Anyway, November 5th arrived and with it no labor and no pushing. I just showered, dressed and showed up at the hospital, where they took gave me a nightgown, took my vital signs and wheeled into the OR. Forty-five minutes later: baby!
It wasn't what I wanted, but it was fine. The operation went off without a hitch and my scar is nearly invisible. I endured a rough couple of days in the hospital since I had a bad reaction to the spinal anesthesia and my sleepy newborn lost enough weight that breastfeeding her involved taping formula to my chest for supplemental feedings. Still, a week later I was pushing her stroller around the block and she was nursing like a champ.
When I was pregnant with A, I knew from the start that I'd want a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). Only my second born also favored the heads-up position. Fortunately an external version got her turned vertex and my midwives gave me the go-ahead to wait for labor to kick in.
A couple of days past my official due date, labor started. My first contraction hit at 9:40pm, just as I was going to bed. I stayed up all night, groaning, rocking on a ball and hugging a huge pile of pillows. At 9am, Josh and Trisha (my doula) accompanied me to the midwives' office, and since I was at 7cm, they waved me on to the hospital. You can read the whole birth story here, but suffice it to say I had enough time left to try every non-pharmaceutical labor enhancer and pain reducer before A finally showed her head--a full day later.
Natural childbirth was everything I'd hoped for and more. A whole lot more. I knew the pain would be intense, but I didn't know it would last. So. Long.
An epidural might have helped me since it might have provided me with enough relief that I could have rested a bit before pushing. But I didn't want an epidural because so many women have said yes to the epidural only to have their labors stall. Stalled labor is treated with Pitocin, and those Pitocin-driven contractions call for more pain relief. Intervention follows intervention and too often ends with a C-section. I'd had a C-section and I didn't want another. Particularly after I'd already done so much of the hard, physical work of labor.
What I'd wished for then was just a little relief--something to help me get through that awful period of transition. Something like the nitrous oxide that got my sister through her labors nearly medication-free. Nitrous is a common pain relief medication for laboring mothers in England and Australia, but it is virtually unknown American birthing centers.
Dr. Mark Sloane, author of Birth Day,
advocates for the adoption of nitrous oxide and doulas in the delivery room, describing this country's overwhelming reliance on a single kind of pain relief an "epidural monoculture." I read Birth Day as a part of the Silicon Valley Moms Group Wednesday book club. Head over to my local Chicago Moms Blog tomorrow to a wrap-up of posts inspired by the book.
11 comments:
Great post! Oh, and the formula taped to your chest? I've been there...
(Alma's sister): Yep, not sure I could have done an epidural-free labor without the gas, especially not the first time around, since that was a posterior labor as well. But not all women find nitrous that helpful, a lot of my friends here in Australia thought it did nothing for their pain. For me, it took enough of an edge off, but it didn't really help for the worst parts (transition, crowning).
That said, I think I drained the hospital's nitrous supply during my two-hour labour of Sam, and that was with the encouragement of my OB. He told me the trick was to use the gas well before the contraction peaked, otherwise it would be too late.
Ah the birth experience. Mine didn't quite go the way I wanted either but I have a beautiful son so I've forgiven the hospital and doctors. LOL.
If I am blessed to have another I would love to try VBAC. I was completely depressed that we had to do a C-section but I have a healthy baby boy so I guess it doesn't really matter that much to me now.
congratulations on sticking it out for so long. i know i would have caved early on!
Firstable let me point out that your babies are beautiful, also let me say that you are a strong and amazing woman for hanging the way you did, me and my wife are waiting for our first baby to born on January this 2011, cant wait to hold our baby.
Congratulation, your baby is so beautiful, i would like to meet him someday.
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