how long would you wait before going in? I hope this doesn't spark a debate, as I expect a lot of different opinions.
I have had two hospital births and am prepping for my third. My OB is great and I look forward to working with her again. I was GBS+ last time. My water broke and the next day, depsite everything natural we could think of, not a single one contraction. We made the decision, partly because I was GBS+ and partly because we had a great relationship with our Dr, to go on to the hospital and "start the clock". They followed out wishes and didn't do internal exams. After many many hours of walking and other natural attempts, still no contrx. I was about 10hr from the 24hr point. My OB gave us the option to wait and watch, but did note that at 24 hr approached, people would start waving c-sec flags....or to try and start the lowest dose of pit to get my own body working, then hope to stick to our plan. We waiting a couple hours then went the pit route, felling really good about the choice at that point. They set me up with a continuous monitoring system that still let me move around for comfort vs being bedridden. Well, 9 hours of pit at max dose, and managing with no pain meds, I had my daughter in a pain induced haze that despite no pain medication, I have no rememberance of her coming out or what happened right after birth. The pit just fried my system.
So while we still are not sure we would have done anything different in that situation, we felt listened to, informed, respected, and the Dr and nurses really worked with us to use natural methods, then the lowest intervention level possible, to get to the end.
But that was my second GBS+ birth. This time, I wonder, if my water breaks early and I am in the same situation, knowing that being at home meant zero internal exams....how long would I stay this time?
If you were GBS+, how long after water breaking, if you had truly zero signs of impending labor, would you feel good about waiting?
Thanks.
I have had two hospital births and am prepping for my third. My OB is great and I look forward to working with her again. I was GBS+ last time. My water broke and the next day, depsite everything natural we could think of, not a single one contraction. We made the decision, partly because I was GBS+ and partly because we had a great relationship with our Dr, to go on to the hospital and "start the clock". They followed out wishes and didn't do internal exams. After many many hours of walking and other natural attempts, still no contrx. I was about 10hr from the 24hr point. My OB gave us the option to wait and watch, but did note that at 24 hr approached, people would start waving c-sec flags....or to try and start the lowest dose of pit to get my own body working, then hope to stick to our plan. We waiting a couple hours then went the pit route, felling really good about the choice at that point. They set me up with a continuous monitoring system that still let me move around for comfort vs being bedridden. Well, 9 hours of pit at max dose, and managing with no pain meds, I had my daughter in a pain induced haze that despite no pain medication, I have no rememberance of her coming out or what happened right after birth. The pit just fried my system.
So while we still are not sure we would have done anything different in that situation, we felt listened to, informed, respected, and the Dr and nurses really worked with us to use natural methods, then the lowest intervention level possible, to get to the end.
But that was my second GBS+ birth. This time, I wonder, if my water breaks early and I am in the same situation, knowing that being at home meant zero internal exams....how long would I stay this time?
If you were GBS+, how long after water breaking, if you had truly zero signs of impending labor, would you feel good about waiting?
Thanks.
This pretty much sums up my approach. I'd also add that the fluid I was leaking needed to be clear. If there was any mec. in the fluid I'd probably head in right away.
I'm sue it works for some women, but not for me. I'm okay with that. The whole GBS thing doesn't really bother me. None of my three kids had problem with the IV antibiotics, neither did I, and they used a heparin lock so I was still able to be completely mobile during labor. In general, though, we're big into probiotics (even for newborns), so I think if there were going to be antibiotic issues, we probably avoid some of them.
