The unassisted birth of "Spain"

On January 26th around 2:30 am I woke up to a slight pain in my back. I rolled out of bed to use the bathroom. I didn't bother turning the light on, because, well let's face it, the bathroom had become my second home. When I pulled my pajama pants up they were oddly wet, I flipped the light on and was greeted by the sight of blood. Panic seized me. I waddled to my closet to get some fresh clothes, and had to make another stop at the bathroom. On my way I woke my sweet husband up to tell him I was bleeding. When I reached the bathroom I turned the light on, and with a rush of relief I realized that I was only losing my mucus plug. So I cleaned up and crawled in bed with that sweet guy I married. I couldn't sleep, so I lay there cuddled up next to him until he had to leave for PT a few hours later. I was having some contractions, and stupidly I decided to time them. Of course, there was no real pattern.

I got up to continue on with the day. I made breakfast, and started on dinner for some friends that had just had their baby. My sweet husband came home to get ready for work, and made me promise to call him if anything changed. At 9:30 I called his supervisor and asked for him to be sent home so he could take me in to the hospital. It's important to note that without traffic it takes about 25 minutes to get to the military hospital that has the L&D floor. I had one contraction on the way to the hospital.

I got to the "birthing center" and immediately pissed off a nurse when I explained that I would not consent to a cervical check or the EFM, and that my "plans" had been discussed with the head of the OB program at the hospital and he agreed to it. The OB who saw me on the other hand, thought it was great. Turns out his mom was a certified nurse midwife, and he had gone on several rotations with her whenever he was considering becoming an OB. He had never gotten to use a fetoscope, and seemed excited at the opportunity.
The overall consensus was that I was in early labor, but it would probably be a few days before anything happened. The baby wasn't even close to being engaged. My contractions were super irregular, and I was far enough along in the pregnancy that they wouldn't try to stop labor, so I was sent home.

My wonderful husband went back to work (after making me promise to call him if anything changed). I updated my mom, then called our Pastor to update him, and the leader of the Awana program at church to let her know I couldn't fill in for Cubbies that night. Lastly I called this wonderful lady that God sent into my life. We chatted and prayed together. Which really helped to calm me down. I had been frantically praying for labor to stop all day long. I just wanted a few more days to enjoy my pregnancy, and make sure the baby was "fully baked". Alex brought his backpack to my bed, and we started working on his schoolwork, while we waited for the husband to get off of work.

Just before 5:30 I felt another rush of blood, so I scurried into the bathroom. The baby was still high, but the small of my back started aching. I called for Alex to bring me my phone, and I climbed into the shower. Alex brought the phone into the bathroom, and as I was instructing him to call his Papa, the baby turned partially transverse (sidewise). The pain at that point intensified beyond anything I could have ever imagined. I knew the dangers of laboring with a transverse baby and I instinctively dropped to my knees.

There I was on my hands and knees rocking back and forth in my tiny shower stall (The shower in our master bathroom is the size of a standard refrigerator. Seriously.), praying for the baby to turn and trying to find that special sound that vibrates through your body, helping to reduce pain. I heard Alex talking on the phone to my sweet husband on the other side of the shower door. "Papa, mama says you need to come home. Spain is coming."

The baby turned back into the vertex position (vertical, head down) and I slowly stood up. With a "pop" the bag of waters broke and I fell into a prostrate postion. The song "He's got the whole world in his hands" sprang to mind and I kept singing it over and over while I rocked. I placed my hand between my legs and felt the baby's head bulging against my perineum. I knew my husband was only moments away, I tried to ignore the urge to push but my body had taken over. The head began to emerge, and I pulled myself into a squatting position, out of the water's range, In a blink, I was holding a brand-new infant. "Alex call Papa! Spain's here."
I reached up to turn the shower off, then cracked the shower door open and grabbed a towel to wrap the baby in. Alex was shouting joyfully into the phone "Papa, Spain got out! Spain got out!"



My sweet husband flew through the bathroom door moments later. He crouched down in the doorway of the opened shower, next to Alex, and I handed our brand-new baby to him. My poor sweet husband missed the birth of our son, because he stopped to buy me flowers.

