Nolie's Story: How the Nurse Saved Thanksgiving

Noele's Story
November 26, 2009 (Thanksgiving!)
Submitted by Autumn
Originally published November 30, 2008 at Playing House Full Time

I feel like I should write this all out while it is still relatively fresh in my memory, but forgive me for mistakes with time and all that- I don’t really feel like I had a handle on time at all.

 On Tuesday I had a midwife appointment, when they did my internal exam she found that I was two cm and very thin – she then swept my membranes and let me know that this can cause contractions but that typically they aren’t anything real, just your bodies reaction to the exam. So, immediately following my exam the contractions started and continued through the afternoon and evening. They were not timeable or painful at all so I figured they weren’t really anything. Charlie on the other hand was convinced I was in labor and about to pop out a kid every five minutes or so.

Then on Wednesday afternoon my parents came up to help get everything prepared for Thanksgiving dinner (that we were hosting the next day…hah). Starting around 8 pm my contractions were starting to get pretty regular, about 5-7 min apart and lasting for around a minute, but not painful or anything that I had to stop and breath through. Around 10:30ish they started to get more intense and were every three minutes apart. At that point I breathed through them a little bit in bed until they got too intense (around 12:30). I sat out in our living room from 12:30 till 1:30 while they picked up in intensity a bit. Then I went back to bed so that Charlie could help me breath through them. And let me just say, he is my hero. Breathing through each contraction with me and being so encouraging and believing in what my body could and would do, even when I was losing faith.

OK, at about 2:30 they got much, much stronger and I decided to call the midwives and see what I should do next. I called and they told me to take a shower and call as soon as the contractions were 5 min apart, lasting a minute and for an hour duration. So I went to the shower to try and relax and get labor to slow down, so I could sleep but had no luck. The contractions slowed when I was in the shower but were just as intense as soon as I got out. Then things started to change quickly. My contractions were consistently 3 min. apart and lasting a minute, and at about the 45 minute mark I started to shake and throw up. So we called back the midwife and told her what was going on and she told us to meet her at the birth center in 50 min. (6am).

I was still thinking that this was probably nothing big (Deny deny deny) and that they would send me home to labor longer, Charlie was convinced and started packing the bags (that were yet to be packed) and getting everything all ready and loaded. We arrived at the birth center and they did my exam and, as I thought, I was still at two centimeters. However, as they were examining me (btw: nothing makes a contraction worse than getting an internal DURING it….nothing tops that) the midwife said “I don’t think that is a head…” and went to go and wake up another midwife to come and feel and see what she thought was presenting. The other midwife (who lives in the basement of the birth center) came up and felt the baby, both were sure it wasn’t the right part of the head but they couldn’t tell what part of her face they were feeling. After about half an hour of internal exams I had gone from two cm to three.

Then I had a few contractions without internals and then the second midwife went in to check once more to see if she could tell if she was feeling a chin or a nose or brow and during this exam my water broke, soon after that there was an audible crack and kind of snapping feeling in me and I went from three cm to five in one contraction. At that point both of the midwives left and Charlie and I labored through a few more very painful contractions. When they came back in they delivered the news, “we need to transfer to the hospital”. These were the words I was horrified of hearing, she might as well have said “time for your c-section” and truthfully, that is what she was thinking (she told me later). The baby was presenting face first and that is not legal for them to deliver and is a 90% chance of cesarean, not to mention more painful (back labor) and very, very rare.

 We were kind of in shock at this point, there was nothing to do but go. But still, I felt defeated at that moment. So we got me dressed (a feat with contractions one minute apart) and into the car (easily the WORST place to be with contractions). Once we got the hospital we got checked in (another post in and of itself, because the people at front desk of labor and delivery are stupid and ignore hard labor because they are used to it and ask you dumb questions like “what is your religious preference” in the midst of some LOUD and painful contractions..ahem) and waited to find out what doctor was on call (another one of my big fears was the baby being delivered by someone I have never met). We found out it was Dr. Cook and our midwife was super relived, saying that he was one of the only doctors at the hospital who would let me labor at all and not just send me directly into a c-section.

