My Experience

My husband and I went in for my 40-week 2-day appointment to get my fluids checked which our OB requires when you are past due. Our OB did an ultrasound and guestimated our baby was 8 lbs 6 oz and that we had a lot of fluid. Then she sent us to the hospital, which was across the street, for a non-stress test.

After about 20 minutes with the fetal and contraction monitor on, the nurse came in and said that she had called my doctor because she noticed that the baby had some arrhythmia. I was also contracting steadily, not big ones but nonetheless contracting. My doctor was going to come over and look at the printouts and talk to us. When she got there she told us that because of the irregular heart beat and the excess of amniotic fluid in the amniotic sac (polyhydramnios), she didn’t feel good about letting us go home with the baby still on the inside. And since I was already contracting, she would strip my membranes and give me until later that night to go into labor on my own. I was relieved because I preferred to go into labor without medical intervention.

Admitted to the Hospital
I was admitted to the hospital and taken to my labor room. My husband went home to get all of our stuff (of course, I hadn’t finished packing). The doctor then stripped my membranes, which was extremely painful as I was only 1 cm dilated and not effaced at all. I continued contracting all day, very consistently.

Later in the evening my doctor checked me; I was still 1-2 cm dilated with minimal effacement. We asked her to let us go another 12 hours before we started medication since I wanted to go into labor naturally, if possible. She said that was fine as she had been observing the baby’s heartbeat and it was OK. During the night my contractions got a lot stronger, longer and closer together. I had to be in bed for most of the time since I was being monitored but I was able to breathe through them using breathing techniques I had learned.

I was still at 2 cm when the doctor checked me the next morning. We were disappointed but agreed that after 20 hours, I needed to get things going. I was given pitocin and managed the contractions without pain medication; my husband and doula helped me get through it by rubbing my back and squeezing my hips while I sat on a ball, walked around and also rocked through the contractions. At one point the pitocin I was getting seemed to be too much and the contractions were coming on so hard and fast that I couldn’t recover from them effectively. A nurse came rushing in and said that the baby wasn’t responding well to me being out of bed and she made me get in bed and lie on my side, a very uncomfortable and almost unbearable position for me to handle the contractions.

My husband and I finally convinced the nurse that the contractions coming so hard and fast were because of the rate of the pitocin flow rather than my position. The nurse lowered the rate a bit and it was manageable again until about 8 pm when the same thing happened. The contractions were only 90 seconds apart and extremely intense. None of my pain management techniques were effective. Unfortunately, I had to wait until my doctor came to check my progress before I could get an epidural. I was extremely distraught. Also, the baby’s heartbeat was dipping again and they made me lie in the bed to monitor what was going on.

By this point I had been laboring with pitocin contractions for almost 13 hours and my own natural contractions for another 20. I was completely exhausted. Finally, at about 11 pm, the doctor came and checked me; I was about 4.5 cm dilated. I got the epidural and slept for about 5 hours.

Water Breaks
At 4:30 am my water broke. Four nurses came rushing in because the baby was distressed again. They immediately attached an internal fetal monitor and gave me oxygen through a mask. At this point I counted 7 or 8 tubes and connections to my body. My husband was watching the heart rate of the baby; it would drop with each pitocin contraction. We were both getting extremely nervous. They checked me again and I was 8.5 cm dilated.

The doctor came in and told me she’d been watching my baby’s heart rate from home and it just wasn’t responding to the contractions in a healthy way. She said I needed an emergency C-section. I sobbed the entire time, mostly because I was scared for the baby and for myself, but also because I was so traumatized and had been through so much already. The baby was born at 7:19 am.

There was meconium in the fluid which he had inhaled into his lungs. Also, there was a knot in the umbilical cord. His initial Apgar score was 3. The doctor handed him off to a bunch of people who worked on him and sucked the fluid out of his lungs. He made one tiny cry and then was silent. They wrapped him up and whisked him in front of me to see, and then took him to the NICU. My husband went off with him. I went to recovery and sobbed. They told me that I probably would not see him until the next day.

I couldn’t stop crying. I sobbed with the thought of not seeing or holding my new baby boy, and the idea of him being all alone in a warmer with tubes coming out of him. My husband spent a lot of time in the NICU with him and brought me lots of pictures, which was helpful, but of course, nothing really was going make me feel better until I saw him and was able to hold him in my arms. By 11 pm, with the help of the postpartum nurses who were very understanding, I was able to get in a wheelchair and go to the NICU.

Nursing
I did not get to start nursing him until the next day. The NICU nurses were strict about feedings so I was only able to feed him every 3 hours. My milk had not yet come in so he was being supplemented with formula and bottles. He was weighed and had blood sugar tests (via heel pricks) after every feeding. He needed to reach a certain mark in order for him to be taken off his IV.

The nursing was very challenging with all his IVs and monitor leads. It was very upsetting. Finally, after his lung culture came back clean, he was out of the NICU and the next day we all left the hospital and went home. While it was traumatic and challenging for me, I was really glad the NICU was able to take care of him. He is doing really well now.

The fears and anxieties afterward still have not completely gone away. I still wonder if anything that happened in the birth will affect him later in life or if it has already affected him negatively. I’ve talked to a number of friends and peers and this has been helpful in my healing. Still, I think it’s going to take time.