Bradley Method Birth gone Terribly wrong-in need of support - Page 3

[homewithtwinsmama]

Will you change the title?

Since lots of folks check out the birth stories sections and this thread is STILL getting bumped, would you consider changing the title? It is pretty clear that the Bradley Method did not fail you, your midwife and choice of facility did. In fact when you mention what you were doing in labor with Bradley techniques they were working just fine. As a Bradley instructor, I would not want you birth to scare people off the instruction. My classes talk about the downward slope of intervention and I share two of my birth stories where I had 4 and 5 days with ruptured membranes, no antibiotics and a laaaaaate start to contractions. Both healthy beautiful babies. Title suggestion: Bait and Switch: a midwife in name only!!!

[philomom]

Originally Posted by 3daughters

It sounds to me like your nurse midwife AND childbirth educator failed you. Bradley teaches couples not to come to the hospital until contractions are very strong and close together. If you had had this knowledge you may have chosen to ignore the hospital's advice and stayed home until later and may have avoided a lot of the interventions that led to the c/s.

Enjoy your baby boy!

All that above.
My Bradley births were awesome. Sounds like you needed better caregivers.

[GoddessKristie]

Originally Posted by philomom

All that above.
My Bradley births were awesome. Sounds like you needed better caregivers.

It was, indeed a failure of my caregivers. I was 40 minutes from the hospital I was birthing at so I waited until my contractions were within 30 minutes of each other before I headed in. Even then I met my SIL in town and ended up taking closer to 70 minutes to get there. By that time my contractions were closer to 10 minutes apart. I felt this was a good time to arrive, but the midwife freaked about me not getting there sooner. I'm not sure what she was so worried about, but I felt a lot of guilt during the birth and for a couple months afterward. I know now that I should not have.

[GoddessKristie]

Originally Posted by homewithtwinsmama

Since lots of folks check out the birth stories sections and this thread is STILL getting bumped, would you consider changing the title? It is pretty clear that the Bradley Method did not fail you, your midwife and choice of facility did. In fact when you mention what you were doing in labor with Bradley techniques they were working just fine. As a Bradley instructor, I would not want you birth to scare people off the instruction. My classes talk about the downward slope of intervention and I share two of my birth stories where I had 4 and 5 days with ruptured membranes, no antibiotics and a laaaaaate start to contractions. Both healthy beautiful babies. Title suggestion: Bait and Switch: a midwife in name only!!!

I understand your conscern. However, the fact that I was expecting a Bradley birth is central to the story. It was indeed a birth that was meant to be Bradley that went terribly wrong. You said yourself that it is very clear that it was not the Bradley Method that failed me.
Perhaps your sudents would benefit from reading an actual account of how the cascade of interventions can play out. While training in The Bradley Method I was led to believe that my every wish would be granted. That a midwife would listen to me and help me achieve the birth I wanted. It would have benefited me to know that sometimes midwives pressure you into things they know you don't want to do, even when you insist. I would have felt more empowered if I had known that they sometimes use scare tactics to get you to do what covers their butts the best-even when they know months in advance what you want and have your birth plan in their posession.
Perhaps other potential Bradley students would be as well.

[dani76]

Originally Posted by homewithtwinsmama

Since lots of folks check out the birth stories sections and this thread is STILL getting bumped, would you consider changing the title? It is pretty clear that the Bradley Method did not fail you, your midwife and choice of facility did. In fact when you mention what you were doing in labor with Bradley techniques they were working just fine. As a Bradley instructor, I would not want you birth to scare people off the instruction. My classes talk about the downward slope of intervention and I share two of my birth stories where I had 4 and 5 days with ruptured membranes, no antibiotics and a laaaaaate start to contractions. Both healthy beautiful babies. Title suggestion: Bait and Switch: a midwife in name only!!!

Once a thread has been up for awhile, you can't edit the title. Maybe she could update the first post?

[Huddybear]

My Natural birth Doc speaks!

So sorry to hear about what happened to you. Please know as all the other women who've posted replies...its not your fault! When I was interviewing the women for my birth stories documentary I heard so many stories similar to yours.

The hospital is not a place interested in helping women deliver babies vaginally. It is too labor, time intensive, and not lucrative enough for them to help moms deliver naturally so their interventions (pitocin, epidurals, fetal heart monitors) are all geared for the convenience of the nurses and doctors.

Your strapped to a monitor, given pitocin which makes labor unbearable, then you need an epidural which stalls labor, then more pitocin to get labor going again, and wow...baby becomes distress, then remarkably you end up with an "emergency" C-section. Thank god for the doctors & nurses right. The fact is if they hadn't intervened in your labor process at all you'd have almost definitely delivered naturally.

Again, this is not your fault. With the Bradley method they suggest you move around, use a birth ball, get in water, rock, eat, try to completely relax during the contraction so the body can open up you cervix. It doesn't sound like you were able to do any of these things during you labor, so perhaps it was not the Bradley method that failed you but again the hospital system which stacks the cards against mothers delivering vaginally and naturally.

If you are interested in hearing stories of similar experiences to yours you can click on my post (My Natural Birth Documentary...its 10 women talking about this exact same thing.)

I know people always want to dismiss this experience and say, "well at least the baby is healthy that's all that matters." But your feelings of anger, disappointment, and pain are valid and likely need to explored. This is a great place to do that. You can also look into Cranial Sacral release, EMDR, and other support groups.

