Briar’s Birth Story

I’ll start on July 1, 2020 at our prenatal appointment. We were overdue by 4 days and my cervix still had not started dilating. With that, we had to start thinking induction. The midwife I connected with best and saw the most in office was on call that weekend so we discussed going in either Saturday night, July 4th or Sunday night, July 5th. If you are not dilated they like to prep the cervix overnight with some medication before starting any Pitocin. We did not have to make the final decision until Friday, when I would be back in the office for some pregnancy post-date tests. It is standard here when mom and baby are 41 weeks to test and make sure everything is healthy enough to keep going or is time to get baby out?

By Friday, July 3rd I had had two nights in a row of uncomfortable cramping. I could only hope I was going into labor but the cramps never got stronger or closer together. I timed the cramping on my way to the Midwives’ office and it would come on about every 8-10 minutes. At the office they ran through a series of tests requiring an ultrasound and monitors to record baby’s heart rate and any contractions. Everything look good except we were running low on amniotic fluid. They said they needed baby delivered this weekend.

I met with a midwife and she did another cervical exam. To our surprise I had dilated to 2 cm and I was 90% effaced and baby was low. She notified the midwife we were hoping would deliver for us. A few twiddle of the thumbs later she opened the door and said “Lets Go.” Unable to see the look of shock behind the cloth mask I had to wear, she smiled and said I no longer needed my cervix prepped. I was making moves on my own, but because the low amniotic fluid I still needed baby delivered by the weekend. She told me to call Rob, go home, pack up, and meet her at the hospital.

We were not on a time crunch so I called Rob who was working from home. He clocked out and started cleaning the house. Our hospital bag was already packed. I got home and helped him finish up a few chores around the house. Rob drove me through Jimmy Johns to eat on the drive to the hospital and we called our parents to let them know we were headed in. We pulled into the hospital and parked sometime around noon.

Masks were required at the door. They took our temps and sent us on our way. Once in the room a rapid COVID test was taken. Fifteen minutes later I was negative for COVID19 which meant no more masks on this girl and no mask for Rob unless he left the room.

What I love about the midwives is that they are there the entire time. They leave the room to give you some personal space but as things pick up they come back in to help support. I was already cramping on my own but once the Pitocin started things picked up quickly. It was very painful. Every time a contraction started I had to remind myself that it would taper off and I would get another 2 (ish) minute break. I felt all the pain in my abdominal area and was fortunate it was not traveling to my back. I made it a few hours and was 3 cm dilated when I asked for the epidural. An epidural was always a part of my plan whether I started labor on my own or was induced.

I was shocked to find the epidural placement to be quick and not bad at all. There were a few zings but the needle insertion was painless, or maybe the contraction pain just made everything seem a lot less painful. Once the epidural was in we started changing positions every hour and they broke my water. There was meconium in the amniotic fluid which meant a NICU nurse would need to be present during the birth in case baby had swallowed some. The chances of meconium increases with babies that are overdue as their digestive tract is ready to work.

While my body worked on dilating slowly, baby started showing signs of stress. The heart rate and rhythm were beautiful in between but with each contraction we started seeing deceleration on the heart monitor. They tried so many positions to resolve the stress on baby. They stopped the Pitocin. They gave me a bolus of fluid through my IV to try and perk baby up. Nothing was working and I started to get a low grade fever. We were not in an emergency situation but the midwife looked at me and said something is not right. She checked my cervix again in hopes that I made a sudden change and that was what stressed our baby. Unfortunately I was only at 5 cm and was swelling on one side of my cervix. She took this as a sign to finally have the talk…Cesarean birth. I remember whispering to Rob that I think we were headed in that direction. I was ok with it, though it took me a little bit to convince the midwife of that. She brought in the OB/GYN to take a look at our situation. He looked at Rob and I and said we can keep trying and find ourselves in an emergency situation or we can go back now. I looked at the midwife and said “I just don’t want to be scared, I want our baby out as safe as possible.” They handed Rob his OR outfit and said “Then let’s go.”

I felt calm as I watched the nursing staff prep both Rob and I for our new birth plan. Our midwife spoke with Rob privately to make sure he understood the situation and why things changed so fast. He too was handling it well. We both were until they started wheeling me down the hall. I was suddenly flooded with nausea and Rob said he started to feel nauseous too. He is not squeamish with surgeries. He has been in many as he once had a job in medical sales and sat through many orthopedic procedures. He said this was completely different as it was his wife going to surgery and that it was made his stomach turn. My nausea was resolved with a little Zofran from the anesthesiologist but Rob was left sitting outside the OR doors until they made the first cut.

Right away they encountered baby’s umbilical cord. The surgeon’s cuts were slow, thank goodness, as he avoided slicing through it and prevented a whole other emergency. With one crisis averted surgery continued. At 9:24 PM they pulled baby out. ITS A GIRL and she has a necklace said the OB/GYN. Rob and I were so happy our baby girl was out safe and what we understood from the “Necklace” comment was that baby had the cord around her neck. Later we found out she had an occult prolapsed cord. Her umbilical cord was trying to come down the birth canal with her instead of behind her. It was wrapped up over her head leading the way. The decelerations, the swollen cervix, and then low grade fevers were all signs from God (And I like to think my Dad) not to let our baby enter the birth canal. Had we not listened to them both the midwife and the doctor told us we would have been running back to the operation room, I would have been intubated, and Rob and I both would have missed the birth of our baby girl. I am very thankful for the Midwife, OB/GYN, anesthesiologist, and the nurses who all helped with our baby girl’s arrival. She was taken to the nursery along with Rob while they finished up my surgery. They found a fibroid on the outside of my uterus and offered to remove it. I agreed so surgery was slightly longer than normal. The midwife was in the OR with us so she talked with me while Rob was away.

I never made a formal birth plan. When asked I just told them I wanted the “Normal.” Skin to skin after delivery and Rob cutting the cord. I had pictured laboring at home as long as I could and having my youngest sister, who is a labor and delivery nurse, check on me until we headed to the hospital. I imagined I would get to the hospital, sign up for that epidural, and work baby down and out. Nothing went like I pictured, but we got our beautiful baby girl safe, healthy, and home.

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