I'll get down to the labor story first and give the background and pregnancy details afterward (for those of you who wanted more details).
Labor:
It was just a few minutes past midnight and we had just finished watching the men’s Olympic halfpipe on TV. I was telling DD2 her bedtime story (she won’t sleep unless we are in bed too) when I experienced a bad cramp and my water broke. I was shocked because the day before my OB checked me and my cervix was tightly closed and hard (60% effaced). I was worried about cord prolapse because I had mild polyhydraminos so I stayed lying in bed . I had just taken the waterproof pad off my bed thinking I would never go into labor and now my husband was scrambling to get it before I leaked everywhere.
The contractions didn’t start right away and my doula urged me to sleep until they picked up. 15 minutes later they came with a frequency and intensity I only experienced while in active labor. Using the Contractions app on my phone, I started to record them and it calculated me in pre-labor. 30 minutes after that, Contractions calculated me in early labor so I called the OB.
The OB that called back was the on-call from another practice and told me to come in. It took my husband 45 minutes to pack the car with our suitcases and daughters and by then, the contractions were coming closer together and more intensely (I was yelling “what is taking you so long????”). Instead of dropping the kids off at friends, we decided to go straight to the hospital and have the friends come to us. When we arrived at 2am, the Contractions app said I was in the transitional phase (panic!).
Once in my room, I was checked and dilated at 6 cm!!!! Already exhausted and in active labor, I asked for something to take the edge off . At 2:30am the nurse gave me a short-term painkiller (nubain I think). At 4:00am, they checked me again (because the short-term painkiller was *really short-term*) and I was 8cm. They started to get the room ready for the baby’s arrival but said no to the painkiller because the baby needed to be alert when born.
I asked for labor tub to be filled, which takes 15 minutes so they brought a labor ball while it was filling up. I sat on the ball and immediately shot back up. The contractions/pain on the ball were the strongest I had experienced so I labored standing up on my husband instead. I told them I felt like pushing and they checked me again - I was fully dilated!!! At 4:22am I leaned against the back of the labor bed and started to push in a squatting position.
I don’t know how long I pushed in that position but they make you lie on your back to check your progress. Once that happened, I got locked into the lay position to push (which is the hardest for someone like me with an android pelvis). The progress was quick and the “ring of fire” was probably the most painful part of the whole labor experience. And I had to hold the baby’s head in that position through 2 sets of contractions before he was able to come out.
At 5:22am on February 18th, 2010, I delivered Mason Alexander and he was placed on my tummy. He was wonderfully slimy and wriggly. My husband cut the cord and because Mason hadn’t inhaled his first breath, they took him to the incubator and pinked him up. They weighed him at 10lb 4oz, which I thought was a mistake until they handed him back to me and I realized how heavy he was!
My doula was wonderful. She helped me push down and talk out the contractions, kept me relaxed and hydrated, helped me focus on pushing, and by just having her presence there gave me the confidence to birth my baby the way I needed to experience it. It turns out I had the best OB in the hospital despite not having seen him before. He was incredibly patient and helped guide me through big and little pushes so I stayed totally intact during the delivery. The OB even allowed the placenta to deliver itself. I’m very thankful for the events as they happened and the people who helped my VBAC be a success.
Prior pregnancy background:
12 years ago I had an augmented 36-hour labor (OP position) and vaginal birth that resulted in a 7lb 13 oz girl. An hour before I gave birth, the OB told me I had 1 hour to give birth or face a c-section. She was rude, coming in every hour prior to that telling me to hurry it up (like it was up to me). After the birth, OB was still inpatient and kept yanking on the cord after the delivery which caused it to break off from the placenta (it was a 42 week cord!). She then had to manually extract my placenta with her hand and no painkillers.
