Three Births
I wanted to give you my birth stories. I have three children and am pregnant with #4.
My first birth was a very medicated birth. I started to have contractions on Friday. Only I thought they were the real thing. I took a bath and laid down to see if the contractions would go away. They did and the next day started up again. This was Saturday and we went over to my sisters to a party. My sisters who were all nurses had told me that this wasn't the real thing. I was terrified to find out what the real thing was since these hurt. We went to the hospital and I was dialated to 3 cms. They sent me home and I was told to come back later. We went over to my in laws for a party for my step daughters birthday which was the next day. My MIL had never had a baby and couldn't understand why I was avoiding everyone. I went into another room to try to relax and time contractions. They were 5 minutes apart and regular so I thought that I was in labor. We went to the hospital and again we were sent home after I recieved an injection of Visterol (tranquilizer). I went to sleep and contractions stopped. Sunday, 9/30, was my step daughter's birthday. My MIL was angry of me for being in labor on my step daughter's birthday. We avoided them all day and later that day went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. I had a glass of red wine since my OB told me to.
About 11pm that night I had "very intense" pain. At least I thought it was. We went to the hospital at around 3am with contractions 5 minutes apart and I could not speak through them. The nurses told me that they would send me home again. I broke down crying and upset that they would do that. This was 10/1 and my due date. They told me hang on for the OB since he would be there in at 6am. He got there and told me that he will break my water to help things along. When he broke my water, I got a very strong contraction and they gave me a good dosage of Nubain. I was terrified of labor, unprepared despite childbirth classes, and not at all read for this. The Nubain knocked me out and I slept through almost the entire hard part. I woke up around 11am and was having some transition contractions. By this time I was at 7cms. At around 12:30 I felt like I was going to throw up and then got an intense urge to push. I had a lip hanging on and wasn't given the OK to push until about 1:15pm. I pushed till about 1:40 and was really scared. The nurses were not too sympethetic and did not try to calm me down. Instead they yelled at me.
5 minutes later, I got an episiotomy which I didn't even feel. I got to see the baby through the mirror and saw her born. After all this, she was really groggy, fluidy and had an apgar of only 7. I was really amazed at how much labor hurt. Our childbirth classes never went over pain and being hospital policy, epidurals were not allowed except for planned C-Sections.
In January 86, I found out I was pregnant again. The pregnancy was a blur since my mother was battling cancer and died 3 weeks before I had my son. I started to have contractions the night before much like my daughter. We were having contractions regularly at 10 minutes apart. We got there with good contractions and the OB wanting to avoid the same type of dragged out birth broke my water and started a pitocin drip. I only dialated to 4 cm in the 3 hours on the pitdrip. I was having really strong contractions, but was managing them alot better than I did the last time. I got a bit aprehensive that things would get worse and took a dose of Demerol that really did nothing. I was still at 4cm and "soft and Squishy" as the OB nurse told me. The next contraction, I got an enormous urge to push and the nurse said "She's fully cooked". The other one and her were having an argument over how I was supposed to breath. We were transported to the delivery room as they were waiting for the OB to get there. The delivery nurse seemed to be panic and my son didn't want to wait. He slid out and it was silent. I thing she was a bit stressed over the rapidness of the birth. I was surprised it wasn't as bad as the first one. The OB got there and caught the placenta. He had a very high pitched scream and wasn't all too happy about being born.
My next child was born in March of 93. I had did alot of research on birthing, places to birth, alternatives, etc. I decided that I was going to have her at a birth center. We made a birth plan, interviewed doctors, took refresher classes, and mentally and phyically prepared every way we could. When the day of her birth came, we thought we were "gauranteed" a textbook birth. The night before my water broke, I was not feeling really good. I had a headache, and my stomach hurt like I had the flu.
I went to bed early and at 3am awoke to some mentrual type cramps and a wet bed. I woke up my DH and told him my water had broken. We were supposed to go fishing at our small mountain towns fishing derby. We called the birth center to tell them what was going on. There had been a big storm the day prior and the main road was closed due to a rock slide. I was told to call the birthcenter when I got contractions. Well, 10 minutes later, I called them. They told me to call again when I got the next one. The town hospital isn't equipped to deliver babies and our birth center was an hour away with a normal drive. The birth center told us to come on it as it would take a while to get there and we could hang out there since it was going to be a big possibility that the other road would be closed by rock slides too. There are four roads leading out of the valley. One was blocked by a massive rock slide, another closed due to snow, the other was going to be closed due to snow, and the remaining road had not been closed down yet. We call the CHP and told them what was happening. They said to take the Caliente road and be careful. We got my 14 year old step son to watch the kids until the baby sitter got there. We headed out the door. We forgot that we didn't fill the tank up since we were assured by our OB that I was no where near going into labor the day before. We found a gas station open and headed down the hill.
This was about 3:45am. We drove slowly dodging rocks and boulders and was very careful not to go over the edge which was about 250 ft drop. We were listening to some music and put the bed down in the back ready to pull over and deliver the baby if we needed to. At about 5:45am we finally got to the Birth Center. The nurses said that I was 3 cm dialated and said I was having some good contractions. They went off shift and another nurse arrived who was totally nothing of what I expected a Birth Center nurse to be like. She got me so worked up that my labor basically stopped. I was talked into a pit drip at about 3pm after going from 3 cms 50% effaced to 4cm 50% effaced. I agreed even though I didn't want it. They started the drip around 3pm and I then went from 4cm 50% e3ffaced to 4cm 90% effaced. I was pleased with the progress and told the nurse of my last rapid labor at this same stage. We butted heads all the way up until she left at 7pm. The morning crew was there and I finally "letgo". I started to have powerful contractions that were not so much painful as they were intense. My entire body was contracting and muscles that weren't involved in the process were contracting. I was offered an epidural at this point and was going to take it.
When I had that same feeling at 8:00pm that I had before, I rejected the epidural and took some Stadol. At 8:10pm I had that unzipped feeling again and the baby was crowning. The OB was in the birth center and we bet him an ice cold beer that he would NOT be present. Well, this nurse delivered my daughter and she was born at 8:20pm. She was pink, and didn't cry too much. The OB came in and said "Ok, lets get this baby born". I finally noticed it was too late. I got to nurse her right away and we spent the night in the Birth Center. We went home the next day.
She is now 4 and the most calm of all the kids. We are hoping for a NON PITDRIP baby this time.
Margie
