Raya’s Birth Story

Raya’s birth story kicks off doing something that I told myself I would not do: An elective induction. Before we moved into our new home and the “To do” list became wicked long, being pregnant wasn’t so bad. I was struggling with sleep and heartburn but for the most part comfortable during the day. I soon became very uncomfortable as I tried to tackle the list of things after moving that needed built, cleaned, organized and so on. When the doctor said for a VBAC they would really prefer I do not go past 40 weeks I opened myself up to the idea of elective induction. I was so ready to meet her and ready to not be pregnant any longer. My cervix was checked in the clinic at 39 weeks and 3 days and I was only dilated a finger tip. That could change in an hour’s notice, but I figured let’s meet our baby already! My biggest thing against elective induction is that the body just isn’t ready and that is why you are not in labor yet. I was trying to go for a vaginal delivery after having a Cesarean Section birth with my oldest daughter. In the back of my mind I knew I was setting myself up for possible failure pushing my body into labor too soon. The secret was I couldn’t picture myself pushing. I wanted to. I was trying to prep my body for it; but when I pictured her birth I didn’t see myself pushing her out. I did not know what that meant for my labor, but the pressure to avoid a c-section was off having had one already.

The decision was made and the next step was the foley bulb. Due to having a previous c-section there are only a few options available to get the cervix ready. My doctors preferred the foley bulb. Having the foley bulb placed hurt just as much as getting your cervix checked early in labor. It did not feel good but it was not near as painful as had been explained to me. I spent the entire day with the foley bulb resting on my cervix and the tube taped to my leg. It never fell out on its own. When they came to my room to pull it out I did not have my hopes high. If it had helped my cervix in any significant way it should have come out on it’s own. When they checked my cervix post foley bulb I was only 1 cm dilated. Having been a labor a delivery nurse in my past, I took that as no change. All the providers’ fingers are different sizes so a finger tip to one could be 1 cm dilated to another. They did note that my cervix was thinner which is also a goal of the foley bulb so there was that at the very least.

The next step was to start Pitocin. I had the foley bulb placed during the day (despite what my OB doc and I wanted) because the anesthesiologist team had requested they be in house in case I needed an emergency c-section. Otherwise, in most cases, the foley bulb is placed at night and you can sleep through it. In fact, I have heard that low risk mamas get the foley bulb placed and then go home with it in. What this meant for me was Pitocin was going to be started at bedtime. Just like with my first baby (who was medically induced) the Pitocin kicked me into a regular, strong contraction pattern right away. I will say I was handling the pain much better than I did with my first baby and when they came to my room to discuss the plans I told them I would allow my water to be broken before getting the epidural. They checked my cervix which was at 2 cm dilated and then called the doctor to break my water. The nurse came back to tell me the doctor had decided not to break my water until morning. I still had several hours until then and though I was managing the pain better than I expected I was tired and worried that if something went wrong I was going to be put under general anesthesia if the epidural was not in. Maybe I jinxed myself with that mind set because it did not take long after the epidural for things to get wonky.

First thing that happened was my systolic blood pressure fell into the 80s. This was not a huge concern for me because I was not symptomatic and I normally run in the 90s so it was not a significant drop. I had a newer nurse however who started to panic. I would rather a nurse be reactive than brush it off so I didn’t think much of her flooding me with fluid to get my pressure back up. A more experienced nurse advised her not to give any medication for it because I was not symptomatic. I felt totally normal. As she battled my blood pressure baby started only liking certain positions I was in. In labor they want you changing positions to get pressure on the cervix. I was becoming limited on positions as baby’s heart rate dropped with contractions. We did have a solid hour of a happy baby again so the midwife that works with the obstetrics team came into break my water. Call me weird but that was a cool feeling when the water gushed out. When my water was broken with my first baby there was barely any in there, hence why I had to be induced. This time there was A LOT! My socks were soaked. My bed sheets were changed multiple times; just a bizarre feeling, even if you have an epidural placed.

As the Pitocin dose increased and with a broken water sack, baby lowered and I started feeling pressure in my butt. With the pressure from baby’s head came more problems. Each contraction started affecting baby’s heart rate again. This time it was not correcting itself with any position change. The midwife placed some internal monitors to have a more accurate reading and it showed the same results. This is where I can pretty much copy and paste my first labor into this one. An upset baby led to an upset cervix and I started to swell down there. I was 3cm dilated but a swollen cervix makes it feel like you are closing up. This is the same thing that happened last time but I had gotten to 5cm with baby number one. So here I was again with a dropping heart rate and a swollen cervix. I had already messaged my mom and sisters and told them I thought I was headed for a c-section but the midwife hadn’t called it yet. Once the midwife felt my cervix and confirmed with the internal monitors that something was not right she asked me if I was ok to go back for the surgery. My exact words: “I have already had a c-section so the pressure is off. Let’s get this baby out safely.”

As we waited for the teams to arrive and all the prep that comes with the surgery. Rob was given his attire and the midwife explained to me there might be something internally with my hips that does not let baby come down correctly. This being the thought because I literally had the exact same thing happen with my first labor. To have this happen twice the same way seemed like more than just an occult prolapsed cord which was how my first labor ended. We thought I was a great VBAC candidate because my first daughter’s labor came to a halt with an occult prolapsed cord despite all the other issues, but when the same scenario started to play out again it seemed there was more to it than that.

Things did not go as planned obviously, but we have another little girl here and healthy. It was the recovery from the surgery that I dreaded the most rather than the actual procedure. I would say I did a better job of managing my pain this time, but I was very swollen from all the fluids I was given. I was given fluids for my blood pressure and more fluids when her heart rate started to teeter. Plus then the standard fluids you receive with labor/epidural, surgery, and postpartum recovery. I am not even kidding you, I could feel the fluid sloshing in my feet as I walked!