Mirabelle’s BirthI had a great pregnancy. After the first trimester's morning sickness eased up and I got use to the changes I was going through I generally felt good. I had my days where my energy was low or I felt off, but generally by the second trimester I knew what I could and couldn't do and I kept up an active lifestyle. Seven days past my due date the midwives at the OBGYN Associates started to talk about interventions. They didn't want me to go more than 14 days past my due date. On the 9th day past my due date I went in for a cervical ripening. They weren't sure if that would induce labor, but it would help me dilate and would be necessary before they attempted any induction which they were talking abou doing on day 12 or 14. They used the prostoglandins that could be removed, but that meant I had to be at the hospital on a fetal monitor for 12 hours. So my husband and I prepared for a boring day at the hospital. We really thought that the medication would help me dilate, but that I wouldn't go into labor right away. I started to feel cramping right away, but it was no big deal. I had felt that on and off for the last two weeks. However by noon, a couple hours later, I was having bad back pain. I called my doula and she counseled me over the phone and siad she would come over by 2:30 pm. We talked to the nurse and she said I could get out of the bed as long as I kept the monitor on. The pain was difficult for me to deal with even with her suggestions. I didn't think it was labor, because the pain was in the pelvis and not in the uterus like for Braxton Hicks contractions, but I later found out it was. When my doula came she suggested a few new positions to try to adjust the baby's position (since back pain is usually a sign of poor positioning of the baby). This worked and I was now feeling pain more evenly. The contractions were really close together because of the prostoglandins. They were often 2 minutes apart. Around 4 pm the midwife checked up on me and removed the prostoglandins, lucky for me we went with the removable kind. We waited to see if the contractions would slow down, but they didn't. However, I was finding them much more managable, probably thanks to my doula. By 6 pm the contractions were steady enough for the midwife to admit me. My water broke at 7 pm and my husband, my doula and I decided to have a quick walk outside. It was a hard walk because labor had intensified, but I wanted to see what the day was like before the sun set and it seemed like the right thing to do. When we came back in I was ready for the tub. They checked me one more time. I was dilated to 4 cm. I went into the tub at 8 pm. Things were progressing quickly and the contractions got very hard to deal with. Sometimes I felt like the yoga I had practiced really helped and I could focus inward, keep my voice low, move the baby and get rid of the pain. Other times I couldn't stand the pain. I had a moment where I just cried out of frustration because I no longer felt in control of the pain. However, I could tell that I was opening up and that the baby was moving downward and I knew I was progressing quickly so I wouldn't have to deal with the pain much longer. By 10 pm I felt like pushing. I actually started pushing in the tub. As long as I was pushing these contractions didn't hurt. By the time they got the wheelchair and got me back into the room I knew the baby had moved down some. I used a few positions for pushing, but in the end I delivered side lying. It was the position the midwife was most comfortable with and I didn't have a strong opinion as long as I wasn't lying on my back. Mirabelle was born at 10:40 pm. She was beautiful and healthy. She was put on my stomach until her umbilical cord had stopped pulsating. Then my husband cut it and she was placed on my breast. The cord was too short to move her to my breast earlier. My doula assisted me in getting her to latch on properly, but she was eager to latch on and started nursing right away. |
Contact Ithaca Birth GroupGail Birnbaum, RN, CPM, CLC. Jennifer Gray |
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