Amelia's Birth Story
Leah Claire Plunkett made her grand entrance into the world on Monday, 11/09/2009 at 5:12pm. She weighed 8 lbs., 7 ounches and was 20 ¼ inches long. She has a head full of strawberry blond hair and cute little bowed legs.
Here’s our birth story…
I couldn’t sleep on Sunday night because of almost continuous “false contractions” (belly was hard as a rock) and mild cramps as well. I got out of bed to walk around and stretch around 4am. I sat on the birthing ball for a while and noticed that the cramps were getting a little stronger and coming/going. I started timing them around 5am – 20 to 30 seconds, 3-4 minutes apart. Hmmm….I thought…. could this be it?! I called the Midwife on call at OHSU at 6am. She said to wait until the contractions were at least a minute long and call back. They quickly increased to about 45-50 seconds and 2-3 minutes apart and much more intense. I called back and we checked into the hospital around 8am. Right after I got to my room and sat on the bed, my water broke – felt like a water balloon bursting between my legs.
The midwife on duty (Michelle LaChance) checked my cervix, which was 2cm dilated. I was 70% effaced and the baby’s head was stationed at -2. I labored in all kinds of positions and in a water birth tub and the shower for 6 hours. I used deep breathing, massage (by my husband) visualization, and positive self affirmations between contractions. During contractions I used low moaning and deep breathing to get through (okay, there was some occasional cussing, pounding, and screaming too). My contractions occurred in a regular pattern, but tended to come in series of two or three waves really close together, which I learned is called “coupling.” I had never heard of this and don’t particularly recommend it! Then I would get a rather long break of 3-4 minutes between each set and could have short conversations….at least until I got to transition. By 2pm I was100% effaced, 10cm dilated, the baby’s head was at 0 station. I was ready to push! Everyone in the room – my husband and I, the nurse, the midwife and student midwife - was optimistic that crowning was just around the corner.
Leah had other plans. I pushed my heart (and guts and poop) out for over 2 hours in every position imaginable. When the midwife checked the baby’s station at 4:30pm, she was still at 0 – no progress. She was very concerned and felt an OB consult was needed. My contractions continued to intensify, and I was exhausted. We discussed the possibility of getting an epidural and continuing to push, but the midwife was not very optimistic that it would make a difference. A repeat C-section was recommended by the OB team, and my husband and I agreed. At around 5pm I had a spinal and was being prepped for surgery.
At 5:12pm, Leah came out screaming – what a beautiful sound! I was able to hold her shortly after and also to breastfeed her in the recovery room. While in recovery, the OB and midwife came and explained what had happened. During surgery they found that my internal scar from my first C-section was very thin and weak. Therefore, the muscle surrounding that area was also weak. So no matter how hard I pushed, it was not effective in moving the baby through the birth canal. They also said that if I had continued to push, there was a good chance my uterus would have ruptured. Wow – if you think about the odds of that happening, it’s sort of like winning the lottery, huh?! As you can imagine, I was so appreciative of the midwife’s expertise and consulting the OBs when she did.
I’ve had an uncomplicated recovery thus far and came home yesterday (Thursday) - just trying to catch up on sleep and control the pain. While I am disappointed that I did not get to experience that moment of pushing the baby out that is the goal of anyone making the choice to go the VBAC route, I do feel a sense of gratification for my efforts and am grateful that I had a healthy pregnancy, labored well and quickly, stayed focused, and have a beautiful baby girl to show for it!