Doula Shares Her Birth Story!

Guest Post by M… a doula!

I had my baby on 6/15/11 (38 weeks)
at 6:39 p.m.  At Corona Regional Medical Center.  He was 7 lbs, 5 oz and 19 inches long.  I had such a wonderful experience I wanted to share it all with you.  As many of you that are my Facebook friends know I had preterm labor at 33 weeks I was 3 cm, 50 percent effaced at that time.  Nothing really happened during week 36 once I was off bed rest but during week 37 I had on and off contractions for four days.  The contractions were mild like that of menstrual cramping.  They would start in the evening and then stop when I went to bed at night. This little cramping got me to Four cm. and still 50 percent effaced. I was thinking how lucky I was to have gotten that far with almost no pain.  On the morning of 6/15 at 1:50 a.m. my water broke while I was sleeping.  We got to the hospital at 2:30 a.m. From 2:30 a.m. to approx. 8:30 a.m. my Husband and I just slept as I had a pain level of zero.  So I was literally shocked when the OB came in and checked me and I was a loose 5 and 100 percent effaced.  He left and we continued to sleep.  I still had a zero pain level and the Dr. didn’t come back until around 2:00 p.m. or so and I was 7 cm. 100 percent eff. but the head was still at a -2.  At this point we had about 5 or so hours left before hitting the 18hr, broken bag worried about infection issue so I knew I’d better get this show on the road as I did not want Pit!  I badly wanted this one to be all natural and at this point I had no interventions and I wanted to keep it that way.  So for a few hours we started walking, utilizing the birth ball, nipple stim etc. etc. (all the tricks in the book) and nothing was working.  I started to panic a little and w/teary eyes looked at my Husband and said I may be backed in a corner. This may end up w/Pit and I started to cry as I told him that is the one thing I didn’t want! Next to a c section of course.  He was so there for me and said “what would you tell your clients?” I said I would tell them “it’s not over and we stil have a few hours left. Let’s do all we can and not give up.” He said “then let’s do it!!”  He said there was no pressure and he was beside me no matter what.  He told me to not give in and use every last minute we had. That gave me such a boost to know he was behind me like that there are no words!!  We both prayed and next thing we now the Nurse came in and said she had to change out the little box that gave the Pit dosage as it didn’t seem to be working.  She took it and never came back with a new one.  We were glad and never said anything.  We took that as a sign and kept walking etc.  When the OB came in around 5:00 p.m. he said I was 8 cm and said it seemed like there was a bag in the back and that only the fore bag had broken. With only about 2 hrs left I said “just break it.”  I’d rather try that than Pit. so he did and almost immediatly my contractions started to finally hurt.  My pain level was about an 8.  This was a hard hit after going all day with no pain at all and to just get hit with these hard contractions but I was handling it.  They got harder and harder and were a 10 within 15 minutes and continued at that rate until about 6:00 at that time I felt a little pressure. My OB wanted to check but I said “I’ve been checked enough and I will know when to push” he said that was fine.  I was standing up facing the bed and using the squat bar in a stand up kinda of squat/position.  This position is where my insticts got me and it helped so much because at this point I had that “I can’t go on any longer”  thing going on 🙂  My Husband, the OB and the Nurse were wonderful telling me I was almost there and I could do it.  Then for some reason I wanted to be checked but refused to get in the bed so I asked him to check me with one foot on the bed in a lunge.  The OB said he had never checked anyone like that before and I said it was ok just do it (haha) and he did.  I was at 9 cm and about 2 minutes later I felt the baby actually rotate and drop and all of a sudden I was yelling that “I have to poop” (you all know what I’m talking about.)  🙂  They were running around quick trying to get in ready not expecting it that fast I guess and said politely to quickly get in bed.  I said “no, I’m going to start pushing standing up” My OB said “ok” (he knew I was a Doula and he had promised give me anything I wanted unless my life was in danger as we talked at every one of my  prenatals about what I wanted.  He’s been my OB for 12 years so I guess that helped too) So I started pushing standing up and as the head was starting to crown I actually instinctually  climbed into the bed.  They asked me to put my feet in the stir ups and I shouted “No, my feet need to be right here!!” (which was on the bed.) I used my arms to push up on the arms rails and my feet pressed down on the bed and besides the burn this felt so good.  Two pushes and his head was out.  My OB tried to get me to slow down as he had promised so I could try not to tear but at this point I just wanted the pain to go away so I didn’t listen and said “I don’t care if I tear any more” and two more pushes and the shoulders/baby came out.  I only needed two tiny surtures as I hardly tore at all.  He let my Placenta come out all on it’s own. No tugging or pulling or Pit like he had promised.  He let the cord pulsate for 2 minutes or so like he had promised (he said it’s the first time he’d ever done that too)Then he collected what was left for cord blood banking.  They even got me the only one bed Postpartum Suite there was in the Hospital.  I had forgot to mention that my OB even ok’d a light meal tray once I had been there about 12 hrs! My Husband was my hero doing everything with me and reminding me how strong I am.  He told me how proud of me he was during and after. The next morning the OB came and told me how great I had done but more importantly I was so proud of myself. I did it!!  I still cannot believe what an awesome experience I had and am so Thankful for my beautiful birth there are no words to describe.  Thank You for listening. I wanted to get it all down before I forgot any details.  Hugs to you all.

Melissa Keil, CD, (DONA)
www.littlepapoosebirthdoula.com