INTRO:
This should be interesting. So far, all I have written about Zoe's birth has been an outline. I'm excited to share the details, but beware. I will be including the details. This is not for the squeamish. Or my dad.
It should also be noted here that OB's normally want to induce labor in women who go past their due dates. Until recently, the cutoff date where they advise induction has been at 42 weeks - 2 weeks past due. In more recent years/months, the docs have moved this date up to 41 weeks. Some say they are just being cautious. Others say that this gives the docs more control over their patients, and for a Western med doc, this is always preferable. And yet others say that a woman's body knows when to go into labor, and that it has only been recently that docs have wanted to interfere so early, and that this early intervention only leads to a cascade of other interventions, which can then lead to a less-than-desirable birth experience and, furthermore, a detrimental result in the health of the baby and mama. I am (can you guess?) of the latter group of thought. I will step down from my soap box. For now.
And a disclaimer: Every woman's birth experience is her own. Every woman's feelings about interventions and pain meds and all that other fun stuff are her own. I firmly believe that every woman knows what is best for her and her child. This is just my story, which illustrates (sometimes in painful detail) my feelings and thoughts and experiences around my birth. I do not presume to know what is right or best for anyone else.
I am very proud of Zoe's birth. I went in wanting a totally natural childbirth, and ended up with a number of interventions. I did, however, make it through all 17 hours of labor (and 6 of those pushing!!) without any pain meds. I accredit this to lots of meditation in the two weeks before the birth, an excellent support team (my husband, my doula, another doula who is a good friend of mine, my best friend, and two midwives), and last but not least, a stellar education about natural childbirth. Without further ado, here is my story...
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I had two early-ish and mild complications during my pregnancy. One was that I had gestational diabetes. This was diet controlled, and wasn't really a concern. The other is that I was Group B Strep positive. This meant that the hospital protocol was to have antibiotics during my labor, or as soon as my waters ruptured, whichever came first. When I found this out, I did my research (too long of a story to get into here, if you want to know more, feel free to email me), and decided that I would take the iV antibiotics during labor, but that if I had prelabor rupture of membranes (my water breaking before I was in labor), that I would wait 18 hours before starting the antibiotics. In order to facilitate this, I had to sign my first - the first of many - Against Medical Advice waivers, which from hereon out will be referred to as "AMA"s. There was no way that, if my waters ruptured, say, 2 days before the baby was born (which they of course DID), I would want to spend all of that time in the hospital instead of at home. In the case of prelabor rupture of membranes, I also was tested for the effectiveness of some other antibiotics that were longer lasting, so that if I wanted to have the IV and then go home in between, I had longer than the four hours that penicillin would have lasted. I settled on Clendomyicin, which is effective for 8 hours.
My due date was March 13th, and I had pretty good dates (per the docs) because I had had some early sonograms*. March 13th came and went...and then the 14th...and the 15th...and the 20th...and on the 20th the docs made me come in for a 'scheduled induction'. I knew I was not going to induce, but they wanted me to do a non-stress test of the baby's heart rate, along with an amniotic fluid index test (a sonogram) to make sure that the baby was doing well. The tests showed that Zoe was doing Marvelously! But they still had to tell me horror stories about how I was killing my baby (exaggerating, they didn't tell me I was killing my baby, but it was damn close) and advise me to stay in the hospital and let them pump me full of drugs. I politely declined, and signed an AMA. Buh-bye. Back home I went.
At this point, I started all manner of natural induction techniques - walking in the sand on the beach, having lots of sex (oh yes, and that's an adventure at 9+ months pregnant), nipple stimulation, homeopathy, meditation, and acupuncture sometimes more than once a day.
Three days later, still no baby. I had to go back in for another 'scheduled induction'.
The tests came back showing that Zoe was happy as a clam, but they still had to tell me what horrible, awful, catastrophic things would happen to my baby if they did not induce me with drugs. I, again, politely declined. Another AMA signed. At this point, these visits are becoming awful and stressful. But now I have the weekend to recuperate, and try to encourage Zoe to GET THE HELL OUT OF MY BELLY FOR CHRISSAKES!! (Sorry, baby. I loved being pregnant with you, but your lease was up.) This is one way to acquiesce the fears about what labor will be like. It works, but wouldn't be my first choice.
Three days later, STILL no baby. The tests still showed the Zoe was happy as a lark, and still the docs had to give me all the horror stories and fear pictures. This time, however, I had called my midwife and asked her to please prep the docs for my visit. I wasn't going to induce, I had heard their spiel before, and could they please make it brief and let me sign the AMA and leave? Please? Having all of these horrible scenarios presented to me was decidedly NOT helping me to feel safe and protected, so that my body would do its thing and go into labor naturally. After the tests and the AMA, I had my midwife check me, and I wasn't really anywhere close to labor.
But, lo and behold! When I went to pee before we left the hospital, my mucous plug came out. Cool! Uh...uh oh. There's now water leaking out. Dammit. "SHIT!?" My membranes have ruptured. It. Would. Figure. As Husband heard the expletive coming from the bathroom, he came to the door to see what was the matter. When he opened the door and I told him, he turned white as a sheet. Seriously. You've never seen the blood drain from someone's face so quickly. We had a good laugh about that....Later.
So, now begins the Battle of the Antibiotics. Luckily, I've already signed that AMA, and my midwife tells me to go home. So, we do. Eighteen hours later, we are back in Labor & Delivery for my first round of IV antibiotics and another round of tests to make sure Zoe is doing fine. I've never had an IV before, but my nurse, Sasha, is AWESOME and gives me a little shot of numbing meds before inserting the IV. This is, however, after them keeping me on the heart monitor for almost 40 minutes before they give me the IV. Some would say (that 'some' including 'me') that they kept me on the monitor just so that they could find something wrong with the baby to give them more ammunition to throw at me during their horror show of 'you're putting your baby in danger!' and get me to stay to induce. My midwife had come in while I was still on the monitor and was greatly annoyed that they hadn't started the IV because she had ordered it the night before and it was on the floor. Hm. Funny....that's not what they told me. Anyway, another test passed with flying colors, AMA signed, and out the door I went until I had to return 7 hours later that evening.
For the next visit, I called in the troops. My Doula came with us to the appointment for moral support, and I also called the midwife on call to have her, once again, prep the OB on call for my arrival and appraise her of my situation, and of my determination to go into labor naturally. The visit went surprisingly well as far as the doc was concerned, the tests came back showing Zoe was happy as can be**, I signed yet another AMA, and out the door we all went to a local spaghetti place to relax, have a giant Bitch Session, and recharge. I had pasta with some of the hottest peppers I've ever had, we set the figurative 'reset' button, and we all went home. At 12:15 a.m., on March 28th, I laid down in bed. Only to get right back up because I had my first contraction...
(TO BE CONTINUED...)
*Sonograms during the first few weeks of pregnancy have a fairly accurate rate of determining the age of the baby based on its size.
**For those of you who are birth-minded, it is interesting to note here that the person doing the sonogram for the fluid index for this test changed. She only tested 3 of the 4 quadrants of my uterus for fluid, saying that she couldn't find any fluid pockets in the 4th quadrant after looking for only about 30 seconds. The other ladies had spent some minutes looking in that quadrant, and had found some. This new technician checked my numbers after 3 quadrants, found that that total number was still within the "normal" range, and so didn't work hard on finding any fluid in the 4th quadrant. The OB then used this number - which was a considerable drop from the last test - as another scare tactic to try to convince me to induce. When really, the number was probably much higher than reported. It's just that the technician was feeling lazy that day. Harumph. Frustrating.
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