With DD2, I had a successful breech version and was told we had to induce because the version was too easy, my baby had to be small. After a 12-hour labor (OP position also) and 2 hours of pushing, I had a c-section to deliver my “stuck” daughter. She was 8lb 13oz and 22 inches and had a red ring on her forehead from where her head was lodged in my pelvic cavity…
Despite my previous vaginal delivery, the OB who delivered DD2 told me I would never be able birth vaginally again because I had a very android pelvis. At first I accepted this believing my body had failed me. But with every appointment I had with this OB (for whatever reason), she would always take a minute to remind me that any future babies would be a c-section. After hearing it over and over again, I wondered why she had to tell me this at every appointment and started to become bitter at the events leading up to the c/s. When I became pregnant in the summer, I dropped the c/s badgering OB and found one who would support me as a VBAC.
This pregnancy:
At the urging of the women on this board, I got a doula for my VBAC. I think this was crucial element to the success of my VBAC. Having a doula means that I have someone in the room I trust to guide me through my delivery, which I didn’t feel I had with DD1 and DD2.
The OB set my due date to February 12th, based on 28-day LMP cycle even though mine is 26-days. (the U/S tech thought it should have been the 6th based on her findings!).
I passed the TSH and GD tests. Became anemic but took extra iron. In my 3rd trimester U/Ss revealed I was mildly polyhydraminos (which I now realized was also the case with DD1 and DD2) but baby was measuring in the 74 percentile for size (which I told them was too high).
My due date came and went. My OB told me early on there would be no hormonal induction or augmentations. Labor would have to be spontaneous, or the breaking of waters but only if the head was engaged to prevent cord prolapse. At first the OB let me go 1 week past the due date. Once that date came and went, the OB checked my cervix and I was tightly closed, high, hard, but 60% effaced. The baby was also in the LOA position. She then gave me an extra 6 days but scheduled a c-section on the last day of my 42nd week telling me, “Scheduling a section always makes labor come.” I cried all night cursing the C/S. Sex, walking, vaginal EPO and nothing was ripening me.
The next day I called my mother goddess friend and she drove from out of state to support me. She brought the Susun Weed herbal book for Childbearing years and black cohosh to ripen my cervix (which I took every 3 hours in tea). I started taking double doses of EPO orally at breakfast, lunch and at dinner. At midnight of that day, my water broke.
Labor:
It was just a few minutes past midnight and we had just finished watching the men’s Olympic halfpipe on TV. I was telling DD2 her bedtime story (she won’t sleep unless we are in bed too) when I experienced a bad cramp and my water broke. I was shocked because the day before my OB checked me and my cervix was tightly closed and hard (60% effaced). I was worried about cord prolapse because I had mild polyhydraminos so I stayed lying in bed . I had just taken the waterproof pad off my bed thinking I would never go into labor and now my husband was scrambling to get it before I leaked everywhere.
The contractions didn’t start right away and my doula urged me to sleep until they picked up. 15 minutes later they came with a frequency and intensity I only experienced while in active labor. Using the Contractions app on my phone, I started to record them and it calculated me in pre-labor. 30 minutes after that, Contractions calculated me in early labor so I called the OB.
The OB that called back was the on-call from another practice and told me to come in. It took my husband 45 minutes to pack the car with our suitcases and daughters and by then, the contractions were coming closer together and more intensely (I was yelling “what is taking you so long????”). Instead of dropping the kids off at friends, we decided to go straight to the hospital and have the friends come to us. When we arrived at 2am, the Contractions app said I was in the transitional phase (panic!).
Once in my room, I was checked and dilated at 6 cm!!!! Already exhausted and in active labor, I asked for something to take the edge off . At 2:30am the nurse gave me a short-term painkiller (nubain I think). At 4:00am, they checked me again (because the short-term painkiller was *really short-term*) and I was 8cm. They started to get the room ready for the baby’s arrival but said no to the painkiller because the baby needed to be alert when born.
I asked for labor tub to be filled, which takes 15 minutes so they brought a labor ball while it was filling up. I sat on the ball and immediately shot back up. The contractions/pain on the ball were the strongest I had experienced so I labored standing up on my husband instead. I told them I felt like pushing and they checked me again - I was fully dilated!!! At 4:22am I leaned against the back of the labor bed and started to push in a squatting position.
