Gianna

Gianna's Birth

I wasn't able to use hypnosis for the beautiful pain free birth I visualized but the HypnoBirthing and Hypnobabies techniques got me through a very long and intense labor. In fact, my midwife kept commenting that I was "too nice" throughout most of my labor! The HypnoBirthing and Hypnobabies philosphies really kept me in control the entire time.

My second daughter, Gianna Lucia was born on Tuesday November, 20, 2007 by
VBAC. She was 7 lbs 9oz and 20.5 inches long with a 13 cm head. I had 6
days of prodromal labor, including 41 hours of continuous contractions (10
minutes apart or less) before she arrived. With the help of my awesome
support team (Midwife Pam, Student Midwife Heather, Doula Sarah, and DH
Anthony), I did the whole thing without drugs, in a hospital. For the
record, I have a single layer vicryl suture.

Before I tell her story, let me back up and just briefly explain the birth
of my first daughter, Elizabeth on September 9, 2004. Elizabeth came 10
days and the midwives I was using at the time kept threatening an induction
by 14 days past edd. I showed up at the hospital with contractions 3 minutes
apart but only 2.5cm dilated at 4am. Over the next 10 hours, I had every
intervention in the book to help things along – manual dilation of my cervix
(ouch!), AROM, stadol, an epidural, and, finally, a c-section at 2pm. The
ob who did my c-section told me I had a "5% chance of a vaginal delivery." The
next day, my midwife explained that my pelvis was an oval shape and I had a
thick sacrum so there was no way I'd ever vaginally birth a baby over 6 or
6.5lbs (my dd was nearly 8.5 lbs).

For Gianna's birth, I found a new practice of 2 midwives that primarily do
homebirths but also have hospital privileges. There is a law in NJ which
prohibits licensed individuals from attending HBACs. I knew I needed my
energy to focus on a successful vbac rather than fighting the system and
going underground for a midwife. They were completely on board with vbac
and very supportive the whole time. I had to make 2 concessions though to
keep their back up doctor happy: CFM through the use of wireless telemetry
and a hep-lock.

The birth of Gianna really starts on Tuesday November 13th. I began losing
my mucous plug and then having pink show. I went to bed only to wake up
feeling contractions about 10 minutes apart around 2am. I was so surprised
since my due date wasn't until November 25th. Could this baby possible be
coming early? After about 5 hours, the contractions petered out. They
started up again during the day and eventually petered out again. This
pattern kept up for the next 6 days. Several weeks earlier, I had taken a
Hypnobirthing class and then ordered the Hypnobabies homestudy course so I
did a lot of hypnosis to keep me calm and get me through the on and off
again labor.

On Monday morning November 19, I began having contractions again at 2am. They
were getting more frequent and painful, coupled with the fact that I hadn't
been sleeping well for days. Around 7am that morning, I finally lost it
sobbing hysterically that this baby was not coming. I was also worried
about how much my uterus could handle, especially being a vbac. Even though
I was downstairs on the sofa, my sobbing woke up my husband who came down to
comfort me.

Contractions kept up all day. I took a benedryl at one point to sleep which
helped although I don't think I really fell asleep. Around 6pm the
contractions seemed to be coming at a more steady pattern of every 4-6
minutes. My mom called at 9pm and I told her what was going on. She
decided she better come up to watch my dd and suggested that I call my
doula. Since I had been in this on and off again pattern for days, I really
hesitated to call Sarah in case it was a false alarm but I did. I guess I
sounded like I was really in labor because she came over within an hour. At
that point, the contractions were stopping me in my tracks and I would have
to hold on to something or drop to the floor to deal with them.

I called the midwife to give her a heads up but I wasn't ready to leave for
the hospital yet. I labored at home for a couple more hours until midnight
when Sarah suggested that I might want to think about getting to the
hospital. I called Pam back and we headed down. The hospital was an hour
away so I put on hypnosis CDs so that I would live through the ride. Luckily,
at that time of night, it was a smooth ride. We got there, parked and went
into the emergency room entrance. I walked up to the L&D floor where it was
pretty quiet. Surprisingly, no one tried to force me into a wheel chair
which pleased me. Our nurse, Tasha, showed us to the L&D room. I got
settled in and Pam showed up. Tasha gave me a little tube top thingy to put
around my waist so that they could insert the telemetry monitors in
there. They bugged me a little bit since it poked on my abdomen a little but overall,
not a big deal. Then she inserted a hep-lock into my wrist which bugged the
crap out of me. The place where she put it (just below my thumb) made it
darn near impossible to move my hand much so holding onto anything caused me
pain. Pam did an internal and declared me 4cm but she could easily stretch
me to about 5-6cm. I felt pretty good about that since my last labor had
stopped around 4-5cm. This time, I was starting out there. I figured it
couldn't be too long!

