BIRTH STORY
I'll try to keep this short since this is a blog.:-)
My water broke at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday. I labored slowly and progressively until 1:00 a.m. Wednesday; the last four hours were with very strong contractions every 2-3 minutes- no pain meds but a fantastic tub that made me feel much better. At 1:45 they 'checked me' and I'd dilated all of the way to 1 centimeter. Needless to say, we were disappointed.
My doctor tried an epidural and pitocin to see if it would move along contractions. I was concerned about both because of a risk of uterine rupture in vaginal births after C-section. We turned off the pitocin after an hour or two. We pushed back the inevitable C-Section so that our dear Dr. could do the honors; he came into the hospital to do it on his day off.
The surgery room at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday was a joyful place. Music was playing and a fantastic staff merrily worked together to set the tone for a beautiful birth. The anaesthesiologist held up a mirror so that I could watch the surgery.
When the doctor pulled back the organs to get to the uterus there was a startling surprise: My uterus had ruptured. This fact has both haunted and amazed me ever since; usually this kind of rupture leads to infant death or brain damage and the loss of a uterus or life or major hemorrhaging of the mother. It was a tremendous, ironic blessing that Amaya didn't descend; otherwise she would have gone through the rupture and we'd have an entirely different birth story. We seem to be the luckiest people on earth. Amaya is a big baby at 8 pounds, 11.2 ounces, healthy and strong. I am struggling a bit with this recovery but am grateful every second.
So, if one can just shift perspective a quarter of an inch, life is pretty good, isn't it?
I'll try to keep this short since this is a blog.:-)
My water broke at 1:00 a.m. Tuesday. I labored slowly and progressively until 1:00 a.m. Wednesday; the last four hours were with very strong contractions every 2-3 minutes- no pain meds but a fantastic tub that made me feel much better. At 1:45 they 'checked me' and I'd dilated all of the way to 1 centimeter. Needless to say, we were disappointed.
My doctor tried an epidural and pitocin to see if it would move along contractions. I was concerned about both because of a risk of uterine rupture in vaginal births after C-section. We turned off the pitocin after an hour or two. We pushed back the inevitable C-Section so that our dear Dr. could do the honors; he came into the hospital to do it on his day off.
The surgery room at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday was a joyful place. Music was playing and a fantastic staff merrily worked together to set the tone for a beautiful birth. The anaesthesiologist held up a mirror so that I could watch the surgery.
When the doctor pulled back the organs to get to the uterus there was a startling surprise: My uterus had ruptured. This fact has both haunted and amazed me ever since; usually this kind of rupture leads to infant death or brain damage and the loss of a uterus or life or major hemorrhaging of the mother. It was a tremendous, ironic blessing that Amaya didn't descend; otherwise she would have gone through the rupture and we'd have an entirely different birth story. We seem to be the luckiest people on earth. Amaya is a big baby at 8 pounds, 11.2 ounces, healthy and strong. I am struggling a bit with this recovery but am grateful every second.
So, if one can just shift perspective a quarter of an inch, life is pretty good, isn't it?
posted by Mama H at 2:13 PM
2 Comments:
What an ordeal! I am glad to hear that you both are well now. Are you back home?
Much love,
Dorotea
Hi Dorotea. Yes, we are all at home and I'm still amazed that we're all well. We're very, very happy..:-)
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