Brecca is the mother of two. Her oldest child is a girl, Kylie, and her youngest is a boy, Patrick. Patrick was born 6 weeks prematurely. Brecca writes about the difficulty of having a delivery that was unlike her birthing plan. She will also be doing another guest blog about the difficulties of raising a premature child.
Generally, women start to think about their birth plan halfway through their pregnancy. I normally don't feel comfortable with anything unless I have set, detailed plan. But with my pregnancies I went with the flow. I never formally wrote my plan down with either of my children nor was either very detailed. However, what few things I wanted, I was very sure of: I wanted to labor at home for as long as I could stand it, I didn't commit to an epidural nor rule it out, I wanted to wait and see how bad the pain was and most importantly, I did not want to be induced no matter how past due I was and I did not want to have a c-section. But I'm sure as everyone knows sometimes plans work out and sometimes they don't.
With my first baby, everything I wanted ending up working out. I labored at home for 4 hours, longer if you count the hour drive to the hospital and the half an hour wait on the side of the road due to a flat tire. I ended up having an epidural so I could rest since we were in the middle of moving to a new place and I hadn't been able to sleep much the previous week. My daughter was born vaginally after 12 hours of labor and 20 minutes of pushing. Everything went according to my very loose plan.
However 2 and a half years later, the birth of my son wasn't what I was expecting or planning. My son was due at the end of August but he was born 6.5 weeks early in the beginning of July. With him, I had to be induced because both our lives were in danger. My blood pressure was dangerously high and I was so swollen everywhere that my parents and even my daughter didn't recognize me.
Almost exactly a week prior to his birth, I was diagnosed with preeclampsia. After a 36 hour stay at the hospital, doctors decided it was a mild case and sent me home. Even though I stayed off my feet and avoided salt, it didn't stay mild for long. After a few days I was so swollen that not even my husband's shoes fit me. I constantly felt exhausted and sore everywhere. I was terrified the whole week because I knew I had to keep him in there as long as I possibly could to give him a better chance of being born alive and healthy. Every day felt like I was juggling chainsaws, like one tiny thing could happen and everything would go very wrong. Every night felt like a victory since I had made it another day and my son was still inside my womb. That week was the most stressful and longest week of my life.
On the morning of July 9th I woke up feeling the worst I had yet. I had a routine appointment in the afternoon and decided to wait a few extra hours and go to the appointment rather than going to the hospital. After the nurse recorded my weight she took my blood pressure, it was dangerously high. She kept taking it over and over again to make sure it was correct. After she kept getting the same numbers she left to inform my doctor. I must have been alone in the exam room for 5 minutes but it felt like hours. I knew what my doctor would say before she even came in; I needed to go to the hospital and more likely than not have to be induced or have an emergency c-section. As soon as the doctor walked in the exam room I started crying hysterically, I was terrified. After she calmed me down as best she could, my husband who was watching our 2.5 year old in the waiting room was called back and told to take me directly to the hospital.
My husband dropped me off in the emergency room where I was promptly transported up to labor and delivery and hooked up to a magnesium drip to try to get my blood pressure under control. Once settled in, I began to text my husband everything I needed him to bring me from home while he arranged a babysitter for our daughter. Within an hour the doctor on call decided that I had to be induced.
It wasn't part of my plan at all; however, I didn't care what had to happen as long as my son and I were going to be okay. Thankfully the week prior I had gotten a steroid shot to help my son's lungs so they didn't have to wait 24 hours to start an IV with pitocin. I only knew 3 things about having labor induced; the contractions were irregular and more painful, it lasted longer than naturally occurring labor and c-sections were more likely due to the length of labor or it not progressing. I was assured that my chances of a c-section were slim not only because I had given birth vaginally before and because my son would be small but also because I was already mildly contracting before they began the induction. The other two things I thought I knew turned out not to be true in my case.
The whole induction process wasn't nearly as bad as the horror stories I had heard. While my contractions were irregular they weren't very painful at all and after the pitocin was started I was only in labor for 18 hours. Eventually contractions did begin to hurt and I ended up having an epidural because of a recommendation from my mom. Her logic was that pain increases blood pressure and mine was too high even with the medicine to lower it, it seemed it would be safer for me to relieve the pain. However, I did experience the worst pain of my life during the birthing process of my son and it wasn't from something I expected.
Magnesium is a wonderful drug for lowering blood pressure however it has two nasty side effects. One of which is nausea. I did end up getting sick twice though I'm not sure if it was from magnesium or from being in labor. My main issue with the nausea side effect was that I wasn't allowed to eat. I know, during labor no one is really allowed to eat or drink but my intake restriction lasted for 24 hours after giving birth. I was starving and one wonderful nurse ended up sneaking me some water and crackers during my observation period. The other side effect was the headache. I had the worst headache of my life without any real relief for two days thanks to it. When I mentioned my headache I was told it wouldn't go away until after the magnesium was stopped and that wouldn't be until after I made it through my 24 hour supervision in labor and delivery after my son was born. The only things I could do to slightly lessen the pain was have the lights low and have one of those ice pack pads they give you postpartum on my eyes. I think I went through 20 of them and looked really stupid but at that point I really didn't care as long as something could help. The headache was by far the most painful part of my son's birth and his birth was both more painful and less painful than my daughter's.
After almost 18 hours of labour I was only 5 cms dilated and my doctor decided to break my water before she had to leave to preform a c-section on another woman. Little did anyone in that room know that she would be delivering my baby before her scheduled c-section. Once my water was broken I informed the doctor that I felt extreme pain and the urge to push, she didn't believe me until she checked me again. Within a few seconds of my water being broken I had gone from 5cms to 10cms, fully dilated. She told me that I had to wait to start pushing until the NICU doctors came in and were set up. The pain of progressing so quickly, not having the epidural adjusted accordingly and fighting the urge to push was by far worse than any aspect of my daughter's labor. However, it hurt a lot worse with my daughter while pushing and birthing her. She was 7lbs 2oz and tore me in the birthing process. My son however, was 4lbs and 3oz and easily came out after 2 pushes.
Thankfully my son was born healthy even though he was only 33.5 weeks along. As soon as he entered the world he screamed which was the most beautiful sound my husband and I had ever heard, it meant his lungs were functional. Unfortunately I only got to see him for a few seconds before he was rushed to the NICU. He looked small but better than I was expecting. He didn't look sickly or like a skeleton. It would be another 3 days before I would get to see him again in person and hold him because I had a long recovery ahead of me.
I had to stay in the hospital for 5 days after he was born. I was still considered to be in a critical period for 24 hours because preeclampsia can still be dangerous after giving birth. After a day of more magnesium and constant supervision I was moved from labor and delivery to the maternity ward. It then took another few days to figure out the correct dosage of my blood pressure medication and to make sure I was stable enough to go home. The swelling, which caused me to put on roughly 20 pounds of water weight, went away pretty quickly once I returned home. I would wake up 5 to 10 pounds lighter than when I went to bed. The hardest part of my recovery was not being with my new baby right away and having to go home without him. But that's another story all together.
I wish I hadn't believed all the horror stories I had heard about being induced because it caused me unnecessary stress. I was so scared that I would be in labor for 72 hours before having to have a c-section and be in horrible pain the entire time. But in my experience, being induced wasn't any better or worse than my daughter's birth, it was just different. My birth plan may not have gone the way I wanted it to go but I am so thankful that both my son and I are alive and healthy, so it doesn't matter that it didn't go exactly how I wanted it to go.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of Brecca's story...
*The views and opinions of guest bloggers are not necessarily the opinions of those at JediMomTrix.
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