Itsychik
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This is my third baby. With my first two pregnancies, the births happened almost exactly the same (waters breaking, nothing happened so induced, then 14 – 16 hours of not progressing past 4cm and then fetal distress, and EMCS). I suffered PND for six months after my last birth experience and was desperate for a VBAC this time.
I had several discussions with the midwives at my practice and the senior consultant/obgyn at the hospital to discuss the possibility and risks of a VBA2C and received varying levels of support. After a 1.5 hour discussion with the senior obgyn at the hospital he agreed that it was my decision and that he would support whatever I decided. We compromised on waiting until 41 weeks for things to happen naturally, and otherwise I agreed to plan in a c-section.
For the last several weeks of my pregnancy I had a “feeling” that baby would come a little earlier, and I had started some homeopathic options to try and help (getting a “foot reflex massage,” drinking a tea mixture (which included things like raspberry leaf), one midwife gave me a vial of caulophyllum which I was supposed to smell twice a day (I was willing to try it!), etc. On April 30th (at 38+5) I woke up at 3:30am and started having light contractions every 8 minutes. I got REALLY excited but after 3 hours they stopped completely.
On May 4th (at 39+2) I woke up at 5:30am and again, started having light contractions every 10-ish minutes and lasting for about 45 seconds. My mother was arriving at the airport at 7:30am (coming to stay with us for 2 months) and I had been planning on picking her up (the airport is about 50 minutes away from us). After a brief debate I decided to go get her myself and DH got our other two children ready for school/daycare and then he went to work. Contractions were ‘annoying’ but not really ‘painful’ and continued to come every 8 – 10 minutes.
At 11:30am I decided to take a brief nap (slept for 1.5 hours) and when I woke, contractions had slowed a bit to every 10 – 15 minutes. As the day progressed they gradually started to increase in frequency (by 5:00pm they were back to 8 – 10 minutes apart and getting more uncomfortable, and by 10:00pm they were 6 – 8 minutes apart and definitely getting painful. By 11:30pm I decided to try and get some sleep, but was only able to sleep sporadically in between contractions. By 1:45am on May 5th I gave up trying to sleep and decided to take a shower. Contractions picked up while I was standing under the shower but the water felt amazing, so I stayed there for about an hour until contractions were every 3 – 4 minutes and close to a minute in length, so I called the hospital to ask for their advice. They told me to come in to get checked, especially since I had a history of 2 previous c-sections. We left for the hospital at 3am (I was really glad my mom was staying with us, so we didn’t have to arrange any additional babysitting for our other children!) and when we arrived at the hospital they monitored baby’s heart rate for 30 minutes (which was perfect!) and then checked and I was 3cm! They told me to try and get some sleep and they would come back and check in a couple of hours. I wasn’t able to sleep much (and when I laid down then the contractions would slow) so I stood and walked around the room to try and help speed things up.
By 10:30am I had only progressed to 4cm, but cervix was effaced and contractions were too painful to walk or talk through, coming 4 – 5 minutes apart when standing, and I was getting really tired. At 2:00pm they came to check again and there had been no progress, so they decided to break my waters to see if that helped and otherwise wanted to put me on a drip to speed things up (I wanted to avoid this at all costs). They broke my waters and saw meconium so they gave me an hour to wait to see if we made progress before starting to induce, but within 15 minutes the contractions started coming every 3 – 4 minutes, lasted close to a minute and a half, and were twice as painful. By 4:00pm I had moved to 6cm and with each contraction I was getting the urge to push, which was extremely painful and caused my entire back to arch off the bed and my entire abdomen to contract. The nurse kept telling me to “relax” and tried different breathing techniques but that only helped a portion of the time. At this point I was having a really hard time breathing through the contractions, and with every contraction came the ‘urge to push’ which occurred completely involuntarily and felt like my entire uterus was contracting/pushing outward. They monitored the baby’s heart rate the entire time, and it was going fairly steady but at one point they came in to attach a monitor internally to the baby’s head. They were concerned that the heart rate was “too steady” and they told me it was “acceptable for now, but needed to keep an eye on it.” Fetal distress is the ultimate reason both my previous births ended in EMCS so I was worried (freaking out) that this would happen again. They took a blood sample from the baby to test the oxygen saturation (with my first baby this was very low and they operated almost immediately to remove him) and the few minutes we had to wait for the result felt like an eternity…but eventually we got the good news that baby seemed to be fine.They also noticed that baby had turned into an anterior position (“sunny side up”
which both of my previous babies had been as well.
