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Had my baby girl!

790 views 11 replies 12 participants last post by  crunchy_mama 
#1 ·
After 2 successful vbacs Deirdre was born by c-section so I am still processing her birth (and in pain which sucks)...but I feel like looking back on her birth everything I did that could be done was done and I don't see anywhere where I felt coerced (except perhaps at the end by the OB who refused to do pitocin but I could see her point too)....anyway here is her birth story.

Name: Deirdre Agnes Jane Kenwell
Weight 7 pounds 9 ounces
Birthdate: November 21, 2009 3:33am
Length (can't remember LOL)

Type of birth: c-section

Highlights: Labour began around 6:30am and since it was daytime and Isla was going to be in our house with my parents I decided going to the hospital was preferable because I couldn't see how we would keep her off me and I prefer to labour without little helpers around (hence my tendancy to go into labour at NIGHT LOL).

MW came over around 9am and said if we wanted to go to the hospital we should probably go now because otherwise it would be too late...I was 4-6 and 60% effaced.

Got to hospital by about 10 or 10:30 I was 7-9 and 90% effaced. It was around this point that my labour stopped...ceased....I mean NOOOOOOOOO contractions

So here I am...the midwife can't let me go home because if labour starts up the baby will be born likely within minutes. So we are literally stuck and trying to think of what to do to get labour started (given that I *DID NOT* want my water broken and I *DID NOT* want to do pitocin right away). MW's administered an enema and then we started on the breast pump (10 minutes on, 10 minutes off for 1 hour with walking in between). Did several cycles of this and....nothing (some contractions nothing consistent).

By 5pm I agreed to have my water broken because I was already stuck and couldn't go home and the mw's and the oncall OB were convinced that breaking my water would start up labour with a vengeance and we would have the baby in no time. So water was broken and....nothing (except now I am leaking everywhere....yuck).

So we start on the breast pump again. After about 2 more cycles we manage to get some contractions but they are 5 minutes apart when not on the breast pump and 3 minutes apart on the breast pump. Here is the thing....these are transition strength contractions but they aren't frequent enough to get the job done. I actually had to do colour visualizations to keep on top of them because I was soooo close to losing control (and I have done natural labour twice already so I am not wimpy by any means and actually have a pretty high pain threshold).

By midnight I had come to the conclusion that since pitocin was the only thing we hadn't yet tried that was the next logical step. Midwives agreed so we called the OB on call and she came in to assess. She checked the baby and said that she felt that her head was cocked to one side and tilted up and given the strength of my contractions she felt that there had to be some reason why she hadn't been born yet and why we couldn't get a consistent labour pattern going esp. given how quickly I had dialated and effaced to the point that labour petered out and how quickly my 2 previous vaginal births had been. She said that she thought that pitocin might actually hurt the baby if she was not descending for some specific reason so she didn't want to do pitocin and instead recommended going straight to c-section.

I will admit at that point the thought of pitocin freaked me out way worse than the thought of another c-section because I couldn't imagine how I was going to handle those strong contractions at 30 sec.-a minute when I was barely coping with every 3-5 minutes. Anyway long story short I agreed to the c-section.

When Deirdre was born her cord was wrapped around her neck twice so the educated guess is that it just wasn't long enough to allow her to get out safely hence the reason labour stalled out. Her heartrate never really varied though and never gave any indicators of distress so I don't know what to think.

I still haven't decided what I am feeling about the whole thing. I think I need some time to process the whole thing. The OB recommended not having any more kids and said that any more kids would require c-sections. Here is the stupid part....we aren't planning more kids but for some reason both of these statements are really sticking in my craw. She said I had lots of scarring but I managed to have 2 successful vbacs without incident with all that scarring KWIM? Ack...I just needs to let it go because it isn't like we are actually HAVING any more kids so what does it matter anyway?

So there you have it. This birth will need some time to process it. I have had a niggling suspicion for months that this birth was not going to go tickety boo like the other two but I couldn't put my finger on why.

She is a perfectly lovely baby though and while I am not happy with having to deal with pain and take care of a newborn at the same time I am okay with owning the decisions made in this birth and I don't feel backed into a corner in the same way that I did with Rhys so I think emotionally the healing will be easier this time (lets hope so because if it went worse that would be hard to imagine!)

Steph
 
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#3 ·
What a wonderful mother you are! Congrats!
I, too, have had a C-section, and I know how long the processing takes. You did an excellent job and furthermore, you should be very proud of yourself for doing the right thing by you and your baby. Enjoy your babymoon, hope your pain is manageable, and remember that it is completely normal to feel conflicted. Good luck and I hope everything continues going well!
 
#7 ·
Congratulations! You chose such a pretty name, I love it!

It sounds like it just might have been one of those situations where a c-s was unavoidable. It could have been just a matter of time before she began to register some distress. I don't blame you for being annoyed at the OBs comments! Like your two previous VBACs (plus this whole pregnancy) didn't happen!? In spite of scar tissue, it sounds like everything held up perfectly!

Rest up and take it easy (as you can) and spend as much time as you can horizontal with that new little babe!
 
#9 ·
Welcome, baby Deidre

Healing thoughts coming your way, Steph, as you process the cesarean section birth of your daughter.
 
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