Dawn's Story- 10 lbs.- Hospital (Birth center transfer)

10 lbs.

22 inches

13 inch head circumference

Hospital

Mother's Height: 5' 8"

How was your pregnancy?

Mostly uneventful. Came down with bad case of PUPPPS around week 35, carried all the way to 42 weeks.

How did you feel about your upcoming birth?

Very positive. I'd researched and prepared very thoroughly. By the time week 42 rolled around, I was just ready not to be pregnant anymore.

Description of your birth experience:

I was induced by my midwife at the birth center at 42 weeks to avoid risking out. The amniotomy revealed thick meconium so I was immediately transferred to hospital and put in bed, where the IV, external fetal monitoring, and amnioinfusion kept me limited. Within a couple hours I was in active labor, and progressed well until I had dilated to 9 cm, which took about nine hours. Then I stayed at nine for an hour and a half. My midwife was concerned that contractions were not quite strong enough to get me over the peak, and wanted to start Pitocin - I was afraid I would not be able to handle Pitocin-enhanced contractions, as exhausted as I was. So when she began to discuss pain relief options, I was ready to hear it; since I was confined to bed the options were limited and I went ahead with an epidural.

After an hour of relief, the epidural wore off, but I was dilated completely and ready to push, which I did with less enthusiasm than grim determination. There was a lot of "cheerleading" and coached pushing; I just wanted to be done. It took 45 minutes, during which I sustained a second degree laceration, for my son to be born. A glorious moment.

How did you feel after the birth (first month)? Physically sore due to the tear, but emotionally fabulous.

How did you feel six months after the birth? One year? Now?

In hindsight, I still believe it was a wonderful birth under the circumstances. Not what I had envisioned, but still empowering and beautiful. I do wish I had been encouraged to take second stage labor more slowly, with less coaching and less red-in-the-face, pant-and-blow pushing, so that I could possibly have avoided the tear. Maybe it had to be that way due to his size, or maybe I would have done it that way anyway simply from wanting it to be over - I'll never know. I am still 100% pro-midwifery, pro-natural birth, and strongly suspect that if I had been in an obstetrician's care, I would not have been allowed to birth my son vaginally. (I probably wouldn't have been allowed to go to 42 weeks, either, although at the time I wouldn't have complained much about an induction! I should mention that my husband had a stroke right at the beginning of my ninth month, and I suspect the resultant stress during that time was the cause of my delayed labor.)

What did you learn from this birth?

The depth of my own endurance and strength, the fantastic ability of the human body to do what it was created for, and that the ability to be flexible to circumstances is key.

Any words of wisdom to impart?

Try not to go overdue! Ha, no, seriously... I think the best thing I did was to educate myself. I did my homework; I read everything I could get my hands on about pregnancy and birth; I watched birth videos and talked to experienced moms; I learned about the various interventions and procedures; how they worked and what they did. Fear is spawned by ignorance; knowledge about the intricacies of the process helped me eliminate the fear. I personally think the natural birth and midwifery philosophies are generally more encouraging of this kind of attitude than the medical model. We are blessed to have such immediate access to information these days - women need to make use of that power.