Emily A’s Induced Hospital Birth

On Wednesday, January 12, I headed in to see my midwife at 8am for my 39 week appointment. I was feeling great, ready to meet this sweet baby whenever he was ready, but also slightly anxious because my midwife was leaving the next day, Thursday, and wouldn’t be returning until Friday afternoon. I was terrified to deliver without her but put my trust in the universe that everything would work out exactly as it was supposed to.

So I get to my appointment, I leave a urine sample to check for protein, and we get started with the NST which we had been doing weekly as a precaution from complications in my prior pregnancy. Baby had always been perfect! So we get hooked up, baby sounds great, and we start talking about a possible induction due to my risk of preeclampsia late in my last pregnancy that came on suddenly without any outward symptoms. I agreed and we decided that we could do it that Friday after she returned from out of town.

She checked my blood pressure and while it wasn’t high, it was just a bizarre reading. She checked it again, same thing. So we decided she would go run my urine test while I finished the NST, and she would also call the hospital to set up that Friday induction. I was pleased with this plan of action and excited that my baby would be here in just a few days.

About 5 minutes later she came back to where I was and informed me that I now had protein in my urine and that it appears my preeclampsia was silently sneaking back in. We decided an induction THAT DAY was needed. We finished the NST, and decided to do a cervix check to see where I would be starting at during this induction and checked my blood pressure once again. It was still showing a normal systolic number but a high diastolic number. Very abnormal. My cervix was less than 1/2 a cm and still extremely high.

I left the appointment to go home and grab my husband and my bags and headed immediately to the hospital. I was feeling so frantic and out of place because it all happened so fast and not the spontaneous labor I had dreamed of. I was also fearful I now wouldn’t be able to have the unmedicated birth that I so craved after being robbed from the experience with my first baby.

So we get to the hospital, I get settled in and we start cytotec at noon. After about 2 hours I was still 1/2 cm. My midwife stopped by and we talked about the next steps. We decided we would try the balloon but after a short attempt I was not having that pain and said no more. I asked for pitocin instead even though I was pretty against it. Pitocin was started at 4. At 4:20 baby’s heart beat took a huge dip and was down for about 2 minutes. We determined baby couldn’t handle pitocin so we stopped. We called my midwife, who had gone home to see her family before likely spending a long evening with me in the hospital, we decided another course of action was obviously needed. And I called my husband to come back who has also run home to see our 3.5 year old since we wouldn’t be seeing him for a day or so. My husband came back, the midwife that was on the floor came in to talk to us and we had my midwife on the phone.

We decided that we would do another cervix check, see where I was (nobody was very hopeful I would be dilated much since I only had such a short time on the pitocin), break my water and then we talked about the dreaded epidural and possible c-section if baby’s heart continued to struggle during big contractions (they were every 5 minutes at this point in time).

So the nurse checked my cervix and to everyone’s surprise I was at a 4! The midwife that was there came in and broke my water and we decided to see how things progressed on their own.

Contractions picked up, my midwife and doula showed up and I laborer beautifully and unmedicated through contractions. I started by laboring on the ball and after some time felt I needed to change positions. I got back on the bed to do some hands and knees but it felt terrible and I decided I wanted to get in the labor tub.

At 9:30 I got in the tub with the wireless monitors to keep an eye on baby. His heart looked beautiful, and everything seemed perfect. My dream delivery was going to happen and I was elated.

At 10:30, my midwife noticed baby’s heart was dipping into the 50s and 60s and she decided it was time to get out of the tub and see where I was dilated to. We were all convinced I was nearly ready to push based on my behavior through labor.

I get on the bed, my midwife checks me and I see the color drain from her face. She says nothing but grabs the nurse and possibly a few others (I can’t remember) and went behind the curtain. I heard mumbles of calling the OB that oversees her in, talk of the OR team, and hear her say “she’s only a 5”.

At this point contractions are brutal, I’m begging for an epidural, I can’t do anything that makes the pain feel less and I was exhausted. My midwife reassured me I would be okay and that I would be getting the epidural and explained that baby’s heart wasn’t doing well and one way or another he needed to come out. She also decided we needed to put an internal monitor on baby’s head for a more accurate reading of his heart. Things got crazy, there were people coming and going from my room prepping for a C-section we were all convinced I would need. Another cervical check at 11. Still a 5 and 70% effaced. Anesthesiologist comes in to place the epidural (more on this in a second). The OB gets there, probably thinking it’s C-section time. I lay down because they needed to check something and at 11:15 or so I’m completely dilated now and 100% effaced. They told me they were placing a vacuum to assist baby out and to just start pushing with all I have. The epidural had NOT even had time to start working but I was doing it; I could feel it all! I pushed hard and with all I had and had a whole team of what seemed like 30 people cheering me on. My sweet baby was earth side at 11:25 pm.

They whisked baby away to the warmer immediately after only getting to see him for mere seconds because his cord was around his neck and they deemed him stunned at birth. I delivered the placenta and they stitched the small area that I had torn. It felt like an eternity before I could see my baby. It took 5-7 minutes for them to get his oxygen and body temperature up. They placed him on the c-pap to open up his lungs and finally I was able to hear my sweet baby cry.

I finally got to hold him after about 20 minutes. My sweet baby was here and safe.

The epidural never did work for me and though the vacuum was placed on baby, I pushed so hard and baby came down so fast that it popped the vacuum off almost immediately. So while the end of my labor wasn’t as dreamy and peaceful as I wanted, I still had my mostly natural (as close as we could get it) birth and I’m so, so proud of myself!