We met Dr.Cook (old as dirt, wears a bow tie and drives a smart car…) and he told me I couldn’t have as much time to labor as women typically get and that I needed to progress quickly, because of her position- he told me that if she didn’t turn he would have to send me in for a c-section and that would be sooner rather than later. This was the theme of my interactions with him each time. Every visit went with the threat of ‘progress faster or we will have to send you in’. Also, this was the first face presentation he had seen in 10 years. After he tried to turn our baby (pull her chin down) basically every nurse and other doctor wanted to come in and feel her to see what a face first presentation felt like. I was totally pro anyone and everyone trying to turn her, thinking that was my only shot at a vaginal birth.

So, as time went on the contractions got more and more painful and closer and closer together, until they were on top of each other. Around one in the afternoon the nurse let us know that if I hadn’t progressed allot by the time the next check came that she though the doctor would probably section me fast. Side note: our nurse was awesome. She was on our side the whole time, telling me how I could totally do this and that the baby would def turn for us. She also was great at down playing any negatives to the doctor and waiting to call him until it was the last possible moment so that I could get the most time to labor possible.

Anyway, around one I was starting to hit a wall was convinced that my body would never relax enough to open up. I had power over relaxing my neck and arms and upper back but I could feel that during each contraction I was tightening my hips and my back and thighs really hard. This feeling started as soon as I got to the hospital, I am fairly sure it was all in my head but regardless I was getting too stressed from all the c-section talk and I was letting it affect my ability to progress and cope. I talked with my midwife to tell her that I was hitting a wall and she told me to let the doctor check me to see how much I had progressed since he had checked me last (she thought it would be quite a bit because of how close together and strong my contractions were) and then to think about an epidural because it might buy me some more time and if done right it could make my muscles relax without me having to try. So we went with that plan.

The doctor came back and gave me another internal (maybe, my 100th by then- no joke). He found that I hadn’t gotten any further (still 5cm). At this point the choice was epidural for time and hope that it would be done well and work or a c-section in the very, very near future. The anesthesiologist was called and she went through her whole talk and it felt like it took an hour (at this point we had decided on the epidural so I just wanted to get it done, I was mainly horrified by the procedure). Charlie told me it only took about 2 minutes, but it was an eternity. Then she did the epidural and it was perfect. She was very fast and was able to give me a lower dose than typical. I was numbed to the pain in my back but could still feel every contraction and could walk and use my legs. It was just exactly what I needed, and 45min later I was at 7cm, about an hour after that I was at an 8. The nurse checked me to find out how dilated I was and then waited another half an hour or longer to let the doctor know, she was incredible.

Now, after the epidural I got a pretty high fever (102) and started to shake (more than I had been before)- this is usually a sign of an infection but the nurse down played it because we were pretty convinced it was just a side effect of the epidural. After being at 8 for a little while I started to feel allot of pressure in my butt (over share?) and I knew this was the beginnings of wanting to push- believe me when you want to push you will know. I waited a few contractions of this and then told the nurse. She examined me and said I was at a 10 and the baby was right there. At this point she let Charlie feel the baby, so cool. She told me “don’t push, we have to wait for the Dr. to say that he will deliver the baby even though she hasn’t turned. But, if you ignore what I am saying and let your body push, the baby will come out.” Then she left.

At this I looked over at Charlie and said “so, we push then right?” So for the next hour or more I didn’t actively push but I let my body push and didn’t hold back. Then the nurse came back and taught me how to push (a practice push). Then she told the Doctor that “the baby is coming!” and got everything set up and me all rigged (stirrups and all). Once the doctor came in he had me push once and I guess I did well because all of a sudden everything changed in the room and he said “whoa whoa stop stop or the baby will come out!” so I waited and then with his coaching and some serious finessing of Nolies face (popping out her chin after her lips and so on…) came out! It took just 20min of pushing and our little one was here. All 6lbs 11oz of her. And we were instantly in love with out little pirate looking baby.

