My natural hospital water birth

[jcregan]

Birth Story - looooooong verson:

My water broke at 11am.  I was enjoying my spring break, daughter was at daycare, I was doing some dishes and dancing to some music.  For about 2 minutes I could not really figure out what happened – it was so unexpected (10 days before my due date).  Finally got my head straight, changed clothes, called DH and the on-call midwife to let her know.  Then it was time to hurry up and wait!

I felt the first mild contractions at about 2:30pm when laying down to take a nap.  They were timeable at about 5-6 minutes apart.  Yeah! – very happy about that.  With my first my water broke but after 14 hours of no labor I ended up on a pit.

We went in to hospital about 5pm, contractions about 3-4 minutes apart – maybe 30 secs – 1min long.  They were still mild but my first labor and delivery were so fast that we were nervous about a precipitous delivery (did not need to be!).  With the contractions coming so often and us being tense and nervous about when to go in a figured we might as well go so we could relax about that.

After awhile of 2-3 minutes between ctx that were getting to the point I had to focus through them and breath they checked me and I was barely dilated and 50% effaced (and I was then frustrated that this was all).  

The ctx got progressively more intense and I dilated at what (to me) seems an agonizingly slow rate (having my first birth be only 4 hours of active labor and progressing from 1cm to a baby in that time may not have been helping my mindset here).

By late at night the contractions were super strong, different then with my daughter.  These had a very sharp stabbing pain very low in my pelvis.  Given how I hear back pain can feel I think this was similar but in a different spot… especially cause after he was born it seems he was not quite positioned properly.  I kept thinking I must be close to transition or something based on the intensity and what I remembered feeling with my daughter and so I would ask to be checked (so I could go in the birthing tub) and I would be only 3-4 cm or 4-5 with a very stretchy cervix.

I was very restless, sitting on the ball, leaning on a counter, on the bed back to the ball etc.  DH had brought his IPod and I found that actually really helpful to listen to and to help me relax in between contractions and to tune everything else out.  I was at a point of not knowing what to do to get through them and they suggested the shower since they thought I was not quite ready for the tub yet.. that did help a lot… for awhile.   I also started periodically throwing up around this time.

One of the things that kept me going was that I really did not want an IV… I have horrible veins and it often takes 2-4 tries for an IV and going through that at this point sounded horrible.

Finally finally I got to go in the birthing tub around 2am or so.  It was great.  I cannot say it reduced the pain or the intensity of the contractions but it did allow me to go into positions etc. that you can’t do on dry land.  They had me do as much leaning forward as possible to try to get baby in a better position.  At this point I starting saying things about how if I did not make good progress I did not want to do it anymore.    I had previously told DH that if I started saying things like that to remind me I might be in transition and it would be done soon.  He did so and I totally didn’t believe him.  I also remember saying something to the midwife about wanting to be done and when she did not spring into action to do something about it I was really annoyed.  Of course, I actually was in transition and even if I had outright asked for an epidural it was not going to happen anyway.

Finally I started feeling a bit pushy with a couple contractions and I was at 8cm and progressing fast.  They told me to feel free to push a little if I felt like it during a contraction and soon they had called in a 2^nd nurse (they do this for birth) and the MW and nurse were suiting up in their “wet suits”, full body coverage of waterproof material, various layers of gloves and long gloves etc.  Even at this point I did not really feel like I could be close.  With my daughter pushing was a relief from the intensity of the contractions but not so much this time.  Pushing was about 25-30 minutes (again twice as long as with my first but not long compared to many!) and it was intense.  At one point I felt the head starting to crown and then the contraction ended and it moved back.  I kept wanting to keep pushing between contractions but the MW kept reminding me to rest/relax and wait a minute.  Finally he crowned again and this time his head stayed crowning in between contractions – that was weird – and uncomfortable, but I got to feel his head!  Only at that point did I really realize and believe that he would be born soon, up until then I did not really believe it.

Next push and the head was out, cord was around the neck once and the shoulders were not coming out right away.  I had been leaning back in the tub and the MWs had me go forward onto my hands and knees to better get the shoulders out, especially with the cord being there they did not want it compressed for too long.  It is very strange to maneuver that way.  Within a contraction or two and encouraging me to push hard the shoulders finally came out and he was born.  I got to sit back and hold him right away and it was wonderful – I was just so relieved to be done and holding him.  Took a minute but he finally cried well and sat in the tub a couple minutes and held him.  DH cut the cord and then I got to climb out of the tub to deliver the placenta… let’s just say that this is a VERY messy process…  I did get a shot of pitocin as there was a bit more bleeding then they wanted to see.  Poor DH made the mistake of looking just as they were pushing in my uterus to help it contract down and there was a huge gush of blood.  If there was ever a time he might have fainted that was almost it. 

After holding him for awhile we tried breastfeeding.  It took a few minutes for him to get it all coordinated and it was so cool to watch him figure it out.  He did pretty well and we nursed for about 40 minutes total. 

He had bruising on his head and shoulder.  I had just one 1^st degree tear from delivering the shoulders that needed just a couple stitches.  I also got the gift of some pretty horrible hemorrhoids from the pushing.  

Born at 4:02 am.  13 and half hours of labor,  30 minutes pushing.  9 pounds 2 oz, 21 inches long, and 10 days early.

[babycatcher01]

Awesome! Congrats!

[lisaroy1]

Congrats the women who go for waterbirth or homebirth as per me are very brave