Monday, June 23, 2008

Non graphic wrap up.

Ok, I was totally exhausted after writing a brief synopsis of my birth story. So, I wanted to use this to kind of wrap it all up.
Because of a few difficulties of which my doctor was well aware, but decided wouldn't be problems, my labor was unbelievably long, horribly painful, dangerous for my child, and still ended up in a C-Section. If I had to do it again, here's what I would have done differently.
I would have demanded to be induced more than a week earlier. If that was not an option, rather than going straight to pitocin to speed the labor along, I would have requested cervix-softening medications (in hindsight, this makes much more sense, since I was already having strong contractions and that was all working fine, just my cervix was all kinds of fucked up). Hopefully this would have saved me from needing an epidural, since I was fine until they cranked up the pitocin dosage.
And since we already knew the kid was sideways, had I been told this could cause complications, I would have done acupuncture and other non-medical procedures to get him into proper position.

Things that surprised me: pushing was the least horrible part of my labor. This had much to do with the huge amounts of drugs in my system, clearly. But also, after 29 hours of labor, I was just ready to DO SOMETHING to get this over with.

I was pushing with every contraction for more than two hours, and the nurses told me I was pushing well. The only problem? The kid was way too big, and sideways. So he was presenting the biggest part of his head, rather than the smallest. And because I was such a strong pusher, I succeeded only in getting his head firmly stuck.

Lessons learned? Don't let doctors push you around. I knew this kid was too big, but I felt intimidated by the cavalier attitude of my doctor. I knew about the other methods of inducing labor, but was told with such confidence that this was the way to go, I didn't open my mouth. And when a doctor says: Meh, shouldn't be a problem? Go find another doctor just to be sure.

And again, even immediately after my ridiculously long, painful labor that ended in a way that made me feel like a failure at womanhood, I was still immediately able to say I'd do it again as soon as possible.

And now, six months later, I've got a gorgeous little guy who's right now smiling and cooing in his sleep.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Twin had a ridiculously long labor and mucho difficulty with her oldest as well. She was in labor for 2 days (they sent her home the first day, because she wasn't dilating at all), and then wound up getting a c-section at 2 a.m. of the 3rd day anyway. Turns out her pelvis is tilted. Natural birth isn't possible.

This info came in handy during the birth of her 2nd daughter, for sure. And I didn't fuck around on that one, either. She went into a full reaction from toximia while I was watching her, and I called her doctor to tell him what was up and said, "If you don't get this baby out of my sister today, and she dies? I will kill you." She gave birth via c-section that night.

I really would have killed that doctor.

Anonymous said...

woof. Poor Twin, that's a bitch. And that doctor would have deserved it had he ignored the information. Toxemia is no joke. Yikes.
After the first one, I'm impressed she had another. She kicks some serious ass.

Anonymous said...

She's diabetic, too. I was pissed that she got pregnant at all, but she's wanted to be a mom since we were fetuses ourselves, I swear.

The first time she gave birth, not only did they fuck up and tell her over the course of the two days that the baby was dropping, and encouraged her to keep pushing, but she also couldn't have insulin or food all that time. It was awful. By the time she was in recovery, she was begging for her insulin. But the nurses said the doctor needed to sign off on it. I was so emotionally drained (I know...don't ask) at that point that I was moving between crying and threatening them if they let her die or go into diabetic shock. They insisted that since she hadn't eaten, she didn't need her insulin.

:O

Really? That's how it works? Oh, well, then, perhaps she needs to just quit eating and her pancreas will start producing its own insulin again after 16 years of not doing so prior to her giving birth!

Retards, the lot of them. She insisted on having her 2nd at a different hospital, it was such a crappy experience.

Anonymous said...

Dear lord! You'd think enough diabetics have had children that there's some pretty standard protocol around it. Yeah, turns out the cure for diabetes is starvation. Fantastic. Nice job hospital. well done.