Birth Stories

[Anonymous]

Okay, I think we need to start a birth stories thread . I’ll start.

I have 3 kids, but I’ll just tell Parker’s story because the other two were pretty uneventful. Sorry, I know this is going to be long.

My pregnancy with Parker went perfectly until the last month or two when I ended up having premature labor twice. The first time it stopped itself after about an hour, but he second time I had to go to the hospital and ended up on a medicine that stopped the contractions. Suprisingly enough I didn’t go into labor until 39 weeks. I had just had a doc. appt. like two days before and everything looked good. The head was down, the baby had dropped. I woke up at about 3:15 in the morning and I felt a weird pain in my back. It took me a minute to realize that it was a contraction. I woke up my husband and we started getting ready to go to the hospital (our doctor could only deliver at a specific hospital which was about 30 min. away). The contractions were regular, but not terribly close together and my water hadden broken yet, so I wasn’t in to much of a hurry. The contractions started getting closer pretty quickly, so we loaded up the car while I was standing in the driveway my water broke at about 4:30 with a very audible “pop” and a big gush on the driveway. That’s when the contractions really started slamming me. I called for my husband, and he ran out and we started driving to the hospital. The contractions started coming one after the other with no break in between. This was totally different from my first birth! Suddenly I felt something pushing out!!! I didn’t really believe it but I told my husband that It felt like the baby was coming. He pulled over, and we looked. There was a FOOT sticking out!!! He was comin alright, and he was footling breech. Scared the crap out of us. We called Josh’s sister, who is a doula (birthing coach) and she told me to lay on my chest and get to the nearest hospital FAST! Luckily, there was another hospital about 5 minutes away, so my husband sped off to that one. Meanwhile, I laid the car seat down all the way and laid on my chest the best I could in the car. The baby kept coming out. I held my hand under him as we drove. By the time we pulled up to the ER doors, he was born up to his armpits. Josh ran into the ER and came back out with a doctor and team of nurses. The doc said to stay where I was on my hands & knees and he delivered Parker first one arm, then the other, then his head. They got him breathing then put me on a gurney and rushed us into the ER. Amazingly he and I were both perfectly fine and unharmed. He was born at around 4:45am. I was only in labor for less than 2 hrs.
It was such a miracle really. We later found out that footling breech babies are RARELY born vaginally & usually require a C-section. When they are born vaginally they almost always break the collar bone or something else getting them out – and many die. We were really shocked that he came this way because our doc had just felt his head like 2 days before. They said because he wasn’t shaped like a breech baby, he must have just turned himself around shortly before he was born. We were just so blessed that he was okay.

Bryce’sMom2006-9-17 17:47:55

[Anonymous]

OMG Heather!!!! I can’t believe that story! AMAZING! I think my husband would have passed out if he took a look “down there” and saw a foot dangling out!!!!! Your husband is quite the trooper! (as are you for doing it naturally… in the CAR!).

Funny about your doc telling you that he felt the head down, because we had the same thing with Sarah. Our doc kept telling me that she was head down, but I didn’t know how she could be because I literally kept feeling (and seeing) an arm and fist punch me near my ribcage. I kept telling him, but he kept saying no. Then at about 37 weeks I didn’t feel her moving for quite a while one day, and the doc decided to do an ultrasound. They saw that she was breech, bum down with her hands up exactly where I felt it punching me! I kept doing all kinds of crazy things to get her to turn- tried to lie upside down, smell these herbal remedies, shine light and play music where her head should be- since I didn’t want the inversion done and I didn’t want a c-section, but they said that it was really hard for them to turn at that point. Luckily at around 38 weeks she did turn on her own- it was the most horrific thing I’ve ever felt.

You’re my new hero! Thanks for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Lori,
Isn’t it crazy how they can move around like that? Supposedly my sis-in-law (the doula) is an expert at turning babies, so I told her when I was pregnant with Bryce to be ready! Luckily he stayed head down.
I’m glad Sarah was able to turn back around so you didn’t have to do the c-section. I’ve always had my babies naturally, so I wouldn’t have wanted a c-section either –but the car thing was a little extreme.

Ok, everyone! You’ve got to tell your birth stories too! Don’t worry; obviously most aren’t going to be as crazy as this one… But any birth stories are fun to hear (or read)! I think so anyway.

