Wow, I can not believe it has been 13 years. I actually thought I lost my birth story. I have had about 5 computers since I wrote it and could not locate it. I decided to give it one more in-depth look a few months ago and I found it!!! I will leave it in it’s original form below for your reading pleasure. There are many things, mainly style, that I would change with it, but decided it was best to leave it as I wrote it 13 years ago. I did add some thing in italics for clarification.
At the time, I had joined an email group called International Cesearean Awareness Network around 35 weeks pregnant. They helped me with so much information. I credit ICAN and all of the wonderful ladies on it with helping me to pursue my first home birth VBAC , switching from a hospital birth midwife to a home birth midwife at 37 weeks pregnant!
Oh, and for those that don’t now “VBA2C” means, vaginal birth after two c-sections.
“Birth Story June 28, 1999”
On Monday June 28th, 1999 I was woken up with contractions at about 4:30 am. I got up and took a bath. It was a pretty strong one so I was pretty sure this was it since I was already 7 days late. This contraction was wierd I felt alot of pressure on my cervix like it was being pushed open really fast and hard by the baby’s head. Well the bath helped. At this point the contractions were about thirty minutes apart. I went back to bed, had a few more contractions and woke my husband up at about 6:30 am. I told him to call my mom to come over to watch our 2 and 4 year olds who were both born c/s for CPD (cephalopelvic disproportion, i.e. the baby is too big to fit through your pelvis) and FTP (failure to progress). Their weights were 8 lbs 5oz and 9lbs. Mom came over, contractions were about 10 minutes apart. We decided to call the midwife, who I just switched to at 37 wks four weeks ago. (Up until then I was going to deliver in the hospital without the full support of my doctor and hospital midwife.) She asked how I was doing and how far apart were the contractions. She said to call her back in 20 min or so. I called her back they were getting closer about 5-7 min apart at 7:30am. She told me to have my doula come over and she was going to go home to shower because she had been up all night at a birth and with another lady who was in, what turned out to be, a stalled labor. My husband called the doula to come over and she got there about 30 min later and I was in the tub for the third time. I knew I needed to slow things down. My last labor went really fast so I knew this one would be short also. When I got in the tub my contractions were about 3 min apart. I really wanted to wait for the midwife to arrive before getting out of the tub or at least get close. Well, she called from her car so I knew she wouldn’t be long. I got out of the tub and went to my bedroom. Got on the bed in the knee chest position to encourage the baby to be in a good position (whatever that may be for my body!!!!!). The contractions were getting intense and very strong and very close together. About 10 minutes after getting out of the tub wanted to push but the doula instructed me to breath through the urge. This was extremely difficult!!!!! Finally the midwife called when she was close and told the doula to go ahead and let me push.
By this time I was squatting on the floor with my chest on the bed. This position was very comfortable. When I finally got to push with the contractions it was such a relief it felt so good to not have to hold it in. The midwife arrived and I was already pushing I probably started to push at 10:30am, only 6 hours after my first contraction. Well she obviously did not need to check dialation, she could already feel the baby’s head coming down. I pushed in that position for awhile. Then she had me change. She sat on the bed and I backed up against her with her arms under my arms and squatted. Up until now I had done all of these steps with the other two births, labored, dialated and pushed for up to 5 hours. Now though the pushing changed it was different than I had felt before. There was way more pressure and it didn’t feel as good to push anymore . It took alot more effort to do it and alot more energy. This was the sensation of the baby actually moving down to a plus station.
I still, at this point, did not know if it was really going to happen. I just wasn’t sure. My thoughts weren’t negative, but they weren’t 100% positive either, I think that I just wasn’t thinking about it. Then I finally asked what stage the baby was at and she said a plus 1 or 2. Then I knew it was going to come out and I started to get impatient. It hurt so bad all of the pressure was so extreme. I was also exhausted in between contractions I practically fell asleep and did not want to wake up to push, but I did it. The midwife had us change positions again. We moved over to a bare wall where she got her back to the wall, standing, had me back against her with her arms under my arms and my husband and doula got my feet and brought them up to me where I grabbed under my knees and pushed with her holding me off the ground and me holding my legs up, resting in between contractions. We did this for a few contractions and then I guess the head was starting to show. So she got out the birth chair and my husband sat behind me on it so the midwife could get below to catch the baby.
At this point it got even more painful, the head was at a partial crow and crowning for what seemed like days, but I think it was like 15 minutes. I did not have one tear!!!!! When it finally got past that crown it felt so much better, but then there was a complication. There was blood, alot of blood. I had to deliver the shoulders and body pretty quickly which was painful again. She had to cut the cord and give him to us to tend to the bleeding. I then was told to push the placenta out which had decided to detach itself early, hence all of the blood. That was also very hard and painful. Then the midwife had to do bi-manual compression (sticking her hand/arm inside of me under my uterus and the other hand on top of my stomach and pressing down extremely hard) to get my uterus to clamp down right then. This was excruciating. The situation was obviously serious. I was scared, because I could tell something was wrong. I couldn’t focus on the baby right then. They decided to call 911 and I had to lay on the floor and gave the baby to my mother-in-law, who watched the whole birth and has had 4 home births of her own. But thanks to God the bleeding stopped before the peramedics got there.
I thought they were going to whisk in, push my midwife out of the way put me on a gurnie and rush me to the hospital. They didn’t, they walked in, asked my status and stepped back to let my midwife finish her job. Then they left the decision to transport up to her. We did not transport!!!!! They got me in bed and by this time I had been given 2 shots of pitocin in my thigh and one IV so my uterus was clamping down very painfully. Not to mention it had to be massaged what seemed like every 5 minutes but I think it was only like 3 times. I was a little light headed and could not sit up . I was doing extremely well considering I had just lost 10 cups of blood. The largest amount my midwife has seen in the hundreds of births she has done.
By now it was clean up time I asked to watch her analyze the placenta which up until this point was sitting in one of the bowls that caught my blood. It was enormous, the size of a large dinner plate complete circle and at least 1 1/2 inches thich.
The cord was also about 18-24 inches long. She said this was also the largest pacenta she had ever seen. This expains why it hurt when I had to push it out. Well, we then weighed the baby who had already pooped so I made her add on 2 oz. He was 10lbs 2 oz. 22in long, head 14 3/4in. Well they gave me 2 IV’s of fluids I got up to take a bath at about 4:00pm the baby came with me. Then we got in bed to rest. I can’t believe I did it with a baby sooo huge. He actually fit through my pelvis. Which I had been told with my other two was just too small to let the baby through and if I ever wanted a vbac I would have to grow a much smaller baby. Well I showed them!!!!!! I still speak to my original midwife who only delivers at the hospital. I told her about the birth, the baby’s size etc. she was shocked to say the least. I am so glad I did all of the research that I did. Even with the hemmorage this was still a wonderful experience and I would/will definately do it all over again at home my way!!!!!! Thank you to everyone on this list, all the info was a blessing to have.