I even can't begin to describe how much I love my husband, my oldest son and my youngest son.





We did transfer to the hospital after the birth, just to make sure everything was alright since I wasn't at term. The ER staff cleared us and offered to send us home, but we opted to transfer to the other hospital with the L&D ward, just to be sure. I'm so thankful we did, because Spain was showing signs of respitory distress that the ER doctors didn't recognise. We got to spend a week in the NICU, but that is a series of other posts that will come soon.

Trivial Pursuit

I thought it might be fun to mix things a little. So instead of me writing about something specific, let's play a game.

True or False


Eating and/or drinking during labor is dangerous.
False.
A Cochrane study reports that there is no benefit to withholding food or drink during labor. From a personal viewpoint, I wouldn't go hiking without food, so why labor without food?

Any pregnancy over 40 weeks is "overdue".
False.
"Term" is actually considered to be 38-42 weeks. 40 weeks is just the middle value. Overdue doesn't happen until you pass the 42 week mark.

VBAC is more dangerous than a repeat c-section.
False.
On the contrary a cesarean is major surgery and carries all risk associated with major surgery in addition to special risks to the baby, and the addition of possible fertility problems later.

There is a risk of catching on fire during a c-section.
True.
In fact it happens more often than you might think. Operating rooms are full of flammable materials like oxygen and alcohol solutions, combine those with lasers and possible electrical sparks and you have a foxnews.com story. In 2008 the American Society of Anesthesiologists flash surgical fires occur approximately 50-200 times a year.

Laying on your back is the best way to birth.
False.
This is called the supine or lithotomy position. It restricts your pelvis, and forces the baby to fight against gravity to exit the mother. Dr. Roberto Caldeyro-Barcia and his researchers found that this position is the worst one for laboring women because it adversely affects every facet of birth: makes labor more painful, reduces uterine activity, and can dangerously lower blood pressure. He says, "Except for being hanged by the feet, the supine position is the worst conceivable position for labor and delivery."

(Roberto Caldeyro-Barcia, past president of the International Federation of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, leading researcher in perintology)


Homebirth is always risky.
False.
It seems that only in America is homebirth considered dangerous. A list of links concerning U.S homebirth safety.

Labor hurts.
True-ish.
Let's face it, the definition of "labor" is hard work. And yes it can be painful, but it's an entirely different type of pain than breaking your leg. On the other hand, women have been know to orgasm during birth. An orgasm comes from a release of hormones and contracting muscles. Labor and birth involves the same release of hormones and contracting muscles.

There's no real benefit to laboring.
False.
Natural labor helps get the baby's lungs get ready for breathing. It stimulates the release of oxytocin, the "love hormone", that helps establish bonding and breastfeeding after the birth. Benefits of natural labor

An epidural is risk free.
False. Even if you ignore the fact that epidurals slow down labor, there is still a long list of side effects that should be taken into consideration. Including septic meningitis, neurological disorders and fetal distress.


Electronic fetal monitoring improves outcomes for the baby and mother.
False.
No, it doesn't. In fact it's associated with HIGHER chances of cesareans because of inaccurate readings. EFM began being routinely used in 1970. In 1976 the FDA received authority to regulate medical devices. EFM was grandfathered in.

Surprised?

Misoprostol and pregnancy don't mix

Cytotec (misoprostol) is a drug commonly used to induce labor. But what mothers aren't told is that Cytotec (misoprostol) is a drug used to prevent stomach ulcers, and the manufactures warn against using during pregnancy and labor. Some of the known side effects include birth defects, premature labor, uterine rupture, maternal and perinatal mortality, and in the infant, hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy occurs when oxygen is cut off to the brain. This can cause long term damage like cerebral palsy, delayed developement, seizures and of course, death.

That's not the whole story behind Cytotec (misoprostol). When RU-486 (aka the abortion drug) was approved by the FDA, they also approved Cytotec (Misoprostol) as a companion drug to complete the termination of the pregnancy.

