Going to the hospital if water breaks - Page 2

[naturalnesting]

I really appreciate all the advice. I have an appointment with my MW on Monday and this will definitely be a major point of discussion. I am going to see what hospital policy is, as well as what she recommends. I hope that explaining to her that I want to stay home as long as possible will allow her to share with me some options since I have no high risks.

[Pinoikoi]

Originally Posted by SeattleRain

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a little uncomfortable with a bunch of strangers telling someone to LIE to their HCP. Just because anecdotally YOU lied and nothing happend to YOU or YOUR baby, doesn't mean that something couldn't happen to this woman and her baby.

I don't believe in lying to your HCP. How can you expect them to treat you and help you medically if you don't give them the truth? If you believe that your HCP is being too conservative by making you come in immediately after broken waters, say so now and tell him/her you'd be more comfortable coming in later and laboring at home until you're definitely having contractions. If he/she gives you a hard time, you have two choices: 1) switch HCP to someone who is more in line with your choices or 2) do what you want and come in later, but don't lie. If doctors want to intervene afterwards for whatever reason, you can refuse to consent. But don't lie.

Well said.

[Realrellim]

My midwives usually suggested we stay home until the contractions get stronger. I only ended up going in because we hadn't hit the 37-week mark, and the risk of problems like prolapse are obviously higher before the baby is full-term.

My hospital didn't have issues with how long my water was broke so long as I didn't have a fever and the baby looked good on the monitor (or via the doppler when they were doing intermittent monitoring). I went 30 hours after my water broke and could have gone longer because everything looked good--and all that was true even though I was doing a VBAC which most hospitals consider more risky to begin with. I didn't, because at that point we discovered my cervix was still completely, tightly closed despite contractions that entire time--including 16 hours on pit, but no one was suggesting that we were doing anything dangerous and they were ok with going quite a bit longer so long as my temp and baby looked ok.

You might want to find out exactly what the hospital policies are, as pps have suggested.

[Anouk]

My water broke at midnight on my son's EDD, Sunday night. I called my doula, she reminded me that I had intended to labor as long as possible at home, so I went back to bed with a towel under me. I stayed home all day Monday, using the birth ball, walking, using the breast pump - nothing happened. No contractions, no cramping, just continuous leaking.

Finally on Tuesday morning, (it had been 34 hours) I wanted to see that my son was okay, so I went in to the hospital. I was vague about when the water broke - I just said when I called that I "thought my water broke," so they all assumed it was Tuesday morning. I had read medical journal articles that said that the risk of infection was really after 72 hours, not 24 like the doctors say. All day Tuesday, after admission and mw assignment, I did the same thing as on Monday, this time with doula and DH in tow, and still no contractions occurred that I could feel. The monitors tracked some light ones, but I didn't feel anything except some occasional nausea.

Tuesday night the on-call OB showed up to pressure me toward induction. I told him that all signs looked good, and I wanted to keep waiting. He was visibly unhappy, but backed off. On one of my laps around the unit later, I overheard him telling a nurse that someone needed to "go convince Room 1A to take pitocin." Tuesday night came and went.

Wednesday morning (58 hours) I accepted an oral mesoprostyl, since a nurse told me that it had helped get things going for a female OB there who'd had the same problems I was having. I was opposed to taking it vaginally, but figured the worst it could do orally was treat my non-existent stomach ulcer. Sure enough, it did nothing. Wednesday afternoon at 2pm I accepted pitocin without pain meds. I was only dilated to a 2.

At 2am Thursday morning, after 12 hours on pit, with the nurses only cranking it up every 1.5 hours instead of every 30 minutes like protocol states, because they were supportive of my attempt at a natural birth and could see what a difficult time I was having - I was vomiting, wild-eyed, beyond help - and still at a 2. I gave up, accepted an epidural, and went to sleep.

Thursday morning (82 hours), with the increased pit I got to a 10. Right then I spiked a fever. They covered me in wet towels and it went down enough for me to push for 3.5 hours. Baby stuck under the pubic bone, sunny-side up with his head turned sideways (this is midwife's theory as to why PROM - head rubbing sack in the wrong place). MW was going to have me labor down and try again, he was too far back for vacuum or forceps, but the fever returned, and his heart rate dipped, and that was it - emergency C.

Luckily, my son was perfectly okay. But I wasn't. I lost a third of my blood during the c, and had to have two blood transfusions in the following days. The infection, inadequately treated, entered my bloodstream and traveled, becoming 5 infections - uterine, kidney, incision site, pneumonia, and a pleural effusion - resulting in a collapsed lung. I was re-hospitalized for 10 days, almost died, and my son was not a patient during the second hospitalization, so he was not able to room-in with me, because any time they had to grab me for tests or procedures, he couldn't be left alone or taken to the nursery. My milk didn't come in until day 9, and that with constant pumping with a hospital grade pump, plus Reglan.

When people ask about what happened, I've had a couple blame me for the infection, and it hurt. And in the early aftermath I was quite righteously indignant - still am, to some extent. But the reality that something quite worse could have happened to my son, has slowly sunk in, and it is difficult to face. My doula says there's nothing she would have recommended we do differently - that each step we made the best decision we could with the knowledge we had. But over time I have come to my own conclusion that if I had it to do over again, I would have been honest about when my water broke, and accepted interventions sooner.

[mistymama]

With ds my water broke at 34 weeks and I was scared beacuse it was so early ... we went to the hospital and I was put on their clock ... which ended in a c-section.

This time, I will most certainly wait if my water breaks. I will take precautions, but I will labor at home and lie about when my water broke once I get to the hospital. I don't want to be put on their 24 hour time period to have my baby after water breaks.

That said, it's a very personal decision and you must do the research and do what feels right to you.