Hi everyone,
I'm Nicole and am currently 17 weeks along with my 2nd pregnancy (well, 3rd, if you count my early m/c). I am dealing with emotional fallout from an "urgent" c-sec after almost 4 days of labor with DS in 2008 and planning for a vbac.
Here's my background: We had planned for a natural birth (took Bradley classes, read all the "right" books, did all the "right" things), but when the time came, I was in labor for almost 2 days only progressing to 2cm (walking, nipple stimulation, thumb-sucking, blue & black cohoshes - you name it, we did it), at which point I was too tired and broken and opted for the epidural.
Over that night, they ended up starting pitocin, inserting an internal monitor, filling me back up with saline, as my water had broken early on, and I can't even remember how many other interventions. I finally progressed to 6cm and then 8cm, at which time they started preparing the room for pushing, but the OB on call (we went through several shift-changes over the days we were there) was "uncomfortable" with how long I was taking. She told me that she had to go perform a c/s and that she'd give me that long, but when she got back we were "really going to talk about getting that baby out." She said she'd be back in about 1.5 hours. She came back in about 1/2 that time and all of a sudden said there was meconium and that DS needed to be out right away. Of course, in light of that development, we consented.
It took them almost an hour to get me into the OR, and then DS was out in a minute or two. He was perfect, no meconium, no issues, APGAR score of 9. Hmmm... in retrospect, I just know that the OB probably had a break in her schedule and figured she'd better get us to consent somehow - and in reading our birth plan, she realized that there would have to be an emergency of some sort to get us to do so. I don't believe that she made a mistake. Plus, it seems odd that they would take so long to get me into the OR if there were a true emergency. I dunno.
Anyway, as you can see, I have some anger and resentment to deal with. I joined our local chapter of ICAN, and am planning on attending as many meetings as I can in the next few months (they meet during work, so it's hard). I am also going to be doing the Hypnobabies program, and we have changed our health care provider, so we won't be delivering at the same hospital again. We had a doula last time, and we are considering getting one again this time (though a different one, due to some issues we had with our last one).
So, I'm excited to be here and learn from all of you. Sorry this was so long!
I'm Nicole and am currently 17 weeks along with my 2nd pregnancy (well, 3rd, if you count my early m/c). I am dealing with emotional fallout from an "urgent" c-sec after almost 4 days of labor with DS in 2008 and planning for a vbac.
Here's my background: We had planned for a natural birth (took Bradley classes, read all the "right" books, did all the "right" things), but when the time came, I was in labor for almost 2 days only progressing to 2cm (walking, nipple stimulation, thumb-sucking, blue & black cohoshes - you name it, we did it), at which point I was too tired and broken and opted for the epidural.
Over that night, they ended up starting pitocin, inserting an internal monitor, filling me back up with saline, as my water had broken early on, and I can't even remember how many other interventions. I finally progressed to 6cm and then 8cm, at which time they started preparing the room for pushing, but the OB on call (we went through several shift-changes over the days we were there) was "uncomfortable" with how long I was taking. She told me that she had to go perform a c/s and that she'd give me that long, but when she got back we were "really going to talk about getting that baby out." She said she'd be back in about 1.5 hours. She came back in about 1/2 that time and all of a sudden said there was meconium and that DS needed to be out right away. Of course, in light of that development, we consented.
It took them almost an hour to get me into the OR, and then DS was out in a minute or two. He was perfect, no meconium, no issues, APGAR score of 9. Hmmm... in retrospect, I just know that the OB probably had a break in her schedule and figured she'd better get us to consent somehow - and in reading our birth plan, she realized that there would have to be an emergency of some sort to get us to do so. I don't believe that she made a mistake. Plus, it seems odd that they would take so long to get me into the OR if there were a true emergency. I dunno.
Anyway, as you can see, I have some anger and resentment to deal with. I joined our local chapter of ICAN, and am planning on attending as many meetings as I can in the next few months (they meet during work, so it's hard). I am also going to be doing the Hypnobabies program, and we have changed our health care provider, so we won't be delivering at the same hospital again. We had a doula last time, and we are considering getting one again this time (though a different one, due to some issues we had with our last one).
So, I'm excited to be here and learn from all of you. Sorry this was so long!
)