The Tatia Oden French Memorial Foundation was started by the family of a young mother. She was in perfect health during her pregnancy, and induced just under 42 weeks. She was given Cytotec without being told the risks, she suffered hyperstimulation of the uterus and an emergency c-section was performed. Both Tatia and her newborn daughter died.

While there are risks associated with any drug you take, it's important to point out that the FDA has not approved the use of Cytotec (misoprostol) during labor. And that the manufacture has publicly asked that doctors stop using it to induce labor.

If Cytotec isn't approved for labor and pregnancy, why is it commonly used? Unfortunately the answer is "because it's cheap". Hospitals are businesses. And like all businesses they try to keep their overhead expenses low. Does that make it okay to use Cytotec for a purpose not only it isn't made for, but that the manufacture has not approved? Absolutely not. I'm honestly not sure with is more appalling, the fact that this drug is so commonly used in the U.S despite known complications and warnings, or that health professionals don't feel the need to inform their clients about the possible dangerous side effects.


Cytotec induction and off-label use by Marsden Wagner, MD, MS

http://www.childbirthsolutions.com/articles/birth/druginducedlabor/index.php

Experiences with Birth

Let me give you a little background about my first birth experiences.
When I was 16, my mom was planning a homebirth. I was horrified, and had no problem expressing my displeasure about her plans. She would only smile and say "That's okay. You're not invited to the birth anyway."
Then one October morning my dad woke me up before he left for work. He told me that my mom was having some light braxton hicks and he wanted me to check in on her every now and again.
I walked into my parents bedroom and the first words out of my mom's mouth were "Go get dad we're having this baby today!"

I ran out of the house like a possessed crazy person. My dad's car wasn't in the driveway. I ran to the street, but it was empty. I slowly made my way back to my parents room. There mom was in full mode. She was frantically scooping clean laundry into a basket. "I never got these put away. Just throw them in the closet and close the door. I don't want to look at them! Oh and I need you to make a lasagna I haven't done that either!" In a rare moment of teenage wisdom, I decided I should just go with the flow. I threw the laundry into the closet and closed the door. When I turned around my mom was kneeling on her bed, moaning softly. All of a sudden there was a baby head. My mom moaned again and said "his shoulder is stuck, I need you to look." I sat on the bed and shifted the baby's shoulder just a little, all of a sudden I was holding my baby brother.
The midwives showed up a few minutes later. They cleaned the room, did laundry and made sure baby and mama were both fine.

When I discovered that I was pregnant, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to have a homebirth. I was young, I knew very little about pregnancy and birth, so I went with what I did know. I scheduled a prenatal appointment with the midwife that my mom had used.
My midwife was WONDERFUL. She took time to answer any question that my husband or I had. Not only that, but when she found out that my mother-in-law was worried about the safety of homebirth, she not only openly discussed worst case scenarios with the three of us, but gave my mother-in-law her email address so that my mother-in-law could contact her anytime she had a concern.

Like my mom, I labored fast, and before I knew it I had a baby boy in my arms. My birth was a wonderful experience, that really set the foundation for our family. My son was premature, so we transferred to the hospital as per state law. Our hospital experience wasn't as nice. I was 18, I had a planned homebirth and I was adamant that I was going to breastfeed. The hospital staff was not pleased. They didn't believe that I had had any prenatal care. I had to call my midwife to verify for the hospital that I had care, and all of the testing done had come back normal. I had to meet with social services so they could evaluate whether I was fit to be a parent. I was cross examined multiple times about whether I was a drug user, smoker or had alcoholic tendencies. I was told breastmilk had no real benefits for preemies. The pediatrician didn't want to release my son because he wasn't formula fed. My La Leche League leader had to stop coming to the hospital because of the harassment she received from the nursery staff.
I realize that experience is not necessarily typical. Not all midwives are wonderful, and not all hospitals are terrible.

I'm not anti-doctor by any stretch of the imagination. I'm currently receiving prenatal care from an OB, and not a midwife. OB's have their place, just like hospitals.

However, I am anti- the mcdonaldization of pregnancy and birth.

