A Birth to Remember

Labor Doula Services and Products to Support Pregnancy and Breastfeeding

Joshua- C-section

My second pregnancy was wonderful... so much easier than my first and I felt great!  I measured big but since my husband and I were both big babies ourselves, we weren't worried.  We planned a homebirth with a CNM.


On Tuesday, June 29, 2004, my midwife called me and said that she needed me to go in for a BPP no later than Wednesday.  I would be 42 weeks on Thursday and she didn't want me to risk out of her care for the homebirth.  She had already stripped my membranes three times and I had tried castor oil once.I decided to take the castor oil again and (again) it gave me tons of contractions but nothing serious.  After several hours they would start to fizzle out.

  Wednesday morning I went to thr OB's office to get the BPP.  I sat through the appt and listened to how I would kill my baby if I wasn't induced immediately, etc.  They refused to do the BPP in the office (even though they have a radiology dept across the hall) so they sent me to L&D.  They wanted me admitted right away.  I could tell I was being punished for planning a homebirth even though I was seeing a CNM.

I left the appt in tears and called my MW.  We talked for awhile and she said that there is just some reason That I was not meant to have this homebirth.  She suggested I go into L&D and she would meet me there.  I agreed and Jason took me home to pack.  It was a very hard decision but I knew it was the right oneat that time.  We got to L&D and they admitted me right away.  I was having contractions every 4 minutes lasting almost 60 seconds.  I assume they were caused by the castor oil.  We waited 5 hours for the BPP!!!!  I was contracting the whole time but only 3cm and 60% effaced.  I knew that they would want to augment my labor since it was getting late in the evening and I was tired from 2 days of contractions. They ended up refusing to augment labor when they saw his heart decels, saying it would only make it worse.

After the BPP we talked to the nurse who said the Dr would come up to discuss results.  All she would say is that she had never seen a case like mine and something about a large baby.  The Dr came in and told me that the baby was estimated to weigh 12lbs, 9 oz.  They told me that I could not birth a baby that size vaginally without extensive damage to myself and possibly hurting the baby, too.  I knew late term ultrasounds were very inaccurate so I assumed the baby would be around 9 lbs.  I just remember sitting there bawling.  I told them it wasn't supposed to happen this way...  I'm supposed to have a homebirth!  I couldn't believe what was happening but I was scared to leave.  I knew if I went home my MW could not attend my birth.  After watching the baby's heart dip after each contraction, I couldn't take the risk of an unassisted birth.  I feared that augmenting labor would only leave with an emergency c-section anyway.

The midwife and Jason and I discussed the options and we all agreed that I would get the c-section.  If I signed out AMA they told me my insurance would not cover the hospital visit. Matthew was still at the hospital in his jammies because we had nobody to watch him.  The MW stayed with him in the L&D room while they took me into the OR.  It all happened so fast. They did my spinal and started right away.  I was numb up to the middle of my rib cage but when they touched my lungs it really hurt.  I could feel everything up above that point.   The pulling wasnï���Ã��Ã�¿½t bad at all, but I could clearly feel it when anything touched my lungs. The anesthesiologist apologized and said that the spinal just missed that nerve.  He offered to knock me out and I refused.  It wasn't too awful but it hurt and I was upset anyway.  I thought I'd have a 9 pound baby and be so angry that I had an unnecessary c-section.  Well when they held Joshua up and I saw his size I knew I had made the right decision.  That boy was HUGE!!!!! He had a very tight, and somewhat short, nuchal cord.  Every time I contracted, the cord was getting compressed because of his size and position.

He was born at 11:12 pm on June 30.  He was 11 lbs, 1.1 oz and 22 inches long. I stayed at the hospital until Saturday.  I had a very high fever and some complications due to a uterine infection.  It was hard recovering from surgery with Matthew climbing all over me! 

After Joshua's birth I questioned the necessity of the surgery and obtained my medical records.  After seeing the operative notes and what was said about his cord/size, I felt that I had made the right decision.  I wondered what would happen when I had another baby.....

 

Holding Joshua for the first time... hours after his arrival

Matthew meeting his little brother

My battle scar... 3 months post partum