Elaina's Story: A c-section with a happy ending

Elaina's Story
April 20, 2012
Submitted by Laura

"The best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry."

I had been planning a natural birth using the hypnobabies home study course. I listened to the tracks daily and was really excited to have the birth I didn't get with my now 8 year old son.

I was due May 6, 2012. At about 34 weeks, baby was head down already but by my next appointment, she was back to footling breech. We had an ultrasound to confirm though I knew that the giant ball pressed into my ribs was her head. I was very worried about her not turning so I started doing the exercises that are supposed to help baby get in the right position.

On Thursday, April 19, I had an appointment with an OB about doing an ecv [external cephalic version] to manually turn her. The thought of having this done frightened me but not as much as a c-section did. We made an appointment to have this done on the following Monday. I got ahold of my old acupuncturist to see if she could get me in to try moxibustion and I was excited she had an opening that day. Afterwards I felt great and made dinner that night, something I had been too exhausted to do in the previous weeks. I watched a few shows with my boyfriend while sitting on the exercise ball and then bought the "Turn Baby Turn" track from hypnobabies and listened to that. I went to bed visualizing my baby changing positions.

At 4:30 that morning I awoke to a stabbing pain in my cervix and what I thought was pee flowing down my leg. I stood up and it gushed out. I kept telling my now awake boyfriend that it was pee and that I was going to take a shower. He convinced me we had no time and needed to rush to the hospital. It was 16 days before my due date so I wasn't really prepared. I changed while Scott called St. Joseph's Hospital. They had never heard of my doctor. Come to find out he called some hospital in New Hampshire!

Once we got to the proper hospital, it started to sink in that I would have to have a c-section. I used my relaxation techniques while three nurses tried to get IVs in me all while I had intense contractions. I was alread at 4 cm so they rushed me back after a talented nurse got me a pain free IV in my arm. I was panicked but my doctor, who got to assist in the surgery, calmed me. I was in shock when they showed me my giant baby girl at 7:04am and I cried the same as I had when I first saw my son. I learned later that her foot was actually coming out and they had to dislodge it before delivering her!

Besides not getting my natural birth, my biggest disappointment was not getting to hold my precious girl for at least 45 minutes, but she did nurse well when I did get her.

I am thankful for c-sections and will never say never again!!! Elaina Gray was 8.5 pounds,19 3/4 inches, and ready to come out on her terms. We have no idea why she was breech! But she is a healthy little girl now almost three months later and I'm finally feeling normal!

Mona's Story: A hospital transfer gone right

Mona's Story
July 18, 2007
Submitted by Jillian


My water broke the first night. It was unmistakeable; I had been sitting on the couch and when I stood up, the collected fluid spilled out of me, soaking through my underwear and dripping down my leg. This was not pee. It was a week and a half before my due date, my baby hadn't even dropped into my pelvis, and we were not prepared. As a first-time mom and the daughter of a woman who had always had long pregnancies, I had expected to go another 3 weeks or so. We had the basics, though, and it was clear that the basics would have to be enough.

That night and the following day, I tried to prepare myself. Despite all the tricks, pre-labor refused to advance to active labor. I ate and drank, walked and rested, and waited. That evening we met the midwife at her office. We were closing in on 24 hours with ruptured membranes, and one way or another, labor would have to start soon.

The three of us (the midwife, my husband, and I) decided to try a catheter trick. Foley catheters are usually used to empty bladders, but my midwife would insert one with the tip just inside my cervix, and inflate it with a little bubble of saline to put pressure on my cervix and stimulate labor. It was an easy procedure, and we went home afterwards to wait -- and returned to the birth center within 2 hours, in active labor. What we didn't know at the time was that my daughter was in the occiput posterior (OP) position, with her back along my back, instead of the easier anterior position with the baby facing backwards. My cervix was straining against the top of her head instead of the pointier crown, and despite a night and a day of good active labor, I could not dilate the way I needed to.