I decided to do a bunch of laps around the L&D floor to get things moving.
Anthony and I walked and walked and walked. I was a little disturbed to see
2 cytotec inductions along with a cervadil induction and 1 other natural
labor (but I digress….). Contractions were intense for hours but it didn't
seem like it was going anywhere. Pam told me that I was being too nice and
too calm. When I got near the end, she assured me things would change. She
didn't want me getting into the laboring tub until things had picked up a
little more. So it was back to doing laps, yoga, OFP and anything else I
could think of to make labor progress.

Around 7am, Pam asked to check me again. I was only 5-6cm at that point. Pam
also finally called in her student midwife, Heather, who had been at a birth
the night before with her. Pam wanted to allow her some time to sleep
before getting her in.

We decided to try some nipple stimulation in the shower at that point.
Anthony was given that task. It worked and my contractions got closer
together making it tougher to get through them. After the shower, I began
laboring in the room again. Anthony put on the Bare Naked Ladies Holiday
Album to lighten the mood as a I labored. Sarah entertained me during the
Hanukkah Song by dancing the Horah (as the lyrics went). For some reason, I
found that hilarious and couldn't stop laughing. I began dealing with the
contractions by collapsing in Anthony's arms and allowing him to hold
me. After each contraction, he would sing to me in his best Barry White voice. I
honestly thought I could have laughed the baby right out at that point.

I tried doing a hypnobabies script which got me deeply relaxed on the
bed. Unfortunately, it made my contractions spread out again. A couple hours later, I got into
the tub. Although I liked being the tub, the room was a bit cold and the
tub was a little big to allow me to get into a comfortable position for more
than about an hour. My contractions again spread apart to 5-6 minutes by
just being the tub so I knew I wouldn't be doing that again.

We did nipple stimulation again and my contractions got closer
together. However, around 2pm, my cervix still hadn't made much change. We had to talk about
what else to do. Pam was worried about how tired I was getting at that
point. I couldn't find a comfortable position to deal with contractions in.
Every time one would come on, I would kneel on pillows and lean on the bed
or on the birthing ball. I tried eating and sipping Powerade to keep me
energized but it was really getting tough at that point. I'd been up all
night and most of the night before.

Pam decided that we needed to talk about our options. At that point, she
felt that breaking my water was the best and least invasive thing to do to
make my contractions stronger and closer. As much as I didn't want an AROM,
I knew we needed to do something because I wasn't going to be able to go on
forever.

Breaking my water definitely made the contractions harder and closer. I
started going more inward trying to deal with the contractions. I tried
listening to hypnosis again just to rest. I started off well but things
were getting more and more intense. Sarah would stand behind me rubbing my
back reminding me to go to my special place (a hypnosis technique) and to
remember that each contraction was "just a wave…. just a wave." Heather
massaged my back while I rock on the birthing ball and leaned against the
bed. I kept telling myself "Relax..... peace...." which are also
hypnosis cues. Several times I asked Sarah if I was in transition. She
always told me that she didn't know and maybe I was. I had always heard
that transition was the worst time and I just needed to get through that. The
not-knowing was killing me but I went on.

Around 3, Pam suggested putting the squatting bar on the bed so that I could
get into a squat during each contraction and allow the baby to move down
further. When I got tired out from the squat bar (which got uncomfortable
after a while since I needed to use my arms to support my whole body), I got
on all fours and used the back of the bed. In between contractions, I
leaned with my head on the top of the bed (which was moved into a chair
conformation). When the wave of contractions came on, I held on to the top
of the bed and allowed by body to grow heavy. I did this for a good hour
or hour and a half. I did feel some muscles in my abdomen began pushing
somewhat but I didn't have a strong urge to push. Finally, Pam checked me
again. I was only 8cm and about 75% effaced. I still had quite a cervical
lip that I needed to get rid of. So I kept trying to push with the squats
(Heather and Anthony braced me in squats by holding onto my hands and
pulling me up) and then by holding on to rings on either side of the
bed. While I did this, Pam and Heather began pushing my cervix out of the way and
around my baby's head. I was getting really loud at that point to deal with
everything but no one seemed to mind. I remember Pam's back up doctor
wandering into the room smiling broadly as if he didn't notice the moaning
woman on the bed.

