A baby story

I have been a mother of three for six days now. I am loving every minute of it. Here is my labor story for anyone who would like to hear it.

I went to the hospital on the 24th, Tuesday, at 0800 to be induced. However, due to a tidal wave of pregnant women needing to deliver they had no room for me. They gave me a room on the gynecology floor until a labor and delivery room opened up. Rob and I sat there until 1030 when a room became available. We went to the labor room where I changed into my hospital gown and got in the bed. My midwife came in and introduced herself. To my relief, she spoke fluent English. She got my IV of Pitocin hooked up and told me that she would come back every 30 minutes to up the dosage. The contractions started almost immediately though I couldn't feel them. Rob and I chatted and shared a chocolate chip cookie while we waited. The nurse came in at the 30 minute mark and increased the Pitocin. I started to feel the contractions within 5 minutes but they were mild. By the end of that 30 minutes they were dying down. The midwife increased the Pitocin again and the contractions felt strong and were starting to come at regular intervals. At the two hour mark, the midwife came and was pleased with the rythym of contractions and decided to check me to see if I was dialating. The moment she started checking me, my water broke. It suprised her and made all of us laugh. My water has a tendency of breaking rather forcefully and it has caused a laughing matter at all three births. The midwife said I was still only dialated to a two. She didn't change the level of Pitocin since my water broke and she wanted to see if my body would go on its own. I remember rolling over, looking at Rob and saying, I don't think we will make our 4 hour goal for delivery. I didn't complete my sentence when I had a severe contraction. I looked at Rob and said, "Nevermind, I need help, go tell the midwife I want the epidural." Rob went to find the midwife and he walked back in and said, "She is with someone else and will be here in a minute." Meanwhile, the afternoon shift midwife came in and asked if I was ok. I had started to cry because I was in a significant amount of discomfort. She asked me if I was in pain and I said yes. Rob told her that the other midwife had checked me and my water had broken. We also told her that I was dialated to a two. She seemed confused when I told her that it had only been 25 minutes ago that this had happened. "Are you really in that much pain?" she asked. I wanted to be a smart alec and give a rude answer but, I was able to maintain a civil demeanor. She decided to check me again. I had dialated to a six. She told me gently that there simply wasn't going to be time for an epidural, but that she would help me have the baby.

I didn't want to believe her. I was scared to death to have a baby without the pain medicine. I also suffer with alot of pride and didn't want to make a fool of myself screaming. I did cry, I allowed myself that in between breathing. I was suprised at how much back pain there was. The midwife suggested that I sit on my knees and rest my weight on the headboard. This did help in shifting the pain from my back to my front. The midwife rubbed my back while Rob held my hand. I stayed in this position until I felt like I needed to push. I then turned back around started trying to push. It took a couple of tries before I gave a real push, because pushing is also painful. Finally, the baby was far enough down that I had an almost uncontrollable desire to push. Here the midwife and I started to disagree. She was telling me little pushes and I was ignoring her. She informed me that the baby's head was catching on a lip of skin and that she needed to give me a muscle relaxer so that I wouldn't rip. To be honest, I don't know if she gave me the relaxer or if I listened to her about slowing the pushing. I do remember feeling a burning sensation and then he was born. We beat our last delivery time by 30 minutes. 3 1/2 hours start to finish. I did scream twice while I was pushing. Not a fearful out of control scream, but more like a scream or yell you would hear in a gym when someone is trying to lift alot of weight. I didn't yell at anyone or get mean. I did end up ripping and needing 4 stitches. That was also uncomfortable since the doctor didn't wait until the anestesia kicked in before stitching. Oh well! Placenta was not to bad. The midwife was tugging on it which was a wierd sensation but, she did very little and it came out. That felt like a bad contraction.

Matthew was placed on my tummy and Rob got to cut the cord. They didn't use any eye ointment on Matthew, and vitamin K was given orally. I got to nurse Matthew almost immediately. They gave us about two hours alone before the midwife took him to clean him a bit and take his weight and such. I really liked that. With my other two, I felt like I was attacked by a herd of nurses and my babies and Rob were escorted out and I was left there babyless.

All in all, it was a good experience. I don't know if I would voluntarily deliver naturally if I got pregnant again but, there were several aspects that I did enjoy more than having the epidural. With the epidural they give you a drug prior, Demerol I believe, this makes you feel drunk. I was so loopy that I wasn't cognizant of what was going on. I participated in this birth alot more. I got to see him be born and I actually got to see the placenta and ask all the questions that I have always wanted to ask but was always to drugged up to ask. I also enjoyed being able to get up and move around during labor instead of being confined to the bed. Last of all, with the epidural I had to have a catheter in for several hours. This time, I didn't.

So, I have experienced delivery both ways. Both ways are equally exhausting. Both have their perks and disadvantages. I would never criticize anyone for choosing to deliver either way. I would encourage women that want to try to deliver naturally to give it a try. Fear, is the biggest set back for alot of people. I won't lie, it is painful but it is also manageable.