The Birth Story

We were surprised when we asked people (like my parents) about the details of their childrens births -- many of them seem to have been forgotten. So we want to write down Ian's birth story while we still remember it . . . THis will be long, so don't feel compelled to read it if you're not interested -- it's mostly for posterity. Ian is asleep in his bouncy seat right now (which I'm bouncing with my foot), so hopefully he'll stay asleep long enough for me to finish!

It was Wednesday the 16th, one day shy of a full two weeks past Ian's due date. We had an induction scheduled for Saturday, but were hoping Ian would come on his own first. At this point we had done most of the preparations we had planned. The bathrooms were all clean, the guest room was in passable shape, etc. My parents, who had planned all along to start driving to NC from NY when I called to tell them I was in labor, had given up waiting, and were on their way. I had stopped working as of the previous Friday, and I decided to use the free time I had that day to take Zrbrt to the vet and find out why she was limping. Some of the people at the vet's office seemed nervous that I would go into labor while I was there, but I assured them it didn't happen that fast. I had been feeling noticeable pelvic pressure all day, but I had felt this often over the preceding few days, so I thought nothing of it. As I suspected, Zrbrt was diagnosed with a partially torn ACL, which would require surgery. I was told that this surgery was best not put off, as future arthritis was likely to be worse the longer we waited. By the time I had picked Zrbrt up around 2 in the afternoon from her sedation and x-rays, the pelvic pressure had increased, but was still constant. No contractions. My parents arrive around 6pm and I helped them get settled in. Doug came home with dinner (a falafel sandwich and salad for me) around 7;30. After dinner, my parents took Zrbrt for a short walk, and Doug took Lilo for a longer walk. He wanted to be tired so that he could go to bed early and be fresh in the morning in case I went into labor the next day. He promised not to go too far from home, and took his cell phone with him. I told him I needed to relax and was going to take a bath. And thus it was about 45 minutes later that I started to feel identifiable contractions. From the very beginning, they seemed closer together than I would have expected.

As the contractions started to get stronger, I called Doug to see where he was. He was only a few blocks away. I told him there was no need to hurry, but that he should come up and see me when he got home. Of course, he didn't listen to me, and arrived out of breath in the bedroom from running home. He got out his laptop to use the contraction timing software that he had prepared. He timed a few contractions, and confirmed that they were 30-40 seconds long, but only 2 minutes apart. Based on our birth class, we expected the first contractions to be much more spaced out (around 10 minutes) -- what Bradley calls the "putsy-putsy" stage of labor. Doug called the birth center and spoke with the midwife, who said that this sounded like the early stages of labor, and we should relax and keep her informed. Doug started gathering our things for the birth center. I focused on relaxing, but I quickly started to feel more "serious", as we had learned I would in birth class. I needed to focus on getting through the contractions and had little time between to do anything else. Doug came in and out, checking on the contractions that I was timing, and continuing to collect things. I could tell he was getting anxious. I got out of the bath and got dressed, by now needing to stop very frequently to manage the contractions. It took me several contractions to get my clothes on. By this time the contractions were over a minute long and still 2 minutes apart. I stopped timing them. Doug left the room to call the midwife again (which I suspected meant that he was going to pressure her, which he knew would make me uncomfortable). He informed her that labor seemed to be progressing unusually quickly and we were on our way, expecting her to be there when we arrived (the birth center is not continuously staffed - the midwives drive in when needed). I moved downstairs, sat down to get through another contraction, and got into the car. My parents stayed home with the dogs. We got to the birth center around 11pm.

