Does anyone else love to hear/read about people’s birth stories, or is that just me?! It’s seriously one of my biggest interests, so much so that I’ve considered going back to school one day just so that I can be a part of other women’s births! I’d like to get through all of my future births before I do that, though 😋
Throughout my pregnancy of course I had some challenges (some that I hope to never go through again), but for the most part it was pretty great. I did not always feel this way, but I really did love pregnancy and I miss it! Feeling my little boy moving all around, listening to his heartbeat at each OBGYN appointment, seeing his body in all sorts of positions during an ultrasound…It was all so beautiful and I’m so excited to go through that again one day!
Now when it comes to birth, that’s USUALLY not so fun (Yes, I do know a few people who had the best experience ever and I am very jealous 😂) and for that I was no exception!
At 35 weeks, my midwife measured my bump, like they had been my entire pregnancy, and she told me that it had not grown. According to her, this was likely nothing to worry about, but just to be safe they would schedule me for a growth ultrasound. I went to my next appointment one week later at 36 weeks and my bump had still not grown! There was no availability to get an ultrasound before I had my next appointment with my midwife. My midwife sent me with a script to the hospital so that I could have my ultrasound right away and be monitored for a few hours.
My husband and I drove straight to the hospital and headed to the labor and delivery floor…Was not expecting to see this place for at least a few more weeks! While I was waiting for my ultrasound, they hooked me all up and told me I was having contractions one minute apart and my blood pressure was reading high. They asked me a few more questions about things I had been experiencing and then during my hour long ultrasound I began to have the worst back pain I had ever experienced (I will get to that later!). After all of this, they decided to induce me since my baby was not growing anymore and was measuring on the smaller side, and I was diagnosed with atypical preeclampsia. Well, time to send hubby with a huge list of things to grab from the house because we did not have our hospital bags packed! (I will definitely be packing very lightly next time because we hardly used any of it 🤣)
Hours passed before I was induced. I had another ultrasound focused on the blood flow from the placenta and was continuing to have contractions every minute (thankfully they were not too bad yet, though the back pain was almost unbearable!).
Once my husband got back they were able to insert the Cervadil on the second attempt at 11:40pm (Apparently my baby’s head was in the way of my cervix, I still cannot make sense of that, but it was extremely painful 😣). We had 12 hours of waiting for the Cervadil to hopefully start the dilating process before they would start me on Pitocin. After a whole night of being awake from the increasingly painful contractions, I was silently begging for someone to check how dilated I was! Unfortunately, they decided to wait until 11:40am. By 11:30am I was hitting my bed rails so hard from the pain and I told my husband “I cannot get through another contraction, get me an epidural!” (My plan was to go natural, but I was not prepared to get induced and was having a very difficult time getting through those contractions). My midwife FINALLY checked me and to her surprise (but not mine!) I was 5cm. They said I needed a bag of fluids and in 20 minutes they would insert the epidural. While lying in bed anxiously waiting for it, I started to feel a little someone try to push out of me. My husband grabbed the nurse who checked me and she grabbed my midwife who confirmed I was 10cm. I yelled “Does this mean I can’t get an epidural?!”. Like most first time moms, I was absolutely terrified. I had no idea how to push and was not sure how I could survive with the amount of pain I was in, but us Momma’s are incredible! Somehow I gathered up the courage, my midwife broke my water and I instantly started pushing with every ounce of my being to get every ounce of my little boy out! Fifteen minutes later (the longest fifteen minutes of my life!) and he was in my arms 🥰
At my 6 week postpartum appointment I found out the reason for my high blood pressure, back pain and super frequent contractions. Oddly enough, no one told me until this point that I had a placental abruption and if I were to be anywhere else other than the hospital I most likely would’ve lost my son. My placenta was half the size of a normal placenta and was pushing out before my baby. Although this only occurs in 1% of pregnancies it does make me nervous for next time!
So, after a partial induction (at least I didn’t need pitocin since my body was naturally going into labor early 🤷🏼♀️), a labor that went completely unplanned (I was looking forward to laboring in the tub!) and a rare complication, I ended up with my perfect baby boy 💙 Eli had to overcome some challenges of his own, but he is such a strong little guy and we were fortunate to be able to go home after just 2.5 days. Now I just gotta decide if I want to have a natural birth for the next baby. My mind is telling me “heck no!”, but my body is saying “well, you got through it once already” 🤷🏼♀️
So, if you care to share, what’s your birth story?! Did you also have a (sort of unplanned) natural birth? Epidural? C-section? Are you happy with the choices you made (if you were able to make any during that hectic time). I personally wish that I could’ve done certain things to help me get through the contractions, like laboring in the tub and walking around. Unfortunately my midwife did not believe I was in active labor for a long time, and by that point it was too late! Let me know in the comments or in the No Comma Mommas Facebook group!
Keep pushing mommas(no comma)
No Comma Momma
No Comma Momma 