Birth Story II

After I learned about Cholestasis, that Friday morning I called my midwife group and left a message with their nurse.  About an hour later they called me back and told me to come into their office immediately.

They did a series of tests and told me that the test results won’t be back until the following week and explained how serious Cholestasis can be for the baby and me.  I was prescribed medication and was told that if I didn’t go into labor naturally over that weekend then on Monday we would have a serious discussion about inducing labor.  At that point, I let one of the midwives strip my membranes because I did not want to be induced with Pitocin. 

From the literature I read on childbirth, I learned that Pitocin (which induces labor and makes the labor harder), epidurals (which helps with the pain but can increases the length of the labor) and other interventions in childbirth could be very hard on the mother’s body and on the baby.  For example, the harder the labor and the longer the labor, there is a greater chance of an increase or decrease in the baby’s heart rate during labor, which, in each case, most-likely leads to a greater chance that the mother will have to undergo a C-section.  Many friends and family members were forced to undergo a C-section because of some type of medical intervention, so I dedicated that weekend to doing what I could in order to get the baby out naturally.   

Fast Forward to Monday morning…  I was very disappointed to wake up once again not in labor.  I had done every old wives tale trick to naturally get this labor going and nothing!  At the midwife appointment, they did another series of tests to make sure the baby was still doing well and to see if my liver was still releasing bile into my body The test showed that my baby was doing well but my liver was still releasing bile. With this news, my midwife highly recommended the induction.  Since the tests they took that day showed that the baby was still in good shape, I asked for one more night to mentally prepare, the midwife agreed.  

The next part of this story is really a bit of blur… to help me organize it I wrote it in a timeline, so if some details seem to be missing its because I really just don’t remember them.

May 15, 2012

9:00 P.M.:  My husband and I arrived at the hospital waiting room

10:00-11:00 P.M.:  I am admitted to the hospital and given a room so I could start my slow induction. Cervidil will be in inserted tonight and if I don’t go into labor they would give me Pitocin in the morning.  We are bought to our room and a midwife meets us there and reassures us that we are making the best decision for our child and takes the time to answer any last minute questions.  I change into my nightgown.  The midwife examines me and I am 1cm dilated and 60% effaced. The Cervidil is inserted and I am given a sleeping aid.  Monitors are placed on me for a couple of hours to monitor the baby.  The monitors are very irritating because they move as I move and sometimes they slip into a position where it was not able to monitor the baby and the nurse would have to wake me up to reposition it.  This made it very difficult for me to get any rest.

2:00 A.M.  The monitor is removed and I could finally sleep.

2:30 A.M. Contractions start and I can no loner sleep. I am so pissed! MT has to lie in the bed next to me in order to message my lower back as each contraction hits.  He’s such a sweetie, but this means both of us aren’t getting the good night sleep we are supposed to get.

8:00 A.M.  I go to the bathroom and the Cervidil falls out.  My nurse is not concerned because the Cervidil had been in place for the recommended amount of time.

9:00 A.M.  Midwife comes in and checks my progress.  I am now 2 cm dilated and 75% effaced.  I was hoping to be further along, so that they wouldn’t have to give me the Pitocin, but with these results Pitocin was the next step.  My midwife told me that I could order breakfast and walk around and that my Pitocin drip will start at 11 A.M.