Birth Story Part II : Birth Center

In the tub at the birth center.

 Birth Center – The Next 19 Hours

It’s 11:58pm on Wednesday July 4th. We’re on our way to the Birth Center. I’m really looking forward to being there because I think it will either give me confirmation of something, or comfort from my pain, or the extra support that I think we both need, or all of the above.

We arrive and midwife Emily greets us along with nurse Missy. Emily has this calm, no-nonsense but warm vibe. The first thing she does is check my cervix. As of my last midwife’s appointment, the Wednesday prior, I was 2 centimeters dilated. I lay back on the full size bed in the warm, dimly lit room. Surprise, surprise, I’m 9 centimeters dilated! What!? I shouldn't be that far along with my irregular contractions. My body is a mystery. We’re all very surprised. Even the midwife that we talked to on the phone was surprised at this news when Emily called her to tell her my status. At this we are happy and we think we’re gonna have a baby…and soon! She also says that my amniotic sack has broken – which I don’t even recall when that happened. I think there was just so much discharge that I couldn’t tell the difference between that and my water breaking. She also says, “He’s got a full head of hair.” How cool! Emily draws me a warm bath. Meanwhile Missy puts an IV in the inside of my right wrist to administer my first dose of Penicillin, which I will get every 4 hours until the baby is born to steer away the Beta Strep from wee Stanley. They also give me fluids to keep me hydrated.

Here I am standing and probably breathing thru a contraction. I've got penicillin (small bag) and fluids flowing into my IV

As soon as I plop in the tub I feel so much better. This bath is luxurious and big; 4 pregnant me’s could fit in there, or maybe just two, comfortably. I breathe through each contraction but feel like I can manage them better with the hot tub. Mike sets up the camera on the tripod to capture the birth of our baby. Emily cuts up a delicious nectarine and brings it to me; it is juicy and sweet. Unfortunately my contractions are still irregular: 10, 9, 12, 11, 9, 5, 8 minutes apart. Emily has me sit on an exercise ball in the shower and roll my hips on it (the hoochie coochie dance) as the shower head stays on my breasts to stimulate them. She is hoping that this will help dissolve the last bit of my cervix. It’s like the baby is putting a t-shirt over his head but the last bit of the t-shirt’s neck is still hanging on to the head. We need that shirt to “dissolve” - to pull over the head completely in order to make progress. It feels like we are in the shower for ages. Mike’s back is getting achy and he is tired. He doesn’t have the contractions to keep him alert and awake like I do. My contractions get closer, but are still irregular: 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 4, 9, 9, 6 minutes apart. They also feel constant – long – like they don’t go away – it’s hard to tell when they end yet I’m able to tell when they begin. At some point Emily checks my cervix and says that it’s just a hairline left. She tells me, if I remember correctly to try pushing on the next contraction. It’s kind of amazing. Pushing with a contraction almost makes the pain of it go away. I enjoy pushing. She tells me to try and go to the bathroom because a full bladder can sometimes hinder the opening of the cervix. I sit on the toilet, nothing. I turn off the bathroom light, nothing. Emily puts a few drops of peppermint oil in the toilet to help stimulate the urethra, nothing. I stand and squat, nothing. She brings me a cup of water with a straw and tells me to blow bubbles into it, nothing. I sit in the tub and try, nothing. They leave me alone in the room because I tell them I have performance anxiety, nothing. I do get a contraction or two while on the toilet and I try pushing while I’m there. Emily says that’s a good spot to push because I’m supposed to push as if I’m pooping. Anyhow, no pee. Lucky me gets a catheter. What an uncomfortable thing to have done. It feels like what you would imagine…something too big going up a hole where things only ever come out. The tissues of the urethra are pure and untouched, only ever to have warm fluids stream gently out of it. The catheter tube feels rough and scratchy on it’s way up but once it’s in it’s O.K. and urine comes out. My urine is dark, like a refreshing ale. I need to up my fluids.  Mike is there to hold my hand as I breathe through the catheter insertion. I get 2 more catheters while at the birth center because I am never able to pee on my own.  After the unleashing of the urine I try pushing more while sitting on the toilet. I face backwards and push. I face forwards and push. This is the beginning of my abdominal and rectal workout. They also try binding my belly to get his hands up and away from his head, we think this also might be keeping him up when we want him down. 8 AM rolls around and Emily and Missy’s shift is over. They both give me a hug and Emily says that she wishes she could be here to catch my baby. I hugged her back and said, “I will find you.” So that she could definitely meet our boy once he was on the other side of my stubborn cervix.  The next shift brings us midwife Allison and nurse Carrie. Allison is from New York. She reminds me of my mom’s cousin’s wife Debbie. She’s got the same New York accent. She’s probably in her 50s and has been catching babies for decades. One of the first things Carrie does is put a catheter in. Mike isn’t there, I think he went to get some coffee or food in the kitchen. So I squirm through this one on my own. Allison checks my cervix and says there’s still a centimeter left. We push a little but my contractions are still too far apart to really make any progress with pushing. She confidently and almost immediately recommends that we take a nap and rejuvenate ourselves. So, we do but it’s hard. When I lay down the contractions come on stronger. So every 5 or so minutes I have a contraction. In between I try and rest. It is impossible for Mike to get solid Zs through my contractions as well. But we try. Once the “napping” is done we continue pushing. We try the toilet positions again. We try on my back with a person on each of my legs and my own hands behind my thighs. We try laying on my side with one person holding up my top leg and me curling my back with my chin down. We try that on the other side as well. We try squatting while hanging onto a bar. We try squatting with Mike holding me from behind. We try the birthing stool which puts me in a squatting position but I have handles on the seat of the stool to pull up on. We try everything but standing on my head. Allison thinks that his head is occiput posterior, so basically I’m having the dreaded back labor. She tries to feel what way his head is facing but is having trouble. But his back is still facing the front side, so he’s all twisty up in there. Early evening is rolling around and Allison matter of factly sits at the foot of the bed and says to me that this is a situation – a situation where I am exhausted, so tired that my contractions are still not coming closer together, so tired that they are not coming on as strong as they should be, as well as my tissues being swollen – where an epidural would ease my pain and aid in my exhaustion and where pitocin would help bring my contractions closer together and stronger. I agreed. I’d been at home for 72 hours and at the Birth Center for 19 hours. It was against all I had written in my peaceful little birth plan:  no water birth, no playing with the baby in the bath afterwards yet I didn’t feel defeated. I felt a sense of relief and that the time was coming closer to when I’d get to meet this little guy. I had tried my hardest with the help of my birth partner, Mike, with two awesome midwives and two wonderful nurses but my cervix wasn’t budging. Baby was happy in there. Throughout all the contractions and pushing his heart rate stayed a healthy, happy 140-150 beats per minute. Allison made some calls to UNC Hospital while Mike packed up the car. He broke down the tripod and put it in the trunk and brought all of our food home (since it’s just down the road). By the time he came back for me Allison had set everything up for us at UNC and was going to drive there and meet us at the front door of the Women’s Hospital. As we drove there I had many more contractions. I was breathing them out now like they were easy as pie. It was strange being in the car, with the sun shining in on me after being captive in a dimly lit room for hours and hours. My hair sloppily pulled back and bangs pinned back with wisps of hair sticking out everywhere. Stopping at traffic lights and watching the people go on about their day, crossing the street, eating ice cream, laughing, talking while I sat in the passenger seat of our car breathing out contractions. It was bizarre. I was ready for the next part of my labor adventure and had a feeling I’d get to meet our little boy before the clock struck midnight.

Birth Story Part III – Hospital : Coming next!

Read Part I here
Read Part III here
Read Part IV here