Isabel's Birth
We had a fairly short labor, although I started having prelabor/early labor contractions Friday evening. They kept coming and going Friday night through Saturday and into Sunday. I got a nap Sunday afternoon when they were gone again and I was sure I still wasn't really going to go into labor. My doula decided to visit me briefly around noon on Sunday and chose to stay because I was working through the contractions, even though they still felt putzy to me. After my afternoon nap, we all went for a nice long walk and that really helped to get things going. That was about 5pm.
My contractions stayed about 5-8 min apart all evening, and the doula had her husband come and get our ds for the night. She was more sure that I was in labor than I was. :lol We kept the midwife posted on my status and when I felt like my contractions really were regular and getting more intense and serious, she came to stay at about 10:45. We finally filled up the birth tub around that time and it felt SO good. Not that it takes away the pain, just that it makes it so the only pain to deal with is the contractions.
I kept getting out of the water between contractions because if I stayed immersed too long, the contractions spaced out too far.
About midnight or so, the pain got to be more than I could handle and the midwife kept asking me "Are you having a contraction? You need to calm down and breathe normally between them." But I was in SO MUCH pain between the contractions. My left backstrap and my belly along the left side hurt as much between as during contractions; the pain never went away, and it was intense. I was starting to panic and couldn't cope.
The midwife finally decided something must be wrong (I had certainly thought so) and she and the doula started talking about things. They had me get out of the tub and try walking up and down the stairs swinging my legs out far, they did a special hip alignment technique where I had to lay down on my side on the bed with a leg dangling over, and finally the midwife decided to check my cervix. She was very gentle, not at all like OB nurses I've known. She said she was checking for position, and couldn't feel any sutures to be able to tell the position of the baby. So she palpated my belly to get the best idea she could. At about 2am she laid me down on a blanket on the floor and picked up the edges, lifting me off the floor. She shook me back and forth vigorously, then rolled me onto my left side and shook me some more, then laid me down on my left side and waited. The pain slowly began to subside (a couple of minutes) and I fell asleep. I slept for an hour on the floor and had three contractions which I was able to cope with.
I got up at 3:15 and started to walk around. The midwife had me do the stairs some more, and I found that I was much more nimble and comfortable in my body. I could move and control myself in between contractions without pain or weakness. When the contractions got too intense, I finally got back into the tub and it was wonderful. I was able to sleep between the contractions (still 5 minutes apart). This was about 3:45am.
My doula helped me cope with each contraction as it came and it was wonderful that the only pain was the contraction, no muscle pain like before and the water took away most of the pelvic and belly pressure. Hard to describe to say I only felt the pain of the contraction. They were amazingly intense, each one stretching my pelvis farther and more intensely. Without my doula's eye contact and strength, I might have panicked a bit (dh would have helped me if not her). I checked my dilation periodically and wasn't really very far, I could still feel that the cervix was a bit mounded and I could feel the edges of it easily (I can't tell you how dilated that was, I don't know numbers with my fingers). I started feeling grunty and tested with a bit of a push sometimes but still felt like I had a long way to go. At 4:45 I had so much pressure I knew it was time. I really panicked and told the doula I couldn't do it, I wasn't ready and started really getting upset. It felt like I was going to rip apart, vaginally and pelvicly (is that a word?). She kept my eyes and helped me cope with the intensity and the midwife got up off the couch and headed to the bathroom to pee, but the doula called for her to come immediately. I tried to wait and not push through the next contraction so I could stretch, but it wouldn't stop until I pushed, it was overwhelming and uncontrollable, so I pushed and the head came out, the water breaking with it. The midwife asked me what I was feeling, and I couldn't answer, I held on through the next contraction and she put her hand into the water, and was very shocked to find the baby's head. Then I pushed again and out came the shoulders and the baby.
What a relief!!
So that is how Isabel was born, 7lbs, 1 oz 20.5 inches. I have only a small skidmark and at 5 days PP my perineum isn't even sore anymore. Whew!
In retrospect, I see signs that she wasn't engaged properly in the pelvis, and I really had suspected it for awhile. For several weeks, my evening contractions were made very painful by the feeling of the baby shifting her head around in the pelvis. This caused sharp stabbing pains and I had a lot of this shifting and wiggling pain during the latter end of early labor (Sunday night). It seems that this must have been because the baby wasn't in the pelvis properly.
I am convinced that if I had been in a hospital I would have asked for an epidural, the pain was beyond what I could tolerate. And with no one knowledgeable about shifting a baby or keeping me moving, I would have ended up with a c-section. The midwife demurs on this, and says it's hard to know, but can you picture an OB putting me down on a blanket and jiggling me to move the baby?
