flew me down the hall way to the OR, they were amazing, they kept holding my hand telling me my baby was going to be fine. I was put under anesthesia bc I had not had an epidural yet. My husband wasnt allowed in the OR bc of me being put under so he had to wait outside, I'm so glad my mother was with him. In less than 5 min they brought him our baby. I was taken to recovery and was woken up. Probably the funniest thing was we had waited to find out the gender. My nurse knew so she had told all the nurses to keep the surprise so hubby and I could find out together. Well my anisesiologist came into check on me and said" mama you had one beautiful healthy baby girl" I replied " I did??" The nurse actually yelled at him to get out lol!!! My hub was brought back and I was crying because he waited so I got to tell him we had a girl.
My recovery was really hard the first 12-24 hours after that because I didnt have a spinal block, I had to be put on pain med drip. I dont remember much of our first night and she had to be bottle fed bc of the medications I was on. Thankfully once I was able to get off iv pain meds, a lactation nurse came in and helped us breast feed. She was wonderful and came back as many times as I asked. I truly think we had a good breast feeding experience bc of her and a few of the other nurses that would sit with me anytime I asked for help.
I know this is long but I really want to talk about my experience with pain meds after we were sent home. I didn't cry about our labor experience until we got home. I became really sad that I was woken up and on so much medication I couldn't even hold her without help. I have no real memories about her first 12 hours. I was also sent home with quite a few different pain meds. I was shaky and confused at times. About two days after being home my husband sat down on the couch with me and asked me if I was ok. That he had noticed I wasn't holding her and I seemed in a trance. I told him I felt like I was going to fall though the couch to the floor and I was scared I was going to hurt her, I didn't feel like we had bonded and I cried and cried. He got out all my pills, googled them, called and asked his mother to help us. I stopped taking everything but the ibprophen. He and his mom watched me like a hawk for the next day or two. I felt completely different about 24 hours later, I mean 180. I was cooking and holding her, laughing, and truly joyful. Please please please tell someone if you are feeling off. Its normal to not feel like yourself completely, but its not normal to feel like you are going to fall though a bed or a couch. I truly credit him for watching me and taking notice.
DS2- on Saturday night at 40w I noticed low movement and at L&D they found my fluid was low. They wanted to induce me that night but I wasn’t mentally ready and we decided I could drink lots of fluids, rest, and wait for a check on Sunday. On Sunday things were the same so we agreed on Monday morning induction. I started my abx for GSB and then a foley. The foley was done in about 45m and fell out. Not fun but manageable as i paced the halls and H did hip compressions. We had to wait for my abx to finish so I ate and took a nap. Once they were done they broke my water around 2pm. Labor intensified immensely and after one hall length I couldn’t stand. I laid on my side and asked for the nitrous oxide mask. It does virtually nothing but gave me an anchor. Within an hour I felt the pressure and knew it was time to push. I delivered DS2 side lying at 314p and with far less pelvic trauma. I didn’t stop bleeding so had to do like 12h of meds which made uterus contract, miserable. We stayed in the hospital longer than with my first which I actually preferred.
im delivering DS3 at a different hospital and don’t love all their policies so I’m hoping it’s ok. The hospital is supposedly really nice but further removed from a birthing center experience so more rules.
They had me get to the hospital at 3am (ugh) and they finally got me checked into a L&D room around 4am. Then they inserted the foley bulb and gave me misoprostol to help ripen things. That went quicker than they thought it would, then they gave me the pitocin and broke my water with ease when it was time I remember dilating super quickly too, my doctor was surprised. I waited until about 2pm to get my epidural and started pushing about 4pm. Baby was out at 6:50pm. I ended up with Chorioamnionitis, so they got me meds for that and were going to send her off to the Chorio nursery for monitoring, but they ended up taking her to NICU because she also had a stridor and they wanted to make sure that was okay. They brought her by on the way up to the NICU and MH went with her to see where we would need to go, then I didn't see her the rest of that first night, but honestly, the mostly uninterrupted sleep was great and much needed. Thankfully, she got to come home with us when I was discharged after 2 nights stay.
I'm kind of hoping for another induction because the first went pretty well and I like having a plan, especially since we're going to be inviting grandparents to come stay with DD1 until we're home.
When we got there I was only at 3cm so we were told we could either go home or try to labour further in their little waiting room since they couldn't technically check me in yet. Around 11pm or so my water broke but it wasn't like a big gush or anything, it just felt like I peed a little. I was already wearing a pad at that point because I was losing my plug which was handy. I told the ladies at the nurses desk and they checked me and confirmed. By that point I had progressed just enough to be checked in.
Once checked in, I was able to just hangout in my room and labour more privately (there wasn't ever anyone in the little labour waiting room) and I was eventually allowed to labour in the jacuzzi tub for awhile. After 30 hours of the worst back labour with no meds, a nurse convinced me to take the epidural because I just wasn't progressing. I was so terrified of getting one but I just broke down crying and said okay. I immediately fell asleep once it kicked in because I was so exhausted from essentially clenching my whole body for 30 hours. 8 hours later she was born. The OB had just pulled his scissors out and was about to give me an episiotomy and I said NOPE and pushed her out lol I ended up tearing a tiny bit and needed 1 stitch but I'd highly prefer that over being cut.