I see a lot of different stories on here, some positive, many traumatic, some induced or unmedicated, or C-section. So I thought I’d contribute mine as well to continue the variety!
So Saturday was pretty normal. My husband and I met some friends for brunch at a local spot about a half mile from the house, we walked there and back to enjoy some nice weather. We ran some errands and were picking up some nursery decor we were still missing. Hilariously, that afternoon my husband commented “we are getting so close to being ready! Like, if she came tomorrow it would be ok, that’s crazy!” HAHA. So that afternoon we are walking our dogs from one store to another and as I’m walking I feel what seems to be myself leaking some pee, which is not typical for me, and I had a small cramp (i have had small contractions for at least a month so i was not unusual, i just had to slow down my pace a bit, it was minimal). I use the restroom at the next store and notice a weird light brown discharge, but it doesn’t look like blood so I figure it’s just some fresh annoyance of pregnancy. We drive home and I have a stronger cramp but when we get in the house I just lay on the floor a couple minutes and feel back to normal. I start to make dinner, but am feeling tired so I ask my husband to make chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and broccoli cuz my ambitious salmon isn’t happening, not to mention I’ve slightly peed myself again. I get a pad on because I figure I guess I just leak now and will have this for the next month. We eat dinner and watch a movie (Ghost, for those wondering at home haha). After the movie I go to pee and I notice a light pink tinge, which finally piques my suspicion. I make my husband look at it and feel a much more noticeable gush of a leak. More suspicion.
So to be safe, we take the hospital bags and go to L&D to test the fluid. I keep hoping I’ll just be a little embarrassed and I’m peeing. Well. No. It’s immediately popped as amniotic fluid. I ask if I’m allowed to go home and wait for labor to start. I am strongly discouraged from doing so, so we decide to stay. As we are doing the intake, I start to feel some noticeable contractions (11:45pm or so). The doctor and nurse decide to forego the cervical check since I don’t appear to be in active labor and they don’t want to risk infection with an unnecessary exam. The doctor says I can have 24 hours to await natural labor from 4:30pm when I first felt my water break, but being so early I probably will need an induction then.
We get to my birthing suite and I am feeling contractions for SURE. I want to have an unmedicated vaginal delivery, but contractions hurt so badly I start to worry what if I can’t do this for hours or days? How am I breaking down so fast? We had a doula hired who is on vacation in Alaska so she sets us up with her backup. She asks us on the phone if we want her to head our way (she lived 30 min away). We waffles and then accepted, it felt too early but I needed more pain mitigation method suggestions. She arrives and I’m feeling awful, and I keep telling the nurse I feel like I need to poop. The pain starts to feel less manageable, no position feels good, contractions are back to back. A TENS unit had initially helped but not anymore, I’d tried nitrous but it did nothing but make me feel claustrophobic, my husband’s massage and counter pressure have stopped relaxing me. Deep breathing is great but only gets me so much relief now.
The doula gives me a disposable hospital comb to grip which helps distract me, and helps me in the tub. I have an awful contraction in the tub, and after some low moans and expressing my fear of pooping in the tub the nurse says “I know you literally just got in and I’m sorry, but let’s get you on the bed to check your cervix.” I agree but it’s only been maybe two hours of labor (1:40am), I’ll be so discouraged if I’m only a few centimeters. The doula encourages me and helps me in the bed, the nurse checks and immediately says “oh the baby is right there and it’s time to push, we need the doctor right now.”
So I decide pushing on my side feels best, I have a death grip on my comb in one hand and my Hydroflask water bottle in the other. Everyone keeps offering to take them from me and I’m not having it (I call the bottle my emotional support water bottle as it is and now it’s hilariously solidified). I was committed to self led pushing and down breathing as I pushed and I’m SO glad I did. My background with some powerlifting definitely helped me, it felt like heavy squats directly related to pushing. I took breaks between contractions to drink water, make jokes, complain loudly and recover. I got to feel her head as it emerged, I got some perineal massage and warm compresses but not much because she was out at 2:10, just 30 minutes of pushing.
Despite her early arrival, she was 19.5 inches long, 7lb 6in and considered large for gestational age. I’m not sure how this would’ve gone if she’d been 40 weeks, the staff said she was the biggest 36 weeker they’d seen (my husband is a big guy). I had no tearing and was up to walk quickly. So far baby and I feel good and are recovering nicely!
I just wanted to share this because I had some friends and acquaintances tell me some horror stories, but you just never know how labor could go! We are all different with different labors, and your support team can make a big difference. Wishing you all the labor and delivery you want!
