Birth Story

Maggie's post inspired me to write mine.

I have to admit that I think Patricia and I were both a little stubborn when it came to giving birth. This obviously was not my first time around, but I was not looking forward to it. The whole pregnancy I was fearing it, as a matter of fact.

Here's a quick synopsis of my previous two deliveries. Tabitha's heartrate was dropping after each contraction, so they induced me. I didn't use any pain medication, but I had nothing to compare the painfulness with. Seth came a week late, but on his own. It was painful, but definitely managable compared with the pitocin induced delivery. Again, I did not take any pain medication.

That leaves us with Patricia. I did not want to be induced. If I was induced I knew it would be much more painful than it should be. The doctors "allowed me" to go a full two weeks past my due date. (Note to readers: I have always been delivered by doctors, not midwives, due to my husband's choosing, for which I am thankful. Doctors do have protocols that they must follow to make sure they aren't sued in the future and their patients don't risk their lives. So, yes, in that sense it was them allowing me and not me allowed to decide what I wanted.) At two weeks late my cervix was still high, I wasn't really dilated and there wasn't much going on in the contraction area. I went into the hospital bright and early in the morning. They started off with some cream that went onto my cervix and was supposed to soften things. This in and of itself can sometimes trigger labor. After two applications and no increased activity I unwillingly allowed them to break my bag of water. For many hours (about 4 or 5) my contractions were coming every four minutes. I was not progressing, my cervix was still high, nothing was going on.
At this point they were able to coax me into starting pitocin. That's when the pain I had been dreading began. After approximately 3 hours I just could not bear it any more. I have always been afraid of getting a needle in my spine, so I readily accepted some form of narcotic they were able to shoot into my IV in it's place. It was just about an hour later that I was pushing. There was a pretty funny moment in there for me. Patricia must've fallen asleep because of the drugs, but she woke up and moved around as if to say, "Alright, already, leave me alone, I'm coming out now." By that point, my narcotic was wearing off. Now, anybody who's ever been in a delivery room with me (i.e.-Enoch, my mom and hospital staff), knows that at pushing time I scream my head off saying I don't want to push. Mind you, my first two deliveries I would actually push while screaming this. This time was different, I was tired from the drugs, tired of being in labor and I DID NOT WANT TO PUSH! Be that as it may, she was born at around 2 am Feb. 6. She did her crying thing a little. When they cut her umbilical cord she screamed. They tell me that the babies can't feel it, but she wanted to know where her next meal was coming from. Nursing began shortly afterwards. She's the only one of my three who was born without the cord wrapped around her neck.