Finally, at 5:30, Pam told me that I was going to be pushing for real. It
took a couple tries for me to get the hang of what to do but my body really
took over. It was funny because as soon as I engaged certain muscles in my
abdomen, they would all cheer and tell me to push like that. I started
imaging that those muscles were on tracks and I just needed to engage them
and get them going. I also remembering getting a little scared because I
felt like I was pushing so hard and after all this time, I was worried about
how much my uterus could handle. I know that I was getting really loud but
Anthony coached my "vocals." Instead of getting loud and shrill, they
wanted me to keep it low and guttural. I've never felt so primal in my
entire life. My body honestly did know how to push. I pushed through each
contraction as many times as I needed too. Pam and Heather and Debbie
followed my birth plan by allowing me to push as my body told me to rather
than trying to coach me with the "Push, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6…"

I wound up doing most of my pushing in the reclined position. This allowed
me to hold on to the rings on the side of the bed while pushing and allowing
Pam and Heather to get in there and stretch my cervix and perineum. They
propped a mirror up so that I could see. They kept telling me that the baby
had a lot of hair. I still had that little fear in the back of my mind that
maybe I got this far but wouldn't be able to push her out. However, Heather
smiled at one point and told me that I had a pelvis made for birthing. I
was so surprised. She and Pam went on about how roomy my pelvis was and how
they could move their hands all the way around. For a split second, I
wasn't in labor anymore. I was digesting this new information that was in
direct conflict with what my old midwife told me. Unfortunately, my
contractions started spacing out again. Pam finally told me that it might
be time to discuss some options. I momentarily feared the dreaded "c" word
but she quickly said she might have to suggest the "p" word. With
everything going on, I couldn't figure out what the "p" word was. Pitocin.
If my contractions didn't get closer together, she wanted to try a little
pitocin to get the baby out. Sarah and Heather knew how much I didn't want
pitocin so Anthony went back to doing nipple stimulation. I'm surprised he
didn't have a hand cramp at that point!

Gianna's head finally began appearing in the mirror. I finally realized that
this was for real and it was going to happen. They told me to reach down
and feel how she was right there. I would keep pushing though and she'd
start to move out but then she would sink back in after each
contraction. Finally, her head began popping out. I remember thinking, "Okay, this is that ring
of fire. If I can just push past this, it will be all over." A couple
intense pushes later and I felt her head coming out. It stayed there and I
began to get her whole head pushed out. Heather and Pam guided my pushing
to prevent me from pushing too hard against my perineum. My body seemed to
follow right along with their guidance and then her whole body come out. Then
they started yelling, "Reach down! Grab your baby! Grab your baby!" So I
did. I pulled her up to my chest and they immediately covered her with a
blanket.

I was in such shock after that. I practically shouted, "I did it!!! I did
it! I'm not broken." I finally realized that I needed to announce the sex.
I reached down, lifted up the blanket and screamed, "We have a girl!" I had
to check 2 more times since it was such a thrill to actually be able to
check (and because the entire world thought I was having a boy!) After
that, I professed my undying love to Pam, Heather, Sarah, my nurse Debbie
(who was still there beyond her shift) and, of course, my husband. At that
point, the whole room was on a huge high. Later, we laughed about my love
fest and how great it was that we didn't resort to pit so that my natural
hormones soared right after the birth.

Gianna cried on her own just enough to let us know that she was perfect and
healthy. They never took her away from me. I gently scooted her over to my
breast and she latched right on in a perfect latch. Sarah, a LLL leader,
was completely amazed. You hear about babies moving toward the breast and
latching right on without help but it was really something to see. Heather
and Pam told me to give a little push to get the placenta out. "It
feels like pushing a marshmallow out. " said Pam. She was right - it was an
odd feeling though! A little later on, Heather brought the placenta over so
that we could do a placenta appreciation. Since I never saw my first
daughter's placenta, I thought this was really cool. Heather actually
lifted up the placenta by the bag and showed me how tough it was (which
probably explains why it didn't want to break easily).

The post partum wing was filled that night so we stayed in the LDR room. They
moved us the next morning and one of the best sights to see was that bag of
pitocin, still hanging from an IV pole… untouched.

I spent 3 years being angry that my first ob told me I had a 5% chance of a
vaginal delivery and making me feel broken. I realize, though, that he was
right. I probably had a 5% chance of a vaginal delivery with this baby
also. But that 5% didn't have anything to do with my body's ability to
birth. Rather, it was a 5% chance of having birth attendants that were
patient enough, skilled enough and experienced enough to work through my
labor and allow my baby to be born in a beautiful and gentle manner.

A special thanks to all the women if ICAN for all their support, stories,
advice, etc!!! You all helped give me the strength and courage I needed in
order to know that I could do this.

Dana
ICAN of Somerset
www.icansomerset.com