i'll eventually get to telling my delivery story, but until then, here are the events that led up to me knowing i wasn't going to be able to have a vaginal delivery:
on saturday, november 18, i woke up and had my usual decaf coffee on the couch with my hubby. these early mornings are typically my favorite - the dogs are calm, chris and i get to spend a few minutes together before the hecticness of the day begins, and i get to feel little babe tossing and turning in my belly... except, not on this particular morning. in fact, i hadn't felt little babe in quite some time. i took a deep breath and drank some juice and waited twenty more minutes. still nothing. i ran upstairs and grabbed my doppler (against the advice of any and all doctors), but i couldn't find a heartbeat. with a little panic in my voice, i called my ob who urged me to come to L&D. once there, i was sent into triage where i was hooked up to monitors. they found little babe's heartbeat almost immediately, which helped me to relax. i had to drink more juice and change positions and minutes later, i felt tons of movement and hiccups (phew!). my ob (not my typical ob, but another member from the practice) walked in and first did an internal exam to see if i had dialated or effaced (<--- fancy word for thinning of the cervix, which happens first, before dialation). i was about 90% effaced and not dialated at all, so he went ahead and did an ultrasound, just to make sure all else was ok. and here's where the story takes a twist. although little babe had been head down weeks ago, he never "engaged" in the birth canal... so since my last ultrasound, little babe had flipped and was now a footling breech (meaning he was feet first). [no wonder i was so uncomfortable!] my ob decided that the following friday (the day after thanksgiving), i would come in for an external version (back to this in a second). if the version worked and little babe wound up head down, i would be medically induced. if the version didn't work, i'd have a c-section. in an odd way, my paranoia about not feeling the baby turned into a blessing in disguise. we were now leaving the hospital with a birthday on deck! the following tuesday, i had my usual ob check-up. we discussed the plan of action. so here's the deal: an external version is when a doctor manipulates the baby from the outside of your stomach by literally trying to turn him. at the very least, this is uncomfortable (here is a quick video, in case you are curious). but more than this, i decided that i did not want to be medically induced. inductions typically mean longer labor... and if you don't progress fast enough, after all of that pushing and laboring, you could wind up having a c-section, anyway. once i talked this over with my husband, for us, the clear choice was to schedule just the section and skip the version. this decision came with a lot of guilt. i feel like there is a ton of pressure on women (at least in the u.s.) to have the experience of a vaginal delivery. (i think a lot of this stems from the natural birth movement that is currently taking place. but let me just say, for the record, if i were to have a vaginal delivery, unequivocally, no questions asked, i would've demanded an epidural!) so now that my little man is here, am i sad that i didn't have a vaginal birth? absolutely not one bit. in fact, i'm pretty happy that i got to skip all the pushing nonsense and still wound up with a perfectly healthy little boy!
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Authorjust a girl growing into womanhood growing into motherhood. Archives
January 2018
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