I wanted to post and let everyone know that our fifth child arrived on January 14. It wasn’t a homebirth as planned though. When I went into labor I just felt very panicked internally.. something didn’t feel normal to me..so off to the hospital we went. I asked for an epidural..a first for me out of all my births. I also declined AROM.. another first for me; however, I felt very strongly that for some reason with this pregnancy and birth my water needed to be intact for as long as possible.
The Dr. was really great.. I was about 9 cm and he said that is fine.. just call me back when you think you are ready for the birth. About 3 hours later my dh noticed my bed was wet..so he asked me if my water had broke. I reached down and said nope..(I did have him call the nurse and ask her to do a quick cath on me though)I also told him to hurry and tell because it was protruding out of my body about the size of a softball! (I got him to take a picture of it with my digital camara so I could see it, LOL.. with the epidural I couldn’t really manuever myself to get a good look but I figured I may want to see it later)
Anyways,.. this whole birth was very different than my other births. All of my previous births had been prior to term.. this was 41 weeks with quite a few episodes of prodromal labor in the previous weeks, all of my previous births had been about 2 hours.. we were going on 8 hours here, and that very odd internal “fight or flight” feeling I was having once labor started..very weird.
Anyways, we called the Dr. back from his office across town and told him that we thought birth was going to happen SOON. He arrived.. did a quick snip of the bag and told me to push when I was ready. We left the bed intact..everyone was laid back.. until I gave a push and the Dr. said.. this baby is breech. Oh…the things that went through my mind. They called an OB in (protocal) and while my Dr. was telling her that he would attend the birth and just needed her there for back up..she was proceding to give me a run down on all the risks of a vaginal breech birth. I vaguely recall her saying something about head entrapment when I looked at her squarely and asked her politely to please go stand in the corner. I told her that I was a Doula and well informed with the risks of breech birth as well as the risks of cesarean. I heard her ask a nurse to go and get a special type of forceps and I tried very hard to not think about HER and rather on mustering up enough strength to get my baby pushed out before SHE could manage to get near me.
I looked at my Dr and said “I don’t want to be cut” (meaning please don’t cut a huge episiotomy) and then I thought..perhaps I should clarify what TYPE of cut..maybe he would think I was talking about a cesarean..so I said. I do not want an episiotomy; please do not cut me. I knew he had no prior experience with breech birth and I did not know how he would manage the process of catching a breech baby. He smiled and said don’t worry, no one is going to cut you.
When he was ready, I gave a loooong push and our daughter arrived.. 9 pounds 10.8 ounces and 21 and 3.4 inches long…Apgars of 9,9. As scared as I was when he said breech.. I was happy that the epidural allowed me to be more in control of my emotions so I could work with the Dr. for the actual birthing part. In hindsite I am glad we left the water intact. That gave my body extra time to “labor that baby down” and in hindsite I can see why I had so much prodromal labor perhaps..and certainly a longer labor is explained with a breech, I guess. I am also thankful I had better nutrition this pregnancy. It helped me grow a smaller baby and also recover from the birth/postpartum.
I am very happy that I avoided a cesarean..I can’t imagine recovering from surgery and mothering 5 children ranging from 8 to newborn. I didn’t have any tearing or anything but I did end up having a pretty severe hemmorrage that took a bit longer to resolve than anyone liked..that took a while to resolve and I was sure glad to have that epidural while that was being resolved. (‘nough said, eh?) She is doing great and she is beautiful and I am in love with my new little one. Her name is Moriah Faith.
Nursing at keyboard so I apologize in advance for any typos or grammatical errors. I just wanted to share my happiness in her safe arrival and a breech vaginal birth in a hospital that always tends to do a cesarean for all breeches. I don’t know why I got lucky but I am thankful I dodged that bullet.
Warmly,
Jenni , CD(DONA)
