A positive recovery from c-section

Sheazier

Oliver?s birth story

Birthday: 1/2/12

EDD: 12/30/11 

7lbs 12 oz

20.5 in long

Born via emergency c-section

On New Year?s Day at around 7:00 PM my water broke.  At first it was a trickle, but the more I moved around, the heavier the trickle became and eventually I started gushing.  I called my doctor and he told me to come in as soon as possible.  I called my doula and told her the news and she suggested that I go for a walk.  I decided to follow the doctor?s advice and I arrived at the hospital around 8:30 PM.  The triage doctor confirmed that my waters had ruptured and gave me an internal.  I was 1 cm dilated and not effaced.  I was admitted to labor and delivery and called my doula.  The L&D doctor told me that because my waters had ruptured, the baby needed to be born (one way or another) in the next 24 hours to reduce the risk of infection to the baby.  He ordered a pitocin drip.  I told him I wanted to wait for my doula to arrive and he was fine with that.  When she came, I explained the situation and, knowing that I had 9+ cm to dilate in 24 hours or risk an emergency c-section, my doula was on board with the drip.  We both knew that the pitocin would make a pain-med free birth more challenging.

I labored until I reached 5 cm without any pain medication.  Contractions were 2 minutes apart.  I had told my nurses and anyone that would listen that I had severe sciatica on my right side and I would prefer to avoid putting pressure on my right hip. The nurses told me that the baby was not responding well to me laying on my left side and told me I had to turn to my right.  The combination of severe sciatica pain and intense active labor contractions was overwhelming.  I talked to my husband and my doula and told them I was getting an epidural.

The anesthesiologist came and had to make several attempts to get the epidural in correctly.  Each time he made a mistake, he would talk to himself and sigh loudly.  Meanwhile, I was crying, trying not to move, and experiencing extreme pitocin contractions.  It took about 45 minutes for the epidural to be completed.

After the epidural, I felt almost nothing from the waist down.  I was not aware of any contractions and made it to 8-9 cm pain-free.  I was checked several times and I was making progress at each check.  The doctor seemed hopeful that I would be able to deliver vaginally.  After laboring for over 26 hours - which was beyond the original deadline - the next doctor on shift came in to tell me that she was concerned about the baby?s reactions to my contractions.  His heart rate dropped severely after each contraction and he was not receiving oxygen.  She indicated that the safest choice at this point was to do a c-section immediately.

I began crying intensely.  I was very exhausted and my hopes for a natural birth were dashed.  I was scared and upset, but I consented to the c-section.  Almost as soon as I could utter the words of consent, I had a team of 15+ people bombarding me with information and telling me what would be happening.  I was wheeled into the OR, leaving my husband and doula behind.  I was numbed from the breasts down, my arms were spread out and tied down.  I was in tears, but soon my husband and doula arrived in scrubs.  My husband sat with his legs on either side of my head, holding my face and wiping my tears.  He kept telling me how strong and brave I am and how proud of me he is.  He was crying and telling me how I amazing I am and how much he loves me.  Meanwhile, the medical team told me that I would feel some pressure, and for about 15 minutes my body was pretty roughed up by the surgery.  The tugging was so intense that my arms are still sore from having to support the rest of my body as they pulled and tugged.  

Eventually I heard someone say, ?Look at all that hair!?  I got excited and asked my doula if he was born yet.  She said yes, and that he?s beautiful.  Neither my husband nor I saw the baby at this time, but we did hear a little scream.  We both burst into tears telling each other how much we love each other.  My husband would not leave my side and told my doula that he wasn?t leaving me, so she should bring the baby over to us when it was time.  After about 20 more min of delivering the placenta and receiving stitches, our doula brought the baby over to us.  I did not get a good look at him before the medical staff kicked out my husband and the doula.  I kept indicating to whomever would listen that I felt like I couldn?t breathe.  I was told, ?You are breathing fine.?  I also began shaking severely and someone yelled to me that it was normal. 

About 30 min later, the baby and I were wheeled separately into the labor and delivery room, where my in-laws and parents were waiting.  I was throwing up into a basin that was near my head, shaking violently, and yelling that I couldn?t breathe.  The staff raised my bed, after I begged and begged, and I felt more comfortable breathing again.  Someone asked me if I wanted to hold the baby, but I told them no because I was shaking so severely.  My husband brought the baby over to me and held him near me.  I was crying so much that I couldn?t see out of my glasses, and then I began vomiting.  I couldn?t hold the basin because of how badly I was shaking and I ended up puking all over myself.  I still could not feel my lower half, my arms or my hands.

About 2 hours later, all previously described symptoms had totally disappeared.  An hour after that I was eating ice chips and drinking ginger ale.  An hour later, I went to the bathroom by myself, and an hour after that I was eating a huge breakfast.  At the moment, I am still at the hospital and am experiencing some swelling in my legs and feet, but I have passed gas, had several bowel movements and am doing just fine.  I have walked all around this hospital today. I have a very clean incision and am recovering very well.  

Although sitting up and getting out of bed is painful and a c-section was less than ideal, I am very thankful to the medical staff here.  It turns out that my son?s heartbeat was dropping because the cord was wrapped around his neck.  The c-section saved his life.

My doula stopped by today to visit and we talked about my experience.  I told her that I don?t regret any of my choices and that I am so happy that my son is here and is healthy.  I am, however, feeling a little down because I want desperately to be able to take care of my son, but I am just not able to jump up when he screams.  I have to ask to hold him to feed him because, although I can get up and down from the bed, I cannot do so with a baby in my arms.  It takes my full upper body strength to move.  I can assist with diaper changes, but I can?t really lead them as it involves too much bending over to the lower drawers of the bassinet.

I am just going to take this one step at a time, but I would call this a positive birth experience all around, even if less than ideal.