After another hour of this the obgyn warned me that continuing to push was likely to irritate the cervix and cause it to swell, and would prevent further dialation and could lead to another EMCS. She also suggested that since baby was anterior that there was a higher risk of complications. She recommended I get a (walking) epidural to “take the edge off” and make the contractions more manageable. I wanted to avoid this (I’d had one with my previous two births and each time it caused complications which I’m convinced led to the EMCS) and I tried suggesting other options (such as remifentanil) but she warned me that if we needed to operate immediately then I would likely have to be put under general anesthesia to save time (which I was also desperate to avoid). I reluctantly agreed and was convinced I’d end up with another c-section as a result.
At around 5:00/5:30pm I was wheeled down for the epidural. It was ridiculously hard to sit still while hunched over forward so they could properly reach my back while having the terrible contractions. However, they were really good about listening to my concerns from the previous times and gave me a low dosage (they had to up it at one point because my body kept pushing with the contractions) and kept me there for an hour to monitor my and baby’s vitals to make sure everything went well. When I was able to feel the contractions without pushing, they sent me back upstairs to L&D. I was exhausted and dozing in and out between contractions.
By 6:30pm I had reached 9cm! I was ecstatic! This had never happened to me before, and the doctors were really positive and encouraging. Also, at some point (likely while I was hunched over for the epidural) the baby had turned again back to the “normal” position—this was great news! After another hour, contractions had slowed (as a result of the epidural) so I (again, reluctantly) agreed to a drip/oxytocin (they don’t use Pitocin) to speed things along. They told me to lay on my left side and try to get some rest (like that was happening!) but the contractions were coming faster again and I started to feel what I was convinced was the baby’s head coming down with the contractions. At 7:45pm I called the doctor back in and asked her to check… and I was right! The doctor looked at me and said, “looks like you’re getting your wish! One way or another this baby is coming out the natural way!” I thought I was going to cry! Baby had descended and the doctor told me I could start pushing with each contraction. She gave me some brief instructions (the “bearing down” to push pretty much felt like trying to poop—which I didn’t, btw!) and told me to push only with the contractions and to rest when they stopped. I started pushing at 7:58pm, and after only a few pushes baby started crowning. I had requested a mirror to be placed at the end of the bed as a part of my birth plan so I could also watch, and they made sure to point out to me once we could see the baby’s head, and also encouraged me to reach down and feel. DH was being really encouraging and was also taking pictures (I wanted the moments captured forever!) and with only another two pushes the head was out (I remember some ladies describing this as the “ring of fire” and while it certainly stung, I remember thinking that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. Although this was probably thanks to the epidural!). The doctor told me to stop and wait for the next push, and then asked me if I wanted to ‘catch’ the baby myself. At first I panicked and said “no!” and then almost immediately afterwards I said, “wait, YES!!” and they guided my hands down and with the next push they helped me grab the baby and pull him onto my stomach/chest. At 8:10pm (12 minutes of pushing) my perfect little boy--Kai Taylor--was born via VB2AC! I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT! DH and I were both so emotional and I was holding Kai and just thinking…my dream had come true! Five minutes later I barely noticed as the placenta was ‘born’ (I felt a little tugging as they pulled slightly on the cord) and DH got to cut the cord and Kai cried for about 10 minutes before gradually stopping, and I got to attempt feeding him. I had a slight internal tear that was bleeding quite a bit so they were quickly stitching that up (which stung a LOT) but otherwise everything was perfect!
Kai weighed 8lbs 7oz (3830 grams) and was 19.6 inches long (50cm).
The difference in how I felt after the birth vs how I had felt after the c-sections was AMAZING. I was able to sit up and move around immediately, and I was a little woozy but got out of bed to shower a couple hours later (the L&D was very busy so it took a while before some of the nurses had time to help). I barely had any discomfort from the stitches, and the most discomfort was around my anus for the next two days anytime I sat for too long, but I was on cloud nine and felt so wonderful about the whole experience that I didn’t care at all. Kai had swallowed some of the amniotic fluid with meconium and was nauseous for a few days as a result and not feeding well, but he was back to his birth weight within the first week and now at 2 months old he’s growing like a weed and doing wonderfully.
