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Obnoxious birth stories alert!!Sep 24 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line The main thing to remember is that whatever route you choose, be confident in yourself and your ability to birth your baby! In about three months, I will be giving birth for only the third time, so I’m by no means an expert about this topic. However, I’m one of those obnoxious women who likes to share her birth stories with anyone who will listen! Having gone through the birthing process a couple of times, I have gleaned some knowledge of myself and I hope to use that information in my upcoming birth. Giving birth is definitely a place where your milage may vary, but I shall offer my meager experience for your perusal. Take whatever you like and leave the rest! This is not an epinion about methods like home-birthing, Bradley method, Lamaze, etc., it’s just a recollection of my births. When I was pregnant with my first child, I absolutely wanted to give birth naturally. No drugs, no interventions, nothing, just me as the good earth-mother type calmly delivering my baby. My husband and I went to birthing classes and learned all the breathing and focusing techniques. I rounded up all of the relaxation tapes I could find and listened to them, finding the ones that really worked for me. Bought lots of scented candles that were sure to keep me calm and relaxed. I really wasn’t worried about birth, and am generally a pretty grin and bear it kind of woman, so I figured I should be able to handle birth. We were also sure that when the baby was born, she would go right to my waiting arms to nurse before the doctors had to do their thing. I knew things COULD go differently, but inside I was sure that they wouldn’t with MY birth. Unfortunately, we had some snags with our health insurance, and needed to get the birth underway by a certain date. I went in to the hospital and my ob told me that I was at four centimeters and sixty percent effaced. We agreed to go ahead and break my water and get labor underway. I was very excited, knowing that in a few hours I was going to be holding my first child! Our first snag was when we saw the fluid and found meconium (baby’s first stool) in it. So much for the baby going straight to the breast after birth. There was some concern, but we took it all in stride, confident that our baby would be fine. The day wore on. I found that the contractions weren’t too bad, so I didn’t bother with my relaxation techniques (the teacher told us not to start too early or we might find it difficult to stay focused later on). I also found that I am way too chatty to deal with relaxation tapes. My in-laws came in for the birth, and with them and my husband, I was far too busy talking to bother with a harp and oboe playing Debussy over ocean sounds. About eight hours after my water was broken, the doctor came in and did a pelvic check. Contractions had been picking up and I was expecting to hear that we only had a little bit longer to go. Not at all! I had fully effaced, but was only at five centimeters. In the face of such crushing news (no one told me that doing all of the squatting, walking, breathing and whatnot might NOT make my baby come down faster!), I reluctantly agreed to some IV medication. The nubane helped quite a bit, but eventually, even it wasn’t helping and I got an epidural. It was now twelve hours since I’d had my water broken, and my contractions completely stalled out. So THEN they had to administer pitocin through my IV. I was absolutely exhausted. Eventually, about sixteen hours after my water was broken, a nurse told me it was time to push. Hooray! We were almost there! Not quite. My epidural prevented me from feeling the urge to push, so I pushed for almost two hours with virtually no change. All that happened was that I got a major cramp in my neck that made it excruciatingly painful for me to put my head on my chest and push. I was NOT calm, all I wanted was to get that baby OUT OF ME!! I was pleading for a c-section, and my doctor told me he would try forceps before he performed a caesarian. With the help of this intervention, my 8 pound, 14 ounce daughter was FINALLY born. I had a fourth degree tear, but that had to wait nearly forty five minutes to be stitched up, as my ob was performing an emergency c-section a few rooms over and he was the only one able to do it! Fortunately, there were no major complications with either my daughter or myself, and we both recovered from the birth relatively quickly. Two and a half years later, we were approaching the due date for my son. I had initially stated that I would NOT accept an induction of any kind unless we were talking about being weeks and weeks overdue. But when my doctors had informed me that with a fourth degree tear and such a large first baby they might be considering a c-section, I began to change my tune. Near the end of the pregnancy, I went ahead and scheduled an induction for six days before my due date. We did far less in preparation for this birth. Because I knew that I didn’t listen to any relaxation music in my first birth, I just brought music that I enjoyed listening to and singing to. I figured I wouldn’t sing all that much, but figured it would be nice to have something with WORDS this time! I also took some games that I enjoyed playing to have something to do during the not-so-bad part of labor. Since my parents were coming this time, I knew I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time breathing. I still wanted a drug-free, intervention-free birth, but determined not to feel guilty if that couldn’t happen. For this induction, my doctor used a suppository that is placed near the cervix that helps soften the cervix and can also stimulate contractions. Unfortunately, when they used this, I was confined to the bed for an hour while it dissolved. After the first one, the doctor broke my water and used a second. Although the first did almost nothing, the second really did the trick. My contractions were very painful and very close together. I had hoped to do some walking, but after only one time around the maternity ward, I was unable to keep going, so I went back to the room. After about an hour of non-stop pain, I asked for an IV drug, and was given nubane again. This worked, although not as well as it had with my daughter’s birth, and I wanted an epidural again. I had been laying down in my bed for about an hour between the nubane and waiting for the anaesthesiologist, and when he finally arrived, I was at eight centimeters. They asked if I still wanted it, but remembering how long I had pushed with my daughter, I knew that I wanted it! However, when I sat up to get the epidural, I felt the urge to push on the second contraction. Having never really felt that sensation with my daughter, I wasn’t sure that I was feeling the need to push. On the third contraction however, there was no doubt that this boy was coming out right then! The epidural tube was placed in, but there was no time for the medicine to work, as I delivered my son with only a few pushes, almost being delivered by the nurse who was in the room at the time! What I’ve found from my birth experiences is that there is no way to predict anything! I do know that with this birth, I’m going to try to change positions during later labor to help move the baby down. We’re hoping for another induction, so I’m kind of resigning myself to at least SOME pain medication, although I hope to avoid an epidural again, since it decreased my ability to push. I hope again to be able to nurse my child right away and I hope to avoid any major interventions at the time of birth (no forceps, no episiotomy, etc.). It’s important to remember that no matter HOW the baby comes, the truly important thing is that both you and the baby are safe and healthy. That isn’t confined to home births, hospital births, natural births, caesarian sections, or any other type of birth. Certainly don’t be afraid to tell the doctor or midwife what it is you want and don’t allow yourself to be pressured into anything else. But don’t allow yourself to dwell on the things that don’t go according to plan. When the baby is here, just enjoy him/her and be proud that you were able to do it, no matter HOW you did it!  |
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