I have a confession: I have not blogged in over 3 months because I had a baby on June 4th and I just haven't had time to even look at the blogosphere! (Sorry, dear reader.) Anyway, I have a hankerin' to write again so here goes.
My birth experience did NOT go as planned! I wanted a natural birth. I read countless books, and went to no less than 6 courses. I hired a doula as well and did "labor exercises" every day for the entire last trimester. (These consisted of mostly squats and leg lifts.) As I found out, however, some things you just do not have any control over no matter how much you prepare.
I had gone to my OB the day before, and he told me there was no dialation at all and it looked like it could be another week or two. Well, so much for that! My water broke the very next morning. My contractions did not start on their own. I used a breast pump for 12 hours to try and get them started naturally, but they just didn't. Finally, the doctor gave me pitocin since 12 hours after your water breaks, there is risk of infection. My doula said, "well, all is not lost. You can still give birth naturally even with the pitocin". I decided to try it.
Can I just say that enduring pitocin contractions totally sucks? Apparently, they feel worse than natural ones. I can't believe how much it hurt. It literally took my breath away. Anyway, I labored for 20 hours with no pain meds. (I kinda feel like a rock star for lasting that long!) I then gave up and did something I said I'd never do. I let them give me an epidural.
It was such a relief to get the epidural! I was enhausted and I was able to sleep a bit. The labor progressed for 7 hours with the epidural. The baby's hearbeat was dropping with every contraction and it was getting worse. Plus, there was a lot of molding of the baby's head and I had was only dialated 3 cm after all that! I then did the other thing I said I'd never do: I had to have an emergency C-section.
SO - 27 hours of labor only to end up having an emergency C-section? Boooo! I was glad the doula was there the whole time. She made me feel better about it all. Even she said it was neccessary in my case and she told me as I was being prepped, "sometimes, you have to do things you don't want to do but it is in the best interest of your child. This is the first thing in a long list of things you'll have to do like that as a mother." 40 minutes later, my sweet baby girl was born!
Went they cut into me, the doctor saw a "uterine band". I had never heard of this. Apparently, it's an extra ring of muscle (sometimes called a Bendel ring) that goes around the uterus. It's very rare and it's not even genetic. It's just a freak of nature. Mine was at the bottom and it trapped the baby in and prevented it from ever dropping. So - a vaginal birth would have been impossible. I'm so grateful for modern medicine because in the olden times, I would've been one of those women who labored for days and then died and no one would know why. I still like natural remedies when possible, but I have no qualms about using modern medicine when I have to.
My birth experience did NOT go as planned! I wanted a natural birth. I read countless books, and went to no less than 6 courses. I hired a doula as well and did "labor exercises" every day for the entire last trimester. (These consisted of mostly squats and leg lifts.) As I found out, however, some things you just do not have any control over no matter how much you prepare.
I had gone to my OB the day before, and he told me there was no dialation at all and it looked like it could be another week or two. Well, so much for that! My water broke the very next morning. My contractions did not start on their own. I used a breast pump for 12 hours to try and get them started naturally, but they just didn't. Finally, the doctor gave me pitocin since 12 hours after your water breaks, there is risk of infection. My doula said, "well, all is not lost. You can still give birth naturally even with the pitocin". I decided to try it.
Can I just say that enduring pitocin contractions totally sucks? Apparently, they feel worse than natural ones. I can't believe how much it hurt. It literally took my breath away. Anyway, I labored for 20 hours with no pain meds. (I kinda feel like a rock star for lasting that long!) I then gave up and did something I said I'd never do. I let them give me an epidural.
It was such a relief to get the epidural! I was enhausted and I was able to sleep a bit. The labor progressed for 7 hours with the epidural. The baby's hearbeat was dropping with every contraction and it was getting worse. Plus, there was a lot of molding of the baby's head and I had was only dialated 3 cm after all that! I then did the other thing I said I'd never do: I had to have an emergency C-section.
SO - 27 hours of labor only to end up having an emergency C-section? Boooo! I was glad the doula was there the whole time. She made me feel better about it all. Even she said it was neccessary in my case and she told me as I was being prepped, "sometimes, you have to do things you don't want to do but it is in the best interest of your child. This is the first thing in a long list of things you'll have to do like that as a mother." 40 minutes later, my sweet baby girl was born!
Went they cut into me, the doctor saw a "uterine band". I had never heard of this. Apparently, it's an extra ring of muscle (sometimes called a Bendel ring) that goes around the uterus. It's very rare and it's not even genetic. It's just a freak of nature. Mine was at the bottom and it trapped the baby in and prevented it from ever dropping. So - a vaginal birth would have been impossible. I'm so grateful for modern medicine because in the olden times, I would've been one of those women who labored for days and then died and no one would know why. I still like natural remedies when possible, but I have no qualms about using modern medicine when I have to.