[Anonymous]

heather—my second baby was footling breech—but my delivery didn’t go as well as yours. my water broke on the delivery table which was fortunate because she had a prolapsed cord. her legs, body and one arm came out no problem, but then her other elbow got stuck on my pubic bone so her head and arm were jammed in the birth canal with her cord pressed off. they were telling me to push and they were pushing on my stomach to try and get her out. finally the doc reached his hand inside,(along side the arm and head) to free her elbow. i think that is one of the most painful things i have ever experienced in my life. they had to bag breath her and told me her arm wasn’t working like it should. she was taken by ambulance the next day to a hospital out of town to the NICU. she had various tests done. finally when i took her home they told me there was a chance she could have cerebral palsy. she has been in the gifted and talented program and been a star athlete.

my first delivery was uneventful. my 3rd delivery i had to have an emergency c-section. because of a multi-car pile-up on the freeway, there was no one to do anesthesia, so they did my c-section without anesthesia. they got the cut numbed with locals, but i felt everything once they got inside. there was muconium and the cord was short and wrapped wround his neck twice. they packed me and left me until they could get someone to come do anesthesia. i lost alot of blood.

my twins were next, preterm labor at 34 weeks, stopped (spent a week in the hospital), but delivered at 36 weeks by c-section because one of them had quit growing.

5th was a very successful v-bac. the cord was around molly’s neck, but it wasn’t an issue.

6th was another v-bac with a period of very low heart rate for the baby which made the doc think he might have to section me—but all was well.

7th, was a difficult delivery, another v-bac—-baby just would not come. the doc finally took her with forcepts and i broke my tailbone.

we had planned another v-bac with sylvia. i was to be induced. we could see she was in trouble before the induction was even started. off to another emergency c-section. there was muconium and the cord was wrapped around her neck 3 times. she had to be resuscitated (SP?) and my uterus tore after she was born. i think that labor could have killed us both. the doc told me she could have been dead the next day. i’m sure glad my obgyn planned an early induction!!!

[Anonymous]

Wow Christine. It sounds like you’ve had some adventures in child-birthing yourself!! Your the first I’ve met that’s had a footling breech baby too. It’s probably not as uncommon as I’ve been told. Sure is scary though.

[Anonymous]

With both girls, I had placenta previa. With Kaelyn, the placenta had moved enough by the end that they thought I could deliver regularly. My water broke at 39 weeks, but I never actually went into labor. They tried pitocin and a variety of other things, but she never dropped. So, 26 hours after my water broke, they did a C section.

With Alex, we were hoping to do a VBAC, but with her the placenta never moved. At 33 weeks, I started spotting, so they put me on bedrest. At 36 weeks, I started bleeding heavily, so they admitted me to the hospital, spent 12 hours debating whether or not they should do a C-section immediately or try to give her a few days to grow some more. They ended up doing a C-section which was a good decision because when they got inside they discovered that my placenta had detached, so Alex wouldn’t have survived if they’d waited much longer.

[Anonymous]

OMG Christine, I’m shaking at hearing the stories of your babies deliveries!!! (In fact, I hope this doesn’t offend you, but I’m amazed that you were brave enough to go through it so many times after the footling breech experience!)

With Sarah I had a totally uneventful pregnancy and was induced 2 days after my due date b/c I was so big. Once we got into the hospital things started going wrong- they couldn’t get a steady heartrate even with an internal monitor, and when they broke my water nothing came out. They figured that it must have broken sometime already and I didn’t know (?huh) which is apparently dangerous for the baby. I got an epidural at 9cm because I couldn’t take it, and progressed really quickly and only pushed for 20 minutes. But Sarah couldn’t handle it and her heartrate dropped so suddenly and so much that they called an emergency stat call- suddenly alarms were going off and I had 15 people around my bed-and suctioned her right out. She was small (6 pounds even) but beautiful!

