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Catherine's Story By Jennifer |
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Birth Stories -
Homebirth Birth Stories
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Tuesday, 03 February 2009 08:23 |
My pregnancy with my second child was very uneventful. I chose the group of nurse midwives associated with my HMO for prenatal care. With my first child I had been erroneously diagnosed with intrauterine growth retardation (Chris, my oldest son, turned out to be 7 lbs 11 oz.) by serial ultrasounds, so I chose not to have an ultrasound at all with my second baby. I had a quick labor with my first son, but it was very intense, so I had no worries about not making it to the hospital in time for this one. With my first labor, I knew I was in labor after just 1 contractions because it was so strong.
This time, I was 3 cm diltated and 80% effaced for 3 weeks before the baby was born. At each visit, the midwife reminded me not to wait too long to come to the hospital given my previous fast delivery, and I assured them I wouldn't. Finally, on Monday morning (the baby was due the following Saturday) I woke up at 6 am with mild contractions. I laid in bed for a while, and since they were only every 10-15 minutes, I eventually got up and went to school (I was a second year medical student at the time.) By noon the contractions had stopped. On Tuesday, again I woke up with contractions, again very mild, only 10-15 minutes apart. Once again they lasted about 6 hours and then stopped. I was beginning to think I would be pregnant forever. On Wednesday morning, once again, I was awakened by contractions at six am. This time however, I had a little bit of bloody show. My husband had taken his leave from work already, so was home with me. I decided to wait a little while to see if this time labor would pick up. At about 10 am the contractions had again spaced out and I decided to go to school. The lectures that day were all about placenta pathology, being taught by the head of obstetrics at my medical school. Around 2:30pm the contractions returned, again very mild. I was just aware of them, but they were not at all painful. A friend noticed me rubbing my belly and looking at the clock every 15 minutes. "You're in labor!" he said. "Of course not," was my reply. "Labor contractions are so much stronger than this." (Famous last words.)
I went home, cooked dinner and ate with my husband and six year old son. While I was reading to my son I noticed that the contractions, although still only every 10 minutes, were a little stronger. They didn't hurt, but I paused for each one, and told my son to look at the pictures. Once he was in bed, I told my husband my back was achy. He suggested I get in the shower. If the contractions were still there, we would go in and get checked after my shower. The shower was great, I could barely feel contractions at all. Then while I was shampooing my hair, there was a pop and a splat as my water broke. I was not at all worried at this point. My first labor started with my water breaking, so I figured this simply meant I was now finally in labor. I rinsed off and climbed out of the shower. It was now about 9 pm. As soon as I was out of the shower, I had a huge contraction. Up to now I had felt absolutely no pain. This contraction was not that painful either, but so strong that I couldn't move. My husband and I switched to high gear trying to get ready to go. I called the midwives answering service and told them I was in labor. Then I called my friend Evelyn, who was coming to the birth to be with us and my 6 year old son. We woke up our son. By now, only 10 minutes later, I was contracting every 2-3 minutes very strongly, lasting 90-120 seconds each. I called the answering service back and told them to just have a midwife meet me at the hospital. My husband tied my shoes, my son grabbed our bag and camcorder. Evelyn arrived, leaving her car running in the street. My husband left me with her and ran out and pulled our car up as well. By now I wasn't walking very well, and not talking at all. We started down the stairs (we lived on the second floor.) About two steps from the bottom I started to feel the unmistakeable burning sensation of crowning. I told my husband that we weren't going to make it. "Yes, we are!" he insisted. I explained the situation to Evelyn, whose own son was a year old that day. She immediately understood. She grabbed the keys from my husband, ran back upstairs and called 911 (Who just took our address and hung up!) She also pulled out our hide-a-bed, which was right inside the door. My husband, who is, thank God, 6'4" and 200 pounds, picked me up and managed to carry me back up the flight of stairs. I half-sat and half-squatted on the edge of the hide-a-bed and they helped me out of my pants. All I could think of for some reason was that you shouldn't push if you aren't fully dilated so I muttered to Evelyn and my husband "Can you see the head?" Both of them nodded, so I closed my eyes and PUSHED. My beautiful daughter was born then, caught by my friend Evelyn, with me giving instructions. It took us a few seconds to figure out she was a girl, and then we were all laughing and hugging. She was very pink right away, although she didn't cry. My husband jokes that her birth was so easy she couldn't even be bothered to wake up for it. We all looked at the microwave at the same instant -- by that she was born at 9:32 pm. By the time the paramedics came we were trying to put her to the breast. They cut the cord and we wrapped her in a bath towel and tucked her in my coat (It was February 15) I walked out and climbed into the ambulance. Because we had to go to the closest hospital, we ended up at my own medical school. The OB professor whose lectures I sat in all day was on call and saw me in the recovery room!
Catherine Elizabeth is now 4 1/2 and still full of her own opinions about how to do things. I tease my husband whenever we are dividing child care tasks that he should get the lion's share since I went through minutes and minutes of exhausting labor! Really, her labor was off and on for three days, but so mild that only the last half hour really seemed like labor. I have since had a third child (Justin, who arrived in the hospital after a normal 7 hour labor) and am now a family practice resident. Although I have now delivered many babies, Catherine's delivery was the first I ever directed!
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