My VBAC Birth Story

by Amy Lynn
(Arkansas)

I guess it all started on Tuesday October 21st, 2008 (my due date) at 4am. I woke up to some contractions and when I couldn't go back to sleep I decided to take a bath to calm them down. It worked a little and I was able to get back to sleep around 6am.

Woke up again at 9am and took another bath to calm the contractions again before Christopher (my 2 year old son) woke up.

The contraction weren't bad and I could do things through them but they had a bit of a bite to them. I continued my day like normal doing dishes, folding clothes, cooking, etc. I wasn't sure it was the "real thing" or not because the previous Friday I had had 14 hours of contractions that fizzled away. So I wasn't about to get all excited in case this wasn't it.

Fast forward to about 6pm. I'm tired and these things have been happening all day now. A tiny bit stronger but not too bad. I made supper and afterward Christopher was exhausted so we let him take a 30 min nap.

I tried to take one but after lying down I just couldn't. The contractions were too painful for me to sleep through so I just got up and started timing them to see what they were doing. At this point I had been having about 15 hours of contractions and they were still all over the place. 5 mins here, then 7, down to 6, and up to 8. Blah!! Frustrated me so much!

Got Christopher in bed and was totally exhausted so I tried yet again (in vain) to lie down and rest around 9pm. Nope. Just wasn't happening.

Tony (my husband) was getting ready for work since he had to leave in an hour. I called him in there and said "Hey do you really need to go in?" At this point I was like, "Man this is getting intense... he may need to stay home!"

So after seeing me through a few contractions he decided to call in. We called our doula (Steph) to give her a heads up that we would probably be calling her later on. Called my mom and told her to come get Christopher and she did.

By the time my mom left with Christopher (shortly after midnight) I could NOT get comfortable anymore. I tried lying on my side (nope), on hands & knees (uh-uh), rocking on birth ball (forget it), leaning over my bed (nah), lying on my back (OH HECK NO!), and finally I decided that I wanted in the tub. So I hauled my fat tush into the shower... OMG! That felt so awesome. I had the shower just pummeling my back for a while and then soaked in the tub for what seemed like forever.

Tony called my doula and she headed over and got to the house around 1:30am or so. At this point I was moaning through all of my contractions and I felt this intense urge to lean back during each one. It took a LOT of focus but it wasn't too bad. I just had to reach that peak and as soon as it was over I was happy again. My contractions never got regular. But they did get closer. 2mins, then 4, then 3, then a few more 2s.

It made us a little hesitant to go to the hospital because we didn't want to get there too early, but at the same time we didn't want to get there too late either. So at about 3am we decided that we better go ahead and head out since it was a one hour drive to the hospital.

I hit the transition stage in the car (oh what fun that was). Tony was so great and was talking me through it... telling me how great I was doing, that I could do this, to just breathe, and that I was so strong and that we'd soon have our baby girl.

I started moaning really loudly and started to feel a bit out of control. I got a little freaked out that things were happening too fast. So I made it a point to focus on everything around me to try and slow the labor down. And it worked... the contractions got a little less intense and paced out just a little bit longer. Then we made it to the hospital right around 4am.

I literally could not sit down in the wheelchair that was brought out for me. So I had to travel across a LONG sky bridge, down another LONG hallway, go up an elevator, and then take my laboring self all the way to the Labor & Delivery department.

I swear a man built that hospital because no woman in her right mind would torture a woman in labor like that.

All the way to L&D, I was leaning back against the walls, partially squatting backwards against whatever was there. I scared a poor janitor who was mopping the floor. I felt so sorry for the man.

FINALLY made it L&D where they rushed me into a room because I was just moaning like crazy. They had me get into a gown and got me into a bed to start the 20 min external fetal monitoring strip that was necessary right when a patient was admitted.

They started freaking out a little because I was turning down IV fluids and opting for a regular heplock instead. And because my GBS status was unknown (I never took the test) they wanted me on antibiotics. After a tiny bit of a hassle and somehow managing to sign the AMA papers through my back to back contractions, I finally got them to quit bugging me.

They had to lie me all the way down to check and see how far I was dilated... OUCH! Whoever thinks that a laboring woman should be on her back is WRONG!!!!!! But anywho, I was dilated to a 8/9 and my bag of waters was bulging.

Everything started getting sooo intense and each contraction was taking me to a new place. I remember it hurting but at the same time it was so... what's the word... I can't even find the words for it, but it felt so right. The pain wasn't even a factor. I was in my own world just taking this wonderful and crazy ride. I was having a hard time breathing correctly through the contractions so the baby's heart rate started going down a little and they had to hook me up to oxygen and coach me a little on breathing.

They hooked me up to IV fluids and started to do scalp stimulation on the baby to make sure that she didn't get to the point of distress because it looked like that's where it was heading.

The next thing I knew, I needed to push. I was dilated all the way to a 10 so they told me to go ahead and push if I needed to. Suddenly my water WHOOSH broke all over the place and I went back down to a 9 since I no longer had the added pressure of the water bag keeping me at 10cm.

There was a moderate amount of meconium in the water so that got the nurses concerned a little and they told me that they would have to suction her out right after she was born to make sure she didn't swallow anything. After a short time (about 1-4 mins) I had to push again and could not stop myself. I quickly went back to a 10 (in like a minute) and my OB walked in...

He was gowned up and ready to go in a flash. He got situated and started talking me through things. I, at that point, was lying back, but wasn't flat. I guess you'd say I was in a semi-reclining position. It was the only thing that felt good and I couldn't do anything else even if I wanted to (we never figured out why I had to be like that my whole labor).

They kept telling me to pull my legs back but I literally couldn't. So 2 people (I can't even remember who) helped to push my legs back so that I could open my pelvis more... The urge to push was sooo intense!!!

I kept letting out high pitched noises which was not conducive to getting her out and was depriving both me and her of oxygen. So with a little encouragement from my OB and a few other people I started groaning and grunting while pushing. OH MY, THAT FELT SO GOOD! The next thing I knew, Tony was saying "There's the head!" I rested for a minute and then BOOM!

I started pushing, pushing, pushing, and then suddenly I felt relief. I had her head out!!!! They suctioned her mouth and nose out and then I pushed the rest of her body out.

Because of the meconium, I wasn't able to hold her right away like I wanted to but that was just fine by me. I did it. After a little over 25 hours of labor and about 5 minutes of pushing I gave birth to my daughter. And it was amazing.

Katherine Elizabeth was born at 5:14am on October 22nd, 2008 weighing in at 7lbs, 14oz and was 20.5 inches long.

They immediately cut the cord and suctioned her out the rest of the way while I was watching. She was so beautiful. She started crying and I swear that was the most glorious sound ever on earth.

They got her cleaned up while my OB stitched me up (I just had a minor tear that took 3-4 stitches) and told me what to expect as I came down from the adrenaline high from the delivery. I was shaking all over the place and was freezing cold. It was crazy.

A couple of minutes later they placed my baby girl in my arms and I was in heaven. She was staring at me like she knew exactly who I was. I waited to stop shaking before trying to breastfeed her so Tony held her during the meantime. I finally stopped shaking and as soon as she saw that nipple she latched on for dear life and started nursing like she had been doing it for years.

We were told that she could go home that morning at 9am, but didn't get the release from my OB until 2pm the following day. I spent the rest of the hospital stay reveling in the beautiful birth that I had just gone through, healed from emotional scars from my previous c-section and spending time with my husband and new baby girl.