My husband would later describe this as the worst day of his life. I couldn't eat or drink (although I would sip juice and later throw it up). I was having double and triple contractions without breaks in between, hard back labor. I would spend hours standing and leaning against a wall, with someone behind me to rub my back during contractions, and it felt like minutes. My midwife did painful cervical massage a few times to encourage dilation, but eventually that was only causing swelling and irritation. I was getting IV antibiotics every few hours, but still, as we neared 48 hours with ruptured membranes, I knew that the baby was going to have to come out. What we were doing was not going to meet that deadline. If I was going to transfer to the hospital, I would need to do it while I still had time to have a vaginal birth.

My body had given me a break of a few minutes without contractions to have this discussion with my husband and midwife. In fact, it was the first and only break I got. Once the decision was made to transfer, labor started again, and I contracted while dressing, in the car, in the waiting room at the hospital, while changing into a gown, trying to talk to the nurse, getting into the bed. I was sure the whole hospital heard my labor roars. (I credit my classical voice training for giving me the skills to roar like that for 24 hours straight without losing my voice!) I gratefully accepted a shot of Fentanyl while I settled and, a bit later, an epidural and a small Pitocin drip. I knew that these interventions could raise the risk of a surgical birth, but I also knew that I had very little time to start making progress before the hospital would insist I have surgery, and I needed to do whatever I could to make that progress.

I was lucky to get a nurse who was an advocate of midwives and vaginal birth. She pushed and pressured and bent the rules for me to have a chance to labor, and it worked. I started dilating immediately, and within 2 hours of my transfer, I was ready to push. Forty-eight hours after my water had broken, Mona emerged, utterly perfect. Her heart rate had been rock-solid through the whole labor, and her lips were cranberry pink when I first saw her.

I had wanted to avoid giving birth in the hospital, but I was lucky to have such a good hospital to give birth in. The hospitalist that delivered Mona allowed me to lie partly on my left side while I labored, and he even let my midwife (who had stayed with us in an unofficial capacity) show him how to delay clamping the umbilical cord until it had stopped pulsing. The nurses encouraged me to bedshare and breastfeed, and Mona was barely out of our arms for the 24 hours that we stayed. I had an easy physical recovery, too, with no tearing or rawness. I do sometimes wonder if the chronic headaches I've suffered since my daughter was born might be related to the epidural, but that's unlikely, and in any case the epidural couldn't be avoided. All in all, I'm happy with my birth story. It's a good memory, and there's nothing I regret about it.

Samuel's Story: A peaceful hospital birth

Samuel's Story
May 2, 2006
Submitted by Rachael

I was 25 when I had my first son. We had trouble getting pregnant, but after 2 years, our 4th attempt at IUI worked, and we were finally pregnant. We took the standard class that the hospital offered, a few sessions that didn't tell me much that I didn't already know. I was so excited at becoming a mother, but I was really scared of labor. All I heard were stories about how much it hurt and how afterwards it was "like hamburger down there." Not exactly inspiring or encouraging. My birth plan was basically to try and do it without medication, but I fully acknowledged that I had no idea what my pain threshold is since I've never really had any painful experiences. The most physical pain I'd ever felt before that was probably getting my tattoos.

My due date was May 2, and the day before I was feeling really nervous. I was ready to meet my son, but one thing I did know was that I did not want to be induced. I really wanted labor to come on naturally. I was feeling unsettled about my doctor appointment the next day because I knew the subject would come up. That night, my husband gave me the choice of going for a walk outside around our apartment complex or of sex to try and get things going. I chose the latter because the idea of a walk was just too much! We're both night owls and ended up going to sleep around 1 am.

