Birth Story

People have been asking me to type out my birth story, so here goes!

My dream was to deliver at South Coast Midwifery, in the water.  I started out with an OB at 8 weeks pregnant and then moved to South Coast at 25 weeks. Around week 28 they moved into a lovely new facility...it truly is amazing!

I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes early in pregnancy. And was put on the GD diet. It didn't control my blood sugar for long and it really packed on the pounds! Having done lower carb diets for so many years, I knew it was just too high in carbs for me! So when the midwife at South Coast Midwifery sent me to Dr. Kurtzman to manage my blood sugars, he wanted to put me on medication right away! I couldn't deliver with the midwives outside of a hospital if I was on meds, so I begged the Dr to let me try to eat the way I felt I should eat! He didn't think I could do it, but he gave me a week to bring my numbers down. I did it! I managed my blood sugars through the rest of my pregnancy through diet and sometimes I had to add in 4am work outs! 

Because of my GD I was only allowed to go to 41 weeks before they would want to send me to a hospital for induction. So around week 38 I really started trying all of things that can help you go into labor. Week 39 I woke up with Bells Palsy and went to the ER. They put me on Steroids and Anti Virals. (at the time of this post I still haven't full recovered). I had to tape my eye shut at night while I slept, I had trouble eating and drinking because my mouth wouldn't shut all the way. It was miserable!

Week 40 came and went, I had til Monday morning to go into labor. Wednesday I went to an accupuncturist to get a treatment to bring on labor and treat my Bells. Friday, I went to the midwife clinic and they put a catheter in my cervix to help it dilate. It fell out on it's own about 4 hours later. I gotta tell ya, having that inserted was probably more painful then the labor! I woke up the next morning and went to another place for accupuncture, they did some things a little different, including massage. I was in tears on the table, what they did hurt so bad. But I started having contractions on the table!

We left and went to have lunch, then walked around Hobby Lobby, I was having a lot of contractions at this point, but they seemed sporadic. I decided I should go home and take a nap. I laid in bed for an hour, unable to sleep due to the discomfort. Finally, I felt something weird and decided to get up and go to the bathroom. My water broke! Rose Watch 2013 was activated! (the phrase my friends and family coined for when labor started) 

We called the midwives, who didn't want me to come in til my contractions were 3 minutes apart for an hour. They were about 7 at this point. So tried to relax, took a warm shower and let everyone know I was in labor. I had a pretty big support team in place and needed to let them all know!

It was so hot in our house, I ended up laboring on our back patio on a birth ball with support from my husband and sister. They took turns helping me and loading the car up. 

By 8pm we were on our way to the Birth Center, in traffic it could easily have taken 30-45 minutes to get there, but thank God I went into labor during non peak hours.

 It took us about 15 minutes, it was a very long 15 minutes. My Doula and friend Kelee met us at the car and walked me in. 

The birth room had a queen sized bed, a seating area, a faux fireplace, a toilet, sink and a big beautiful tub. I spent the next several hours pacing, squatting and using the birth ball. I wanted to lay down to rest between contractions, but didn't because every time I laid down the contractions were a lot worse! Kelee provided me with massage and essential oils to help naturally relieve the pain. Everyone took turns applying counter pressure to my back during contractions. The counter pressure was about the only thing that really helped. After what seemed like 2-3 hours, I asked if I could get in the tub. So they filled it up and I climbed in.....WOW! The warm water felt amazing! Apparently I dozed off in between contractions and was even snoring. After a while they noticed my contractions were slowing down, so they asked me to get out of the tub. I was more then happy too, I was so HOT at this point. When I got out my support team took turns fanning me off to help me cool down. A couple hours in they asked me if I wanted to be checked, I eagerly agreed! Ruth (my midwife) asked me if I wanted to know how many centimeters, at first I was afraid....afraid she would say a low number like 4 or 5, but after a couple minutes I said "YES, please tell me!" When she told me I was about 8 centimeters I felt a great sense of relief. A couple hours later, I was dilated to 10, but the baby was high, so now we needed to work on getting the baby down. The midwife, assistant and my doula all were good about giving me suggestions, but mostly I went with what my body was telling me to do. I rocked back and forth and squatted during contractions. I remember punching the walls a few times, and saying once that I wanted to cuss, but I never did as far as I know! I remember having no sense of time and no idea what everyone around me was doing. Eventually I asked to go in the tub again, this time things were different. I moved around a lot and focused on bringing the baby down. Around 6am Ruth came into tell me she needed to go to another birth and that Lorri the owner of the Midwifery was coming in to take over at 7am. Lorri missed the birth! Around 630am I started feeling like I needed to push, wow...I never imagined that would feel how it did! The head kept poking out and people were commenting on all the hair. After several pushes I really gave it 10 times more then I thought I had in me and her head popped out into the water! WOW! Suddenly I was told to turn over onto all fours. ( I later found out the baby's shoulders were stuck so they wanted me to flip to help open up the pelvis.) With the next contraction she came out, I was really bummed that everyone in the room was able to see her except for me! I didn't hear any crying, and the midwife asked her assistant to bring over their equipment, right then I heard a cry! I remember just repeating, "I need to see her!" They helped me turn over with the cord still attached, and I held her in my arms in the water for a few minutes. Then they helped me get out of the tub, still holding her to my chest, with the cord still attached. They dried me off and walked me over to the bed where daddy, baby and I got to lay while they delievered the placenta.

 

 The placenta wasn't coming out on it's own, so I did need some pitocin to help my body express it. They wrapped it up and made sure we were comfortable and left the 3 of us there to bond. She still hadn't left my arms, and the cord was still attached. ( we choose to do delayed cord cutting) Just as I was feeling like I need to go to the bathroom, the midwife came back in. They helped me up to use the restroom and get cleaned up, while daddy cut the cord and helped them weigh and measure Rose. After were dressed they served us breakfast and sparkling cider! We left around 1030am to go home, with our baby in tow! It was such a long night, but worth every minute! I'm so happy that we succeeded at having the birth we wanted. No hospital, no drugs, no unneeded interventions, able to eat and drink during labor,  delayed cord cutting, and no hospital stay!

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