S. called me on Friday morning to say that she had an OB appointment that morning. Dr. T. checked her and said she was 4 cm, so she needed to go to the hospital to have the baby. We talked a bit about why. I asked if she was having pressure waves. She said she was having some, but they were not regular and she wasn’t having to relax through them.
(Hypnobabies students often are comfortable throughout their births. So even if a mom is having comfortable pressure waves every 5-7 minutes, if she has to relax through them to stay comfortable, then I feel confident saying she is in her birthing time.)
I said it sounded like Dr. T. was putting her on an induction track and that if she went in she would want to break her water (oh yes, she did say she was going to do that, S. remembers) I reminder her of the risks of that, especially because her baby was still so high. Then once her water was broken then they would want to start pitocin if things didn’t progress. (From a L&D nurses blog, this is what she calls a Back Door Induction. I am going to add this to my information when I teach about Inductions in my Hypnobabies Classes. Beware of the Back Door Inductions!)
S. called the OB to get more information, like her Bishop’s Score (I had reminded her that depending on what that score was, it could indicate the odds of a successful induction) and to say that she wanted to stay home until she was having consistent pressure waves. Not surpisingly, Dr. T. she felt S. was in her active birthing time and just didn’t know it, so she REALLY wanted S. to head in. Did I mention this was S.’s first baby? Really, what are the odds this baby is just going to fall out?
She decided to head in to the hospital once her DH got home. I asked her to call me when she left and I would meet her there. I honestly didn’t think she was in her birthing time and I could see that this could go so many different ways, but basically towards interventions and a possible induction. But I support my moms in whatever they decide. So I moved forward.
I did pray before I left and asked that if possible she have the baby by 8 PM and I could be home by 10 PM. I was hosting a Hypno-doula workshop the next day and had 9 doulas scheduled to come. I e-mailed them all and explained what was happening, that they should check their e-mails in the morning and if they didn’t see a follow up message, not to come.
I got to the hospital around 12:30. I met S’s parents. We hung out for awhile. S. was on the monitors and was having pressure waves here and there. Nothing super regular and she didn’t have to relax through them. Her parents went to get lunch. K. was her nurse and was great! Her parents came back an hour or so later and still not much was happening. We had been thinking the OB would be coming by, but she was seeing patients. So we figured she would end up there around 5 or 6. Her parents headed home and we continued to relax and just hang out.
S. and her DH were excited about the baby coming in the next day or so. (They were realistic that it could take 24 hours or longer.) I asked what she wanted to do if she was checked and was still 4cm. I reminded her she could choose to go home, since it would show she wasn’t in her active birthing time. I was certain she was not in her active birthing time as she didn’t need to relax through her pressure waves at all and they were not consistent. She said she would probably want her water broken, but if she was 6 or more cm she would refuse AROM and keep on doing what she was doing.
Dr. T. came around 6:15 and checked. She had the amniohook ready and didn’t appear to plan on asking if she could break her water. I spoke up and said, “It looks like the Doctor is planning on breaking your water.” S. said she wanted to know where she was at first. Dr. T checked and said she was 4.5cm and very stretchy. S said you can break my water. Dr. T did and then waited for quite a few minutes with her hand inside waiting for a pressure wave so she could see how the pressure wave felt against the cervix. (I had never seen an OB do this before.) S never had a pressure wave in those few minutes with the OB’s hand up there. Finally Dr. T. gave up on a pressure wave starting, removed her hand and left soon after.
S. rolled to her side, put on Deepening and within minutes was having pressure waves. I told her to let me know if she needed anything. Within a few minutes she said she needed more. So I was next to her, doing the relax cue and mini scripts through each pressure wave. The monitor wasn’t picking them up, so I had her DH help time some of them. I only knew she was having one when she started saying “peace” (a post hypnotic cue that helps direct her natural anesthesia right where she needs it.) She stayed nice and relaxed through them. They were coming every 4-5 minutes and lasting about a minute. I was worried the nurse may come in and want to add pitocin or something, since the monitors were not showing anything. But it was apparent she didn’t need that!
S. said they were very intense, but she was relaxing beautifully through each of them. The new nurse M. came in around 7 to introduce herself. She was really supportive of S’s birth plan. I told her the spacing of the pressure waves. S had a few while the nurse was in there. M. took off the monitors and left.
At 7:15 S. went to the bathroom. She had quite a few pressure waves on the toilet. Then she came out and sat on the ball. She mentioned some pressure in her bottom. Her mom came back around now with the cord for the MP3 player, so we could charge it. She came up and asked S. how she was doing. S. said, “It is intense!” then turned right back off and relaxed. I told her mom that I thought the baby would be here in an hour or so.
The nursery staff came in and introduced themselves. I felt like this was distracting a bit to S, but they patiently waited until after a pressure wave and then were quick and quiet and S was able to relax quickly again. Her mom went out into hall to wait.
S wanted to get onto the bed. So her DH and I helped her up. She was still doing great, but said she was feeling a lot of pressure in her bottom and a little pushy. I asked if she wanted the nurse to come in and check her. She said yes. So we called the nurse in. This was around 8 PM. She was checked and was almost complete. (9.5cm)
They called for the OB and S. was starting to have an overwhelming urge to push. The nurse said, “Don’t push.” I whispered, “Just follow your body. Breathe your baby down and out.” So S just went with what she was feeling, gently breathing out and down, rather than fighting that urge.
A different OB came into the room while they were getting things set up. I let S. know an OB was there and she could do whatever she wanted to. The nurse kept saying don’t push, but S. was doing great, gently pushing the baby out.
When Dr. T got there about 8:15, the tone changed. Now even though she was told NOT to push for the last 15 minutes, now she HAD to push. The nurse instructed S. to hold her breath and they counted. I tried to remind them that she is doing mother directed pushing. They ignore me. I whisper in S’s ear to follow her body, do what feels right. It is hard to ignore their directions/yelling and she purple pushes.
She pushed with a lot of force and F. was born about 15 minutes later at 8:33. He was 7 pounds 9 ounces. S. had a lot of tearing, maybe because of all the purple pushing? So Dr. T. was working until 9:15 repairing.
I wish that they had let her take her time pushing. It is frustrating when they tell mom don’t push, don’t push. Then when the OB gets there, they want her to hurry and push the baby out! Why not let her push in her own way? If she isn’t making progress or baby is in distress I can see why they would want to help direct her. But she was making slow progress and baby was fine.
Overall it was a fast, easy and good birth. S. was happy with how it went, though she wasn’t “comfortable” due to the intensity of the pressure waves, she was in control and relaxed. I can only assume that had she stayed home instead of going in and having her water broken she would have stayed comfortable and slowly progressed and gone into her birthing time on her own in the next few days.
As it was her birthing time went full gangbuster when her water broke and she went from 4 cm to baby in her arms in about 2 hours.
Sarah won the Labor of Love book.
