I hope our story helps other VBACers to have courage and confidence in their
choice! There is mention of p**n in the following story.
Macy's Birth Story
Four years prior to Macy's birth, my first daughter was born. Hers was a
c-section after 36 hours of labor and nearly every medical intervention. She was
posterior and asynclytic. I knew that birth did not have to happen this way this
one did and that I could have a baby vaginally. I began researching VBAC's.
After I decided that I felt a VBAC was the option I wanted and felt most
comfortable with, I started to research birthing philosophies and techniques. I
settled on the Hypnobabies program as I felt that keeping myself calm and
confident, as well as trying to achieve better fetal positioning were the keys
to a vaginal delivery for me.
Hypnobabies focus is on positive thinking and the following story has terms
that the program uses with positive connotations instead of the typical terms
that the general public uses which may have negative influences. These include
waves (contractions), birthing day (labor) After wishing for a baby and just
starting infertility testing, we found ourselves pregnant in February 2007. We
were elated and I had an easy pregnancy without complications. At 36 weeks, my
doctor informed me that the hospital had been visited by the state university
and informed the VBAC policy was not current with standard
of care. The hospital would be meeting in the next month and she was concerned
the policy may change. If we could not VBAC at our local hospital we would have
to travel 2 hours to a larger city. This development left me very unsettled, but
we hoped that we would sneak in under the wire.
Starting at 37 weeks, I began having frequent regular Braxton hicks. This
continued, often more at night for 2 weeks and at my 39 week exam, the doctor
found that I was 3 cm dilated and 60% effaced. She recommended that we schedule
an
artificial rupture of membranes the following Monday so that the surgical team
would be in hospital. I was concerned this would lead to the cascade of
interventions that I was trying so hard to avoid, but after much discussion we
scheduled the induction. Over the weekend, I tried to calm my fears. I received
some sage advice from fellow Hypnobabies mothers that I release my control
issues. This made a huge difference for me and I realized that I had actually
been envisioning a hospital birth beginning early in the morning on a weekday. I
was getting just what I had been visualizing for myself.
So on October 29, 2007, after a weekend of mild pressure waves 5-10 minutes apart, we checked into the hospital at 6:30 am. The nurse placed a heplock and began external monitoring. The doctor arrived at 7 am and checked my cervix. I was 4 cm and 80% effaced. I was happy to hear that I had made progress over the weekend. She ruptured my membranes and found that the baby was face down. We walked the hallways while I listened to the birth day affirmations for a while and then I settled into a rocking chair and listened to easy first stage. I was very relaxed and comfortable all morning. At around 1 pm the waves were coming every 2 minutes and while I was concentrating more and repeating open and peace in my head, I was still very relaxed and comfortable. Then the doctor came to check my progress. If I had not, she was planning to start low dose pitocin. She found me to be at 4.5 cm and 100% and she tried to manually stretch my cervix some. This is when I lost focus on Hypnobabies.
The doctor asked me to walk the halls again. We tried, but my legs felt as
though they were going to buckle under me and I knew my husband couldn't support
my full weight, so I went back to the rocking chair. This only lasted about
10-15 minutes and then I got a major hot flash and needed to get up and take off
some clothes. I now know I must have been entering transition. I really wanted
to squat, but couldn't figure out how I would do it in the hospital room. I
tried squatting
against a wall and supporting myself with a stool. My legs started to shake and
I told husband to get the nurse to check me. If I wasn't close, I wanted and
epidural. She came into the room and exclaimed, "what is going on here?" as she
found me in such a strange position. She did an internal exam at 2:30 pm and
found I was 6.5 cm. To me at the time, this seemed like a long ways to complete
and I told her to get the anesthetist. Then they told me they needed to get 1 L
of fluids into me, as my blood pressures were low.
So while I waited I tried the birth ball, all fours on the bed, and belly
lifts, but I still wanted to squat and ended up with the end of the bed down a
ways and hanging my upper body over my legs while my bottom was barely supported
on the edge of the bed. During this time my husband put his hands on my
shoulders. This helped, but we had not practiced the relax or release cue much
and so I think I did not get the full benefit. I would say I was in a fair
amount of pain at this point, unfortunately. I tried to focus myself by
repeating peace, open, and finally what worked best was singing the words to
Lullaby by the Dixie Chicks in my head (thinking about meeting the baby soon).
The anesthetist came at about 4 pm and placed the epidural. It took completely
on my right side but I had a window low on my left side and back. At 4:45 pm my
doctor was back and I was completely dilated and effaced. She encouraged me to
try pushing a few times to see what
happened, but explained if we needed, we could turn off the epidural and wait
for the urge to push.
It felt better to push, than not so I continued to push for about an hour. At
this point the baby's heart began to slow with each wave. I asked to be placed
on my left side and the baby's heart rate came back to normal. I concentrated
thru waves for about ½ hour at this point. I was scared because this is where I
was stuck with my first birth, but then I told myself that I
needed to be mentally tough and that this baby was coming out vaginally. I
remembered that it may help relax my birth canal if I released the tension in my
mouth, so I began to moan in a low tone. My doctor at this point explained that
it was 6 pm and the surgical team had gone home and they had called in the on
call team. She readied the vacuum extractor and had me turn on my back again to
push. I asked that the back of the bed be elevated more and as soon as I began
to push the baby started to move past my pubic bone! She then slid right out.
They placed her on my abdomen and while the team cheered, my husband and I cried
in relief. Macy did not cry immediately like many babies you see on TV shows.
She just laid on my
abdomen staring at us as if to say "There you are mom and dad, I'm so happy to
see you."
While Macy's birth was not "pain" free, she was born VBAC and healthy which
was my ultimate goal. I do credit Hypnobabies for keeping me relaxed during my
pregnancy and getting me to transition completely comfortably. I am also
thankful for the spinning babies website for helping me get her into good
birthing position. Macy is so content and nurses so well. We are just head over
heals for her.
Sophia
1st dd c-section 12/03
2nd dd VBAC 10/07