Birth Center

Here is my birth experience at a Birth Center with a midwife for my first child. I wrote this shortly after I had her.

Tuesday (September 16), on the way to my prenatal visit I noticed that I was getting BH contractions that were consistently every 10 minutes. I mentioned to my midwife, and she told me not to worry about them until I start feeling them in my back too.

Wednesday morning I woke up and went to the potty and that's when I saw the bloody show. My mom lives in Florida and was going to drive up when I was in early labor. So I called her to find out about how long after bloody show I should go into labor (she's had 5 kids so I figured she might have an idea). Well she said it had been too long for her to really remember, so she had me call my midwife.

I called her and she said that it could start that day, or it could be within the next couple of days. But that her gut told her to have my mom go ahead and start driving up. I took a bath and started getting some contractions that were about 5 minutes apart, but after getting out of the bath they became irregular again.

By about 7:30 that night I started having very regular contractions that were starting to intensify about every 4-5 minutes. (My midwife had told me to come in when they were about every 3 minutes apart for an hour.) My in-laws and my mom and stepdad all came in that night, and we stayed up and timed my contractions for a while. They never really got closer than 4-5 minutes apart and by around 4am they started becoming irregular again.

So I went to bed and we got up the next morning (Thursday), nothing much exciting happening. I was still having contractions but nothing really regular or strong. So our parents took me to lunch and then we walked around this shopping center. My contractions started coming regularly and got to where they were making me stop in my tracks.

We monitored them for a while and they were coming every 3 minutes. So around 8:30 we called my midwife and she said I could go ahead and come in and get checked, but just to be prepared that if I wasn't progressed enough they would send me home. So we went to the birth center, and I was 2 cm, 75% effaced and the baby was at -1 Station. She sent us out to walk for an hour and come back to be rechecked to see if I was making progress.

When I came back I was still 2cm ... a little more effaced ... but baby was still around -1 maybe a little lower. So she sent me home to take Tylenol/Panadol pm and try to sleep since it was night time and I would need my energy for active labor. So I went home and slept, and woke up the next morning still getting regular contractions. By about 2:30 that afternoon I was getting contractions that were lasting 5-6 minutes long with 5-6 minute peaks and I wasn’t getting much break between them! I thought for sure I was more than 4cm and this was it.

I called my midwife and she said that it still sounded like early labor, that a lot of times those kinds of contractions will come because the baby is still trying to get herself in the right position. She suggested I get on hands and knees and try to move the baby. (Her head was hitting the left side of my pelvis - it was at an angle instead of straight on) As soon as I got on my hands and knees, the contractions lessened and I felt fine. I was getting really discouraged by this point because I felt like all these contractions I was having should be doing something!!

We went to walmart and walked around for a while - which of course intensified the contractions. We got home and I fell asleep on the couch for two hours and woke up to the contractions. I timed them, but they were only 5-6 minutes apart! I took a tylenol pm and went to sleep. I woke up the next morning (Saturday) to having harder contractions about every 3 min. I called the midwife - who said I sounded too comfortable (but I really do have a high tolerance for pain haha) - but went ahead and had me come in.

She checked me and I was really really soft but still around 2, but she said that with as soft as I was she easily stretched me to three - and I seriously couldn't even feel that she had done it and I was only at 80% effaced. She said the baby was still at -1 and could feel that she wasn't coming in at the right angle. So she tied a sheet around my belly to see if it would encourage the baby to move at all and had me walk for a while.

I was also unable to have a BM so she suggested that we go out and walk around some stores, eat dinner (something spicy), and try some castor oil to encourage a BM to come so that we can try and get the baby in the right position. My contractions were getting so bad and I felt miserable. I was getting completely emotional because I felt like all of this was happening and it wasn't doing any good because she wasn't at the right angle! And on top of it I couldn't poop - which of course I blamed for being the reason she wasn't coming down right since obviously every other part of my body was ready to have this baby if she would just engage her head!

We finally go back to the birth center around 11 that night. She gave me some tea to help with my belly problems. And then offered to give me some sleep aid. So she gave me a shot of morphine and I went to sleep at the birth center. I woke up the next morning (Sunday, the 21st!) with my contractions and started noticing a lot more discharge and bloody show ... and could feel more pressure.

She came and checked me and I was 3cm, still around 80% but the baby was right where she needed to be! I was excited by this point!! She sent us out to breakfast and then had us come back. While at breakfast I really couldn't eat much. We went to Hardees and I just ate some little tater tot thingies. But my contractions were to the point where I needed everyone to quit talking around me so I could focus on a focal point and breathe with them.