My contractions stayed about 5-8 min apart all evening, and the doula had her husband come and get our ds for the night. She was more sure that I was in labor than I was. :lol We kept the midwife posted on my status and when I felt like my contractions really were regular and getting more intense and serious, she came to stay at about 10:45. We finally filled up the birth tub around that time and it felt SO good. Not that it takes away the pain, just that it makes it so the only pain to deal with is the contractions.
I kept getting out of the water between contractions because if I stayed immersed too long, the contractions spaced out too far.
About midnight or so, the pain got to be more than I could handle and the midwife kept asking me "Are you having a contraction? You need to calm down and breathe normally between them." But I was in SO MUCH pain between the contractions. My left backstrap and my belly along the left side hurt as much between as during contractions; the pain never went away, and it was intense. I was starting to panic and couldn't cope.
The midwife finally decided something must be wrong (I had certainly thought so) and she and the doula started talking about things. They had me get out of the tub and try walking up and down the stairs swinging my legs out far, they did a special hip alignment technique where I had to lay down on my side on the bed with a leg dangling over, and finally the midwife decided to check my cervix. She was very gentle, not at all like OB nurses I've known. She said she was checking for position, and couldn't feel any sutures to be able to tell the position of the baby. So she palpated my belly to get the best idea she could. At about 2am she laid me down on a blanket on the floor and picked up the edges, lifting me off the floor. She shook me back and forth vigorously, then rolled me onto my left side and shook me some more, then laid me down on my left side and waited. The pain slowly began to subside (a couple of minutes) and I fell asleep. I slept for an hour on the floor and had three contractions which I was able to cope with.
I got up at 3:15 and started to walk around. The midwife had me do the stairs some more, and I found that I was much more nimble and comfortable in my body. I could move and control myself in between contractions without pain or weakness. When the contractions got too intense, I finally got back into the tub and it was wonderful. I was able to sleep between the contractions (still 5 minutes apart). This was about 3:45am.
My doula helped me cope with each contraction as it came and it was wonderful that the only pain was the contraction, no muscle pain like before and the water took away most of the pelvic and belly pressure. Hard to describe to say I only felt the pain of the contraction. They were amazingly intense, each one stretching my pelvis farther and more intensely. Without my doula's eye contact and strength, I might have panicked a bit (dh would have helped me if not her). I checked my dilation periodically and wasn't really very far, I could still feel that the cervix was a bit mounded and I could feel the edges of it easily (I can't tell you how dilated that was, I don't know numbers with my fingers). I started feeling grunty and tested with a bit of a push sometimes but still felt like I had a long way to go. At 4:45 I had so much pressure I knew it was time. I really panicked and told the doula I couldn't do it, I wasn't ready and started really getting upset. It felt like I was going to rip apart, vaginally and pelvicly (is that a word?). She kept my eyes and helped me cope with the intensity and the midwife got up off the couch and headed to the bathroom to pee, but the doula called for her to come immediately. I tried to wait and not push through the next contraction so I could stretch, but it wouldn't stop until I pushed, it was overwhelming and uncontrollable, so I pushed and the head came out, the water breaking with it. The midwife asked me what I was feeling, and I couldn't answer, I held on through the next contraction and she put her hand into the water, and was very shocked to find the baby's head. Then I pushed again and out came the shoulders and the baby.
What a relief!!
So that is how Isabel was born, 7lbs, 1 oz 20.5 inches. I have only a small skidmark and at 5 days PP my perineum isn't even sore anymore. Whew!
In retrospect, I see signs that she wasn't engaged properly in the pelvis, and I really had suspected it for awhile. For several weeks, my evening contractions were made very painful by the feeling of the baby shifting her head around in the pelvis. This caused sharp stabbing pains and I had a lot of this shifting and wiggling pain during the latter end of early labor (Sunday night). It seems that this must have been because the baby wasn't in the pelvis properly.
I am convinced that if I had been in a hospital I would have asked for an epidural, the pain was beyond what I could tolerate. And with no one knowledgeable about shifting a baby or keeping me moving, I would have ended up with a c-section. The midwife demurs on this, and says it's hard to know, but can you picture an OB putting me down on a blanket and jiggling me to move the baby?
posted by LeosMama at 5:23 PM
2 Comments:
Where does a non-homeopath like you find a midwife and a doula?
Contact La Leche League in your area. Chances are that many of the women will have knowledge of good midwives in the area.
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