Birthing options

After a lot of thought and prayer, I've decided to do a few posts on birth. For those of you who don't know, I became a certified doula after the birth of my son in 2005. While I am not currently practicing, birth and birth education is still a passion of mine.
This post was originally blogged by me on May 5, 2007 while I was in training.

Western medicine is and can be a wonderful thing. But it has also been so abused that in many cases the treatments acan become ineffective. Take for example antibiotics. Antibiotics can be a great thing! And for several years they were thought to be the treatment for everything. Have an ear infection? Swollen Lymph nodes? The Flu? Any type of viral or bacterial infection? Take an antibiotic! Antibiotics became the magic cure all. Then we found out that we should not be treating viral infections with antibiotics. We also discovered that the antibiotics were becoming less and less effective because immunities had been built up against them. This is not an isolated case. There many instances where something that was thought to be great, turned out to have consequences to worse than we could imagine. Maternal medicine is not exempt. Sadly by the time we realize what the side effects could be, it's too late.

Another wonderful aspect of western medicine is our hospitals. Think about the convenience of having one place to go whenever you have a medical emergency. You don’t have to go to independent specialty clinics, you can go straight to a place where you know you can be treated. It is a building dedicated entirely to sickness... But is every patient really sick? I realize that western medicine is fairly new, and there is obviously going to new advances and discoveries as time goes on. In our eagerness to expand our health horizons, and help people achieve a higher level of health, we’ve completely ignored nature.

Women have been birthing babies since the beginning of time. Isn’t that incredible to think about? How about when you add to it, that most of those women had their babies without a hospital, without a doctor, without umbilical cord clamps, and without medical interventions. It is amazing to think about, isn’t it? Pregnancy and childbirth is a natural part of life. It’s like breathing, your body automatically knows what to do.
I am not saying that things will not go wrong. This is not a perfect world, it’s the real world. Unfortunately cord prolapse, footling breech babies, and other complications are not unheard of. But they are also not the normal situation. I know I am grateful that when these situations occur that there is a place where we can go for help.

Why should you have your birth in a hospital? Hospitals are literally sick houses, would you want your newborn to be in a place where different diseases are on every where? Sure the staff changes their gloves between patients, but what about their clothes? What about the visitors that are coming in from everywhere? What about social workers that don’t have to wear gloves?
An Institute of Medicine Report indicated that 44,000 - 98,000 people die in U.S hospitals every year, as a result of medical errors. That is more than the number of deaths from AIDS, breast cancer, and car accidents every year!

In contrast homebirths can offer you the comfort of your home. Most of the germs you encounter there have been around your entire pregnancy and you do not have to worry about getting sick. You can hire a midwife with years of experience. If an emergency arises most midwives have a doctor at the hospital that they can transfer to. Midwives can take care of hemorrhaging, they stitch up tears. They are trained professionals! They are not going to needlessly put your life in danger. Most midwives that offer homebirths give care to both mother and newborn for 6 weeks following the birth. In contrast as soon as a baby exits the mother, the OB does not provide care for it. That is strictly for the pediatrican's responsibility.

Repeat c-sections? Did you know that your chances of having your uterus tear when attempting a vaginal birth after a cesarean are less than 1%! That number does go up if you are medicated. But the chances of having a c-section in general, go up if you are medicated. Did you know that Utah had the lowest c-section rate in the United States, and their c-section rate is 22.2%. Cesareans offer a whole extra category for risk. It is major surgery. You have a higher chance of getting an infection. It can affect your fertility, your normal body functions and your ability to have sex. Those are just a few of the side effects.

What about drugs in labor? I think they have their place, but routine usage? Every body is different. Why would we expect them all to react the same way? Some drugs used in labor have warnings on the label thay they are contraindicated. Meaning they aren't safe for pregnant women. There are alternatives to drugs while you are in labor. You can do relaxation techniques, counter-pressure, change positions, or my favorite, jump in the shower or the bathtub. Water is a natural pain reliever. When you burn yourself, you automatically run water over the burn, why? Because it helps!

Just because our generation is expected to leave the thinking to the professionals, doesn’t mean we have to. You are ultimately the one responsible for your health and wellbeing. As a consumer of the healthcare options offered, please educate yourself.