Labor and Waterbirth - Why I chose a Midwife - Part 2
Jamie Temple
I had a fairly quick labor for a first baby according to what I’ve read and heard from midwives, nurses, and doctors. The entire process lasted about 12.5 hours with only 4 in the hospital (I still had to stay 24 hours after for all of the vital checks).
I planned for a completely unmedicated waterbirth. Without the encouragement of my midwife, Janet, I don’t know if I would have made it unmedicated through the painful part (about 3 hours).
This was my day - 3 days before my due date:
8:30 AM: I woke up feeling crampy and tried, unsuccessfully, to sleep through it since I felt about the same the morning before.
10:50 AM: After being awake for a while, I realized that I was having fairly regular contractions. I started tracking them on my “Full Term” app. I made a list of some last minute things my husband and I needed to take care of, and we started prepping for the hospital. Both my husband and I continued to work from home to wrap things up so that he could be offline for about a week and I could stop working for 12 weeks.
2:00 PM: After taking a shower and realizing that my contractions progressed in frequency and intensity, we called the on-call midwife, Anjili. She suggested that we wait until the contraction intensity increased even though I was under the 4-1-1 rule (closer to 3-1-1). The contractions felt like really bad menstrual cramps with lower back and inner thigh pain. Since I was able to talk through the contractions, Anjili thought that I could wait and be comfortable at home for a bit longer.
3:00 PM: I was in a modified version of child’s pose on my livingroom sofa to help ease leg and back pain when a contraction started. I had a sudden urge to push that I couldn’t control and then my water broke. My husband called Anjili back and she told us to come in.
*After the first call, we planned to eat lunch at Zoe’s (my husband thought I was crazy for suggesting this, but went along with the plan). The intensity of my contractions increased as we made our final preparations before leaving, so I changed my mind and decided that picking up Chic-fil-a would be better. Once my water broke, we scrapped those plans. We finished packing the car, dropped Cooper (our shiba inu) off at Dogma dog-care, and headed to The Atlanta Medical Center with some snacks in our bag.
4:30 PM: When we arrived at the hospital, my husband offered to drop me off at the front door. I always refuse this kind gesture because I like to walk - even during labor. We parked in the parking deck, and I paused during every contraction as we made our way to the maternity floor where Anjili greeted us.
5:00 PM: I got in the hospital bed and the nurse strapped a monitor around my belly to monitor both the baby and my contractions for 30 minutes. I was still feeling pretty good at this point, but this was the last 30 minutes I could comfortably lay on my back.
5:30 PM: The monitors came off and I was able to move around. I started having regular slight urges to push and pain began to increase. The midwife that was in the room at the time suggested tilting the back of the bed up almost 90 degrees and leaning on it with my arms - this position was not fun to get into, but it really helped once I got there. As some contractions became difficult to get through, I asked for the water birth pool. I became a bit agitated when it seemed like the water birth pool was taking forever to arrive because I knew that they would also need time to inflate and fill it before I could get some relief. After my husband asked for the pool again, I told him that it needed to arrive quickly or I might want to get an epidural.
6:30 PM: When the next midwife on call, Janet, arrived, my husband let her know how I was feeling. She suggested that I try a shower while they set-up the pool. Once I got in the shower, I got in child’s pose on top of a few towels since it was the most comfortable position. Hot water on my back and abdomen helped for a while. It was hard to relax between contractions (which felt like cramps, back pain, and an urge to push at this point).
The hospital staff inflated the pool, but didn’t start filling it. My husband decided to take matters into his own hands and started filling it since no one was in the room. When the hospital staff came back, they were upset that he started filling the pool but I was very happy!
7:00 PM: I got into the pool when it was just full enough to sit in. Back pain and painful urges to push made me sweaty, tired, and nauseous. I got on my knees and leaned over the side of the pool since that was the most comfortable position.
7:40 PM: My husband fed me bites of Honey Stinger Waffles throughout the afternoon, but he went downstairs to get food since we still hadn’t really eaten since breakfast and the food places closed at 8:00. Janet told him to go ahead because he wouldn’t miss anything while he was gone.
Janet sprayed warm water on my lower back and brought me cool washcloths for my forehead and neck which really helped. I closed my eyes and tried to rest between contractions. I asked Janet for a timeline since it is easier for me to get through rough times if I know when they will end. She was encouraging, but just told me “not much longer.”
8:10 PM: Janet suggested that I roll over into a different position to help with the pain. Rolling over was a chore, but the new position did help.
Labor progressed to very active pushing by the time my husband returned and Janet told him that the baby would arrive within the hour. He had just enough time to sit down and open his mouth to bite his sandwich before Janet told him to come over and hold my foot. This may have been the fastest hour of my life since I was determined to get through the pain and meet my son within the hour.
9:05 PM: Our baby was born completely still under the water. Janet took him out of the water and let me hold him immediately. After the umbilical cord pumped everything to our baby, the midwife and nurse clamped it for my husband to cut.
I’ve heard stories about how doctors typically push on women’s abdomens to get the placenta out, but luckily I had a much more pleasant experience. My contractions started back slightly, and Janet pulled the placenta out by the umbilical cord - no pain at all.
Since I didn’t use any medication, I was able to get out of the pool, walk to the bed, and feed our baby immediately.