I don’t know how long I pushed in that position but they make you lie on your back to check your progress. Once that happened, I got locked into the lay position to push (which is the hardest for someone like me with an android pelvis). The progress was quick and the “ring of fire” was probably the most painful part of the whole labor experience. And I had to hold the baby’s head in that position through 2 sets of contractions before he was able to come out.
At 5:22am on February 18th, 2010, I delivered Mason Alexander and he was placed on my tummy. He was wonderfully slimy and wriggly. My husband cut the cord and because Mason hadn’t inhaled his first breath, they took him to the incubator and pinked him up. They weighed him at 10lb 4oz, which I thought was a mistake until they handed him back to me and I realized how heavy he was!
My doula was wonderful. She helped me push down and talk out the contractions, kept me relaxed and hydrated, helped me focus on pushing, and by just having her presence there gave me the confidence to birth my baby the way I needed to experience it. It turns out I had the best OB in the hospital despite not having seen him before. He was incredibly patient and helped guide me through big and little pushes so I stayed totally intact during the delivery. The OB even allowed the placenta to deliver itself. I’m very thankful for the events as they happened and the people who helped my VBAC be a success.
Prior pregnancy background:
12 years ago I had an augmented 36-hour labor (OP position) and vaginal birth that resulted in a 7lb 13 oz girl. An hour before I gave birth, the OB told me I had 1 hour to give birth or face a c-section. She was rude, coming in every hour prior to that telling me to hurry it up (like it was up to me). After the birth, OB was still inpatient and kept yanking on the cord after the delivery which caused it to break off from the placenta (it was a 42 week cord!). She then had to manually extract my placenta with her hand and no painkillers.
With DD2, I had a successful breech version and was told we had to induce because the version was too easy, my baby had to be small. After a 12-hour labor (OP position also) and 2 hours of pushing, I had a c-section to deliver my “stuck” daughter. She was 8lb 13oz and 22 inches and had a red ring on her forehead from where her head was lodged in my pelvic cavity…
Despite my previous vaginal delivery, the OB who delivered DD2 told me I would never be able birth vaginally again because I had a very android pelvis. At first I accepted this believing my body had failed me. But with every appointment I had with this OB (for whatever reason), she would always take a minute to remind me that any future babies would be a c-section. After hearing it over and over again, I wondered why she had to tell me this at every appointment and started to become bitter at the events leading up to the c/s. When I became pregnant in the summer, I dropped the c/s badgering OB and found one who would support me as a VBAC.
This pregnancy:
At the urging of the women on this board, I got a doula for my VBAC. I think this was crucial element to the success of my VBAC. Having a doula means that I have someone in the room I trust to guide me through my delivery, which I didn’t feel I had with DD1 and DD2.
The OB set my due date to February 12th, based on 28-day LMP cycle even though mine is 26-days. (the U/S tech thought it should have been the 6th based on her findings!).
I passed the TSH and GD tests. Became anemic but took extra iron. In my 3rd trimester U/Ss revealed I was mildly polyhydraminos (which I now realized was also the case with DD1 and DD2) but baby was measuring in the 74 percentile for size (which I told them was too high).
My due date came and went. My OB told me early on there would be no hormonal induction or augmentations. Labor would have to be spontaneous, or the breaking of waters but only if the head was engaged to prevent cord prolapse. At first the OB let me go 1 week past the due date. Once that date came and went, the OB checked my cervix and I was tightly closed, high, hard, but 60% effaced. The baby was also in the LOA position. She then gave me an extra 6 days but scheduled a c-section on the last day of my 42nd week telling me, “Scheduling a section always makes labor come.” I cried all night cursing the C/S. Sex, walking, vaginal EPO and nothing was ripening me.
The next day I called my mother goddess friend and she drove from out of state to support me. She brought the Susun Weed herbal book for Childbearing years and black cohosh to ripen my cervix (which I took every 3 hours in tea). I started taking double doses of EPO orally at breakfast, lunch and at dinner. At midnight of that day, my water broke.
don't go too early.That's the biggest mistake I see first time moms make...Hypnobabies and waterbirth also help the labor process for most ladies...