With Hailey it was the neverending labour. Went into early labour on Saturday (3 days after her due date). Went down to the hospital with regular cramping that didn’t hurt. They sent me back home saying that I was only 1cm or so and to come back when I couldn’t talk or the next day if it was still happening. The next day, I wasn’t much further along, and they said to come back on Monday if it was still going on. Monday I started to have more steady cramping, but decided to stay at home and run errands since I was booked for induction the next day anyhow. That night I went into fierce labour, but dh tried to convince me to stay at home for a few more hours so that we could drop Sarah off at daycare. In the end I couldn’t hold out the contractions were so bad and we went down on Tuesday morning. When she hooked me up and saw the pattern, she expected me to be ready to push, but I was only 3 centimeters. I got an epidural, but never progressed. Finally they were going to induce but catheterized me first to drain my bladder. She couldn’t believe how much urine was in there, and said that the baby must have been impinging the flow. As soon as that was done, my epidural suddenly stopped working. She checked me, I was over 8 cm, and then less than 5 minutes later I was ready to push. It turns out that my bladder wasn’t draining and as it got more full, it blocked her from being able to drop properly, which is why I wasn’t dilating. From that point, it happened so fast that no one was there and they made me lay on my side and held my legs together so she wouldn’t come out- they said she was crowned already. But then the epidural top-up kicked in and I couldn’t feel how to push. She was sort of stuck there and her heart rate started to drop, the doc panicked and suctioned her out. It was so fast I didn’t even know what had happened- 20 minutes before I wasn’t even halfway there.

We videotaped both the births (gross, I know, but I always wanted to see it), and I’m always so amazed by the whole thing. (Though I don’t know if I’d be saying that if I went through some of things that you guys have written about).

You’re a brave group of women!!

s&h’s mum2006-9-18 9:51:14

[Anonymous]

Wow, Heather, what an amazing story to be able to tell Parker one day! I would have totally freaked- you were so brave!

Enjoyed all the stories, BTW, keep them coming! They are all so unique and everyone is so courageous!

For me, I had a very uneventful pregnancy up until week 34. I went in for a normal ob checkup and thought I was fine, I had noticed some swelling in my feet but I thought that was because I was on them all weekend shopping for baby furniture. Anyway, I got there and they took my blood pressure and it was through the roof. They immediately sent me over the hospital and told me they would have to deliver if it did not stabilize. I was a nervous wreck (the dr. actually offered to drive me over since he was going to meet me there but it was only a couple of blocks away so I drove myself). Also, on top of everything else, the ladies’ group at my church had decided to forgo their annual Christmas party in lieu of a baby shower for me that was that evening! So, after frantically calling Dh, I also had to call the host of it and tell her that I was not going to make it to the party!

Thankfully, my blood pressure came down that night and stress tests revealed the baby was fine so they released me but I was put on moderate bed rest. Official diagnosis: preeclampsia. The dr. warned me we would have to take it day to day from there but it was his goal to get me to 37 weeks and then induce.

So, I went home and then went back to the dr. every other day to be monitored and to get a stress test on the baby. True to his word, on the exact 37 week mark, I went in to be monitored and my blood pressure was high again so my doc said “that’s it, we are done, you’re going to have this baby”. This was December 23rd and my dr. was leaving to go out of town for Christmas so he told me to go on to the hospital but he would not be here to deliver. I was so bummed.

I called Dh who was on his way to work and went to the hospital alone and checked in. They induced labor around 10:30 that morning but it did not work. Because of my blood pressure, I had to lay in bed the whole time (so much for all of those prenatal classes!), and could not have any food (I was not a happy camper) and finally the dr. who was filling in for mine (whom I had never even met) came by and broke my water around 11:00 pm to get things going. I finally started to have some contractions, got an epidural somewhere inbetween and Seth was born the next morning at 5:23 AM.

Ironically, the delivery turned out to be the easy part even though it went nothing like plan. After delivery, I had severe bleeding and was passing huge clots (they think all of the placenta was not removed) so I had to get a shot for that to stop the bleeding and then my bladder was not draining so I had to be cathed twice for that too (hurt like he**, worse than delivery!).

But, in the end, it was all worth it. We got to bring our beautiful boy home on Christmas day, the best present ever!!!!

Oh, just wanted to mention that every time I had the stress test on Seth, they told me he had the hiccups! I always wondered if this was a warning of what was to come with the reflux..

Mom2Seth2006-9-18 11:40:33

[Anonymous]

Tiffany, both of my girls were delivered by doctors I’d never met.

[Anonymous]

Kim, sorry your doc wasn’t there either for your deliveries. The fill in turned out fine though. We actually found out later that he delivered my oldest nephew too! I just love my doc though- we had trouble getting pregnant and he saw us through all of that so I wanted him there for the grand finale so to speak.

