SHARING MY BIRTH STORY. Please understand that this is very graphic and traumatic but I urge everyone who reads it to PLEASE understand that I am sharing it only because our instincts are rarely wrong. If I hadn't trusted my instincts, we would have had a very different outcome.*************************************************
July 21, late in the afternoon, I began getting severe upper back pain at the bottom of my ribs. Every time I inhaled, it felt like there was a knife going through my back. I went up to the hospital to be checked out where my midwife determined it was no related to the baby and sent me downstairs to the emergency room to investigate the pain.
Going back, I felt all week like something was off about the pregnancy. I felt like maybe my baby had a short cord or the cord was around his neck and was panicking because my midwife wouldn't order an ultrasound to check on him, and my last ultrasound had been at 18 weeks.
I was now 40w1d and after four hours in the emergency room, bloodwork, an ECG, and a bedside ultrasound, the emergency room doctor could not determine the cause of the pain and consulted with the OB on call who asked him to send me upstairs for a non stress test. The OB checked my cervix and said I was 2cm dilated, 80% effaced and that my pain was not labour, but they still wanted to make sure baby was okay.
15 minutes into the non-stress test, I had a big contraction, not painful, but during this contraction, my son's heart rate dropped slowly. To 93, to 76, to 65, to 53. I was on the phone with my mom and told her. I thought maybe it was because the lead was off somehow. The girl next to me told me to hit my buzzer STAT, because his heartrate was not coming back up despite the contraction being over. I hit the buzzer and no one came, so the girl sent her husband to the desk and suddenly, a labour and delivery nurse came in and turned me on my side. Still no change. She hit the CODE button and suddenly three more nurses, the Resident OB and the OB were at my bedside rushing me out of triage and into a delivery room.
By the time they hooked me back up, my baby's heart had stabilized and the OB told me she was going to give me nubain for the pain, and keep me overnight to monitor me. Little did I know, that big contraction that decelerated his heart was the start of labour.
I called my mom out to the hospital 45 minutes later, as she lives an hour away. Told her what happened and that we got him stable, but I was in active labour. I was now 90% effaced and 3cm dilated after having contractions that were painful every 3-5 minutes.
When she got there, the labour and delivery nurse came to check me again and although I had made no change, she noticed that with every contraction, he was deceling again. It never went below 103, but his normal was 143-160. She had me turn on my right side to stabilize him and his heart rate dropped down to 65 again, so she turned me on my left, which stabilized his heart and called the OB in. The OB explained that for whatever reason, he did not like my position and something was dropping his heart rate and that she needed to prepare me for an emergency c-section, just in case, but that at the moment, delivery was not urgent. She called in a team to get an IV started and I had to stay on my left side to keep his heart rate up.
This is where all hell broke loose.
20 minutes later, I asked my mom to go get the nurse because I was feeling pressure, and felt like my waters were leaking. My waters have never broken on their own. My contractions were strong with no break in between so the nurse came in, confirmed my waters were going and rolled me to my back to check me. She barely got her fingers in when my waters gushed everywhere. My mom was already on the phone with my midwives who were preparing to come back. They had to transfer care to the OB due to the decels in my baby's heart. The problem with the waters was, they didn't stop. I soaked through the pads, through the bed sheets, puddled the floors, and there was STILL water coming out. The nurse was trying to plug the waters and they kept gushing. She asked for my mom's help briefly while she called for help, but no sooner did she push the Call button, but she felt my baby's cord enter the birth canal. She hit the CODE button and screamed CORD CORD THE CORD IS THERE over and over while my room filled with people. The nurse then felt my baby's head, and the OB took over to check. She confirmed that my baby's cord was below his head and told me I needed a c-section IMMEDIATELY and that she had to put me to sleep for it. There was no time for a spinal. He had to come out NOW, or I would lose him. His head was pressing on the cord. She shoved her hand into my vagina and into my uterus to hold my baby's head off the cord while a team of 10 other people wheeled the bed into the operating room. My delivery room was right across from the operating room and in that 30 seconds, the OB said I can feel her dilating beneath my hand. She's 10cm. This baby is coming, we need to get him out NOW.
I can say honestly that after 3 perfect vaginal deliveries, I was terrified and panicking. I was shaking so hard and scared for my baby's life. Feeling hands being shoved up into your uterus to prevent your baby from coming is the absolute most excruciating pain I have EVER felt in my life. I was screaming so hard from the pain, I could be heard outside the operating room while they set up.
The labour and delivery nurse asked who was going to make the cut while the anesthesiologist held the oxygen mask over my face. The OB had her hand in my uterus and said the nurse was going to have to. The nurse said no, she wasn't comfortable, to which the OB yelled back at her that she couldn't operate in the position she was in. Within 5 seconds, I felt one hand come out of my vagina, and another go in...HARD. Even harder than the OB's hand was. I screamed and writhed in pain, still shaking, BEGGING them to put me to sleep already, and the anesthesiologist told me to couldn't until they were completely prepared.
It was pure chaos in the operating room. They saw there was no nurse in there, because there were two other deliveries going on. The OB had been pulled away from a crowning delivery because of my emergency. The last thing I remember is the OB saying to page ANY code nurse and saw NICU roll in. Next thing I knew, I was getting drowsy. As I got drowsy, I said to the OB If you can't save me, save my baby.
At 4:15am, I started coming out of the anesthetic and looked at my phone. My babysitter asked if there was any news yet and I had my mom type out what happened. I couldn't speak, as my throat hurt so bad from the intubation. When I finally could speak, I asked where my baby was. They told me he was fine but I was no allowed to touch him, just look, and they wheeled the bed over to him. He needed resusitation from the prolapsed cord. Despite all the effort to keep him off the cord, he was still pushing down on it pretty hard.
My baby Asher was born July 22, 2014 at 1:45am by a traumatic emergency c-section due to umbilical cord prolapse caused by polihydramnios, or excessive amniotic fluids. The excessive fluid was preventing him from properly descending into the pelvis, which explains why I kept dropping and why labour started 10 times, but died off. He was trying to come, but the excessive fluid prevented it. It caused his cord to float below him, which is why the cord came first. The decels with the contractions was his head putting pressure on the cord and cutting off his blood supply.
He weighed 8lbs 10oz and was 19in long. He is still in NICU as his blood sugars were very low from the trauma. He has since stabilized and is allowed out to breastfeed and visit. He is off all IV's and needs no extra assistance. If he continues to stay stable, he can room in with me starting tomorrow morning.
The traumatic delivery and c-section caused excessive blood loss in me and my hemoglobin levels are very low, at 67 (or around 6.7 in the USA). We are holding off on a blood transfusion, as they had come up to 73 by the afternoon today. If they have dropped again in the morning, we will be proceeding with a blood transfusion. If they continue to go up, we will monitor the levels three times a day until they are stabilized.
I'm healing okay and off all pain medications, but am slow to get up and progress. Asher is breastfeeding like a pro, but also LOVES his snuggles. He needs them after that kind of trauma.
We are both okay thanks to the quick reactions of the labour and delivery nurse, the team, and the OB there that night. Asher would have died without the quick intervention.
As traumatic as this story is, and graphic and difficult to read, I urge everyone who reads it to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE trust your instincts. If you feel like there is something not right, seek medical attention and don't back down until you get it. I could mean the difference between yours and your baby's health and/or life.
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