Good luck and thank you for sharing. Hopefully your courage will give women the strength to seek alternatives like out of hospital births which are women and baby centered.

Huddybear

[littlepinktoes]

No need to panic with ruptured membranes

Originally Posted by mocha18

I remember thinking before my first birth that I would be fine as long as my water didn't break early, but then it did. This is the same problem you had. Once that happens, as you know, one is at serious risk for infection, and can no longer afford the luxury of letting the body take its time to do what it needs to do.

Moral of the story-- I think there's not much than can be done when membranes rupture in early labor. I don't think you made any mistakes in what you did.

I learned about the Bradley Method using the book by Susan McCucheon called "Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way." In that book, she says that ruptured membranes are NOT a reason to rush to a hospital. According to that book, you have no serious risk for infection unless someone sticks instruments or fingers up your vagina to examine you.

That book recommends that you don't go to the hospital when your water breaks. Stay home, don't stick ANYTHING up your vagina, and labor there until your contractions are 4 minutes apart, 60 seconds long. Then go to the hospital. She says some women take DAYS before their contractions are 4min/60sec. All the women she coached did not suffer from any infections after their membranes ruptured because none of them were exposed to any foreign objects in the vagina after the ruptured membranes.

I'm only 24 weeks along with my first pregnancy, so hopefully my plans for natural childbirth go well. The first poster's experience with the midwife and the threats of imminent fatality if pitocin were not given just make me so mad.

[lucylooo]

I am so sorry to hear that your outcome was not at all what you expected. I had two Bradley births and both were amazingly successful. After reading ur entire story, I would definitely say that it is imperative to take the classes and not just read the book. There is so much to learn. I read Dr. Bradleys book twice and still took the classes...twice. also, after the bag of waters has ruptured, you MUST NOT have vaginal exams. This introduces bacteria. And the antibiotics u were on may not have been effective on the bacteria introduced. It's all a crap shoot when it comea to that stuff...like the flu shot. Anyway....Congrats on ur babies.

[lucylooo]

Yes, please change the title. Bradley is amazing and should be required education for all pregnant women

[abcd123]

There are many factors to consider here. Just because the fetal heart rate decreases to 120 does not mean fetal distress. normal fetal heart rate is 110-160. If the heart rate drops after a contraction that is very worrisome. So it is not just the fetal heart rate but the situation that it happens in. Yes having a c section stinks but the end result is you have a healthy baby. If you refused to have the c section who knows what the outcome would have been.

[abcd123]

There are many factors to consider here. Just because the fetal heart rate decreases to 120 does not mean fetal distress. normal fetal heart rate is 110-160. If the heart rate drops after a contraction that is very worrisome. So it is not just the fetal heart rate but the situation that it happens in. Yes having a c section stinks but the end result is you have a healthy baby. If you refused to have the c section who knows what the outcome would have been.

[abcd123]

There are many more factors to consider when your water breaks early. The cord can fall out of the vagina if the baby's head is not well applied to the cervix. This is bad news for the baby and you will not have time to make it to the hospital w/ a live baby. Hospitals have become more cautious over the years because we have become a sue happy society and they have to cover their butts. Doctors and nurses go into the practice to help people not harm.

[Tammi86]

WOW! While I totally unerstand why hospital births can be daunting, un-natural and may not go as planned, I REALLY dont think the solution is for every nervous woman to have their baby at home! In certain situations home births can be dangerous to mother and baby and may end FAR worse than the stories here. Safety first ladies...birth can cause an enormous amount of stress, especially when the right support and guidence is missing or when things go wrong but losing a baby at home I am sure would be far worse. While home births are a great option for some, hospital births with the right dr/midwife/doula can be a wonderful experience too! Avoiding hospitals is NOT the way to tackle this problem...education, support and advocacy is!

[birthprep4u]

I tell my students to bring an I phone to the hospital with them and then "google" anything the Dr. tells you. That way you can get the facts. Here are a few examples:

Student told baby was in the 5% in growth and had UGR. Mom had high blood pressure and some abnormal blood tests. No protein in urine. So the OB gave them the "dead baby scare" Said her placenta wasn't working because of the hypertension.

So they opted for the c-section (baby was breach too) his weight was in the normal range or 50%. Huge difference. Her placenta came back "normal" from pathology.

Here are some other "excuses" for induction or c-sections

1. The baby wasn't awake enough (middle of the night?) so he wasn't getting enough oxygen?? duh, right.

2. You have low amniotic fluid? (so what?) u/s are not accurate in measuring amniotic fluid.

3. Said to a mom a week before her due date "your placenta is showing signs of calcification" We have to induce you right now!

And in this case here: The midwife basically lied to her because the baby hadn't even entered the birth canal. It's the trip down the canal that can cause the baby to contract the GBS. Your research was correct.

It's always up to the parents to decide ... but any use of drugs or interventions.. changes the course of labor...

Using this backup mode to gather info is not second guessing your health team... It's just that they need to FULLY DISCLOSE ALL THE FACTS and not just the info that builds there case (for intervention) We are fortunate that we live in this day and age when access to information is available.. on the internet. And we can access it from almost anywhere!

I am sorry that you had such a traumatic experience. Glad it worked out with your second birth.

Carolyn Gall AAHCC