At 3:30 am I woke up and as soon as I was awake, I realized that I'd been awakened by my water breaking. I sat up in bed and made my husband go and get me a towel. I went into the bathroom and the fluid was clear, and after that I was leaking fluid slowly, and gushing a bit during contractions. At first, I didn't even realize that what I was feeling were contractions. It took three or four crampy feelings exactly 20 minutes apart for me to realize what was happening. I did not have any contractions or Braxton Hicks at all before I actually went into labor.

I was so excited, and even though I was tired, I liked the dark and quiet of the morning. I called the hospital and they told me that I should come in since my water had broken but that I could shower and have something to eat first, no rush. I was too excited to shower, but we took our time getting ready. The drive to the hospital was nice, no cars on the street and everything was very quiet and still in the early morning. We walked into labor and delivery around 5 am. I had filled out the paperwork ahead of time, so we got right into a room. At that point, my contractions were about 6 minutes apart.

The nurses told me that depending on my progress they would probably want to start pitocin around 9:30 (6 hours into my labor). I put on a gown and robe and walked the halls, leaning on the railings when I had contractions. My Mom and sister arrived around 6. As the contractions got stronger and harder, I started to re-think my ideas about having a natural labor. Around 7:30, my doctor came in and did my first check and found that I was 6 cm dilated. It was really convenient that my doctor's practice was located in the hospital, so it was very easy for him to come down and check on me. After that, my contractions continued getting longer and more difficult, but spaced out more. I know now that is something that happens to some people, and doesn't necessarily mean progress is slowing, but I did not know that at the time.

Around 10 am, my doctor told me that we could either keep waiting or we could use pitocin and move things along. This is where my journey completely diverges from my current opinions. I know now that the pitocin was not necessary, but I wasn't informed or empowered to make that choice at the time. I did know that pitocin can make contractions come on fast and hard, so I told them I wanted an epidural before they started the pitocin drip. I got my epidural and they started the drip sometime between 10:30 and 11:30. Around noon, my friend/photographer arrived as well as my stepdad. At 12:20 they checked me again and I was still only 6-7 cm dilated. At that point, the nurses suggested that we kick everyone out and try to rest. The hospital I was at was very quiet and calm, and I had the overhead lights off with natural light streaming through floor to ceiling windows. I listened to Sarah McLachlan and went to sleep.

At 1:15 I was awakened by an oxygen mask being placed over my mouth and nose. In retrospect I have no idea why that was necessary. They told me that the baby's heart rate was sporadic, and upon doing an internal exam they said that the reason was because it was time to push - I was 10 cm and ready to go! We called my family back to the room and around 1:30 I started pushing.

Because of the epidural, I was on my back on the bed. There were no stirrups, so I was holding my legs as I pushed. The lights were still out, and I did very little talking. My husband made jokes about it being a 'silent birth' ala Scientology since Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes were all over the news at that time.  I was not in pain, but did feel an urge to push and a lot of pressure. My family was there to encourage me, but I didn't need them to talk to me, just be in the room with me to help bring our baby into the world.

After 1 hour and 40 minutes of pushing, Samuel Denn was born. He weighted 7 lbs 6 oz, was 20 inches long, and had the fullest head of white blonde hair I'd ever seen. They placed him immediately on my chest and let him stay while I birthed the placenta.

We stayed in the hospital overnight, and were unsuccessful with breastfeeding. I found out later that I had a litany of medical issues including insulin resistance, PCOS, high testosterone and hypothyroidism that affected my ability to get pregnant and to produce milk. I tried many things, but never got more than a few drops out of either breast. My doctor had never checked my breasts while I was pregnant, or told me that the size and placement or the fact that there was not an increase in size might not be good signs. I never had any idea that some women could not breastfeed, or had low production, or any of that.

We went home the next day, and I was shocked at how easy my recovery was. My muscles were sore and tired, but I felt fairly good. None of the vagina horror stories I'd heard held true in any way, and things went back to normal fairly quickly. Even though I have different ideas now about birth in general, I am happy that I had such a good hospital experience with my first birth!