On the way back to the birthing center I started feeling really nauseous to the point of feeling like I was going to get sick (usually I can hold it in until I get somewhere ... but not this time! My mother in law was in the process of pulling the car over and I threw up all over the inside of my car. By the time we got back to the birth center and she rechecked me I was 4 cm, 100% effaced and she was fully engaged! We were ready to rock n roll.

I was officially admitted which meant I wasn't leaving there again without the baby! Knowing that we were finally ready to have this baby made me forget about how miserable I had been feeling since Wednesday. I was officially sick of walking and my feet were 5 times their normal size ... so I tried to just relax and deal with the contractions as they came. They really weren't bad if I just found a focal point and breathed - and had silence around me.

I did have to get the antibiotics for being Group B Strep positive, which was annoying but that was it. After I got my first dose of antibiotics, I was gonna go walk a little bit - but my midwife wanted to check me and I was 6 cm and she asked if I wanted to soak in the tub! I was all for that. So I soaked for a while ... still dealing with the contractions. Got out and went and relaxed some more.

By this point contractions were starting to feel like they were all peaks, and were getting a little more difficult. (This is around 6pm.) They needed to give me another dose of antibiotics, and after that was done they went ahead and checked me. I was 8 cm, there was a definite bulge from my water sack, but it still hadn't broken. I really wanted the water birth, so they started to fill up the tub. While they were doing that, they had me get on my hands and knees to relieve some of the back pain I was feeling. I was only on my hands and knees for 30 seconds and my water broke!

I got in the tub by about 7 and my contractions started picking up immensely! It took a whole lot of control to focus and breathe and RELAX through each one! There were a couple of times my mom had to get at the end of the tub and really grab hold of my attention to get my to focus because they were getting so strong and my back was really hurting. I don't remember a whole lot of what went on during transition - mostly just what I was told.

Apparently, I was polite and told my husband "your hand is cold, please take it off my knee, thank you." And they said that in between each contraction I would be out ... I wasn't sleeping ... but I just would lay my head to the side and close my eyes and be unaware of everything until the next contraction. I remember hearing bits and pieces of what was going on around me during those moments.

I know they were talking about my endorphins kicking in during those times lol. It really started getting hard when she was coming down the canal and I felt like I needed to push, but they told me not to until they came and checked me. So I was fighting against this urge to push trying to hold her in me which made the pain worse because I would tense up. Finally I was to the point where I just had to push!

So the midwife checked me and I had just a little lip left but she had me push against it as she felt it and it was moving out of the way and eventually was gone. So finally I was allowed to push!! But the stupid tub was so uncomfortable! I couldn't get a good position because my back was killing me! And the water kept turning cold on me and I was getting hot and cold (and apparently I told them I was hot at one point on the bed so my mom went to take the blanket off of me and I told her that my whole body wasn't hot that part of me was hot and part of me was cold!).

So I decided to move to the bed to lay on my side to get off my back! In about 30-45 minutes I had pushed my little girl out! And come to find out ... her head came down the birth canal at an angle!! This child never wanted to get her head straight on!! That explains why my back hurt so bad!! And she was almost 8 pounds a week and a half early!! Imagine if she'd waited lol!

At 9:13pm, Sunday September 21, 2008 Miss Carissa Hope was born - weighing a whopping 7lbs 14oz and measuring in at 20 1/2 inches! :) And she's the most beautiful thing in the world! :) But I was very excited to have made it through the whole thing drug free all natural!! And I had no tearing at all! :) The midwife told me that I would easily be able to deliver a bigger baby esp if the head was engaged straight on!

She did give us a bit of scare though!! When they put her on my chest she didn't move or react and didn't cry. The eventually took her under the heat lamps and tried to get her to cry. She more grunted. They were worried she had fluid in her lungs, so they called the NICU paramedics. But by the time they got there they had got her to cry some. They checked her over and said she wasn't NICU material, but that they might want to have her watched for a while to make sure she snaps out of it.

So I asked them if we could just watch her at the birth center and call them again if she didn't get better! ( I really didn't want to have to go to the hospital! Esp. if it wasn't necessary!!) They agreed to that. And after they got her crying - she didn't stop crying til the next morning! But that was a nice sound since she didn't cry at first! Melissa Gunter