I had several discussions with the midwives at my practice and the senior consultant/obgyn at the hospital to discuss the possibility and risks of a VBA2C and received varying levels of support. After a 1.5 hour discussion with the senior obgyn at the hospital he agreed that it was my decision and that he would support whatever I decided. We compromised on waiting until 41 weeks for things to happen naturally, and otherwise I agreed to plan in a c-section.
For the last several weeks of my pregnancy I had a “feeling” that baby would come a little earlier, and I had started some homeopathic options to try and help (getting a “foot reflex massage,” drinking a tea mixture (which included things like raspberry leaf), one midwife gave me a vial of caulophyllum which I was supposed to smell twice a day (I was willing to try it!), etc. On April 30th (at 38+5) I woke up at 3:30am and started having light contractions every 8 minutes. I got REALLY excited but after 3 hours they stopped completely.
On May 4th (at 39+2) I woke up at 5:30am and again, started having light contractions every 10-ish minutes and lasting for about 45 seconds. My mother was arriving at the airport at 7:30am (coming to stay with us for 2 months) and I had been planning on picking her up (the airport is about 50 minutes away from us). After a brief debate I decided to go get her myself and DH got our other two children ready for school/daycare and then he went to work. Contractions were ‘annoying’ but not really ‘painful’ and continued to come every 8 – 10 minutes.
At 11:30am I decided to take a brief nap (slept for 1.5 hours) and when I woke, contractions had slowed a bit to every 10 – 15 minutes. As the day progressed they gradually started to increase in frequency (by 5:00pm they were back to 8 – 10 minutes apart and getting more uncomfortable, and by 10:00pm they were 6 – 8 minutes apart and definitely getting painful. By 11:30pm I decided to try and get some sleep, but was only able to sleep sporadically in between contractions. By 1:45am on May 5th I gave up trying to sleep and decided to take a shower. Contractions picked up while I was standing under the shower but the water felt amazing, so I stayed there for about an hour until contractions were every 3 – 4 minutes and close to a minute in length, so I called the hospital to ask for their advice. They told me to come in to get checked, especially since I had a history of 2 previous c-sections. We left for the hospital at 3am (I was really glad my mom was staying with us, so we didn’t have to arrange any additional babysitting for our other children!) and when we arrived at the hospital they monitored baby’s heart rate for 30 minutes (which was perfect!) and then checked and I was 3cm! They told me to try and get some sleep and they would come back and check in a couple of hours. I wasn’t able to sleep much (and when I laid down then the contractions would slow) so I stood and walked around the room to try and help speed things up.
By 10:30am I had only progressed to 4cm, but cervix was effaced and contractions were too painful to walk or talk through, coming 4 – 5 minutes apart when standing, and I was getting really tired. At 2:00pm they came to check again and there had been no progress, so they decided to break my waters to see if that helped and otherwise wanted to put me on a drip to speed things up (I wanted to avoid this at all costs). They broke my waters and saw meconium so they gave me an hour to wait to see if we made progress before starting to induce, but within 15 minutes the contractions started coming every 3 – 4 minutes, lasted close to a minute and a half, and were twice as painful. By 4:00pm I had moved to 6cm and with each contraction I was getting the urge to push, which was extremely painful and caused my entire back to arch off the bed and my entire abdomen to contract. The nurse kept telling me to “relax” and tried different breathing techniques but that only helped a portion of the time. At this point I was having a really hard time breathing through the contractions, and with every contraction came the ‘urge to push’ which occurred completely involuntarily and felt like my entire uterus was contracting/pushing outward. They monitored the baby’s heart rate the entire time, and it was going fairly steady but at one point they came in to attach a monitor internally to the baby’s head. They were concerned that the heart rate was “too steady” and they told me it was “acceptable for now, but needed to keep an eye on it.” Fetal distress is the ultimate reason both my previous births ended in EMCS so I was worried (freaking out) that this would happen again. They took a blood sample from the baby to test the oxygen saturation (with my first baby this was very low and they operated almost immediately to remove him) and the few minutes we had to wait for the result felt like an eternity…but eventually we got the good news that baby seemed to be fine.They also noticed that baby had turned into an anterior position (“sunny side up”
which both of my previous babies had been as well.After another hour of this the obgyn warned me that continuing to push was likely to irritate the cervix and cause it to swell, and would prevent further dialation and could lead to another EMCS. She also suggested that since baby was anterior that there was a higher risk of complications. She recommended I get a (walking) epidural to “take the edge off” and make the contractions more manageable. I wanted to avoid this (I’d had one with my previous two births and each time it caused complications which I’m convinced led to the EMCS) and I tried suggesting other options (such as remifentanil) but she warned me that if we needed to operate immediately then I would likely have to be put under general anesthesia to save time (which I was also desperate to avoid). I reluctantly agreed and was convinced I’d end up with another c-section as a result.