[hellbennt]

I’ll come back & add ari’s later

here’s jonah’s:

here’s jonah’s birth story- 5th one down (in purple, of course): https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2211&a mp;a mp;KW=broom+closet&PN=0&TPN=2

[Anonymous]

Wow, those are amazing stories! I know that many of us have had traumatic births and have struggled through the first year or two. Ryann was my second birth with the first being uneventful six years prior. The events that led up to her birth, I don’t think I will ever get out of my mind. So maybe talking about it will help.

I was teaching school at the time, and trying to be very consistent with my workouts. I walked 1 mile a day, did prenatal yoga, and wanted to try swimming to take the pressure off of my belly. AT around 6 months prego, I got in the health clubs pool and slipped. I landed hard and broke my tail bone. The pool was covered in this thick slime. The manager said, “I guess nobody wanted to clean the pool.” He was so rude! Anyways… I had problems with the pain for months, I wasn’t exercising and I ended up having to pass kidney stones. At 35 weeks I was in the post office waiting in line,when I felt a huge gush of water. When I looked down I was standing in a puddle of blood! I ran out of there and drove myself to the hospital with two 6 year olds in tow. My daughters friend was freaking out. She called her mom and told her that Miss Sarah’s “water-tubes” broke. I was in labor and delivered vaginally. When the placenta came out, there was a huge blood clot and tear. We were so blessed that I didn’t go into labor at 6 months when I fell!

The baby appeared healthy. The first night in the hospital I thought it was strange that she only slept on me when I held her upright. Everytime I put her down she screamed bloody murder. So she was struggling with the reflux since day 1. With eveything that has happened in her life, its no wonder why Ryann is so high strung and irritable. She is starting to calm down and bit now that the reflux is getting better. I still wish I didn’t go swimming that day!

[Anonymous]

OMG Sarah! That’s scary. I used to be afraid of my water breaking in public… I can imagine how much worse it is when it’s blood. (My water never broke on it’s on for either.)

[Anonymous]

WOW – amazing stories!!

I had an uneventful pregnancy – I worked all the way through, never was sick, all my checkups were jsut fine and i did not feel too tired – i was working 7 days a week and mostly until 2 or 3am and i was feeling just great!! People in the office were joking i was going to deliver Matthew in the office!! I was 37 weeks and i decided i was gonig to take it easy and not work anymore. Dave adn I spent that weekend running errands and on Sunday i was feeling so weird. I got up in the morning and had a strange feeling that that was it…. had the same feeling all day and i told Dave we had to finish building the crib etc that day (he thought i was just hormonal). So we finished everything by 9pm and went to bed and i told Dave there was sommething going on. he said i was just tired and he fell asleep. I woke him up at 10pma dn told him i thought we should go to the hospital because something was going on. we talked about it and since i was fine presumably he went back to sleep…. i lay in bed and kept waking him up. At midnight, i woke him up AGAIN and he told me to relax… all of the sudden, i felt it…my water broke on the bed. We called the OBGYN and by the time she called back i was having contractions every 4 minutes, really long ones. So we took a shower and went to the hospital. I spent all night having contractions but no dilation. So at 7am my OB requested the epidural – she did not like the fluid loss and also i had really really long contractions and nothing was happening so they would start me on pitocin.

2 hours after they started, all of the sudden, baby’s heartrate just would not recover after the contraction and the alarm button was pushed… i had 10 people telling me to get on my 4s, they injected some anti-contraction meds and also something to get the baby’s heartrate going. Everything went back to normal and they told me that the baby was OK and they were going to start the pitocin again. I was fine with it. When 2 hours later we had teh same episode, i was freaking out. I could not stop crying and i could not stop feeling that the baby would not be OK and i was a mess. My OB told me the cord was wrapped somewhere and sometimes it is OK, so we tried again. We started really slow and by 8pm i was not dilated at all, and the OB was worried and she said it is time to talk about a Csection. I signed the papers (i felt awful at the time) and within 5minutes i was in the OR. Matthew was born at 8.24pm adn he was healthy and beautiful, but it took me a long time to get over the 2 alarms and the thought of something happening to my baby. (Matthew’s cord was wrapped around him twice and that was causing all teh issues and for some reason, there was no fluid left at all around him and he was under stress i guess).

[Anonymous]

Wow, what amazing stories – all of them!

Lets just hope some 1st time pregnant mom doesn’t stumble onto this thread. She’ll be scared to death!

[Author]

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