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A birth story
By ella | March 27, 2006
My newborn is now ten weeks old. I haven’t posted the birth story yet because I wanted to get a little distance from it so I could write objectively about it. So I can say completely objectively, it. was. awful.
I’m probably breaking some mothers’ code about not saying how awful childbirth can be but, really, it. was. awful. At fourteen days overdue I went in for monitoring because I wasn’t sure if I had felt the baby move as much as I was used to. I felt a bit stupid going in but my fears were justified: the midwife wasn’t overly happy about the monitoring and booked me in for induction the following day. Because I wanted a VBAC and particularly wanted to avoid induction because of the risk of increased medical intervention that can result from being induced, I wasn’t overly happy but I wasn’t about to risk the baby’s life, so at fifteen days overdue I went in.
I was dilated enough to have my waters broken and then I donned my robe and walked. And walked. And walked. I saw every floor and corridor of the hospital but nothing happened. And then nothing happened some more. So against all my better instincts I let them put me on a drip to start contractions. After a couple of hours I was thinking, hey this is great, I’m having good, regular contractions and they hurt but I can handle it, the gas and air is good, I don’t feel sick, hey I’m going to have a baby. Hooray!
About ten minutes after thinking this, I was on the bed feeling like my insides were being ripped out by a red hot poker. I have never felt pain like it. I was having five contractions every ten minutes, each one lasting two minutes. You do the math. Searing pain followed by searing pain and me yelling “THIS DOESN’T FEEL RIGHT, IT ISN’T SUPPOSED TO FEEL LIKE THIS.”
Note to self: next time get epidural before induction.
I’m not prone to dramatizing things so when I say I felt barely conscious you can assume things were bad. The epidural went in after what seemed like hours and even then it was more than ten minutes before I resumed any semblance of normality and by then the anaesthetist was long gone. But oh! how I kiss him in my dreams every night.
After that pain it seems churlish to complain about the shaking and the sickness but the throwing up was pretty nasty. When it got to pushing I had to throw up before I could contemplate concentrating on pushing. So I vomited before every push. I was also concentrating on not pooping which is not really the way to have a baby. Anyway nothing was happening and the midwives were getting quite cross with me. ‘Cos, you know, shouting at the woman in labour is really helpful. I was feeling pretty poorly and completely detached. At one point I was begging for a c-section. Wimpering. Like a small puppy with sad eyes.
Eventually they called someone more senior who reported that the baby’s face was the wrong way round and she tried turning him. (No apology for being cross with me for not trying hard enough.) When they couldn’t turn the baby’s head they called the consultant. She could hardly contain her excitement; she might as well have said out loud “I’ve never done one of these before.” So they wheeled me up to theatre, topped up the epidural and she twisted and turned that baby so his face was the right way round. “I’ve never managed to do that before”, she said, jubilantly. She knew how much I wanted a VBAC and she did everything to help me. I would kiss her in my dreams every night if I weren’t already kissing that anaesthetist.
Then out came the forceps and I pushed with all my might. That’s when I pooped. I couldn’t bring myself to poop earlier in front of two (very nice) midwives and my husband but put me in a bright room with fifteen odd people standing around waiting to give me an emergency c-section and I can poop like a trooper. As I pushed again I heard the consultant say “there’s meconium, let’s get this baby out”. The surgeon moved closer with his scalpel. I pushed twice more, she pulled harder than I care to think about and out he came. They laid him on my tummy. “Is it a boy?” I kept asking, “is it a boy?”
And there was my boy, my beautiful third son, born barely alive. And not breathing.
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Categories: Pregnancy
12 Comments
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Amazing. What a little miracle. Induction is THE WORST!!! I was induced with one of my three - that was the only time that I begged for an epidural. What a nightmare.
Congrats to you and your little munchkin.
Oh sweetie! That was so hard on you. I was so wishing that you had an easy birth, with no complications, and something to really enjoy, like mine. Both in the hospital, both naturally, no drugs or anything. Not bragging - I’m just giving you a clear idea of what I hoped for you.
I imagine you will share the rest of the story later? You ended with not breathing… so I know there’s more to come.
I’m glad you are both alright and together, Ella. You are blessed.
What a way to end the story! It’s a good job we know you have a healthy little boy :o)
Sounds like you had a really rough time with the induction.
My daughter’s birth story is , if you’re interested.
Yikes! In retrospect I probably shouldn’t read things like this, but I do like to know all the possibilities, and you certainly know how to tell a story.
I swear you should write a book b/c you are so great at telling your stories.
Thank you for sharing your story.
And here I was assuming that by baby number three it would have gotten easier! Thank goodness you and your little guy are now fine.
(After reading this, I’ve never been more grateful that my daughter had to be delivered via c-section.)
Oh gosh. I’m so glad you are both OK now.
I don’t want to imagine this to be true for anyone. Thankfully, he’s okay now! Thanks for sharing the details. Bless the growing lot of yoU!
What a story! I am so sorry it was so trying. Thank goodness you are all okay and well.
yes, inductions do suck. I had one with Jonas, and since he was my fisrt I had no idea what the difference was. That epidural was AWESOME. With Maggie, my epidural didn’t work. at all. so I did it naturally, and in all honesty- it wasn’t that bad. I was only at that induction level hell for about 10 minutes during transition. The worst part was (ahh well, it’s a toss up) the dr scraping my insides out after ward because the amniotic sac was stuck and the fact that my contraction STOPPED when Maggie’s head was 1/2 way out and I had to just sit there and wait for 7 seconds until the next contraction hit.
I plan to go natural all of the time now, unless I need to be induced. It’s SO much better!