When we arrived, I was 6 cm dialated. I got in the tub again -- the water was very helpful for pain relief. They have an awesome bathtub that has now spoiled me for life, which is deep enough that you can actually be completely covered by water. I continued to put all my mental energy on handling the contractions, which were long, close together, and painful. I had just enough time to gulp down some water or apple juice in between (our birth class emphasized that it was important to stay hydrated in order to keep labor moving and avoid exhaustion). Doug observed me, and reminded me to relax when I was tensing up. He let me know when the midwife would need to do something (like check the baby's heartbeat with the doppler), so I could be prepared. Eventually, at 8 cm, Doug and the midwife encouraged me to move out of the tub, and we tried several other laboring positions. There werre about half a dozen time when I got breaks from the contractions for several minutes. These times were unpredictable, but welcome. About 2.5 hours after I arrived at the birth center, I was fully dialated and ready to push. Doug said afterward, "The dialation stage didn't look too bad, but I could see that pushing was hard". Not so. The active labor/transition part was very, very hard. Pushing was much easier. It was more physically demanding, but less painful and mentally much easier. This stage went on for about four hours, until Ian's birth was iminent. At this point, the midwife could see that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid, which had not been noticeable before (this is not unusual for postdate babies, but it can be a sign of a baby in distress, and it puts the baby at risk for a lung infection). She also said that the baby was wrapped in the umbilical cord and was trying to do a somersault to free itself and get out. I could see that Doug and the midwife were getting serious (Doug was helping deliver the baby), and they told me I needed to push without waiting for the next contraction. These last few minutes were tough, but soon the baby was out. Doug handed him to me and said "It's an Ian!" (Doug somehow had the presence of mind to look at the clock and notice it was 4:57 am - I would never have thought of this).

I had a great sense of relief at having him out. I was looking at his face and marvelled that he seemed mature, not red and scrawny like I expected from a newborn. The nurse was blowing oxygen on his face, trying to help him breathe. He was sputtering due to all the gunk in his lungs. We encouraged him to cry to help clear his lungs out. The midwife said that he was stunned due to being wrapped in the cord and having a somewhat traumatic entrance into the world. He also had an elevated temperature and pulse rate, due to me having a high temperature. His Apgar score at one minute was 5. He soon recovered from his trauma, though, and was looking and sounding much better. The midwife gave me Pitocin and Cytotec to stop me from bleeding. We got Ian wiped off and covered with a blanket and a hat. After a little while, we tried nursing, and eventually had some success. I called my grandmother and my parents, and had some OJ, yogurt, and chocolate graham crackers. Doug was exhausted, having been up and working all night without the benefit of the hormones I had to keep me going. After my parents arrived, he went out to bring in breakfast (ham, egg, and cheese biscuits).

Some of my close friends have asked me whether I regret choosing natural labor. Not at all. I do remember thinking during transition that I was never going to have another child, but I was never thinking that I wished I had drugs, or that I wished I was in the hospital. It was hard, but it was what we had prepared for, and what we wanted. The Bradley childbirth class we took (which Doug noted several times was much longer than most -- 12 weeks of 2 hour classes) , was indispensable. Without knowing what to expect and how to handle it, I think I would have been overwhelmed. Doug did a great job coaching me. Since we didn't have the long lead in to active labor we were expecting, I didn't need as much hands on coaching as we had anticipated (massage, walking, etc.), but he did exactly what I needed him to. This was also very important in making things successful. I am not convinced that natural labor is actually harder than medicated/induced labor, except mentally. If I had been induced in the hospital, I suspect that the positioning of the cord would have become a problem with the continuously monitored Pitocin-induced contractions. I probably would have ended up with a C-section, which would have been painful and hard to recover from. As it was, I was feeling pretty good 6 hours after Ian was born, when we headed home from the birth center. Overall, we were very happy with how Ian's birth went. We felt good that we had made the decision to give him more time to arrive naturally on his own, and that we hadn't induced him before he was ready. The birth center was great, and provided exactly the kind of environment we were hoping for. As my mother pointed out, it's ironic that in the birth center the environment is so pleasant that you wouldn't mind staying for a few days, while the hospital, where you do stay for a while, is much to invasive to be comfortable.

I think if I could have had Ian without going through pregnancy and labor, I would. On the other hand, it is cool to experience this part of biology first hand and I feel proud of myself for getting through it all successfully. Now if I can just survive this early stage of nursing . . .