Birth Story of Kindra

C transferred care to me at 21 week gestation.  She had birthed her last baby with hospital midwives, and really wanted a home water birth this baby. C said this was going to be her last baby and she wanted to have the birth she desired. C’s pregnancy progressed beautifully.  At her 36 week appointment, C broke down and shared about her first pregnancy.  Her first sweet baby had a genetic anomaly and passed at 2 hours after birth.  C, myself and her doula got together the next prenatal appointment and made necklaces in memory of her first sweet baby.  Through the remainder of the pregnancy, we continued on working through the grief of losing her first daughter and preparing for her second daughter. As we got to due date day, C started having some worry come up.  Worry that she would not go into labor.  Worry that her body did not work.  With her second pregnancy, she was induced for three days before her son was born at 41+ weeks.  She was fearful this would happen again. As we neared 41 weeks, C began wanting membrane sweeps. Baby was presenting ear first!  We did inversions, rebozo work, pelvic floor releases.  C curb walked, did ball exercises, hands and knees.  C even went in for two nights of acupuncture!  Nothing.  Labor did not come.  At 41.4, C went in for her postdates ultrasound to make sure baby looked good.  Fluid was on the low side, and the placenta came back a grade 3.  C came in to see me late in the evening on a Tuesday and we talked about going in to see M for a hospital induction.  It was a tearful appointment.  C agreed it was best. The next morning I met C at M’s office for her pre-induction appointment.  C went over her desires for her birth and felt much relieved that she would get a lot of things she wanted in her birth. Later that night, C arrived at the hospital and checked in.  Soon, they started the cervadil.  C called me around 4 in the morning, asking me to come because the nurse was doing some weird things and she didn’t know what was going on.  Ended up baby had a series of decels for no apparent reason, but the nurse had come in and flipped C on her side and gave her oxygen to help. Soon after arriving, C was tired and decided to nap.  C’s two doulas and myself went downstairs and got some coffee and chatted. C got a good nap in.  Around 1130, she called us back to her room.  Soon after the cervadil was pulled out, and the pitocin was started. C was hilarious during this time in labor.  When asked what her pain tolerance was from 1-10, she would respond with a 0.68 or something similar.  By time she was in hardcore labor, I don’t think it got above a 2 or a 3! During this time, C’s doulas taped her birth affirmation posters around the room.  Our goal was to help make this birth as homely as possible for C. As the five o’clock our approached, contractions were coming closer and were noticeably stronger.  C moved around, got on her hands and knees.  We did the booty shake with the rebozo.  Contractions were moving.  C instinctually got in her hands and knees.  With the waves of the contractions, C was lightly moaning.  It seemed that things were getting closer. A humorous note in the story is that C’s doula A was very interested if the purple line phenomena was true or not.  I personally have not seen the purple line very often be accurate/true to dilation.  It became quite humorous for a time with everyone searching for the purple line on C! I switched M out on holding the EFM in place.  And out of no where C fell fast asleep. We all looked at each other.  Ok…  calm before the storm. Thank you, Jesus, for the sweet break before the next stage of labor.  C slept hard for an hour.  When she woke her contractions were light and coming every 7 minutes or so.  We were all shocked.  What in the world? M talked with C about breaking her water.  We were going on 24 hours of an induction, and with C’s previous induction, breaking the water is what finally helped baby to come.  C consented and M did a cervical check.  She was 5cm!  M broke C’s water.  And sure enough.  All labor stopped! The nurse took C off the IV and pitocin.  Although on a small dose of pitocin, the nurse took C off to give her body a break.  I power walked C up and down the halls of the hospital for 20 minutes.  Not a contraction.  C pulled out her breast pump.  It took her 20 minutes to get a contraction!  We all joked.  It was like we went through a full labor and delivery and were prepping for another! Right around 1am, the nurse hooked C back up to the monitor and IV.  Right after the start of the IV, C called the nurse in.  Her vein collapsed.  After 45 minutes and three nurses, they finally got another IV started.  After 30 minutes on the monitor, the resumed the pitocin.  C was drifting asleep.  I tried to take a power nap while C rested. Napping did not last long.  The first contraction C felt was it.  Soon they were on top of each other.  By the third contraction, I was called to come back into the room.  C requested for stadol.  M checked her and found her at a 5 and said it was safe to use the stadol. C was in the heat of it now.  She sat on the birth ball or squatted beside the bed.  As each wave came on, I would get C to look me in the eyes and cover her in encouragement. Every wave, I made eye contact with C.  Her doulas massaging her, giving counter pressure.  Soon C decided to get on the bed.  C considered more stadol, but she could not have anymore.  She was 9cm! Within minutes, C was pushing.  M checked and looked puzzled.  She said she was very curious at what position this baby was coming out.  She had to insert an internal monitor after the stadol, and she no longer felt it where she should have felt it.  We did not have to wait long.  C got on her left side, and soon the baby’s head was crowning.  Before we knew it, baby girl was earthside.  She made her entrance coming out straight OP!  Only this little one would make her mom go through two labors, and change position from OA to OP! Sweet Kindra was brought to her mama’s chest.  Everything was done right there.  After a few minutes, the cord was cut.  The lights were low.  It was a sweet, gentle hospital birth. M and I had discussed the fact that C was at risk for hemorrhage.  Everything was ready just in case.  The placenta wasn’t showing signs of releasing.  Then out of nowhere, a large gush of blood was noted.  The placenta was checked, and the cord detached.  I looked at C’s doulas and told them to get by C’s head.  What was about to happen was going to be uncomfortable and she would need support. M inserted the cytotec, and then went in to get the placenta.  Unfortunately, the placenta was in chunks.  M asked the nurse to restart the pit.  I helped M with fundal pressure was she tried to grasp the full placenta.  She would bring her hand with a handful of placenta and clots, and then go back in.  Soon, the entire placenta was out, and C’s uterus was clamped and firm.  The placenta was pieced together and C felt great. We were definitely thankful that we moved our birth into the hospital setting. C was happy with her birth and care.  Baby Kindra breastfed like a champ! Welcome to the world sweet baby Kindra!  Born on July 19, 2013 at 555am!  C was a strong, amazing woman through the entire labor journey!  <3