At around 5:00/5:30pm I was wheeled down for the epidural. It was ridiculously hard to sit still while hunched over forward so they could properly reach my back while having the terrible contractions. However, they were really good about listening to my concerns from the previous times and gave me a low dosage (they had to up it at one point because my body kept pushing with the contractions) and kept me there for an hour to monitor my and baby’s vitals to make sure everything went well. When I was able to feel the contractions without pushing, they sent me back upstairs to L&D. I was exhausted and dozing in and out between contractions.
By 6:30pm I had reached 9cm! I was ecstatic! This had never happened to me before, and the doctors were really positive and encouraging. Also, at some point (likely while I was hunched over for the epidural) the baby had turned again back to the “normal” position—this was great news! After another hour, contractions had slowed (as a result of the epidural) so I (again, reluctantly) agreed to a drip/oxytocin (they don’t use Pitocin) to speed things along. They told me to lay on my left side and try to get some rest (like that was happening!) but the contractions were coming faster again and I started to feel what I was convinced was the baby’s head coming down with the contractions. At 7:45pm I called the doctor back in and asked her to check… and I was right! The doctor looked at me and said, “looks like you’re getting your wish! One way or another this baby is coming out the natural way!” I thought I was going to cry! Baby had descended and the doctor told me I could start pushing with each contraction. She gave me some brief instructions (the “bearing down” to push pretty much felt like trying to poop—which I didn’t, btw!) and told me to push only with the contractions and to rest when they stopped. I started pushing at 7:58pm, and after only a few pushes baby started crowning. I had requested a mirror to be placed at the end of the bed as a part of my birth plan so I could also watch, and they made sure to point out to me once we could see the baby’s head, and also encouraged me to reach down and feel. DH was being really encouraging and was also taking pictures (I wanted the moments captured forever!) and with only another two pushes the head was out (I remember some ladies describing this as the “ring of fire” and while it certainly stung, I remember thinking that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected. Although this was probably thanks to the epidural!). The doctor told me to stop and wait for the next push, and then asked me if I wanted to ‘catch’ the baby myself. At first I panicked and said “no!” and then almost immediately afterwards I said, “wait, YES!!” and they guided my hands down and with the next push they helped me grab the baby and pull him onto my stomach/chest. At 8:10pm (12 minutes of pushing) my perfect little boy--Kai Taylor--was born via VB2AC! I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT! DH and I were both so emotional and I was holding Kai and just thinking…my dream had come true! Five minutes later I barely noticed as the placenta was ‘born’ (I felt a little tugging as they pulled slightly on the cord) and DH got to cut the cord and Kai cried for about 10 minutes before gradually stopping, and I got to attempt feeding him. I had a slight internal tear that was bleeding quite a bit so they were quickly stitching that up (which stung a LOT) but otherwise everything was perfect!
Kai weighed 8lbs 7oz (3830 grams) and was 19.6 inches long (50cm).
The difference in how I felt after the birth vs how I had felt after the c-sections was AMAZING. I was able to sit up and move around immediately, and I was a little woozy but got out of bed to shower a couple hours later (the L&D was very busy so it took a while before some of the nurses had time to help). I barely had any discomfort from the stitches, and the most discomfort was around my anus for the next two days anytime I sat for too long, but I was on cloud nine and felt so wonderful about the whole experience that I didn’t care at all. Kai had swallowed some of the amniotic fluid with meconium and was nauseous for a few days as a result and not feeding well, but he was back to his birth weight within the first week and now at 2 months old he’s growing like a weed and doing wonderfully.
